First of all:
Second of all, this is wonderful news out of Hollywood. There are so many sports movies but recently we've experienced a drought of college basketball movies. The last one I was truly geared up for was Glory Road and that was mainly because my JV basketball coach promised to take us if we beat a superior opponent.
We all know Valvano's story by now and if you don't then I have neither the time nor the patience to explain. We flippantly throw around the term "theater" but I really do have high hopes for this film. I'm excited to see Ray Romano play the scrappy underdog with the limitless drive and optimism that helped catapult his overlooked Wolfpack to a title over Phi Slamma Jama.
It's pretty evident that Romano was born to play this role. Does he have Valvano's charisma? Not sure. Does he have the passion and accent? We'll see. Can he make the theater goers BELIEVE that NC State is going to pull off one of the greatest upsets in college hoops history just like Valvano did with Terry Gannon, Thurl Bailey and Derreck Whittenburg? We gotta hang tight for that verdict. But at the moment none of that matters. Look I'll level with ya, I'm a surface level guy. I watch TV and movies because I want to turn my brain off. I don't want to think. I don't dive into the acting technique or anything like that. Give me a slapstick 30 minute comedy over the likes of Westworld any day of the week.
I say all of this because while I understand there are so many aspects that go into a great performance, Romano is perfect to me because he looks so similar to Valvano. The hair, the face, it's about as close as you're gonna get with an established actor. I imagine the casting process was about as long as Mick Cronin's pant length.
So Romano already has a head start but as it pertains to the actual acting only one scene will matter: The ESPYs scene. Romano positively MUST deliver on that. We can all appreciate that it's one of the greatest speeches in history. The Shark's twitter avi is because of that speech. The countless donations to the V Foundation are because of that speech. The annual tears we shed watching games during Jimmy V week are because of that speech. Numerous victories over cancer were because of that speech.
Lou Gehrig's farewell to baseball, the Gettysburg address, a few other groundbreaking addresses and Valvano's ESPYs speech. They all share the same locker room. Romano can flub the "aimless run looking for someone to hug." He can mess up the accent. But he cannot mess up the speech. Because if he does, the general feedback can be condensed into 3 syllables. 1 word. A venemous, quick two eyed poke to the face consisting of 7 letters: Fanabla.
