John Harbaugh Recalls Jim Getting Competitive in Family Pickup Basketball Game
Michigan head coach Jim Harbaugh is the type of unapologetic competitor who will routinely throw sideline tantrums. Winning is his main concern, even in a family pickup basketball game.
Baltimore Ravens head coach John Harbaugh detailed his brother's intensity on Peter King's The MMQB Podcast. If Jim looks like the type of guy who will box out a 13-year-old during a friendly game of hoops, that's because he is:
"We’re playing, and you can picture the kind of game it is, right? Allison [the 13-year-old] happens to hit a couple jumpers and we're playing to seven, and we're up maybe 5-1. Next thing you know, Jim starts going over the top of Allison for rebounds, he's boxing her out 10 feet away from the basket. Next thing you know, it's 5-5 and Jim has made all the shots for his team of course.
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Rather than revel in his younger sibling's rally, John tried to halt Jim's hero-ball tactics to no avail:
"I'm like, you know, maybe Addy would like to touch the ball? Maybe Katie or Jack could dribble a little bit now and then? It goes 6-6 and a long rebound comes out the side, he goes and gets it. I see Allison happens to be over there, so I see him going to the basket, he's going to take Allison to the hole, you know, he's about 6'3", 235, so I'm going to go cut him off. I get him with my right armbar across his chest and I'm trying to body-check him into the pricker bushes behind the driveway, and he just powers his way to the basket, lays one over the top, a reverse layup off the board, and all he could talk about is how he won.
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After the triumph, Jim made sure his son Jack picked up no lessons in sportsmanship.
"He picks up Jack and says, "Doesn't it feel great, Jack, to win? Doesn't it feel great to win?" An hour later we were crossing paths in the backyard to go get a soda or something, and he looks me right in the eye and he says, "Hey John, have you won anything yet?"
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Perhaps he forgot about John's Ravens defeating his San Francisco 49ers in Super Bowl XLVII. Or maybe he's still seeking payback.
[The MMQB Podcast, h/t Deadspin]
