With President Barack Obama looking on, the MSU men’s basketball team was in awe Friday night.
It wasn’t just the president in attendance that shook the team. No other team ever has played a basketball game on an aircraft carrier — the USS Carl Vinson — as the sun sets on America, in front of thousands of active and retired military personnel.
Head coach Tom Izzo could have been a little upset with his team following the 67-55 loss to No. 1 North Carolina, but he felt the same way.
“I probably looked a little starry-eyed, the president sitting there watching at the 50-yard line,” Izzo said. “But we had guys in there that got caught up in the moment a little. In the (Upper Peninsula) we call it brook trout, deer in the headlights, call it what you want, scared to death, depends on where you’re from.”
The game took a backseat to honoring the American service men and women, as the 8,111 MSU and UNC fans and veterans interlaced on the deck of the ship weren’t there for the basketball.
And Izzo wasn’t all that upset with the loss, the week was about more than the game, and he knew that. He learned a lot about his team from the game, but that will last just this season, everything else — forever.
“This thing was unbelievable … When they started chanting ‘U.S.A.’ at the end, it was pretty cool,” Izzo said. “It’ll be something that you remember for a lifetime.”
More than a game
As soon as they arrived on base, UNC head coach Roy Williams said his players were in awe of the gigantic aircraft carrier and knew the trip was more than a game.
“The basketball — from tip off to the final whistle — we played our tails off for the game,” Williams said. “But everything else, every single second prior and after, we’re thinking about putting a smile on people’s faces who serve the country. I’ve got cold chills talking about it. It’s the neatest thing I’ve ever been a part of.”
With more than half of the crew on leave when the carrier is at port, many sailors came back to help prepare the ship for the event. One of the sailors, Mike Moeser, was a graduate of Michigan. He cheered for MSU during the game, but said the outcome didn’t matter to anyone, just that the game was there.
“You’re not just talking about doing something for somebody else, it’s morale for the sailors,” Moeser said. “Win or lose, we know the teams were here for us, and that’s special.”
The trip showed senior forward Draymond Green he just plays a game. There are people out there — his age and younger — who do much more than him.
“I don’t think I’m mature enough to do what they do,” Green said. “Us playing basketball doesn’t amount to near as much as they do for this country.”
Following the game, Green went to the UNC bench and asked if the Tar Heels would join the Spartans in giving veterans their jerseys. And they agreed, making Izzo see them all as one team.
“The idea to give the jerseys to the wounded warriors deserves the best star of all,” he said. “That was a tearful exchange that I wish I could take credit for, but it was pretty awesome. When I looked back and saw all those players there, the North Carolina players, too, when I saw all the military people, … it was cool. And for once, we were kind of all on the same team in a way.”
The spectacular sight of a basketball court on top of a Navy vessel in San Diego harbor is one thing, but it also gives people something to look forward to on Veterans Day, event organizer Mike Whalen said.
“Veterans Day, to me, is kind of an orphan holiday — you don’t know what to do,” Whalen said. “We’re looking to do this every year.”
Obama addressed the crowd prior to the game and said the celebration from the game on the carrier doesn’t have to end.
“That gratitude does not stop when they take off the uniform,” Obama said. “That’s not just on Veterans Day. That’s every day of every year.”
The president
Prior to the game, even before coming out to the crowd, the president spoke to the two teams.
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Sophomore center Adreian Payne said he was emotional because meeting the president isn’t something most people don’t get a chance to do — especially in the form of a pep talk.
“He got us hype(d),” Payne said. “He told us, basically, if troops can go out and fight for us every day and put their lives on the line for us, then we should be able to go out and play our sport as hard as we can and not have any say-so about what the coaches tell us to do.”
Prior to the game, Izzo gave Obama one of the camouflage uniforms, the president’s second MSU jersey after his visit to campus in 2008.
To Izzo, the fact that sailors and soldiers were thanking him and the team was mind-boggling.
“If one more military guy thanks me for what we’re doing when we’re flying home and he’s going to sea in a couple of days, I don’t know what I’ll do,” he said.
