My Sportsman Choice: Emeka Okafor

By Alexander Wolff

The Charlotte Bobcats are lucky to have Emeka Okafor. Manny Millan/SI  Chris Stone: Red Sox Nation, you've earned this one  Paul Zimmerman: Boy Wonder brought Boston a title  B.J. Schecter: Red Sox captured Boston's heart  Richard Deitsch: The Babe had a big presence in '04  Rick Reilly: Big Papi did it all for the world champs  Jeffri Chadiha: A reward for reversing The Curse  Lisa Altobelli: Ramirez never took anything seriously  • Sportsman of the Year archive

I could rest my case for Emeka Okafor on the simplest criteria: with steady play and uncommon leadership he led his team to a major championship. But his being the Most Outstanding Player during Connecticut's run through the Final Four to an NCAA title only begins my brief.

At a time when you can hardly find a bona fide center in all the land, Okafor took up in the pivot for the Huskies and shouldered the expectations that they justify a No. 1 preseason ranking.

At a time when adult members of the college sports establishment are looking for excuses to expect less, rather than more, from athletes in the classroom, Okafor is a walking, talking, up-at-all-hours-to-study rebuke. Even as his coach protests that graduation-rate formulas should allow athletes six years to get a degree, Okafor got his in three.

At a time when so many college ballplayers will leave their feet at the first sign of a random twitch from a fan in the third row, Okafor is self-possessed, controlled, patient and disciplined -- and for all those reasons he has helped return to college ball respect for the lost art of shot-blocking.

At a time when so many young American athletes are going soft with a sense of entitlement and craving for instant gratification, Okafor, the proud son of a first-generation immigrant family, has honored his parents by sharing their commitment to hard work and belief in the transformational power of education.

At a time when a studied ennui is the cool pose for members of his generation to cop, Okafor isn't the least bit embarrassed to let his face light up at a provocative question or some new morsel of knowledge.

For being as rare a bird as there was in the sky of the past sports season, Mek is my Sportsman of the Year.

Sports Illustrated will announce the 2004 Sportsman of the Year winner on FOX on November 28. Check back every weekday until then to read more Sportsman picks from SI writers.

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