In addition to being a diehard Buckeyes and Knicks fan, I’m a longtime soccer fan who enjoys chatting with other soccer aficionados.

So...I’m getting on the elevator at the Norwalk Inn in Norwalk, CT with a guy I had just crossed paths in the parking lot.  He’s wearing an England national team soccer jersey with a red Houston baseball cap—a combination I found curious (because it wasn’t an Astros cap and the color of the hat wasn’t the Houston Dynamo’s).

I start chatting by asking if he’s a big fan of England’s national team.  He responds with “I’m just a soccer fan.”  I ask if he played back in the day (because he looked really fit and he had that look of an athlete; and he looked somewhat familiar and was a little older than me so I thought we might have played soccer against one another locally years ago

He then said he “played a little basketball at Norwalk High.”

The light bulb finally goes off!  It’s Calvin Murphy!  I couldn’t believe I didn’t recognize him right away because I saw him play high school ball when I was a kid and then followed his career from Niagara into the NBA.

So I told him I was there when he torched my local high school for over 50 during his state title senior year and what an inspiration he was to me—and that I remember him draining one from Steph Curry territory in the pre-3 Point days.  He was very gracious and thanked me for sharing my memories.

What I can’t get over was his statement that he “played a little basketball at Norwalk High.”  If that’s not the epitome of modesty, I don’t know what is.