By Dylan Butler
On the surface, it's a dream match-up with one of the top CHSAA teams taking on the best PSAL team in the city and two of New York's best players – Holy Cross' Sylven Landesberg and Lincoln's Lance Stephenson – going head to head.That's why MSG Network is broadcasting the game live.But it's the cause, the name behind the tournament that should be remembered. And that's where Gilvary's words really struck a cord.”I've got juniors on my team who are 16, they were 9 at the time of the terrorist attacks,” he said. “Next year, there will be kids on the team who were 6 or 7 years old in 2001.””The further away we get from Sept. 11,” he added, “the more important it is to tell the stories, to keep memories alive.”Of course, Gilvary is right, but it just seems unfathomable to me. Those of us who lived it, who lost loved ones, who were personally affected, will never forget that day. For a while I wrestled with the idea that it should be a national holiday, a day without work or school when people can mourn and remember.But that's not happening with our other holidays, which have just become opportunities to have sales and watch sporting events. And I'd hate to see Sept. 11 go down the same road as Labor Day or Veteran's Day, when the most important thing is to sleep late and cook hamburgers.It's OK to salivate over Sunday's game, to go back and forth on message boards about which team will win and which superstar will perform better. But at some point, think about Tom Crotty, who was the only former Division I basketball player killed at the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.Crotty, who played at Marist College, was a managing director at Sandler O'Neill, an investment banking firm that had an office on the 104th floor of 2 World Trade Center. He left behind his wife, Joanne, and two daughters, Catherine and Caroline.Each of the seven games also has a sportsmanship award, named after Ryan Fitzgerald, a former Holy Cross basketball player in the Class of 1993. An avid fan of the New York Yankees and the Dave Matthews Band, Fitzgerald worked as a foreign currency trader at Fiduciary Trust. He was one of 17 Holy Cross alums to die that day.In part because they have one of the top 50 seniors in the country, Holy Cross has been invited to numerous tournaments around the country.Already the Knights have played Boys & Girls in the Big Apple Basketball Challenge, beaten ranked teams in the City of Palms Classic in Fort Myers, Fla., won the STOP-DWI Holiday Classic in Binghamton and lost by one point to No. 6 Archbishop Mitty in the Basketball Hall of Fame Hoophall Classic in Springfield, Mass., a game that was televised live on ESPNU.The ideal tournament for Gilvary involves not just quality basketball in a great atmosphere, but a solid educational message, as well. That's what makes the Crotty Classic perfect.Reach Sports Editor Dylan Butler by e-mail at news@timesledger.com or call 718-229-0300, Ext. 143.
