Jim Sweeney

Episode 06

11 MAR 2019

Featured in an ESPN “30 for 30” called “Playing for the Mob,” he stood strong during the Boston College (basketball) point-shaving scandal, sticking to his moral roots and not taking a bribe. He is still involved with the sport today as the Head of USA on the international board for FIMBA – the worldwide governing body for masters basketball (with federations in 47 countries).  Within the past two years he has not only recruited American senior players and organized USA teams, but, he has also played in FIMBA tournaments in Brazil, Costa Rica, Italy, Japan, and Serbia.

Guest Quotes:

“I… went to the Church of the Holy Cross for my first eight years of schooling… I’m still in touch with Sister Barbara Ann, who was my seventh grade teacher… I hear from her every year.”

“As far as I’m concerned, 40 years later after this happened, life has not been good, life has been great!”

(press conference excerpt) “I think it’s only fitting that I… thank God for basketball, not just for the points I’ve scored or the games that I’ve won, but the people that I have met.”

“I wanted to give thanks to God and thanks to all the people that helped me get to the point in my life where at age 61 I’m still playing basketball and I’m playing basketball at a tournament on the same day that Americans celebrate Thanksgiving.

“I have a relationship with God. I mean, every day, I spend time talking to Him, I know that He talks to me. I might not hear an audible voice, but I know the Word of God when I hear it, whether it’s in my spirit or audibly. Some people call it prayer, some people call it meditation, I call it just communicating with my Father.”

“When I go for a walk by myself, that’s when I spend one-on-one time with God and I think that’s… absolutely necessary.”

Related links:

ESPN “30 for 30” “Playing for the Mob”

FIMBA website

(This episode contains a prayer by Gregg Easterbrook from the NFL.com and ESPN.com column “Monday Morning Quarterback,” as seen in Play Like A Champion Today’s prayerbook for sports, God, Be In My Sport)