What I’m thankful for: LaMelo, libraries, triples, families, fake punts, Ron and Beth

For more than four decades, Charlotte Observer sports columnist Ron Green Sr. wrote a Thanksgiving Day column about what he was thankful for that year.

I looked forward to it each November, as did thousands of other readers. He wrote it for years even after retirement, penning his final one in 2019.

In 2021, though, I asked Ron if I could resurrect the idea and write it each Thanksgiving in his honor. Ron said, “Sure.”

So this is my third year of writing my own version of the Thanksgiving Day column, and the 2023 version has a special poignancy.

Beth Green, Ron’s wife for 68 years and someone who made an annual appearance in Ron’s Thanksgiving column, died at age 89 on Oct. 1. Ron, now 94, is doing as well as can be expected. But it was, as you can imagine, a tremendous loss.

So I’m dedicating this Thanksgiving column to Ron and Beth. As Ron once wrote of Beth: “She loves, birds, dogs, music, kids and me. And almost everything else. And they love her back.”

What I’m thankful for in 2023:

▪ LaMelo Ball.

I covered the Charlotte Hornets’ game against Boston on Monday night, and Melo had one of those nights where you remember that, when healthy, he’s the dazzling superstar that the Hornets and this city dreamed of for years.

Ball threw a 45-foot, behind-the-back pass on the run that led to a layup. He suddenly broke toward the basket and scored on a layup in traffic to send the game into overtime. He ended up with 36 points, nine rebounds and eight assists as Charlotte edged the NBA’s top team by record, the Boston Celtics, 121-118 in overtime. For a city that is now used to its pro sports teams losing, Ball is a golden elixir.

▪ GPS. What did we ever do without it? I know what I did: Got lost all the time.

▪ Teachers. Fighting the good fight, trying to make kids’ futures better, in a world that makes it hard to want to enter the profession and even harder to stay in it.

▪ Loyal fans. Those who are sticking with the Carolina Panthers (1-9) and the Hornets (4-9) and the Charlotte 49ers football team (3-8) — I promise there’s a reward coming for you. It’s just going to take a year or two. Or five.

▪ Good Wi-Fi.

▪ Charlotte Hornets center Mark Williams. You know that Celtics game Monday? Williams had 18 points, 16 rebounds and a couple of remarkable blocked shots. In a three-point game, the Hornets somehow outscored Boston by 33 points when Williams was on the court.

Can we dare hope that Charlotte’s perennial doughnut problem — the Hornets have had a hole in the middle for years — has been solved?

▪ Libraries, bookstores and coffee shops, all magical places.

▪ Your family and mine. My wife Elise and I have four kids — three older boys and then a daughter, who is now 16 and still allows me to tag along when she wants to go to the concert of an obscure band. In one of North Carolina’s great music venues — Cat’s Cradle, in Carrboro — we recently saw a group called “Slaughter Beach, Dog.” Weird name, I know. They were fantastic.

▪ Volunteer rec league coaches. Concession stand workers. Officials, referees and umpires. Scoreboard operators. High school athletic directors. Moms and dads who organize who’s bringing the snacks each week.

▪ Those who serve the less fortunate, on Thanksgiving Day and every day, and try to make our communities a better place.

▪ All 33 of the sports icons who allowed us to interview them for The Charlotte Observer’s multimedia project called “Sports Legends of the Carolinas” — which is both an online series and a podcast. The series wasn’t originally supposed to be a book, too. But it got popular enough that The Observer and a publishing company made it into a gorgeous coffee-table book with exclusive interviews and than 100 photographs (SportsLegendsBook.com for details).

▪ Two of the legends profiled — former Davidson coach Bob McKillop and former Charlotte 49ers athletic director Judy Rose — will join me and Observer photographer Jeff Siner at a book signing at Park Road Books in Charlotte on Dec. 2 from noon to 1:30 p.m.

▪ And if you can’t make that book signing, we’ll have another one on Dec. 9 at Audi Charlotte from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. At that one, I will be joined by former Appalachian State star quarterback Armanti Edwards, and all profits will go to the Empty Stocking Fund.

▪ Fake punts, whether they work or not.

▪ Onside kicks, but only when they work.

▪ Sweet potato casserole. Macaroni and cheese. Pumpkin pie with a dollop of whipped cream.

▪ The way a stadium feels a half-second before a penalty kick or a fourth-and-goal play.

▪ A dog that greets you at the door, tail wagging wildly, and always believes you are the finest human being who ever walked on this planet.

▪ Jimmy Buffett.

It’s been a lovely cruise. RIP.

▪ Unusual ways to score:

Punt-return touchdowns. Pick-6s. Four-point plays in basketball. Bases-loaded triples. Two-point conversions. Safeties. Bicycle kicks.

▪ Caitlin Clark. She came to Charlotte and put up 44 extraordinary points for Iowa before a raucous crowd of 15,196 for a women’s college basketball game in November. I covered that instead of watching the Panthers lose to the Chicago Bears on TV, and was so glad I did.

▪ Major League Baseball’s pitch clock.

▪ Erin Matson, who led UNC to four NCAA field hockey championships as a player and just won another as the Tar Heels’ rookie head coach. At age 23!

▪ The month of May in Charlotte, with the flowers blooming, summer coming and the Wells Fargo Championship golf tournament and Coca-Cola 600 NASCAR race both on tap.

Y’all splurge a little today. Enjoy your family and your food. Have a second dessert. Watch some football and then throw one at halftime. Take a nap. Be kind to each other.

And have a happy Thanksgiving!