well not really but might as well be. interesting article on doug christie.
10.04.2002
“Doug, do you take Jackie… again?”
By Mike Edwards
Acceleration Online Magazine
Web Posted: 09.14.2002
“I had two stepbrothers: Rodney, who was about nine years older, and William, who was about six years older,” says the Sacramento Kings’ Doug Christie. “I was playing against them all the time, in whatever sport. And they would beat me until I couldn’t walk anymore. And laugh and push me, maybe even to the point I would cry. But they would never let me stop. They made me keep playing, made me keep going, and I learned that if I could stand up to them I could be a man.”
I’m reading this and thinking, it’s a shame Doug Christie didn’t have a big sister… then perhaps he’d be able to stand up to his wife…
Doug and Jackie Christie have, well, a “special” relationship. You hear of couples reaffirming their vows, yes? Well, the Christies take it a couple of steps further. Every July 8th (on what most people recognize as the anniversary of their union), Doug and Jackie have an actual wedding ceremony. That’s right, they get remarried every year (not in legal terms, mind you) – they have a ceremony and reception to which they invite family and friends. Um, does this strike anyone else as slightly over the edge?
Wait, I’m just getting warmed up.
Describing Jackie Christie as “the jealous type” would be like saying Magic Johnson was a “pretty good basketball player”. To cite an extreme example (which is admittedly a rumor, but as you read on it becomes more and more believable), Doug once asked Jackie if it would be all right for him to attend Mateen Cleaves’ bachelor party. As the story goes, Jackie proceeded to set Doug’s BMW on fire. Yes I know, seems far-fetched… it did to me, too, until I researched a little more.
Let’s first address the “fingers in the air” deal. I used to think that he did it after scoring a bucket to get the crowd going (but he does it at other times too – he has to, because the man doesn’t exactly lead the league in scoring). When he returns to the court after a rest or a timeout, you’ll see him do the North-South-East-West thing, then smack his thigh, and finish the routine by raising his hand in the air with two fingers extended. Here’s the real deal:
“I’m really just trying to calm myself down,” says Doug, “and remind myself that life is bigger than basketball. I give my family the two-fingers-up sign to let them know I love them.”
Jackie claims this style of communication started long before that. “When I make ‘this’ sign, it means drive to the hole. When I make ‘this’ sign, it means smile because you look a little sad on the bench. He started making ‘this’ sign (the two-fingers-up) and said ‘This means I love you,’ and it developed from there. It makes me feel real special.”
Yeah, I can see where, say, during a workday, my wife and son would totally forget that I love them. Why don’t more players do this?
Mr. and Mrs. Christie seem to be inseparable, even with all the traveling an NBA team does. Jackie goes to about 25 or 30 of the Kings’ road games, always aboard the team charter. If the team is moving by bus, Jackie often rides in a car behind them, talking to Doug via cell phone. Before every game, Jackie sends Doug a little note (delivered by some unfortunate attendant), and Doug writes a reply and has it carried back to her.
If it were me, the note would read, “Damn, woman, why don’t you go see a damn movie or something?”
On Doug and his interaction with other women:
“Doug is allowed to look at females. I would prefer he didn’t.” He’s also not allowed to participate in interviews with female reporters unless his wife is present. Jackie believed she had to make her feelings absolutely clear from the start. “I just felt I needed to protect my territory in the beginning. So I had a lot of issues. I have a jealous bone in my body, yes. It’s probably as big as me. I’m very easygoing until I feel a threat.”
Jealous? No. Jealous is ‘You’ve been working late for weeks now, always using the same excuse. Is there something I need to know?’… not ‘If you even THINK of another woman I’ll rip your liver out…’
While Doug was with the Toronto Raptors, a team that allowed its female employees to enter the locker room to distribute statistics after games, Jackie had Doug change in an adjacent room. And on one occasion, Mrs. Christie got in the face of a female fan who had approached her husband, hoping to get his autograph and maybe a kiss. A security guard started toward the woman, but Jackie got their first, raised her hand and shouted at the top of her lungs, “Back off!” Jackie later explained, “It scared me, because my voice sounded like a demon… she was touching someone she shouldn’t have been.”
I’m thinking that if you ARE a demon, then you most likely have a demonic voice. But the “warning” probably served its purpose. I doubt the fan will ever even consider going near Doug again.
“I used to tell people I was married to an athlete,” said Jackie, “and they would give me that look, ‘oh we know what he’s doing.’ I don’t try to explain anymore: ‘Yeah but he’s different. And I travel with him and he’s not like the rest.’ I just know Doug is faithful.”
These and other incidents actually led an Eastern Conference official, speaking on condition of anonymity, to warn Sacramento about what they would be getting themselves into by acquiring Christie. Her actions had actually had an effect on her husband’s work. I mean, I understand a bit of jealousy and protectiveness, but I would term Mrs. Christie’s actions as borderline maniacal.
How does Doug feel about all of this? “Every conversation I’ve ever had with a woman since we’ve been married besides my wife she knows about,” he says. “She’s been there. But what are we talking about? Banking? Mortgage? Other than that I don’t have anything to say to anybody. It’s taking up my time and my time is limited to basketball and my family.”
I’m no headshrinker, but somehow this just doesn’t sound like a healthy, happy guy here. I don’t think the man is in control of his own thoughts anymore.
“It was hard for me to do the interview about this and say this is my life,” he said to a reporter, ostensibly a male reporter, “because some people will say: ‘That’s a bunch of garbage. He’s lying.’ But this is who I am and who we are.”
That’s a bunch of garbage. He’s lying.
“It’s not that I’m not allowed to look at women, it’s just respect,” Doug says. “I choose this. There is nothing out there for me to want or try to go after. That’s not what I’m trying to be about.”
‘I choose this,’ he says. Kind of like the Branch Davidians chose Waco.
During an interview in which they both participated, Jackie looked at her husband approvingly, smiled, and said “I get a lot of women who asked me, ‘How did you get Doug to act that way?’”
You know what? I don’t think I want to know the answer to that one.
http://www.accelerationonline.com/sp...ds_091402b.htm