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Jim Larranaga during University of Miami's upset of Duke of Jan. 13
(AP)
Great stories pass through Staten Island all the time.
Call it the phenomenon of, "Location, location, location."
But the Island does seems like a crossroads for events that stretch near and far.
It makes a sportswriters' job easy.
And so it is that Bronx guy Jim Larranaga makes a call to Stamford, Conn., guy Jim Palma in an act of kindness a couple of weeks back.
And it all circles back to a former Borough President, the early 20th century industrialist Henry Ford, the "Godfather house" and a basketball game coached by Mike Krzyzewski.
Larranaga is the University of Miami coach, who as a teenager in the mid-60s commuted from his Bronx home to Queens every school day to attend Archbishop Molloy HS and play basketball for Jack Curran.
He became a star at Providence College, then worked his way up the college coaching ladder one step at a time. Right up until 2006, when he navigated then basically unheard of George Mason to the Final Four.
His eventual payoff was a big contract to take over the Miami program in 2011.
The following year Miami went 29-7, won the ACC tournament for the first time in history, and advanced to the Sweet Sixteen of the NCAA tourney.
All of which makes the 65-year-old accomplished, financially well-off, and past the point in life where he has to do much of anything he doesn't feel like doing.
Enter Jim Palma, an 88-year-old retired businessman very near the end of his life.
Palma is an Island native.
He was a St. Peter's High School grad and one of the 11 children of 1930s Borough President Joseph Palma.
The family lived in Emerson Hill's "Godfather house," where director Francis Ford Coppola filmed much of his iconic film.
The big, brick home in that tony neighborhood that's recently been for sale with an asking price of something like $2.2 million.
Prior to politics, Borough President Palma had been a secret service agent. He'd become friendly with Henry Ford during a government stint in Detroit.
With Ford's help, Joseph Palma opened the Island's first Ford dealership; Palma Ford, on Castleton Avenue in West Brighton.
Upon Jim Palma's return from Navy service following WWII, he had the good sense to register for classes at the University of Miami in balmy Coral Gables, Fla.
He also played on the 'Canes freshmen basketball team.
That was it.
One year.
In the mid-1940s.
But Larranaga is a guy who never forgot his roots, his time growing up playing for, and listening to, Molloy coach Jack Curran.
A friend walked into Curran's basketball office a couple of years back, not long before the legendary New York City institution passed away in 2013 at the age of 82.
A high school student was present, sitting in a chair.
The teenager was introduced to the visitor.
He neglected to stand and offer his hand to Curran's friend.
Huge mistake.
Worse than missing a back-door cut for an open layup, or failing to help a teammate up off the court after a fall during a game.
The teenager was immediately dressed-down by the octogenarian coach.
Jim Larranaga once said of Curran, "He taught you how to behave."
Evidently, the lesson stuck.
Jim Palma, an enthusiastic University of Miami fan from the day he departed sunny Coral Gables, was in Connecticut dying a few weeks back.
His daughter-in-law contacted the University of Miami athletic department.
Might she be able to get a picture of the team, she wondered?
Something to brighten the former Hurricanes' spirits during what were clearly about to be his last days on earth?
Larranaga learned of the note while his team was in the middle of its ACC schedule, and preparing to travel to storied Cameron Indoor Stadium to meet No. 4 ranked Duke.
Blue Devils coach Mike Krzyzewski was at that point two victories shy of the 1,000-win mark that he hit in New York's Madison Square Garden in a win over St. John's on Sunday.
Larranaga took a break from whatever he was doing the day before the big game and directed someone to get him Jim Palma's phone number.
He called the failing former freshman player of 65 years earlier.
The two men had a long conversation about family and basketball.
"Coach was great," Jim Palma's son Larry would say afterward. "I'm sure he had plenty to do the day before playing Duke, but he took the time and was so genuine. And he said he was going to dedicate the game to my father."
It was a heckuva gesture from a guy who has been around long enough to not do anything that doesn't suit him.
"The last call my father ever took," Larry Palma said.
The game?
Oh, yes, the game.
Miami went into Cameron and ran roughshod over the Blue Devils, blowing out Duke 90-76 and snapping the school's 41-game home-court winning streak.