A day after watching Michael Vick beg the public for a second chance, my thoughts can't help but be with another Virginia schoolboy star from the late 1990s. This one, a quarterback as well, mounted a comeback of his own — but for very different reasons.

Ronald Curry won the slam-dunk contest and MVP at the 1998 McDonald's all-American high school all-star game. Even though future NBA stars such as Al Harrington, Richard Jefferson, and Rashard Lewis took that Virginia arena floor with him, it was impossible to ignore who the best player was. It was the hometown hero, the point guard out of Hampton High School.

Problem was, Curry also played quarterback very well. In fact he was so great that Michael Vick spent his entire high school career trying to escape Curry's shadow. This is hard to imagine, but it's entirely true.

"I felt pressure to compete against Ronald Curry," Vick said years ago.

Curry was, perhaps, too talented for practical purposes. These hotshot kids know absolutely that they're awesome, but they are clueless to the fact that they cannot transcend the quality of they programs that seek to exploit them. The double-threat opted to attend the University of North Carolina, a football school most notable in that it would let Curry dictate the terms.

See, he wanted to play both point guard and quarterback in college, which is already a damn-near impossible gig, as college football season spills over into basketball and a point guard's learning curve is as steep as a pre-med student's. Making matters worse, the UNC football team was in constant upheaval, going through three offensive coordinators in his four years at the school. Curry spent most of his career running for his life. He never developed into an NBA-quality point guard and struck no one as a serious pro football prospect.

The Oakland Raiders chose Curry with the 24th selection of the 2002 draft. By then, the Atlanta Falcons were beginning to build their entire franchise around Vick, who had turned pro two years earlier.

It's been a rough go for the 28-year-old. Despite the Raiders being on a downward spiral, Curry shows flashes of utter brilliance. In 2004 he had a 10-catch game against the Colts and a nine-catch, 141-yard performance against the Kansas City Chiefs. His otherworldly one-handed touchdown grab against Denver suggested what I thought when I saw him playing hoops in 1998: Ronald Curry is essentially the greatest athlete this side of Michael Jordan. Think Bo Jackson with a jumper. Or Deion Sanders with supreme court sense. But Curry tore his Achilles tendon near the season's end and reinjured it again in 2005. So he's not a fraction as famous or well-paid as his rival from high school.

In 2006, Curry came back to catch 62  for a Raiders team that went 2-14. But what really brought back Ronald Curry for me was his 19-yard touchdown catch last weekend against the St. Louis Rams. The score was a pre-season thing; it doesn't count for much. Only Curry caught the pass from a resurgent
Daunte Culpepper, and it looks like he could have a truly amazing season. Finally, Curry might be ranked with the Marvin Harrisons of the league and recognized as the superb athlete that he is.

My favorite jocks are never the ones who get by on raw talent. I like the guys who persevere and make lemonade out of lemons. For the physically gifted, it's very tempting to rely on raw skill when savvy and guts are what make champions. That guy I saw outshining NBA All-Stars has that kind of moxie. And it will be a blast for me, personally, to see this one-time prep standout from Virginia receive his full-blown props.