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Four games into his freshman season, a young man who would become one of the best basketball players in Alabama and SEC history had his bags packed. Leon Douglas didn’t understand how he was good enough to play 30 minutes a game from the jump but not good enough to start for Coach C.M. Newton.

“If he had not started me that fourth game, I was going to Washington State,” Douglas said. “I’m honest. Seriously.”

I’ve never known Douglas to be anything but honest, sometimes painfully so, as al.com sports columnist Joseph Goodman pointed out in this thoughtful piece. So we were that close to losing a legend in the making.

Thank goodness Newton made Douglas a starter for that fourth game. It wouldn’t be the last time the legendary coach made a game-changing decision with his Crimson Tide starting lineup.