ICE TIME: 5 minutes with Joe Finley

Being 6 feet 7 inches tall, everyone has to wonder, did you ever play basketball?
Yeah I did. My dad actually is a basketball coach. A lot of people wonder why I didn't play basketball, but hockey has always been my thing. I had a tendency to foul out in basketball.
When did you go to hockey full time?
I stopped playing basketball after sixth grade, but I've always been full-time hockey. I played basketball in the summer. I didn't in the winter. In third grade, I made a squirt team and that was kind of a big deal. Right away, from a young age, I was playing up (against older players), and I was pretty serious about hockey.
Were you always a defenseman?
Once I got into squirts, I generally played defense. When you are younger, you kind of play all over the place. I hated goalie. One day when I was in first or second grade, they told me I had to play goalie. The ref came and tapped me and told me I had to get up - I was lying down across the net because nobody could raise the puck back then. I made a lot of saves, but that was my only day in net.
With your height, you must have been able to cover the net from post to post. Or weren't you tall back then?
I've always been tall and for some reason I just kept growing. Here I am now. I've been 6-7 for a few years now. It's actually scary to think about but this year, from the beginning of the year until now, I put on almost a half inch. I think that's the last bit.