If the Lakers aren’t the best team in all professional basketball history, they’ll do until somebody revives the Original Celtics, the pre-war Fort Wayne Zollner Pistons, or gives the Harlem Globetrotters enough experienced height to cope with the Ben Berger-Max Winter wizards.
Author Archives: bobkuska
As Right as Clifford Ray, 1975
And through it all, Ray seeks one thing—respect—from his coach, from his teammates. And surely, from himself. “If you’re your own worst critic,” he feels, “you’ll always be all right.”
Slick Watts: The People’s Choice, 1977
Fast is what Watts is all about. Few players can change the tempo of a game the way he can.
Ron King: A Simple Twist of Fate, 1972
“If that hadn’t happened, it would have been all different,” he said. “I know I could play. When I was that age, I don’t think there were five players in the country who could shoot better than me from 20 feet on out. I could flat shoot the ball.”
Ron Lee: King of the Floor Burn, 1978
“I have to play the way I’ve been playing all my life. If I get hurt, at least I’ll know it was because I was trying.”
Connie Hawkins: The Hawk Ages Gracefully, 1991
At 48, The Hawk can still fly, but he prefers to lay low and stay close to his nest in the Pittsburgh suburbs.
Paul Westphal: Mr. 44 in Phoenix, 1976
This is his fourth year in the league, but the first in which he’s started. At Boston, he played behind such standouts as Jo Jo White and Don Chaney.
Larry Siegfried: Marching to the Beat of His Own Enigma, 1970
His demeanor has become a subject for conversation, pro and con. Just when you are about to consign him to the lower regions of Hades, he goes out on the basketball court and makes a mockery of his critics.
Maurice Podoloff: The NBA Needs You, 1953
Big league basketball—as we are now going to some lengths to point out—is a lot more than just putting the ball through the hoop.
Earvin Johnson and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar: How the Magic Really Works, 1981
When the Lakers boarded the plane for the flight to Philadelphia, Magic sat in the front row, left aisle—the seat usually occupied by Abdul-Jabbar. Magic looked back at Westhead and said, “Guess you have a new Big Fella, Coach.”
From Way Downtown 