Friendship was only skin deep. But competition was their lives and does not wipe away the driving force of one’s existence simply because some young man comes along and you like him.
Author Archives: bobkuska
Cliff Hagan: In the Twilight, 1970
“I’m not mean,” Hagan said. “I think ‘intensely competitive’ would be more accurate.
Remember When St. Louis Won the NBA Title in 1958?
“We were a mixture of the old and the new, both in experience and style of play. The long jump shot was just catching on in the league and practically none of our players used it.”
Never a Dull Moment with the St. Louis Hawks, 1958
Kerner comes to a basketball game looking, fittingly, likes the best-dressed man in the hall. He leaves looking more like Emmett Kelly, the clown.
Larry Johnson: The $84 Million Dollar Man, 1993
Larry Johnson became the first player to actually be paid by the league as its spokesman.
Jack Marin’s Guide to NBA Cities, 1971
Marin, like the vast majority of professional hoopsters, is sensitive to each particular town visited by his team.
Kenny Anderson: Eye Spy, 1995
“He’s one of the great young players in our league,” said Indiana coach Larry Brown, a former New York point guard himself. “He makes the other players better.”
Jerome Kersey: Diary of a Dunker, 1988
“I have two dunks that I really remember,” Kersey said. “Well, maybe four or five.”
David Thompson: Portrait of a Famous Unknown, 1979
I’m basically a low-key person. I don’t think I do anything exceptional or out of the ordinary, except maybe play basketball.
Legends of the Playground, 1991
Just as governments have their social and political systems, basketball has its own. It’s called the law of the playgrounds, and it holds true whether the game is one-on-one, three-on-three, or five-on-five. It is as democratic as a game of H-O-R-S-E.
From Way Downtown 