Author Archives: bobkuska

Alvan Adams: The Game I’ll Never Forget, 1982

“It’s all like a dream,” said the Oklahoma Kid, rookie Alvan Adams. “I keep thinking I’m going to wake up and it won’t be real.

Billy Cunningham: Tale of Two Leagues, 1974

“It’s a different life four months a year. I get up when I want to. I don’t play basketball at all. I visit friends and stay with my family. As a professional, I live in two different worlds. I live two different lives.”

Lamar Green: I’ll Be There, 1970

Lamar Green remembered: “In came this little kid, and he had his fingers all taped up and his wrist taped. I wasn’t going to say anything, but the other kids started laughing at him, saying who did he think he was, the Hawk or somebody?”

David Brent: Strawberry Fields For Never, 1973

David Brent was not the first St. Louisan to sign a professional basketball contract. It is doubtful, though, that any other St. Louis athlete ever encountered the incredulous twists and turns that the David Brent story has taken. 

Johnny Green: Basketball’s Talented Antique, 1972

When Johnny Green was a first-round draft choice, he received $2,000 as a bonus. Rookies now are getting more than an entire team’s payroll used to be.