Uncategorized – Page 19 – From Way Downtown

Mark Price: The Price is Right, 1991

Price has become the player who makes all the other Cavs better. His value can’t be measured strictly in numbers.

I Was Wrong About Jerry West, 1966

He grinned his crooked, slightly gap-toothed grin, and the grin revealed gold bridgework. He’s left teeth on the floors of basketball arenas.

World B. Free: The Artist Formerly Known as Lloyd, 1983

There is a maturity about Free that had been missing before, partly because his Gus Williams-style balding pate, gives him a look beyond his years. But that maturity largely is due to his growth as an athlete, as a leader.

Don Ohl: For Ohl Lang Syne, 1962

Now, Don’s confidence has returned. Understandably cautious early in the 1964-65 season, his first in Baltimore, he finished with a rush and was named the Bullets’ most valuable player.

Michael Ray Richardson: With Sugar on Top, 1981

“When I first came into the league, I thought everyone was Superman. I was shaky, but during the summer, I began to realize that the players are good and that I belonged here.”

Billy Ray Bates: Dunks & Downs of a Portland Legend, 1995

For all of the Bates’ mid-air poetry and last-second heroics, ultimately it was his endearing nature that made him a fan favorite and later a cult hero.

Michael Cooper: Two for Coop, 1980

By the time Cooper was a senior, his game had done a 180. He couldn’t wait to get back on defense. Offense was like a coffee-shop meal; he couldn’t wait to get it over with.

Dale Ellis: Shooting for the Stars, 1989

The fact is that Ellis is the closest thing to a shooting machine in the game today.

Dennis Scott: Rookie Year in Review, 1991

Things all came together for Scott in March, when he averaged more than 19 points a game—including 25 points or more on four occasions—to go with 3.5 rebounds and slightly more than two assists a contest.

Mike Riordan: Bags on the Run, 1973

For the next year, during the 1968–69 season, Mike’s uniform stayed clean and dry; mostly, he just mastered the art of giving fouls, an art now extinct, killed by a rule change.