The thing West does is not just play basketball brilliantly, but play it best when it counts the most. This is the rarest of things.
Tag Archives: 1960s NBA
Emmette Bryant: Living the NBA Dream, 1970
Now the world knows what Bryant did for the Celtics when he got a chance to play for them last winter. He steadied them for a playoff position, then produced many clutch moments in the burst to glory.
Rick Barry Rates His All-Time Opponents, 1980
As one of the few players who had the chance to play pro basketball in three different decades (the 1960s, 1970s, and 1980s), it also was my fortune to play both against—and with—most of the great players produced by the National Basketball Association.
The Two Faces of Walter Dukes, 1963
Dukes isn’t especially proud of his roughneck reputation, but neither does he sound like a guy who wants to play Ferdinand the Bull.
Walt Hazzard: ‘Rook’ as in Rookie, 1965
Walt Hazzard takes it in stride. He is sure he will be one of the stars of the game.
Elgin Baylor: Record Book Worst Enemy, 1965
Elgin Baylor is a basketball player—and horse player—who announces in the car on the way to the airport, “I will give Jerry my nose any day for his knees. I need two good knees. My nose can take care of itself.”
Elgin Baylor: The Irreplaceable Laker, 1973
Little kids across the country dribble and shoot the Elgin Baylor way. On playgrounds, future basketball stars don homemade jerseys bearing the famous number 22.
Is Pro Basketball Getting Too Rough? 1964
Wilt Chamberlain might object to this observation, but a lot of the excitement and color of pro basketball lies in the bruising body contact between big men in action.
Did Jerry Lucas Outsmart Himself? 1963
Seldom in the history of American sports, and certainly never in the history of basketball, has so bright a student and so brilliant an athlete faced so uncertain a future as Jerry Ray Lucas.
Who Are the All-Time Greatest Slam-Dunk Artists? 1977
Dr. J. is the slam-dunk champ of the ABA. Won it fair and square at halftime of the league’s All-Star game last winter.
From Way Downtown 