[In January 1969, two Baltimore reporters got “locked up” in an airport waiting more than six hours to board their connecting flight to cover the NBA Bullets. To fight the boredom, the two embarked upon selecting their unconventional assortment of all-time NBA teams: All-Crybaby, All-Bald, All-Schoolyard, All-Hatchet, and All-Ugly (“the entire Seattle team”). Reggie Harding,Continue reading “Reggie Harding: Jackson Prison Blues, 1970”
Tag Archives: 1970s NBA
Meet the Father of the Three-Point Shot, 1979
When the NBA Rules Committee adopted its three-point play this summer, it didn’t pick the dimensions casually. Hobson had written several letters to NBA commissioner Larry O’Brien urging the NBA to adopt shorter distances.
Secret Plot to Make NBA Champs of Milwaukee Bucks, 1971
The man making the offer was Wes Pavalon, owner of the Bucks, a 36-year-old multimillionaire. “There’s nothing mysterious about paying tremendous salaries to tremendous athletes,” Pavalon insists, “or in making them happy in other ways.”
Dave Cowens Doesn’t Play Hard . . . He Kills Himself, 1973
For Cowens, the future in basketball seems unclouded. Outside of basketball, the future is—so far—simply uninteresting. Money does not appear to be the most-important thing in his life.
Dave Cowens: Farewell John Havlicek, 1978
People ask me who will replace John Havlicek this year. I tell them there will be another name on the roster, but that nobody will replace him—ever.
Dismantling the Buffalo Braves, 1977
Speaking of rebuilding, it might be instructive to dwell briefly on how the Braves were razed and/or disassembled in such a short time. It is somewhat disconcerting to note that there are exactly two players—count ‘em, two—remaining from the team, which opened league play a season ago, in the autumn of 1975: Randy Smith and Ernie DiGregorio.
Pete Maravich: A Thin Line Between Love and Hate, 1972
“Maybe it’s the kid’s fate. Maybe it’s the way the ball bounces. But it looks like he’s had to do everything the hard way.”
Raymond Lewis: A Glimpse of The Phantom, 1989
Back in his living room, Lewis shifts in his chair and says, “I still don’t know who the Sixers thought they were kidding. I would never have left school unless I thought I was going to get the millions, not a lousy few grand.”
Dick and Tom Van Arsdale: Two of a Kind, 1971
The only major difference between them on the court now is that Tom plays forward and Dick is a guard.
Norm Van Lier: Stormy Weather, 1978
Even now, as he prepares to join the select circle of athletes who’ve lasted for a decade at the top, Van Lier treasures that advise. “First of all, I was taught to respect my coach and my opponent,” he says. “If a young player can’t learn to do that, he won’t respect himself.”
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