You don’t challenge Barkley by telling him what to do, but by telling him what he can’t do. Limit him, sell him short, cut him down, and he’ll die proving you wrong.
Tag Archives: 1980s NBA
The $10 Million Gamble to Save Pro Basketball: Bill Walton and Larry Bird, 1980
The Clippers and Celtics paid a fortune to get them. Now, they and the rest of the league can only hope Walton and Bird get back the fans and make pro basketball “The Sport of the 1980s.”
Tom LaGarde: Tendon to Business, 1979-1984
“It’s a business,” he shrugged at a 3 p.m. news conference in the Sonic office. “I’m ready to go.”
Julius Erving: Basketball’s Most Valuable Pro, 1984
He is 34 years old now. He has won the NBA title. If things go according to plan, 1985 will be his final season. It’s a cause for concern inside the game.
How Julius Erving is Fighting His Critics, 1980
By August, Erving was able to run again, working himself up from a quarter mile to two miles. By the start of camp, he was so strong that he didn’t bother wearing those ugly braces on his once aching knees.
Rickey Green: The Fastest of Them All
“Rather than sitting around and worrying about the NBA, you’ve got to do something else. I mean, everybody wants to be in the NBA. It’s the best in the world. It’s everybody’s dream. But dreaming about it grows old, and you just got to move on.”
Tuning Up the Utah Jazz, 1981
Despite the size factor, despite the fact that the Jazz have never had a winning record in five years, they are welcomed in Salt Lake City, their now year-old home, as if they were on the verge of a world title.
What Makes Jack Ramsay Roll, 1988
Invariably, too much is made of the rumor that Jack Ramsay is in better shape than the athletes he coaches. “Let’s put it this way,” he says diplomatically. “I can’t do what they do on the court, and they can’t do what I do in the pool, on the bike, or on the roads.”
Billy Cunningham: Confessions of an Ex-Coach, 1988
Once you become a coach, you look at the game differently. I began to believe in creating your offense from the defensive end of the court. And, I think the 76ers became a very good defensive ballclub.
Isiah Thomas: The Bad, The Brave, and The Brilliant, 1988
Thomas banked a 17-footer off the glass and cleanly through the hoop. Probably the Bullets didn’t know it then, but the night was over.
From Way Downtown 