David Thompson’s Leap to Fortune, 1979

There are, in all of basketball, only two players who can play their worst of games—play like any other jump shooter from Oshkosh for 47 minutes, 57 seconds—yet leave 15,000 people awestruck with one incredible moment. There are only two: Julius Erving and David Thompson.

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.”

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. 

The NBA’s War on ABA, 1970

When superstar Connie Hawkins jumped from the American Basketball Association to the National Basketball Association, it was hailed as a major triumph for The Establishment (NBA) over the Young Rebels (ABA). Actually, it was a strategic move motivated by expediency and economy.