Jack Twyman: TV Hoopla, 1970

ABC and the NBA are currently working on a multiyear contract, primetime telecasts are more in evidence than ever before, the number of games televised each year increases, and the ratings are up. The NBA has come a long way.

They Laughed When Tom Heinsohn Sat Down to Coach, 1975

Heinsohn absorbed his knowledge of coaching from Red Auerbach. His insights into people, he acquired from personal, and sometimes painful, experience.

Willis Reed: The Game I’ll Never Forget, 1970

I had some nerve going up against the greatest all-around center in NBA history in my condition, but I’m glad I made the effort. It was worth it. 

Gary Brokaw: Potential for Magic, 1974-78

As a youth, Brokaw tried to pattern his play after Walt Frazier and Dave Bing. Little did he know that several years later, it would be Frazier and Bing that would be his workaday opponents. 

Balls of Confusion: Signing Lew Alcindor, 1969

Brown handed him the certified check from Chemical Bank. Alcindor fingered the paper, eyed his name printed as clearas day across the middle, and handed it back. “Mr. Brown said to me, ‘We’ll give you a million dollars,’” recalled Alcindor, but without mentioning a timeframe.

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.”

Bill Sharman: The Game I’ll Never Forget, 1972

“I don’t think there’s any way we could have won the title—or even gotten into the final round—if we had not defeated the Bucks in that second game. The last few seconds of that game were among the most unusual and dramatic I have ever seen in my many years in professional basketball.”

Hakeem Olajuwon: The Game I’ll Never Forget, 1990

I had passed up several easy shots in an effort to get those last two assists, and it paid off. I had accomplished something that only Nate Thurmond with Chicago in 1974 and Alvin Robertson with San Antonio in 1986 had done.

Kareem Abdul-Jabbar: Busting Out the Goggles, 1974

Kareem got off the bench, and the boos began. He was booed every time he put an elbow near Gianelli’s throat in the pivot, did anything the fans didn’t like, and when he entered and left the game