The NBA

I “grew up” in the old/original Boston Garden.  I watched a whole lot of basketball in that leakey old barn on Causeway Street in Boston.

At the time the NBA consisted of just eight teams.  Only two of those teams are still playing in the same city today that they were in, in the 1950s.  They would be the Boston Celtics and the New York Knicks.

I watched the Boston coach Arnold ‘Red’ Auerbach trade center Ed Macauley and forward Cliff Hagen to St. Louis for the rights to draft Bill Russell.  Mr. Russell is the only celebrity that I would like to spend some time chatting with.  From the first time I saw Mr. Russell in 1957 I was impressed with his quiet dignity.

I watched as Mr. Russell and the other players that Red Auerbach drafted changed the game of basketball.  Instead of being a slow, set-piece game, basketball was turned into a run and shoot game.  Mr. Russell would get a rebound and before his feet hit the floor, he was looking for Cousey or Sharman breaking down court.  Mr. Russell would heave a long pass and the Celtics would have an easy layup.

Anyway, I have watched thousands of basketball games.  I think that I understand the game better than most observers.

But, what has caused me write this is Donald Sterling’s, owner of the NBA team the LA Clippers, incredible stupidity.  He is only a few years older than I am, with a young wife and a much younger girl friend, and he  makes the ugliest racist remarks.  Much uglier that I could ever imagine.

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