Last Dance for ‘Best American Sports Writing’? Only intermission, series maestro Glenn Stout says

by gordie | Nov 10, 2020 | Writing

Great writing is all about rhythm. Glenn Stout, editor of the “Best American Sports Writing” series, has always known that, but the point was driven home to him in a long-ago conversation with the late W.C. Heinz, the writer who in his lifetime gave us the seminal...

New Sixers president Daryl Morey set to begin search for a much-needed ‘Lego’

by gordie | Nov 1, 2020 | Philadelphia 76ers

In February 2009, Michael Lewis, known for authoring “Moneyball,” the landmark book about advanced statistics’ impact on baseball, wrote a piece for the New York Times entitled “The No-Stats All-Star.” It was ostensibly a profile of Shane Battier, then playing for the...

A Fond Farewell to Jack Scheuer, Who Made His Corner of the World a Better Place

by gordie | Oct 19, 2020 | Writing

Jack Scheuer spoke his own language, had his own shorthand. Amid a well-played college basketball game — whether in his beloved Palestra or elsewhere in Philadelphia — the long-time Associated Press correspondent might scribble “GH” on the notepad of a...

LeBron James’ Pleas For Respect Seem Unseemly, Until You Look Deeper

by gordie | Oct 13, 2020 | NBA

So this seemed a little odd: LeBron James, standing alongside his Lakers teammates and various other team personnel (including general manager Rob Pelinka, a Rob Lowe lookalike and former Fab Five adjunct) after the team closed out Miami to win the NBA title Sunday...

How Ken Shank’s 15 Minutes of Fame Have Lasted a Lifetime (with Help from Bill Bradley, and John McPhee)

by gordie | Sep 26, 2020 | College Basketball

Distinguished author John McPhee wrote “A Sense of Where You Are,” the definitive book about Bill Bradley’s Princeton basketball career, in 1965. It only seems like McPhee’s seminal work had been sitting on my shelf that long. A pandemic makes for strange...