by gordie | Jun 10, 2018 | Uncategorized
The pregame ritual remained the same, all 26 years Steve Powell coached the McCaskey boys’ basketball team. The Red Tornado players would huddle up in the locker room before taking the court, do the 1-2-3 thing, then head out the door. Powell and his three assistant...
by gordie | Jun 9, 2018 | Uncategorized
The Summer of LeBron began in earnest when with 4:03 left in Game Four of the NBA Finals on Friday night — a 108-85 Cleveland loss to Golden State — he checked out for the last time. He congratulated the Warriors on the court as he departed, knowing he was...
by gordie | Jun 7, 2018 | Uncategorized
Unfair: That’s what Kevin Durant is. A guy listed at 6-9 who probably stands closer to 7 feet, but blessed with the perimeter gifts of a guy half a foot shorter. Again and again in Game Three of the NBA Finals his jumpshot — a lovely, fluid thing — was...
by gordie | Jun 4, 2018 | Uncategorized
During a 19-second sliver early in the fourth quarter of Game Two of the NBA Finals on Sunday night, Stephen Curry missed a layup in traffic and then, after a Golden State offensive rebound, saw another layup attempt blocked by Larry Nance Jr. That left Curry 6-for-20...
by gordie | Jun 1, 2018 | Uncategorized
I make no apologies for loving basketball in general and NBA basketball in particular, while at the same time acknowledging its flaws. That said, I hated Game One of the NBA Finals. OK, not all of it. LeBron James was great, scoring 51 points with eight rebounds and...
by gordie | May 30, 2018 | Uncategorized
The question is not whether the Golden State Warriors can beat the Cleveland Cavaliers in the NBA Finals, in which the Dubs have been installed as prohibitive favorites. Rather, the question is whether the Warriors will beat the Warriors. Only on occasion this year...
by gordie | Mar 30, 2018 | Uncategorized
At some point tonight, Bob Schlosser will approach a lectern in the banquet room of a San Antonio hotel and try to condense 27 years of coaching into five minutes. Five minutes – that’s all he gets. No timeouts, but plenty of replays and reviews — some out loud,...
by gordie | Feb 14, 2018 | Uncategorized
Any self-respecting media type entering the locker room of a pro basketball team knows the drill: You speak to the stars out of obligation, the lesser lights out of interest. An Everyman – a guy like Tyler Smith, for instance — is more relatable, more...
by gordie | Feb 6, 2018 | Uncategorized
It has been a Monday like no other. A Monday when so many in Philadelphia (and well beyond) awakened with a literal hangover, flush with the knowledge that the figurative one has finally – finally — subsided. For the first time in their tortured history, the...
by gordie | Jan 8, 2018 | Uncategorized
The rumor has made the rounds through the years that San Antonio Spurs coach Gregg Popovich, an Air Force Academy graduate who received intelligence training back in the day, was once a spy. He seemingly put the kibosh to that talk in a 2013 Sports Illustrated profile...
