by gordie | Feb 22, 2021 | NBA, Philadelphia 76ers
Charles Barkley turned 58 on Saturday, and I couldn’t help but think of something Jim Lynam, Barkley’s last coach with the Sixers, once told me about the Chuckster. “He’s a Hall of Fame player, so people have to appreciate it, but he’s special among that group,” Lynam...
by gordie | Feb 16, 2021 | High School Sports
Among other things, Leon “Buddy” Glover was known for walking everywhere — for lacing up his trademark black hightop Chucks and venturing out from his Green Street home in Lancaster. Didn’t matter how far he had to go. Didn’t matter if someone offered a ride....
by gordie | Jan 31, 2021 | College Basketball
John Chaney’s death on Friday at age 89 reminded me that I have held onto a cassette tape of a telephone interview I did with him in July 1999, when he was 17 years into his 24-year run as the men’s basketball coach at Temple. Took some rooting around to find it, but...
by gordie | Jan 18, 2021 | Uncategorized, Writing
Over three decades after Harry Chapman’s death, Stan Gelbaugh still has a copy of a poem given to him by his late football coach at Cumberland Valley High School, someone Gelbaugh calls “probably the most important man in my life, other than my dad.” The poem is...
by gordie | Dec 23, 2020 | NBA, Philadelphia 76ers
New Sixers coach Doc Rivers was talking during a Zoom news conference Monday afternoon about who nudged him toward the profession, given that he played for some pretty notable guys during his 13-year run as an NBA point guard: Mike Fratello for eight years in Atlanta...
by gordie | Dec 22, 2020 | Writing
The spine of Jeff Rice’s debut novel, “Going Low,” consists of a sparkling round of golf played by the book’s central character, a fictional PGA professional named Jason Dickerson, during the U.S. Open. Again and again Dickerson finds himself behind trees or in...
by gordie | Nov 26, 2020 | NBA, Philadelphia 76ers
In May 2019 an NBA assistant coach named Darren Erman — then with New Orleans and just hired to a similar post with the Knicks — hit upon an essential truth about the Curry brothers. About Stephen, a three-time champion and two-time MVP with Golden State,...
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...
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...
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...
