05/20/2003

Dee-Fense...Dee-Fense

In honor of former Knicks great Dave DeBusschere, we offer up
this quiz:

1) Name the starting five of the 1969-70 Baltimore Bullets,
the squad that lost 4 games to 3 in the first round of the playoffs
to the Knicks. 2) Name the starting five of the 1972-73 Boston
Celtics, who lost to the Knicks 4-3 in the semis that year. 3) 10
athletes played both major league baseball and in the NBA. How
many can you name? [Yeah, this is tough as hell.] Answers
below.

Dave DeBusschere

You’ll have to indulge me here. If you aren’t from the New
York area, or a huge basketball fan, it will be hard to understand
why some of us are in mourning with last week’s passing of New
York Knick legend Dave DeBusschere.

I know I speak for many when I say it is the beginning of the end
of an era, not dissimilar to the deaths of John Lennon and George
Harrison, for example.

Growing up in the late 60s and early 70s, for us New York sports
fans there was nothing better than the Knicks. Even the Mets
were one-shot wonders, with their stunning performance in 1969.
The Knicks, however, won two titles, in 1970 and 1973, but just
as importantly it was how they played from late 1968 through
1974 that captivated us.

I was 10-years-old in ’68, just coming into my own as a sports
fanatic, and by December 19 of that year I knew enough about
the Knicks to recognize that they had pulled off a monumental
trade, the acquisition of forward Dave DeBusschere from the
Detroit Pistons for center Walt Bellamy, a formidable player in
his own right, and guard Howard Komives. Knicks coach Red
Holzman described the situation when he received a call from
general manager Eddie Donovan, as told by Dave
D’Alessandro of the Star-Ledger. Holzman inquired where
Donovan was.

“I’m right here, in the room with (representatives of the
Pistons),” replied Donovan.

“Then this is what you do,” Holzman instructed. “Lock the door
to the room, and don’t let the SOBs out until (the) deal is done.”

Holzman later said that when the trade was complete, “I was so
happy I got drunk for three days,” not totally true, since Red had
a game the next day, but almost.

Dave DeBusschere was a Detroit native, scholastic superstar, and
big time performer at the University of Detroit, where he
played basketball but also pitched the baseball team to 3 NCAA
tournament berths. The Chicago White Sox signed him to a
$75,000 bonus and he ended up pitching for them in 1962 and
1963, going 3-4 with a 2.91 ERA in 102 innings.

He was also playing basketball with the Pistons and in 1964, at
the age of 24, he was named player-coach, a rather common
occurrence in those penny pinching days, but not at 24! Well,
Dave wasn’t a great coach, but he was a helluva power forward,
6’ 6” and solidly built.

The Knicks recognized that he could be the missing piece to the
puzzle. They already had some good players, including Bellamy
and Willis Reed, but these two were really centers and Reed was
playing out of position at forward. Holzman also recognized he
had a supreme talent in guard Walt “Clyde” Frazier, but Komives
needed playing time too. Thus, the trade he so actively sought
was as much about addition by subtraction as anything else. By
acquiring DeBusschere, Red could move Reed to center, where
he was more comfortable, and insert Frazier permanently into the
starting lineup. It proved to be one of the great sports trades of
all time.

The Knicks had been a mediocre 43-39 in the ’67-’68 season, but
as soon as DeBusschere came over they won 10 straight, then a
club record. They would finish 54-28 that year, and then the
following season, after going 60-22, they won the championship,
with a roster that included Clyde, Reed, Bill Bradley, Cazzie
Russell, Phil Jackson and Dick Barnett. They would then repeat
3 seasons later, the only two titles the franchise has captured.

As for DeBusschere, he was the classic blue-collar guy, and like
clockwork he got his 16 points and 11 rebounds (his career
averages), night in and night out. [If the 3-point shot had been in
existence during his career, the scoring would have been more
like 20+. No one shot the corner jumper better than he did.] He
also shut down the opposition’s top scorer. In his 12 seasons
DeBusschere was an All-Star 8 of them, as well as making all-
defense 6 times. After retiring following the ’74 season (one in
which he averaged 18 points and 10 rebounds), he became
commissioner of the ABA, helping to oversee the merger
between the two leagues, and later he was director of basketball
operations for the Knicks, including 1985 when they won the
lottery and selected Patrick Ewing. Dave was later elected to the
Hall of Fame and selected as one of the Top 50 players in NBA
history.

But we’re just scratching the surface here, because aside from
being one of the greats on the court, Dave DeBusschere was
loved by all off it. The reaction in New York after the
announcement of his death by heart attack last Wednesday was
telling. All of his teammates were badly shaken, including Earl
Monroe (who starred on the ’73 championship edition).

“Basketball is what united us. Friendship is what kept us
together all these years. We loved growing old together.”

His teammates loved and respected DeBusschere for the effort he
put forward on the court. Frazier remembers how after a game
Dave would just slump in his chair, spent, having left it all out on
the court. Or as sportswriter Mike Vaccaro (N.Y. Post) put it, he
pounded the boards during the game and then pounded beers in
Charley O’s afterward.

In fact beer played a rather important part in the DeBusschere
story. These were the days when the writers largely protected
athletes. Hell, they were out partying with the guys themselves.
But Dave’s beer drinking was legendary, and part of what was so
endearing. Mike Lupica (N.Y. Daily News) wrote:

“DeBusschere played with an in-your-face New York style, and
then popped a can of beer afterward.”

Dave’s father had owned a bar in Detroit and it was known that
the superstar would always be available to reporters after a game,
just let him have that first beer.

The Post’s Peter Vecsey was another big fan and admirer. In his
thoughts following the announcement of DeBusschere’s death,
Vecsey wrote that Dave’s #22 was the only jersey he ever wore.

But Vecsey also wrote of a dark side, which I’m not convinced
was necessary for him to do so, though it’s worth mentioning for
the purposes of this piece.

After a game, “you could usually find DeBusschere sitting on the
trainer’s table, halfway home on a pair of six packs. And you
could be certain that the second six would be gone by the time he
left .many were in awe of the alcohol he could consume.”

No doubt, Dave had a problem, and he had his brushes with the
law in this regard, but it in no way diminishes his legend.

The Knicks of this era captured our fancy unlike any other sports
franchise in New York history, with the possible exception of
Brooklyn’s “Boys of Summer.” Mike Vaccaro writes of the
image the team portrayed.

“Clyde styling in his Rolls; Willis Reed, the captain, grimacing
through another spasm of pain; Bill Bradley and his Ivy League
grace; Dick Barnett and ‘Fall back, baby!’”

But throughout it was blue-collar Dave who was the real key.
Former general manager Donovan had one favorite memento of
his years in the game, a picture of DeBusschere, with the simple
message, “Dear Eddie, Thanks again.”

And thank you, Mr. DeBusschere. Oh, the joy you brought us
fans. We’ll cherish those moments forever. And save a beer for
me.

Edmund Hillary

As we approach the 50th anniversary of Hillary’s great feat, May
29, 1953, we take a look at some aspects of his assault on Mount
Everest.

But first, Hillary had a rather non-descript upbringing in New
Zealand. “A reader and a dreamer,” in his own words, he was
most comfortable alone, with nature. He took an interest in
mountain climbing, scaling the glorious peaks of his native land,
and by 1953 he found himself part of a Commonwealth
expedition to Nepal.

Sportswriter Richard Hoffer did a piece for Sports Illustrated
back in December 1999 wherein he described the allure of
Everest.

“Mount Everest was the last in the geographical set that made up
the goals of what had been known as the Heroic Age. The Poles
had been reached, the mouth of the Nile found, the deepest
oceans marked, the wildest jungles trekked.” No one had
climbed Everest, which was thought to be 29,002 feet back then,
now 29,035.

By the 1950s, the British Empire was fading rapidly. Britain
itself was finding it very hard to recover from the devastation of
World War II, and Everest would supply a real shot in the arm.

The leader of the ’53 expedition was Colonel John Hunt, a
distinguished mountaineer and one of General Montgomery’s
staff officers in World War II. Hunt handpicked Hillary and
Sherpa Tenzing Norgay as one of his two assault teams. But I
bet you forgot that there was another team that went before these
two (because I never knew this), that being Tom Bourdillon and
Charles Evans. Both Hillary and Norgay were jealous as hell,
especially as Bourdillon and Evans closed on the peak.

But the two had to turn back just 285 feet from the summit.
Upon returning to camp, Evans told Hillary, “I don’t think you’re
going to get to the top along that ridge.”

Hillary didn’t believe this. Heck, he had scaled the Alps of New
Zealand and didn’t see anything particularly unusual, or difficult,
about the last few hundred feet of Everest. And he had Norgay
by his side, the former yak herder, incidentally.

As Hoffer writes:

“At 11:30 on the morning of May 29 .Hillary took one last
stride up a gentle rise and found himself, first ever among
humankind, standing and looking down at all the world beneath
him.

“He and Norgay shook hands, and then Hillary took photographs
of the Sherpa. ‘It never crossed my mind to give Tenzing the
camera to take my picture,’ he said. ‘Why did I need a
photograph? I knew I’d been there, and that was good enough
for me.’”

Upon their return to camp, Hillary exclaimed, “Well, we
knocked the bastard off.”

News of the accomplishment didn’t reach Britain until June 2,
which was ironic because it was the same day Queen Elizabeth II
was being crowned, making the event all the more special.

Ironically, the Sherpas weren’t fired up at the fact that Hillary
was first. Everest, after all, was a god to them, but the modest
Hillary agreed to change the story and had Norgay and him
reaching the summit simultaneously. Later on, and to this day,
Sir Edmund dedicated his life to helping these poor people and
they grew to love him for his good works, just as the people of
New Zealand do to this day.

Tragically, Hillary’s wife and his youngest daughter died in a
plane crash in Katmandu in 1975, an incident he never fully
recovered from. It didn’t help that someone had neglected to
free the ailerons on the small craft (which meant it couldn’t
bank).

But even to this day, you can find his name in the Auckland
phone book, or so I’m told, and his face is on the country’s five-
dollar bill. Hillary does, however, have a major problem with
the amount of climbers who have journeyed to Everest over the
last 50 years, some 10,000, all of whom are leaving their garbage
(and 70 aluminum ladders) on the face of the mountain. About
2,000 have now made it to the top.

Who was the first American? James Whittaker in 1963.

Mea Culpa

Boy, do I feel like an idiot. Last week I was channel-surfing and
caught the last 1 hours or so of the World Series of Poker on
ESPN. I wrote about how enjoyable it was in my 5/17 “Week in
Review,” then, much to my horror, I see a reference to the event
in the Sunday Times, only the article said it was this coming
week!

Wha’ the heck?! I punched up Binion’s Horseshoe Hotel and
Casino and lo and behold, I didn’t know I was watching the 2002
finals! There wasn’t one mention of it during the broadcast, at
least that which I caught, and I never looked it up in a TV listing
so how the hell was I to know, especially when I had seen
promos on another network a week earlier?

So, all I can do is slink away. At least I got one thing right. The
2003 finals are on pay-per-view, not network, as I recommended
in my WIR.

Forgive me, sports fans, this wasn’t a Jayson Blair, but for crying
out loud, ESPN, you could have put a scrawl up during the
second hour saying it was a tape of last year’s event. I couldn’t
have been the only one in the country who didn’t know what
they were really watching. Or was I?

Mark McCormack, RIP

Lots of celebrities died last week, McCormack being one of
them. It was back in 1958 that he started in the sports
management business, booking exhibitions for golfer Gene
Litler. Soon others on tour sought McCormack’s advice and two
years later he shook hands with Arnold Palmer on a new
arrangement. McCormack would represent Palmer in all of his
business deals. The rest is history.

Within 3 years, Palmer’s income rose from $50,000 to $500,000,
and then on to $10 million, as McCormack and his International
Management Group, IMG, gained one endorsement after
another. McCormack soon signed up Jack Nicklaus and Gary
Player, too, just as both of them were about to hit it big. As he
said later, “If they had all shot 80 from that moment on, I
wouldn’t be sitting here today.”

Today, IMG represents the likes of Tiger Woods (arranging the
$100 million Nike deal in 2000), Annika Sorenstam, the
Williams sisters, Jeff Gordon, Tyra Banks ..needed to
pause for a moment .and even Jack Welch. Sports Illustrated
once called Mark McCormack “the most powerful man in
sports.”

Incidentally, IMG receives 20% of the endorsement money, 10%
of prize money and 3% of a client’s salary.

There’s far more to say, but my reference material is in another
location, so some other day we’ll explore Mark McCormack’s
fascinating life in more detail.

June Carter Cash

On Sunday a memorial service was held in Nashville for one of
the true pioneers of country music, June Carter Cash, who died at
age 73. June was a singer, songwriter, and author, collaborating
with husband Johnny on the Grammy-winning tunes “Jackson”
and “If I Were A Carpenter.” She also co-wrote Johnny’s classic
“Ring of Fire.”

June married Johnny in 1968 and as you all know, life with the
man in black wasn’t always easy, but she stuck with him. Wrote
Johnny years ago:

“June said she knew me – knew the kernel of me, deep inside,
beneath the drugs and deceit and despair and anger and
selfishness, and knew my loneliness. She said she could help
me .If she found my pills, she flushed them down the toilet.
And find them she did; she searched for them, relentlessly.”

[Source: Joe Edwards / Associated Press]

You know, many of us hardly saw June Carter Cash over the
years, but you just knew this was a saint. Someone said at her
memorial service that June loved everyone she met, and even
those she didn’t. Poor Johnny, already in bad health, looked so
distraught Sunday. Soon we’ll lose him too, I’m afraid.

Funny Cide

Was that a great sports moment on Saturday at the Preakness or
what? I hope I wasn’t the only one who got a goose bump or two
watching the stretch run. I felt so good for Jose Santos, after all
the crap he went through, and it’s just neat seeing a clutch
performance in any sport. On to the Belmont and the Triple
Crown.

Stuff

--I loved what Charles Barkley said about Philly’s Allen Iverson
the other day. He takes more hard shots than anyone else in the
league. That’s not a compliment. A.I. ran out of gas against the
Pistons, that’s for sure. And how could he show up just 30
minutes before the game! Even his biggest supporters, like my
friend Mark R., have to be tired of his act.

--Us Wake Forest alums are mighty proud of Tim Duncan.

--Back to the Sixers, does Keith Van Horn suck or what?

--The Mets’ Mike Piazza has been dating Playboy Playmate
Alicia Rickter, so you might say he picked a bad time to get a
severe groin pull, which is going to keep him out of the lineup
for at least a month.......

--Vijay Singh now has 13 PGA Tour victories. Not too shabby.
But he''s opted out of Colonial and the controversy over Annika.

--I just learned that one of the guys working with me, Rod, has a
unique story concerning his grandmother. Back in 1925 Kathryn
was granted a scholarship by Boston College to play basketball
and once was suspended for wearing shorts instead of a skirt. Of
course Kathryn was playing with the guys, which makes the
whole story all the more remarkable.

--Jack Baird died. Who’s he? Well, Baird was a Seattle area
nightclub owner who ran a place called The Colony. Back
around 1960, four University of Washington fraternity brothers
sang for beer at Baird’s place, while opening for bigger acts.
And so it came to pass that Jack discovered “The Brothers Four.”
The only reason why I bring this up is because this was my
father’s favorite group. Needless to say, my brother and I were
into the Beatles and Beach Boys, while Dad was listening to
“Greenfields” and “Green Leaves Of Summer,” not that there
was anything wrong with that, except we had to use the
headphones if we wanted to play our stuff real loud. And now
you know ..the rest of the story.

--And this just in from the Associated Press. "A drunk
Vietnamese tourist who ran into an elephant he didn''t see
standing in the street was injured when the animal picked him
up and tossed him aside." Vu Quang Phuc suffered three broken
ribs and bruises on his face and body.

Top 3 songs for the week of 5/22/76: #1 “Silly Love Songs”
(Wings) #2 “Love Hangover” (Diana Ross) #3 “Fooled Around
And Fell In Love” (Elvin Bishop Mickey Thomas of Starship
was the lead on this the favorite song of all time for your
editor)

Quiz Answers: 1) 1969-70 Baltimore Bullets: Earl Monroe, 23.4
ppg.; Kevin Loughery, 21.9; Jack Marin, 19.7; Gus Johnson,
17.3; Wes Unseld, 16.2. 2) 1972-73 Boston Celtics: John
Havlicek, 23.8; Dave Cowens, 20.5; Jo Jo White, 19.7; Paul
Silas, 13.3; Don Chaney, 13.1. 3) The ten who played both MLB
and in the NBA: Dave DeBusschere, Mark Hendrickson, Danny
Ainge, Frankie Baumholtz, Gene Conley, Chuck Connors, Dick
Groat, Steve Hamilton, Cotton Nash and Ron Reed.

Next Bar Chat, Thursday. As promised, Jimi Hendrix and the
real story behind his death.