NBA Quiz: Last fall I had a quiz which noted that Karl Malone
is the only player to be selected 11 times to the 1st-team All-NBA
squad. Since the selections started with the 1946-47 season, only
6 players have been 1st-team 10 years. Name them. Answer
below.
Sergeant Joe Cullen
In the book “Roger Mudd Interviews: Great Minds of History,”
World War II historian Stephen Ambrose was asked why he
thought the American soldier fought as well as he did during that
war.
Ambrose explains that part of the reason was that in many areas
they had the best equipment (especially trucks, Jeeps and the
landing craft). They had a mobility that any other army would
envy. They also had good leaders at the top.
And the Americans had good training. Ambrose says, “They
were the children of democracy and they were Boy Scouts. They
had learned to take responsibility. They had learned to take an
initiative. On that point, the distinction couldn”t be sharper.”
Rommel didn”t have a suggestion box outside his door.
Eisenhower did.
In June of 1944, the Americans got into the hedgerows of France
after the invasion of Normandy. It was a terrible surprise and a
total breakdown of American intelligence. Ambrose:
“The problem was, those hedgerows were about six feet tall, with
a lot of bramble and trees growing over them. A tank would
come into the hedgerow and go belly-up as it tried to climb out
of it. Then a German eighteen-year-old could shoot right into the
belly of that tank. What the hell to do about this completely
unanticipated problem?”
Enter Sergeant Joe Cullen, a cabdriver from Chicago who was
also a tank driver in the Second Armored Regiment. His
suggestion:
“Let”s take these steel rails that Rommel used to make the
defenses at the beach…and weld them on to the front of the tank,
and then the tank will dig into that hedgerow.”
“And with the power of the Chrysler engine, it can go right on
through the damn thing, and then you can start spraying the
corners of the hedgerow.” [These were tiny little fields where
the Germans set up their machine guns].
Cullen made this suggestion on a Tuesday morning. By Tuesday
night, it was on General Omar Bradley”s desk, and by
Wednesday morning, they were starting to do it. Ambrose
reiterates, “That didn”t happen in other armies.”
“There was…an ingenuity to the American GI that was lacking
in other armies. And I”m convinced this came out of being a
participating member of a free society. Hitler thought
totalitarianism is by far the most efficient form of government.
With the squabbling of the parliamentarians, Hitler was just
contemptuous of the French and the British – and at least in the
French case, it turned out he was right to be contemptuous. But
he was equally contemptuous of the Americans. The Americans,
of course, were very slow to rise to the challenge. But as
Eisenhower wrote to his brother Milton on September 1, 1939,
the day the war began: ”Hitler should beware the fury of an
aroused democracy.” Well, the U.S. Army of World War II
became the tip of the spear of that aroused democracy. And we
just did wonderfully well.”
William “Tank” Black…Update
Last January 26 in Bar Chat, I had the story of sports agent
Black. Back then I wrote of the losses that some of his athletes,
like the Jacksonville Jaguar”s Fred Taylor, had suffered through
Black”s schemes.
Last Friday, the SEC announced that a federal judge had issued a
restraining order against Black and his business partner, James
Franklin Jr. The SEC had requested the temporary order against
the two and the two firms they were involved in in order to
freeze their assets as well as bar them and their employees from
exercising any control over their clients” accounts. They also
need to account for and bring back to this country all assets they
hold offshore.
Black had clients like Taylor, Giants wide receiver Ike Hilliard,
and Philadelphia running back Duce Staley. Black drew many of
his clients from the University of Florida and school police
investigated him for possible illegal inducements while the
athletes were still students.
You may recall I mentioned that Rev. Jesse Jackson was an
investor in one of Black”s schemes. In the course of their
investigation, the SEC learned that Jackson”s name was bandied
about as a reason to invest with Black. Clarence Anthony, the
father of client Reidel Anthony, said Black had recommended an
investment as a good opportunity, telling him that prominent
people, including Jackson, were involved in the venture. [To be
fair, there is no reason to believe Jackson knew of the shady
dealings.]
The SEC contends that beginning in early 1996, Black and his
partner Franklin defrauded some two dozen athletes, reaping at
least $5 million.
In one scheme, the SEC said, Black and Franklin advised clients
to invest millions in high-yield promissory notes that they said
would finance an auto title loan company called Cash 4 Titles.
In fact, the SEC said, Black and Franklin had a secret
arrangement with the promoters of the promissory notes that
allowed them to skim their clients” profits and put the money into
a multimillion-dollar Ponzi scheme run out of the Cayman
Islands. [Money from recent investors was used to pay returns to
earlier investors.]
But Tank Black also currently represents the NBA”s budding
superstar Vince Carter. “I”m behind him,” Carter said last week.
“He didn”t do anything to me. I”m not worried about it and I”m
sticking behind him, plain and simple.” Uh oh…This could be
an Ahmad Rashad story in a few months. Fade to black.
Top 3 songs for the week of 3/1/75: #1 “Best Of My Love” (The
Eagles) #2 “Have You Never Been Mellow” (Olivia Newton-
John) #3 “Black Water” (The Doobie Brothers).
The Beach Boys
I thought the ABC mini-series was great. Terrific casting and it
stuck to the real story. If you are a fan like I am, I do heartily
recommend Timothy White”s, “The Nearest Faraway Place.”
Beach Boys songs that hit the Top Ten in the 60s: Surfin”
U.S.A.; Surfer Girl; Be True To Your School; Fun, Fun, Fun; I
Get Around (#1); When I Grow Up (To Be A Man); Dance,
Dance, Dance; Help Me, Rhonda (#1); California Girls; Barbara
Ann; Sloop John B; Wouldn”t It Be Nice; Good Vibrations (#1).
[All between 1963 and 1966]. In 1988, “Kokomo” hit #1 but I
don”t recognize this piece of garbage.
Quiz Answer: 1st-team All-NBA 10 times: Kareem Abdul-
Jabbar, Bob Cousy, Jerry West, Michael Jordan, Bob Petit, Elgin
Baylor. FYI.9 times: Oscar Robertson, Larry Bird, Magic
Johnson. No one did 8 times. Wilt Chamberlain was 1st-team 7
times.
*And I have to add that one of the great centers I ever saw, Nate
Thurmond, was never 1st or 2nd-team. Some of his representative
seasons are as follows (pts – reb.): 15-18, 16-18,
18-21, 20-22 (51 games), 21-19, 20-13. But Nate had the
misfortune of playing, at various times, during the era”s of Wilt,
Bill Russell, Abdul-Jabbar, Willis Reed, Wes Unseld, Walt
Bellamy and Elvin Hayes. [He was, however, 1st-team All-NBA
Defense a few times.] Today, he”d totally dominate and give
Shaq a real run for his money. So Nate Thurmond, we honor you
here.
Next Bar Chat, Friday…The Branch Rickey story.
