Indy 500 Quiz: 1) Who won the race in both 2001 and 2002? 2)
Name the only three to win the race four times. Answers below.
Rolling Stone (1,000th issue) Rock Quiz: 1) Pamela Des Barres
slept with all the following except: A) Jimmy Page B) Mick
Jagger C) Keith Moon D) Gram Parsons E) Roger Daltrey. 2)
What’s the best-selling soundtrack ever? A) The Bodyguard B)
Grease C) Saturday Night Fever D) A Hard Day’s Night.
Answers below.
Connie Hawkins
I’ve commented how little NBA basketball I’ve watched the past
few years because the product has been, err, unwatchable. But I
geared up for San Antonio – Dallas because any casual fan of the
sport knows it’s a great match-up plus I had to follow my two
Wake Forest guys, Tim Duncan and Josh Howard.
So I ended up catching most of the action, including all of the
last four games, and as every expert has said since that was the
best basketball anyone has seen in decades.
It’s also not often that a sure-fire Hall of Famer actually
enhances his reputation further in defeat as Duncan did, while
Dirk Nowitzki is closer to having a plaque of his own. [And
Tony Parker still has Eva Longoria.]
But the other day I said I’d we’d go back to the past and take a
look at “The Hawk,” ABA / NBA legend Connie Hawkins.
Before the swooping, soaring displays from Dr. J., Dominique,
and Air Jordan, there was Hawk.
Born on July 17, 1942, Connie Hawkins grew up in the Bedford-
Stuyvesant section of Brooklyn where he became a playground
legend. Accepting an offer from the University of Iowa, Connie
never played a varsity game because after his freshman year he
was swept up in a wide-ranging point-shaving scandal that
included future ABA / NBA players Doug Moe and Roger
Brown. None of them was ever convicted of any wrongdoing
but they were banned from playing in the NBA and the Eastern
League as well.
So at 19, the immensely talented Hawkins became a basketball
vagabond, playing for the Pittsburgh Rens of the old American
Basketball League, where he was MVP and made $5,000, as well
as a joyless stint with the Harlem Globetrotters.
The following is from Terry Pluto’s “Loose Balls,” one of the
great sports books of our time that chronicles the history of the
American Basketball Association.
Jim O’Brien: “I was a sportswriter in Pittsburgh when the ABA
and the Pittsburgh Pipers started (1967). A gravelly voice called
me on the phone one day and said his name was Gabe Rubin. I
knew Rubin as a guy who owned a movie theatre in Pittsburgh
called the Nixon. Let’s see – you could say that the Nixon
Theatre featured ‘adult art films.’ I knew the Nixon as a place I
wasn’t allowed to go as a teenager.”
[The two exchanged tips, as Rubin, the owner of the fledgling
Pittsburgh franchise, sought to fill a roster.]
Jim O’Brien recommended 6’ 8” Connie Hawkins. After the
ABL had gone under, Hawkins was just hanging out in
Pittsburgh, playing in an industrial league. By the summer of
1967, Connie was penniless and living in a row house. He was
also married with two kids. As O’Brien put it, “he had just about
hit bottom.”
Ron Grinker (an attorney and players’ agent): “I went to see (a
friend) at a summer game at Roosevelt Field in New Jersey; there
was an outdoor basketball court near a baseball field. Word was
that Connie Hawkins would play, but the game began and he
wasn’t there. It was getting dark, and late in the first quarter,
Connie came out of one of the baseball dugouts. He didn’t even
have his basketball shoes on. He sat down in the on-deck circle
to put on his tennis shoes and the people hanging around started
chanting, ‘Hawk, Hawk, Hawk.’ There were a lot of legends in
the game, like Roger Brown. Just looking at Connie, I had a
feeling that he had had a few drinks and he obviously wasn’t
thinking only about basketball, because he had shown up late.
But he got in the game and the first three times he touched the
ball, he went coat-to-coast and then executed three different
dunks. The court was getting a little wet because of the night
dew, but he seemed to glide over it and slam. People watching it
were going crazy, calling his name. It was one of those
experiences I only had heard about, the kind of thing that made
Connie Hawkins a legend.”
The first ABA commissioner, Hall of Famer George Mikan,
investigated the gambling charges that had enveloped Brown,
Hawkins, Moe and others and decided they deserved a second
chance.
Pittsburgh teammate and ABA great Steve Jones: “The Hawk
gave our league instant credibility and brought us a lot of
attention. For years, everyone had heard how great the guy was,
but very, very few people saw him play. Well, the ABA became
his first stage. And the thing was that because Pittsburgh had a
lot of talent, Connie just cruised during much of the regular
season [still averaging a league high 26.8 points per game]. He
was good people. He just wanted to play ball and to get along
with the other guys. He was doing things with the basketball,
with those huge hands of his, that people had never seen before.
Just about all the stuff Julius Erving did palming the ball, Connie
did first.”
Pittsburgh made it to the initial ABA finals against New Orleans.
Steve Jones: “(New Orleans) was good – with Doug Moe, Larry
Brown [yeah, that Larry Brown] and Jimmy Jones – and they got
up 3-2 on us, with a chance to win the title in Game 6 in New
Orleans. I was matched up with Brown, who at 5-foot-9 was the
only guard in the league smaller than I was. I started posting
Larry up and Connie took over the game. He just wouldn’t let us
lose….Connie had 41 points and we won 118-112….
“After that game, a crazy thing happened with Art Heyman. This
fan had spit on Art and he punched the guy. Art was in our
locker room changing his clothes when the New Orleans police
came in and arrested him. We were all staring at Art, wondering
how could this guy get in trouble with the cops in the middle of a
championship. It turned out that the fan had some sort of
physical problem and he didn’t intentionally spit on Art, and
when Art decked him a complaint was filed. Art apologized and
patched things up, so the charges were dropped.”
Oh, the daffy ABA. Pittsburgh ended up winning Game Seven,
with Hawkins having 20 points, 16 rebounds and nine assists.
ABA great Mel Daniels: “Connie Hawkins was our first true
star, in the sense that he was a great player whose style attracted
a lot of attention, yet he also played an all-around game. The
guy who didn’t know basketball that well could look at Connie
for 15 minutes and know that Connie was great. Then a guy who
was a basketball person could watch Connie and see the subtle
things – his passing, how he blocked shots and rebounded and
knew how to help out his teammates on defense. I am convinced
that the Connie Hawkins that led Pittsburgh to that first title
could play in the NBA and be on the same level as Magic
Johnson, Larry Bird and Michael Jordan.”
After that first season in Pittsburgh, owner Gabe Rubin moved
the team to Minnesota, something that occurred quite frequently
in the ABA’s tumultuous nine-year history. Terry Pluto
describes the situation.
“In a textbook example of how a good team can shoot itself in
the foot, the Pittsburgh-turned-Minnesota Pipers made one error
after another, moving being just the first. The biggest blunder
was hiring Jim Harding as coach. Harding had no pro
experience. He had coached at Loyola of New Orleans, LaSalle
and Gannon, and he claimed never to have lost three games in a
row. When he blew the whistle, he expected everyone to freeze.
He took one look at Connie Hawkins and reportedly mumbled,
‘So that’s the best player in the ABA?’ Later, he tried to change
the form on Hawkins’s jumper. In the second game of the
season, Hawkins played all 48 minutes as Harding used only six
players.”
Player Charlie Williams: “The players called Harding ‘The
Maniac.’ …His training camp was brutal. We didn’t have
double-sessions, we had triple-sessions. We practiced in the
morning, had lunch, practiced in the afternoon, ate again, and
then practiced at night. And we always went full tilt. Guys
started breaking down, pulling muscles, twisting ankles, things
like that. First Connie hurt his knee, then I pulled a hamstring,
then Chico Vaughn got hurt, but he wouldn’t let any of us rest….
“When we lost an exhibition game, he’d act like the world ended.
He was playing the starters over 40 minutes in preseason!”
Then owner Rubin and Harding got into a fight at the All-Star
game….right in the middle of the banquet the night before the
contest…because some of Harding’s players who had been
selected for the squad (Hawkins himself was out with a knee
injury) were late because they had been given the wrong time.
So when Rubin defended the players and Harding said he’d take
away their paychecks, the two got into it. Rick Barry was on
hand and said “These guys were ripping each other’s sports coats
off, clawing at each other. I thought they had lost their minds.”
Bad move by Harding. Rubin fired him on the spot, in front of
everyone.
Here’s another great ABA sidelight. From Bob Bass, who
coached several ABA teams before becoming GM of the San
Antonio Spurs.
“That whole Pittsburgh-Minnesota operation was a mess. I can
still see Gabe Rubin at the 1969 draft, sitting there with a
basketball magazine from 1968. He was looking at the magazine
and drafting guys who were already playing in the NBA.”
Hawkins was limited to just 47 games that second year, though
he averaged 30.2 points per game. But in the off-season the
NBA lifted its ban on the players that had been implicated in that
gambling scandal and Hawkins signed a huge contract with the
Phoenix Suns; a five-year, $400,000 guaranteed contract that
also paid him a $250,000 bonus, $35,000 for his legal fees and a
$600,000 annuity paying him $30,000 annually starting at age
45. All unheard of for 1969.
The Hawk, though, was an ‘old’ 27 and while he was an NBA
All-Star his first four seasons in the league and averaged over 20
a game (24.6 his first year), 1969-72, he was a shell of his former
self. By age 33 he was out of basketball.
So as you watch the remainder of the NBA playoffs (I only have
a mild interest myself the rest of the way), and you hear a
reference to Dr. J. or M.J. or ‘Nique, just remember that before
them all was the Hawk…Connie Hawkins.
Wolf Attack!
I saw this little AP blurb in the South China Morning Post and
have been trying to get more details.
“A wolf attacked and injured nine people in northern Tajikistan,
including three women and one child, an emergency official said
on Tuesday.
“The victims were hospitalized after the attack over the weekend
in the Dashti Kozi village, about 260 kilometers northeast of the
capital Dushanbe…
“The circumstances of the attack weren’t immediately known.
“In February, 17 people, including three children, were injured
by wolves in the same area.”
So, sports fans, we have a growing global issue yet at this point,
government officials in Washington have refused to raise the
threat level. Voters will hold their congressional representatives
accountable come November, of this I’m sure.
But in attempting to find more details of what must have been a
horrific scene (let alone February’s incident), I came across a
piece from Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty, 2005.
As reported by Antoine Blua, March 15, 2005:
“Given a choice, wolves generally steer clear of humans. But
this winter, extreme temperatures in Central Asia have forced
them into close contact with residents of Uzbekistan and
Tajikistan, threatening their livelihoods and – in some cases –
their lives. Wolves have presented similar problems in other
places, including nearby Russia and France….
“On the arid steppes of western Uzbekistan, some villagers have
been reported injured by wolves. Two of them – in the Muinak
district – died in early February as a result of their wounds.
“In a remote eastern Badakhshan Province of Tajikistan where
livestock are essential for survival, no one has died from a wolf
attack….but villagers live in terror, with roaming wolves preying
on farm animals.
“ ‘At night, the wolves own the village. First, they ate all the
dogs. Now they have begun to eat sheep, cows (and other
animals). In the past two months, they have eaten 150 of them.
Wolves dig through mud walls, break into sheds, and attack
(animals),’ said a local.”
It turns out in neighboring Kazakhstan, 200 hunters are
employed; receiving bounties of $36 for each animal they kill as
the government there attempts to keep the population at 500.
Of course farmers worldwide seek damages and there’s no
reason why they shouldn’t receive reasonable compensation. It’s
to protect the wolves, after all.
But the French farmers in the Alps claim wolves killed nearly
3,000 animals in 2003. No word on how many farmers were in
turn done in by Peter and Crew.
Stuff
–You know, I find this hard to believe but it’s true. Folks in
Germany are excited this week because a wild bear has been
spotted roaming the countryside in Bavaria. This is evidently the
first reported bear in Germany since 1835 when the last one was
killed. Heck, we have an extra thousand in New Jersey alone we
could ship there if they want.
By the way, this particular bear has killed at least seven sheep
after crossing the border with Austria. Clearly, it got lost
because if it was smart it would have crossed into neutral
Switzerland, instead, a la the von Trapp Family of “Sound of
Music” fame. I’m assuming the bruin is thus a goner as neo-Nazis
will corral it in Bavaria.
[Incidentally, in my own life I’ve tried the “So long, farewell…”
routine to escape trouble and it hasn’t worked.]
–From the AP in Phnom Penh:
“A man bled to death after his leg slipped into a cracked
porcelain toilet he was trying to use, a police official said on
Thursday.
“Mao Bunlang, 46, died shortly after the accident occurred at his
home….
“(The police) said the man was using the squat toilet when one of
his legs accidentally slipped and plunged deep into the cracked
toilet bowl.
“ ‘He was seriously injured by sharp pieces of the broken toilet.
There was a big cut near his…” [I made the editorial decision to
leave out the next word. And believe it or not, it got even
grosser.]
–Last Sunday evening, one of the world’s largest ferries, the
Pont-Aven, left Plymouth for Santander in northern Spain. It
was 10:25 pm when a rogue wave estimated at 40 to 50 feet high,
crashed into it, smashing through windows and flooding cabins.
From a report in the London Times by Simon de Bruxelles:
“Passengers described seeing a wall of water, followed by an
explosion and then seeing people running around covered in
blood after being hit by glass….
“The wave struck at the height of a Force 9 gale [ed. for those
following the Irish Open on the Golf Channel, this was part of
the same weather system that halted play on Sunday] that had
caused the cancellation of dozens of crossings in the Channel.
The Pont-Aven, the largest and most modern vessel in the fleet
was (already) being buffeted by heavy seas when the wave
struck.”
Richard Lloyd, a passenger and owner of one of 19 classic cars
on board heading for a rally in Barcelona, said:
“During dinner, bottles were tipping over and things sliding
about but, when we turned the corner into the Bay of Biscay, it
really got bad. I have never seen seas like it. I saw a huge wave,
a wall of water roaring past, and there was a loud noise like an
explosion when it hit.”
Another passenger said, “We knew conditions were getting bad
the night before when the magician had to cancel his act because
his table kept sliding off the stage.”
–Johnny Mac informs me that the Cards’ Albert Pujols is 19 of
36 (.528) with runners in scoring position.
And J. Mac said, take a look at the Baltimore Orioles’ starting
staff.
Aside from Kris Benson, you have the following (thru Tuesday’s
games).
Erik Bedard…10 starts, 5.08 ERA
Daniel Cabrera…8 starts, 5.23 ERA with 39 walks in 41 innings
Rodrigo Lopez…10 starts, 8.07 ERA
Bruce Chen…8 starts, 8.08 ERA
So, if you can throw a little and always dreamed of being a major
leaguer, drop the Orioles a line. Be aggressive, but keep the
resume short.
–As if New York Knicks fans haven’t already been through
enough, including a 23-win season, on Tuesday they were
reminded that their team had given up a 2006 first round draft
choice in acquiring center Eddy Curry from Chicago. Chicago
then ended up with the second overall pick because, unlike every
other team out there, the Knicks placed no conditions on the
first-rounder…like protection from the draft lottery. At least gun
dealers have been apprised and there is a special five-year
waiting period for all Knicks fans attempting to buy a weapon.
–Trader George saw Charlie Daniels at B.B. King’s the other
night and said he was super; playing all the hits. My own
favorite is “Carolina.”
Top 3 songs for the week of 5/29/76: #1 “Love Hangover”
(Diana Ross) #2 “Silly Love Songs” (Wings) #3 “Fooled
Around And Fell In Love” (Elvin Bishop…all-time favorite tune
for your editor…sung by Mickey Thomas of Starship)…and…#7
“Welcome Back” (John Sebastian) #9 “Sara Smile” (Daryl Hall
& John Oates) #10 “Tryin’ To Get The Feeling Again” (Barry
Manilow)
Indy 500 Quiz Answers: 1) Helio Castroneves won in both 2001
and 2002. 2) The only four-time winners are A.J. Foyt, Rick
Mears, and Al Unser. Foyt won his over a 16-year period, Mears
12 years, and Unser 17 years.
Rolling Stone Rock Quiz: 1) Pamela Des Barres had known
affairs with Jimmy Page, Mick Jagger, Keith Moon and Gram
Parsons. She did not sleep with Roger Daltrey. 2) The best-
selling soundtrack ever is… ‘The Bodyguard’
*Pamela Des Barres was a famous groupie. She also counted
Jim Morrison among her conquests.
Next Bar Chat, Monday….a brief one for Memorial Day.
