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One of the countless calamitous consequences of the negotiating impasse between NBA owners and players is the unavailability, because of the lockout, of game footage for anybody who might be facing a documentary deadline … for example, Joyce Sharman.
Forty seasons ago, her husband, Bill, guided the Lakers to professional sports’ longest winning streak, 33 straight. Joyce is co-producing the documentary. But the way things are going, by the time it’s finished it’s not going to be all that timely.
Considering Bill Sharman is 85, and two stars from that team (Wilt Chamberlain, Happy Hairston) are deceased, while two others (LeRoy Ellis, Flynn Robinson) are battling cancer — and taking into account the team’s impressive imprint — you would think David Stern would have headed lickety-split to the appropriate location and personally unlocked the league’s film archives.
Every living player on the team was interviewed, Joyce Sharman said. Many others, such as Kareem Abdul-Jabbar (whose Bucks squad convincingly shattered the streak on national TV on a Sunday afternoon), Bill Russell and Phil Jackson, also provided insight.
Lakers players figured 33 games without a loss would earn them some type of reward from infamously frugal owner Jack Kent Cooke, maybe a Hawaiian vacation or a monetary gratitude for a job spectacularly done.
After all, the Lakers had filled the Fabulous Forum to capacity 18 times during that simonized span and had captured the rapt attention of the national media. Furthermore, fans throughout the country meticulously monitored the adventures of Wilt (league leader in rebounds at 19.2), Jerry West (assist leader at 9.7), Gail Goodrich (averaged 25. 9 points, one fewer than West), Hairston, Jim McMillian, Keith Erickson and Jim Cleamons; Pat Riley was an irregular and K.C. Jones was the lone assistant coach.
Well, as it turned out, Cooke did acknowledge the players’ feat with a bonus. According to several interviewed, they received inexpensive pen and pencil sets.
“So, at the suggestion of Wilt,” Joyce related, “some of the players placed their gifts in a pile and stomped on them. And then they went on to win the title, beating the Knicks 4-1 in The Finals.”
* For someone who did Julius Erving’s bidding for almost three decades, it warmed my innards to see others still have the touch.
Erving’s weeks-long, online auction of personal memorabilia wrapped up over the weekend with Dr. J pocketing $3.5 million, minus taxes, consignment percentage, Atlanta bank IOU, Irwin Weiner’s agent fee in perpetuity and Ken Starr’s annual commissary prison allowance.
Of the 144 items sold — 18 purchased by 76ers’ CEO Adam Aron — the most coveted was his 1974 New York Nets ABA championship ring. It went for $460,000, purportedly a record for a sports ring — but not as much as Eddy Curry once paid for a Ring Ding.
Other six-figure sellers include Erving’s 1983 Sixers title ring and his All-Star MVP trophy from that same season. Aron, looking to recruit arguably Philadelphia’s most treasured athlete to join the franchise in some capacity, said the procured stash will go on display at the Wells Fargo Center and the team’s practice facility.
In view of Erving’s score, I’m tempted to see what I can get for my 1974 gold Nets championship watch.
In fact, for the right price, I could even be persuaded to part with my 1972 Westsiders’ Rucker title jersey.
Probably my most prized possession is an Antoine Walker Celtics jersey signed in my presence by Red Auerbach. I’d give that up, too, except there’s a lien on it.
* After all these years, there’s finally justification for my stealing cable. Beginning tonight and running for six scintillating weeks, Mensa members Shaquille O’Neal, Charles Barkley and other Turner Sports NBA “analysts” show up on NBATV for skits entitled “Open Court.”
Do we really need another roundtable of pinheads who give gibberish a bad name? The Republican debates aren’t enough?
As long as we’re on the subject, “Open Court” sounds like a “Jeopardy!” answer to the question “Where are any number of NBA players past, present and future going to be tried?”
* I’m awash with apathy counting down the shopping days until the Obama Classic. Scheduled for Dec. 12, it’s billed as a fundraiser featuring NBA and WNBA players. Tickets range from $100 to $5,000.
Start saving now. Courtside seats include a real autograph and a fake birth certificate.
Tough break about that super committee’s failure to reach an agreement. Column castigator Frank Drucker figures it’s only a matter of days before the United States decertifies and becomes a trade association.
Retiring referee Steve Javie got out at the right time, submits column chondriac Richie Kalikow: “One of the best calls he ever made.”
This just in from column contrarian Michael Catarevas: “Frustrated that so many high-priced attorneys can’t solve the NBA’s labor crisis, Allen Iverson says he’s abandoning his comeback and instead will enter law school, with the goal of opening his own legal practice … practice … practice.”
Baltimore’s bountiful gift to New York on Nov. 10, 1971 (and, no, you can’t have Earl Monroe back) gingerly turned 67 yesterday and still lost two defenders in the process.