News » Minus Manu, Spurs can't match up with Lakers
Minus Manu, Spurs can't match up with Lakers
Game Time: Lakers 102, Spurs 95 What happened here was that the Lakers' irresistible offense overcame the Spurs' immovable defense. L.A.'s win was even more impressive since it completed a sweep of a difficult back-to-back set of games situated deep in the heart of Texas. WHY THE LAKERS WON At the onset, they beat the Spurs to the draw with some awesome shooting that immediately put the home team back on its heels. Perhaps the Spurs secretly believed that the Lakers would be exhausted after their grueling win in Houston the night before. Instead, Derek Fisher, Trevor Ariza and Kobe Bryant hit bull's-eyes in the opening minutes. If you have a question or comment for Charley Rosen, submit it below and Charley may just respond. Subject: Comment/Question: Name:

Some, but not enough to secure your argument.

For sure, Magic was the most versatile player in NBA history. He could trigger a fast break and finish in traffic better than anybody. He could also post up, pass, rebound, see the court and make impeccable decisions. And, yes, he was an unparalleled point guard, an adequate small forward, and was also surprisingly effective at both power positions. However, there were two basic skills that Magic never quite mastered — shooting a basketball (which, by definition, made him an inferior shooting guard), and playing acceptable defense.

Meanwhile, MJ excelled at all the skill positions, i.e., the point and the wings. Plus he was a terrific low-post scorer, a dead-eye shooter from long range, and a potent defender.In my view, Jordan had more overall impact than did Magic.

In any case, is it an open-and-shut case that either Magic or Jordan was "the greatest player ever"?

Travels with Charley

My coach at Hunter College, Mike Fleischer, had played baseball at CCNY and had been a teammate of Floyd Layne's. Of course, Layne was better known as a basketball player, albeit one who was convicted of conspiring with gamblers to shave points and dump games.

Actually, Layne was one of many. Several others at CCNY, NYU, Manhattan College, LIU, Kentucky, Toledo, and Bradley committed the same crimes and suffered the same fates — expulsion from school, public excoriation, and in some cases prison terms. Several of these disgraced players lived in New York and played weekends in the Eastern League.

It chanced that Hunter's practice season prefaced the start of the Eastern League's season by a week or so. And since EL teams rarely had the means to conduct preseason practice sessions, the local EL players were looking for runs. The connection between Coach and Layne resulted in Floyd bringing a team-full of his EL compatriots up to the Bronx to scrimmage the Hunter varsity.

Chief among Floyd's playmates was Sherman White from LIU, who was without doubt the best player — college or pro — in the world. A smooth 6-7, White was the forerunner of such fliers, leapers and creators as Dr. J and Michael Jordan. Too bad White had been still another victim of the betting scandals.

How good was White? When NBA teams came to New York to play the Knicks, a great many players journeyed to his hometown of Orange, N.J., to pay their respects by scrimmaging with White at a local gym.

All told, Floyd's team included about five or six one-time fixers.

I was 18 at the time, and playing basketball was the joy of my young life. In my barely post-adolescent imagination, basketball was heaven-on-earth, and therefore all basketball players had to be saintly. And if I played with more exuberance than skill, I was still the best player on the Hunter Hawks.

In any event, Layne's team of veteran players destroyed us. Their skills were incredible, plus they knew how a slight push on the hip or a well-placed elbow could gain immense advantages. If I turned my head for an instant, Ed Roman cut backdoor and wound up with a layup. Every one of my minor missteps and hesitations was costly. It was all I could do just to get a shot off.

But more than anything else I was stunned by the total lack of joy with which they played. For sure, basketball was a serious business — but not even the slickest of plays or the most miraculous of shots could make them smile. In fact, there was something almost sad and wistful about the way they conducted themselves.

Of course I knew about their shady pasts, yet I was completely puzzled. How could anybody as talented as these guys play basketball and not have fun? It seemed inconceivable.

Eventually, I played some pickup ball with Layne and Roman and got more of an insight into their respective mindsets. But their underlying grief seemed to make playing the game more of a chore than a celebration.

And that's why, many years later, I was moved to thoroughly investigate the events (and the causes thereof) that led to so many broken lives. The result was a history, Scandals of '51. But when that proved to be unsatisfying (to me, but thankfully not to the critics), I wrote a novel, Barney Polan's Game, in another attempt to explore every aspect of the unfortunate situation. A third book, The Wizard of Odds, resulted when Julie Molinas recruited me to write the biography of his older brother, Jack. Jack was in turn a fixer and dumper at Columbia and in the (along with several others) NBA, a procurer of undergraduate fixers in league with the Mafia, a double- and triple-crosser of the wrong people, a bookie in Attica, a player in the porno business, and finally a murder victim.

Along the way, I also learned that dozens of other players had also been in league with gamblers, but had escaped detection for religious and political reasons.

At some level of my continuing naivete, I still feel that (too much) money and basketball is a dangerous but necessary parlay that, despite the many blessings that ensue to so many folks, also greatly diminishes the joy that should be at the heart of the game.