NEW YORK — Veteran author/journalist Charley Rosen has joined the staff of SheridanHoops.com, giving the independent, non-affiliated Web site the most experienced staff of basketball journalists of any American news outlet.
Rosen, 71, joins a staff that includes former Los Angeles Times columnist Mark Heisler (36 years covering the NBA, former Dallas Morning News, New York Newsday and Fort Worth Star-Telegram columnist Jan Hubbard (20-plus years as a journalist in addition to 8 years working in the league office), columnist/managing editor Chris Bernucca (25 years of journalism experience, including a stint as sports editor of SportsTicker), Miami media fixture Chris Perkins (20 years, including a long stint with the Palm Beach Post) and octogenarian trivia maven Jack Scheuer (pictured below right), a fixture on the Philadelphia hoops scene since Wilt Chamberlain was in diapers.
All are regular contributors and columnists to the independent Web site launched in Sept, 2011, by Sheridan, a veteran of 18 years at The Associated Press and six years at ESPN and ESPN.com.
Rosen’s passion for hoops has a long history.
The highlights of his playing career include his varsity career at Hunter College back in the early sixties when he set several single-season and career records in scoring and rebounding that still stand. In 1961, he was an alternate on the USA team that won a gold medal in the Maccabiah Games, where his most notable teammates were Larry Brown and Art Heyman. He then played briefly in the Eastern League (forerunner of the Continental Basketball Association), and concluded his active career by leading his team to a bronze medal in the 1994 World Senior games.
Along the way he played with and against several NBA players, including Wilt Chamberlain, Oscar Robertson, Rick Barry, Cazzie Russell, Neal Walk, Phil Jackson, and many others.
(ROSEN’S DEBUT COLUMN: STERN V. POPOVICH – WHO WEARS THE DUNCE CAP?)
Rosen served his coaching apprenticeship for three years as Jackson’s assistant with the Albany Patroons in the CBA. From there, Rosen was a head coach in the same league (in Savannah, Rockford, Oklahoma City, and Albany) for another six seasons. During his tenure in the CBA he coached (and also scrimmaged with) over fifty once-and-future NBA players.
Rosen published his first book (a novel, Have Jump Shot, Will Travel) in 1975. Since then he has written 17 others (both fiction and non-fiction), with two more hoops-based novels scheduled for release in the near future.
In addition, Rosen has penned over 100 articles for several magazines: Sport, Inside Sport, GQ, Men’s Journal, The Rolling Stone, The New York Times Book Review, Penthouse and several more.
In addition, his on-line contributions to Web sites including ESPN.com, FoxSports.com, Sporting News.com. NBA.com and HoopsHype.com have totaled nearly 2,000 articles.
His playing and coaching experience have given Rosen a unique insider’s view of the game that SheridanHoops is happy to present to its readership. His columns will run every Friday.
I enjoy Mr. Rosen’s columns. Keep them coming!
Great addition – Charley’s tough love and well-written articles counter the inexperienced and poorly-written commentary of the many NBA fanboy reporters.
When will this site bring on a free-lancer that has credible sources post-2000. I noticed that over the course of Rosen’s last five years, his writing started to lose it in a major way. Analysis all over the map, sometimes even contradicting what he said in the preceding sentence. Kind of like Bernie Kosar’s “diminishing skills” back when Belichick cut him. I use this ancient reference for a reason, a modern reference wouldn’t be understood.
Heisler, who I used to read in L.A., and I often bought the paper just for his stuff, especially his Sunday stuff, clearly has lost it. The fact he was so completely out of touch with what was really happening during the latest Buss/Jackson dust-up tells me he should retire to wherever former outstanding sportswriters go to retire. The difference between Heisler then and Heisler now is the difference between the 2000 Lakers Shaq and the Cavaliers Shaq weighing 2000.
What this site has been slowly adding is the equivalent of adding another Bob Seger song to the playlist rotation. Great artists that used to have serious skills and relevance, but are no longer relevant outside of writing about the bygone time when they used to be great.
This site should be renamed Sheridan’s Classic Rock. Take some requests on Twofer Tuesday. Shoot another photo of Sheridan to put at the top, but give him a hairdo that looks like that guy in A Flock of Seagulls.
Very excited to see more from Charley Rosen. I have always enjoyed his work and love his stories about Phil Jackson / the CBA.