26 years ago today, power forward Danny Manning led the Larry Brown coached Kansas Jayhawks to a National Championship, scoring 31 points against the Oklahoma Sooners. For the past two college basketball seasons, Manning has been the head coach at the University of Tulsa, where his efforts culminated in a 21-13 record, tying for first in Conference USA. He led the Golden Hurricanes to the second round of the NCAA Tournament, where they fell to UCLA. Now, he’s on the move again,
From the time I first saw Chuck Daly, Pat Riley and my all-time favorite, Larry Brown, who used to wear the cool sport coats with the patches on the elbow, roaming the sidelines coaching in the NBA, I aspired to someday be an NBA head coach. Because I read about the great Moses Malone putting a note in the Bible, wanting to be a great NBA player someday, I decided at age 11 to do the same thing. Somehow, I didn’t
Kyrie Irving spent a piece of New Year’s Day having an MRI performed on his knee. He went down against the Indiana Pacers yesterday, and he said he “heard something pop.” That’s usually not good, although the MRI revealed a mere contusion, meaning 2013 did not end with yet another potential landscape-altering injury. Al Horford? Out for the season, joining Derrick Rose and Brook Lopez. Russell Westbrook and Kobe Bryant? See you after the All-Star Game — if your rehabs go according to
When I was a young player growing up, my teammates called me “Mookie.” Partly because my favorite baseball player was Mookie Wilson, but also because my point guard skills at the CYO level apparently reminded my coach of the University of Oklahoma’s Mookie Blaylock. Irony would have it my favorite band, Pearl Jam, once called themselves the same name and even called their first album Ten, which was Blaylock’s number. It just so happened to me mine, too. When I think of the