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My conversion to Judaism in 1977 began while having lunch with my girlfriend at the original Purity Diner on Seventh Avenue and Union Street.A few guys came into the diner who knew her and said hello. She introduced me to them, and one asked if I liked to play basketball. I said very much, and he said we have a [...]
In the summer of 1980, Rob Curatola and I played on the same team at Tiger Basketball Camp. I was a spaghetti-limbed, prepubescent 12-year-old. Rob, a formidable ten-year old, was still encased in baby fat. We made up the team’s front court, with me leaping incessantly around under the basket, doing my frantic best, and Rob expertly racking up points [...]
Everything got worse in New York except my jump shot. Though I looked the part — white, six foot and fair featured, like some towhead from the Midwest — shooting was not my ticket on the court. In the small school league in Washington where I had starred, I got my points going to the hoop. When I did hit [...]
It was the dying days of the springtime professional circuit known as the United States Basketball League (USBL). A one-time proving ground for NBA hopefuls, the League had fallen on hard times. Teams going out of business weren’t being replaced. In the 2006 season, the USBL was a faded attraction, split in two between a solid midwestern division and a [...]
I recently read a fanciful article in which a literary East/West all-star basketball game is imagined and scouted. Dave Eggers and Stephen Elliott are the starting back court for the West. Ben Marcus is cast as the starting center for the East not on the grounds of basketball skill but because, according to the writer, he looks like Žydrūnas Ilgauskas. [...]
Poke, poke, poke went his finger against my head. I was playing basketball at my local basketball court and some static had developed between me and a guy nicknamed Homicide. I stared straight ahead, trying to ignore his jabbing finger. “You stink!” he yelled, barking right into my face. “You know that?” He was six three, not as tall as [...]
