Bryant's widow Vanessa was the final speaker before the Lakers unveiled the Bryant statue. Vanessa explained that there will be two other Bryant statues: one will include Bryant alongside Gianna, and the other will depict Bryant wearing jersey number 24. Vanessa took a preemptive strike against anyone who might criticize how tonight's statue looks--a sad certainty in an era of social media oversaturation--by noting that Bryant chose the pose used for the statue and he provided other input about the design. Vanessa said that she only suggested a few alterations, including adding tattoos on Bryant's arms in tribute to all of his daughters even though not all of his daughters had been born yet in 2006. Vanessa added, "This moment isn't just for Kobe, but it is for all of you
who have been rooting for him for all of these years...It brings me
joy to see how much love you have for all of us. We love you back."
During TNT's pregame show, Shaquille O'Neal spoke from the heart about winning three straight NBA championships while playing alongside Bryant, who he called his best teammate ever. It is no secret that Bryant and O'Neal openly feuded while they were teammates, mainly because Bryant had a much more serious and disciplined approach to the game than O'Neal did. O'Neal's current version of those events--that he and Bryant were not really feuding but just both pushing each other to be great--has more than a whiff of revisionist history to it but it is true that they made their peace with each other years before Bryant died, so perhaps it is best that O'Neal does not dwell on every detail of their feud or try to act like he was right.
Vanessa has displayed remarkable grace and poise in the wake of losing her husband and her second eldest daughter on the same horrible day. Much as Jacqueline Kennedy sought to preserve and enhance the legacy of her slain husband John F. Kennedy, it is evident that Vanessa has put a lot of thought into how to best honor and remember her husband and their daughter. Vanessa's speech during Bryant's memorial ceremony and her speech representing Bryant during the Basketball Hall of Fame ceremony highlighted her intelligence, her sensitivity, and her amazing ability to maintain composure while processing tremendous grief. She displayed those same qualities during her speech prior to the statue's unveiling. Vanessa is insuring that Bryant's legacy will endure not just in terms of his basketball accomplishments but also in terms of his post-basketball playing life that had only just begun when it was so cruelly cut short.
I remember as a child reading about Roberto Clemente's tragic passing at 38 in a plane crash as he flew to Nicaragua to personally deliver relief supplies for earthquake victims. The baseball legend had just logged his 3000th career hit, punctuating a brilliant career during which he won two World Series titles (1960, 1971) and one National League MVP (1966). I am not sure how to best express this, but when you learn about someone who has already tragically died at a young age you absorb the timing and manner of death as part of his life story--it is history by the time you know about it. It is different when someone whose life you followed--let alone someone who you personally interacted with on multiple occasions--dies suddenly and unexpectedly at a young age. Roberto Clemente is a historical figure to me: I admire and respect him, but his life did not intersect with my life.
I saw Kobe Bryant play in person. I spoke with him before games, and I spoke with him after games. I saw his mangled pinkie finger up close in person and could not understand how someone could play basketball at all--let alone dominate--with such an injury to his shooting hand; it was perhaps even more amazing when he played despite suffering an avulsion fracture to the index finger of his shooting hand, turning that finger into a bruised, purplish appendage that I also saw up close in person. At some level we all know about our mortality, but when someone who is young and seemingly invincible dies suddenly it is jarring. I don't mean to make this about me; Bryant may be a big part of my life journey because I wrote about him so frequently, but I don't pretend that I was a big part of his life journey. My point is that for those of us who are old enough to remember observing Bryant's life, his death will always be a milestone event that we process differently than we process the deaths of historical figures who perished outside of our living memory.
Earl "The Twirl" Cureton passed away unexpectedly yesterday at the age of 66. The Detroit native had just substituted for Rick Mahorn on the Detroit Pistons radio network on Friday night, and Cureton was scheduled to call Sunday's game versus Orlando as well.
Cureton enjoyed a 12 season NBA career. Like many NBA role players, he was a star in college, averaging 16.2 ppg and 9.5 rpg in 81 games for Robert Morris and Detroit Mercy. Cureton scored 16 points and grabbed 11 rebounds in Detroit's 95-87 loss to Lamar in the 1979 NCAA Tournament. Cureton began his NBA career with the Philadelphia 76ers in 1980 and he played three seasons with the 76ers. Cureton was a teammate of Julius Erving's on Philadelphia's 1983 NBA championship team before playing for his hometown Detroit Pistons from 1983-1986. Cureton was Michael Jordan's teammate with the Chicago Bulls in 1986-87, and he also played for the L.A. Clippers, Charlotte Hornets, Houston Rockets, and Toronto Raptors in addition to playing pro ball in Italy, France, Venezuela, Mexico, and Argentina. Cureton only played in two regular season games for the 1994 Houston Rockets, but he served as an effective rotation player in 10 playoff games as they won the NBA title.
Most recently, Cureton worked as the Community Ambassador of the Detroit Pistons. His Pistons teammate Isiah Thomas issued this statement: "All of us are hurting. He was a tremendous teammate, tough competitor, a champion
and a great human being. Earl always held the Detroit community close to
his heart and worked tirelessly to make a difference for the city he
loved. He will be greatly missed."
You can get a sense of Cureton's upbeat demeanor in this video during which he reminisces about his NBA career:
Cureton recalled that when he was growing up he had Julius Erving's posters on his wall, never dreaming that one day he would be Dr. J's teammate and play on a championship team with him. Cureton called Erving the "ambassador for the NBA. I think he was that player who set the standard for the league. A class act. He had a certain air about him. When he walked into a room, you knew Doc was in that room...Always gave 110% out there on the basketball court. You can't have a better role model than that..I think that he was the best at going to the basket. No other player that played in the league went to the basket like that."
The 1983 76ers--featuring Hall of Famers Julius Erving, Moses Malone, Maurice Cheeks, and Bobby Jones plus Hall of Fame caliber guard Andrew Toney--will always be my favorite team of all-time. They set the all-time record (since broken in the expanded playoff format) by going 12-1 in the playoffs, culminating in a 4-0 sweep of the defending champion L.A. Lakers. If you loved the 1983 76ers, you remember Cureton hitting a skyhook over Kareem Abdul-Jabbar after Malone got in foul trouble in game two of the 1983 NBA Finals. In the commemorative championship video, Erving good-naturedly joked to the post-game media scrum that Cureton will now become so famous that he won't be able to walk the streets of Detroit without being recognized, while Cheeks said Cureton had seen Abdul-Jabbar shoot the skyhook against him so many times that he probably figured he might as well do it once. The 76ers had fun along the way, but they never lost sight of their mission to get Erving his first NBA championship ring to go alongside his two ABA championship rings. Bruce Newman covered the series for Sports Illustrated during a golden era for the league (and the magazine).
Cureton is the third member of that squad to pass away. Mark McNamara passed away on April 27, 2020, and Moses Malone passed away on September 13, 2015. The 1983 76ers brought a lot of joy not just to Philadelphia but to the basketball world with their teamwork, their unselfishness, and their determined focus to complete their journey; in the three seasons prior to acquiring Malone, the 76ers lost to the L.A. Lakers in the NBA Finals in 1980 and 1982, and they lost in the 1981 Eastern Conference Finals after building a 3-1 lead versus the Boston Celtics.
The passage of time and the passages of life are sobering reminders of how important it is to cherish every moment of the journey.
Russell Westbrook Joins the Elite 25,000 Point Club, and is the Second Player With 25,000 Points/9000 Assists/8000 Rebounds
Last Friday night, Russell Westbrook joined pro basketball's 25,000 point club after scoring 23 points as his L.A. Clippers defeated the Detroit Pistons, 136-125. According to the NBA and its media partners, Westbrook is the 25th member of the 25,000 point club--but ABA statistics should be counted by the NBA just like AFL statistics are counted by the NFL, so the truth is that the 25,000 point club has 29 members. Julius Erving (30,026 career points, ranking eighth all-time), Dan Issel (27,482 points, 13th), George Gervin (26,595 points, 18th), and Rick Barry (25,279 points, 26th) are the ABA players who are excluded by the NBA, while former ABA player Moses Malone is docked 2171 points but still makes the "official" cut.
Younger fans may not realize that the 25,000 point club used to be even
more exclusive. The "charter" members, so to speak, are Wilt
Chamberlain, Oscar Robertson, Jerry West and John Havlicek, who founded
the club from the mid-1960s through the mid-1970s. In the 1980s, the
club added six members: Kareem Abdul-Jabbar (who is still the all-time
scoring leader), Julius Erving, Dan Issel, Elvin Hayes, George Gervin,
Moses Malone and Rick Barry. The club has since more than doubled in
size. This is similar to the dramatic increase in the number of chess
players who have at least a 2600 FIDE (International Chess Federation)
rating; there were just 15 such players on the first official rating
list in 1971 but by 1991 there were 33 and by 2004 a 2600 rating was not
enough to earn a top 100 spot in the world rankings. Chess ratings are
affected by the composition of the entire pool of players (it is easier
to gain points when there are more players who have high ratings), while
pro basketball point totals are affected not just by skill but also by
rules changes, style of play changes, training advances that have
extended careers and other factors.
In 1977, even the 20,000 point club was very exclusive, including only (in addition to Chamberlain, Robertson, West, and Havlicek) Elgin Baylor (23,149 points), Hal Greer (21,586 points), Walt Bellamy (20,941 points), and Bob Pettit (20,880 points).
Although the 25,000 point club is less exclusive than it used to be, tallying 25,000 points is still a milestone accomplishment: if a player averages 25 ppg and plays in 80 games per season for 12 years, he will be 1000 points short of 25,000, so it is obvious that all of the 25,000 point scorers combined high level production with durability.
Westbrook has won two scoring titles (2015, 2017), but he made his mark as an all-around player who is an elite scorer, rebounder, and passer. He and LeBron James are the only players in pro basketball history to have at least 25,000 career points, at least 9000 career assists, and at least 8000 career rebounds. Westbrook led the NBA in assists three times (2018-19, 2021), he became pro basketball's career triple doubles leader in 2021--breaking Oscar Robertson's record of 181--and he currently has 198 career triple doubles. Nikola Jokic ranks second among active players with 120, trailing only Westbrook, Robertson, and Magic Johnson (138). LeBron James (110) and Jason Kidd (107) are the only other players who amassed at least 100 career triple doubles.
It is baffling and inexcusable that so many media members use any excuse to bash Westbrook. Not only is Westbrook one of the most talented and accomplished players of all-time, but he also embodies all of the best values of a professional athlete: He shows up for every game, he plays hard, he accepts whatever his role is, and he is a great teammate. Westbrook has played in all 48 of the L.A. Clippers' games this season, and he has enthusiastically accepted a bench role that would cause many players of his status--and even players of a lesser status--to complain and sulk.
Westbrook's critics remind me of a line from the movie Searching for Bobby Fischer; the chess prodigy's father in the movie notes that his son is better at playing chess than most people will be at anything they do. Russell Westbrook is better at playing basketball than most people will be at anything, and that goes double for many of the credential-wearing people who pose as journalists. The way that the L.A. Lakers and LeBron James' media sycophants treated Westbrook during Westbrook's brief time with the Lakers was despicable, and it is noteworthy that the legendary Hubie Brown stood out from the crowd by praising Westbrook.
It is fitting that with Westbrook playing a key role the Clippers are now fighting for the number one seed in the Western Conference while the Lakers--who supposedly improved themselves by trading Westbrook last season--are struggling to qualify for the Play-In Tournament. The Lakers made a fluky run to the Western Conference Finals last year, but--as happened with other teams that made fluky playoff runs, including Portland (2019 Western Conference Finals) and Atlanta (2021 Eastern Conference Finals)--the Lakers are now showing their true level in terms of defense and professionalism; Westbrook was not causing the Lakers' problems, and getting rid of him did not solve their problems.
"A work of art contains its verification in itself: artificial, strained concepts do not withstand the test of being turned into images; they fall to pieces, turn out to be sickly and pale, convince no one. Works which draw on truth and present it to us in live and concentrated form grip us, compellingly involve us, and no one ever, not even ages hence, will come forth to refute them."--Alexander Solzhenitsyn (Nobel Lecture)
"The most 'popular,' the most 'successful' writers among us (for a brief period, at least) are, 99 times out of a hundred, persons of mere effrontery--in a word, busy-bodies, toadies, quacks."--Edgar Allan Poe
"In chess what counts is what you know, not whom you know. It's the way life is supposed to be, democratic and just."--Grandmaster Larry Evans
"It's not nuclear physics. You always remember that. But if you write about sports long enough, you're constantly coming back to the point that something buoys people; something makes you feel better for having been there. Something of value is at work there...Something is hallowed here. I think that something is excellence."--Tom Callahan
