WHY DO SO MANY EXPECT A FREE RIDE?

WHY DO SO MANY EXPECT A FREE RIDE?

Years ago, when I was young and broke, I worked as a security guard in New York City. The job was in Harlem. My shift began at 7 p.m. and didn’t end until 3 in the morning. Each hour I had to take a lap around my designated building, then go back to the...
WHY DO SO MANY EXPECT A FREE RIDE?

SUN SHINES BRIGHT ON ‘CATS AGAIN

EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. — The throne of college basketball came home Monday night — to Kentucky, where grandfathers still weep happily at Wildcats victories, and children still dribble in rainwater up to their ankles, shooting at lonely rims hung on county...
Honor Students Too Many Want To Be Millionaires And Too Few Want To Be Happy Kids

Honor Students Too Many Want To Be Millionaires And Too Few Want To Be Happy Kids

EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. — The problem with college basketball, some say, is too many freshmen in ripped undershirts, too many sophomores with police records, too many juniors with agents, and not enough seniors. You remember seniors, don’t you? The elder statesmen of the game? Not long ago, a coach would say, “We have a good team; we start five seniors.” Today, five seniors is a golf tour.

Which is what makes tonight’s matchup between Kentucky and Syracuse both pleasant and — I know this is a funny word when talking about college sports
— educational.

WHY DO SO MANY EXPECT A FREE RIDE?

THE SPECIAL BOND BETWEEN TWO WRITERS

The letters began coming eight years ago, in the tidy blue penmanship of a nurse or a schoolteacher. Sometimes the envelopes were white, sometimes they were yellow or red. I cannot give you a count. I can only say there were many. They came at Christmas. They came...
WHY DO SO MANY EXPECT A FREE RIDE?

Mvp Brown Due Luck That Lands In Hands

TEMPE, Ariz. — Finally, something easy was coming Larry Brown’s way: the football. It spun in a nice tight spiral, as if tossed in a practice drill. Brown opened his arms, made the catch, and ran. Past the 30. Past the 20. Past the 10. Never mind that the ball had been thrown by the opposing quarterback, Pittsburgh’s Neil O’Donnell. Never mind that there was no Steeler in sight. Never mind that this seemed to be a deja-vu bonehead play by the Pittsburgh offense, Brown’s second interception in this Super Bowl and the second one he’d made by just standing there like a spectator.

WHY DO SO MANY EXPECT A FREE RIDE?

Picks And Shticks: Curt, Here’S A Pick That Stands Out In A Crowd

TEMPE, Ariz. — As you know, Curtis, you silver-haired warbler, anyone who predicts Pittsburgh will win this Super Bowl is a fool. So when readers learn that someone in this fine newspaper is actually picking the Steelers, their reaction will no doubt be: “Hey, it’s Curt Sylvester!”

After all, you are the man who once said, “Trust me, Denver will win the Super Bowl,” a sentence that ranks up there with “Columbus, you will sail off the edge of the Earth and die.”

WHY DO SO MANY EXPECT A FREE RIDE?

Mission Accomplished At U-M Coach’S Firing Is Just Part Of New Agenda

A few years ago, in writing the book “Fab Five,” I discovered that Steve Fisher had paid a friend of Juwan Howard’s a tidy sum to coach at Fisher’s summer camp. This stunned me. Hiring this friend — who then brought young Juwan to Ann Arbor as a camper — and even interviewing this friend for a coaching position at the University of Michigan, was, to me, unseemly, and perhaps an NCAA violation.

So one night, at Fisher’s house, I confronted him about this incident. He was uncomfortable, admitted what he’d done, but said, “It happens all the time in college basketball.”

WHY DO SO MANY EXPECT A FREE RIDE?

Missions Accomplished: Cowboys’ Jones At Top Of His Game

TEMPE, Ariz. — Jerry Jones is talking to me, something about revenue sharing or marketing ideas, but it isn’t the conversation that holds me, it’s his look. His eyes are wide, bigger than they need to be, his mouth is curled up in the corners as he speaks. His neck is tight above his expensive white shirt collar, his complexion is ruddy, and, to me, he seems slightly crazed, his words appear to fly from his own mouth straight into his ears, fueling him with energy. He enjoys listening to himself.