Uncle Drew

That's a great post Robert, and a really cool video. I'm glad that Kyrie Irving appreciates where he came from and those who went before, he (and his agent and producers and corporate sponsors) did a nice job with this. It's rare to hear references to players like Oscar Robertson, Wilt, and Julius Erving in these modern times. If you polled most of those "kids" in the NBA now, most of them won't even know those names. Someday soon, even Magic and Bird will be ancient history.

I played D1 collegiate and AAU ball in the 70's followed for many years by what we called "ghetto ball", plenty of it at the Cossaboom and Dad's Club YMCA's in Houston, and outdoor courts around Houstink and in the Bay Area of California. Trying to run the court with much younger players, until I was 40+ years old. Which is why I am scheduled for 2 hip replacements this summer. Bill Bradley said that one should quit playing basketball at age 40. In retrospect I would agree with that, but I sure wasn't buying it at the time.

That said, anybody with the basketball culture in their blood will love this video, even if it barely touches the surface of what it used to be in the days before money and greed obliterated the purity of the game.

For a good read on that era, read Rick Telander's book Heaven is a Playground

Mostly it's about Fly Williams and Albert King, but he talks about "The Goat" Earl Manigault and others too.

Back in those days, I was just a country boy from the country, and played good ball and had great times with a bunch of country boys from the city. Am still in touch with many of those friends (the ones who haven't moved on to bball heaven by now) so this a subject which is dear to my heart. We are all just broke-down heros now, but none of us will ever forget those days when we were running the courts and the playgrounds, ruling it and schooling it. We had a saying: "We bad as we want". Those were good days. We played ball all day, every day.

yep..getting old suks.
I can't keep up with the boys playing HORSE in the yard. But, I always get them on a hook shot. That seems to be a lost art nowadays.
But I suked in HS also. Always was the last cut.. Pretty good team and a great coach named Joe Olivola who mentored Dick Vitale when he was a HS coach in NJ. I remember Vitale coming to our HS home games and sitting behind the bench in a very cheap suit and white gym socks and cheap black safety looking shoes and dark rimmed specs. a real nerd of a nerd before there were nerds. Coach O. coached into his 80s even if it was rec ball. And he also spearheaded women’s Bball in North Jersey.
But I played street ball and CYO and it was at this time that I got to coach youth Bball in the "ghetto" where our HS was located. The nun who taught me trig set me up to do community service work. I am the tall one on the left. : ) She would have left the order and became a stripper if she knew that I would turn out to be a surveyor.

Mattr of fact, I am going to start doing work at the Boys/Girls club here in the "hood' this sunny summer. Funny, how life has it's 'circles' and patterns.

Any way.. I hope your double hip recovery goes well. It sounds brutal. A friend had double knee a year or so ago but is back to running around the Jazz fest again. Get well.

BTW. Thanks again for the playing for change vid.
Wife and I watch this show Touch and in the finale they had a character based on that concept.
A friend from Nashville is visiting ths weekend and we are off to the Zydeco-Cajun- Creole tomato fest in the French Qouarter.

WV - I see there was a #50 playing for Boise State in the early 70s that went by the name of Cottrell also. Still holds some sort of team record(!).

This board never ceases to amaze me - the depth, breadth and complexity of the lives of all the members. Who'd a thunk?

Mike,
Wow, you must have had to dig deep into the internets to find that information!

The BSU school record you mentioned is not one I'm particularly proud of, I hope somebody breaks that record soon. Most personal fouls in a single season. But I swear that I only committed about half of those. Obviously there was some poor officiating back in those days. 😉

Bill - It was surprisingly easy. I just Googled:

aau basketball cottrell 197 (for any 1970s entries)

and the 3rd or 4th hit was something about Boise State basketball and you were busted, buddy. Actually that’s a school record most of us would be proud of owning. Indicative of unbridled youthful exuberance. A devil-may-care cavalier spirit that one relishes at the time, forgets about for a couple decades and then regrets when it resurfaces on the world wide super highway net 40 years later.

Speaking of which, I got to see Boise State and Oregon play here in town back in April.

Oregon, of course, shellacked Boise State 19-10. And of course, it wasn’t a football game. It was this:

Amazingly, no post-game punches thrown: