Category — Blasts From The Past

It’s a good piece on Elgin Baylor, mostly about the former Laker great and how he put D.C. on the hoops map, and Wilt meeting on the playground, but the “Kappa Alpha Si” mars it. A good copy editor like me would have caught that, he said humbly.
Grantland

Many of you youngsters have no clue who Willie Wise is. But some of us old heads remember dude balling with Drake in the late ’60s, when the Bulldogs almost shocked the world and beat unbeatable Lew Alcindor and UCLA in the NCAA Tournament. Wise also played in the colorful ABA, including a season with the Los Angeles Stars, before retiring after the 75-76 season and hitting the road as a truck driver.
Rob Trucks catches up with him.
Deadspin

You think Ron Artest took a page out of the playbook of Lloyd Bernard Free when he changed his name?
Lord knows Artest could never fill it up like Free, who made his name in Philly as a scoring machine.
Free, who now works with the 76ers as a community ambassador, was the last Clipper to start an All-Star game. Imagine that. That’s been more than 30 years ago since Free lit up the opposition as an All-Star guard for the San Diego Clippers.
L.A. Times

Stacey Augmon, the former UNLV great, returned to the Vegas campus as an assistant coach this season under Dave Rice. The Rebels are off to an 18-3 start, including a win over North Carolina.
Augmon, who had been an assistant to George Karl with the Nuggets, had been divorced from the program for 20 years before returning. The current crop of Rebels are benefitting from his knowledge.
N.Y. Times

Not sure what’s up with that right hand.
Forty years ago, the Lakers won 33 in a row. It’s 1 of the greatest streaks of all time and another reason why Wilt also was the greatest of all time.
NBA.com

The track and field legend talks about his new book and how the 1968 Olympics changed his life.
ESPN.com

He should be in the Pro Football Hall of Fame, but the history of sports, particularly the NFL, has a shameful past. Kenny Washington is more than a page of that shameful history.
L.A. Times

No runner ran harder than former USC tailback Ricky Bell. And no running back carried more of a load that Bell, who once totted the rock 51 times for 347 yards against Washington State in 1976.
Unfortunately, life can be cruel. Bell left us much too early at the age of 29.
ESPN LA

Is that you Paul Silas?
McGinnis, the former power forward, chats about the problems facing LeBron, D-Wade and the rest of the Heat. He relates because of his experiences in the late ’70s in Philly, where he, Dr. J., World B. Free, Andrew Toney and Caldwell and Bobby Jones (Kobe’s Dad Jelly Bean also was on that team) were expected to capture several NBA titles. With McGinnis, Philly never won it all.
Those Sixers are even more famous for Bill Walton, the late Mo Lucas and the Blazers rallying from a 2-0 deficit to stun them for Portland’s only NBA title.
Now 60, McGinnis owns an industrial supply business in Indianapolis.
NBA.com

Dubbed “Baby Jordan” back in the day when he was a major star at USC, Miner, now 40, the former 1st-round pick of the Miami Heat in 1992, is alive and well in Las Vegas.
L.A. Times