Basketball

Steph Curry Rescues LeBron

June 5, 2018

After game two Dan Gilbert marches into the locker room of his Cleveland Cavaliers and tugs the back of LeBron James’ jersey. “Hey, we gotta talk.” “I’ll give you five minutes when we get back to Cleveland.” “You’ll talk now or I’ll suspend you the rest of this series.” “Sure, we’re down two-oh and I’m…

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LeBron Declares: Referees Robbed Us

June 2, 2018

Following game one of the NBA finals, it’s unfortunate fans can’t celebrate my masterful fifty-one points to lead the Cleveland Cavaliers to an upset over the formidable Golden State Warriors. Instead, we’re talking about obtuse referees who turned a great game into a farce. Late in the fourth quarter, I cleanly stripped the ball from…

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LeBron Previews NBA Finals

May 30, 2018

I’m thankful to be drowsy en route to dreamland where I can forget my body’s thirty-three-years old and tired from playing more minutes than anyone in the league and twice carrying us to playoff victories in game seven, and that almost everyone’s saying the Warriors are too good no matter what LeBron does, they’ve got…

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Gilbert Demands Examination of LeBron

March 5, 2018

In a lather, Cavaliers owner Dan Gilbert calls and tells me to get online and click the link he just sent. I do so and listen as he says, “Who the hell’s that little dude standing next to Joel Embid after the game? Looks like he’s smiling up at his hero. And check out poor…

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Cavaliers Reshape the World

February 13, 2018

Quietly I enter Dan Gilbert’s office and ease into a corner to watch him stare at a massive wall map of the United States. Every few seconds he tightens arms locked across his chest and juts his jaw at various targets – NBA cities across the land. LeBron James and general manager Koby Altman stand…

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LeBron’s Championship Dreams

January 28, 2018

Am I dreaming? I hope so and we aren’t really getting bushwhacked by Oklahoma City and surrendering forty-three points in the first quarter to trail by nineteen. Despite shooting well we’re down sixteen at halftime and twenty after three quarters and let the gathering Thunder hit fifty-eight percent while they hang a hundred forty-eight on…

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5-Star Review for “Basketball and Football”

January 20, 2018

I would like to thank Lance Smith, the Sports Book Guy, one of the top reviewers of sports books in the nation, for his kind words about my most recent book, “Basketball and Football.” Sports Book Guy Lance Smith January 20, 2018 “With one of the simplest titles for a sports book, ‘Basketball and Football’…

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Balls in Lithuania

December 17, 2017

I surrender. No longer can I pretend I’m uninterested in the Big Baller Ball Family. In fact, I sense I’m going to write about them whenever I get the urge. I don’t care father LaVar, aside from Donald Trump, is the most obnoxious man in the nation. It doesn’t matter he gets more publicity than…

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Young Kings Routed

October 30, 2017

Sunday afternoon as I tried to nap I received a call from an aggrieved Sacramento Kings fan who upbraided me because the coach, Dave Joerger, had finally started the young, potential-laden five I’d been demanding for weeks, and look what happened: the Washington Wizards outmanned, outmaneuvered, and outshot the local lads to lead at halftime…

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LaMelo Ball at the Crossroads

October 8, 2017

I’d rather concentrate on passing virtuoso Lonzo Ball, who as a rookie seems poised to spearhead the resurgence of his hometown Los Angeles Lakers, or UCLA freshman LiAngelo and his task of making a rather heavy-footed game work against more athletic players his size and larger. Instead, boastful father LaVar has compelled me to write…

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Letters from Two Basketball Coaches

September 16, 2017

Launching a book isn’t as prolonged as writing one, but it’s a tension-filled time of making sure the cover and text are editorially and graphically sound, that plenty of electronic and physical copies are sent to readers and potential reviewers who may be interested, and that internet advertising options are chosen to disperse the new…

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Happy Hairston in Shower

September 8, 2017

On a fall evening in 1967, Rick Barry isn’t at Sacramento High School. Neither is Oscar Robertson. Barry after two splendid seasons with the San Francisco Warriors is sitting out this one in order to later earn more money by playing in the wild new American Basketball Association of multi-colored balls and three-point shots. I…

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“Basketball and Football” is Published

August 20, 2017

In a rousing trip through the worlds of Basketball and Football, George Thomas Clark explores the professional basketball league in Mexico, the Herculean talents of Wilt Chamberlain, the difficulties and humor of attempting to play basketball in middle age, and observes that coaching at Caltech can be more painful than studying all night for a…

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Fall of Pop

January 26, 2016

warriors bomb spurs lebron fires popovich

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The Las Vegas Lakers

July 23, 2015

Have to admit, I don’t sit courtside when I go to Lakers games in Staples Center. I suppose I could once a year, if I find two tickets, but it would lighten me a month’s salary, so I sit up about twenty rows and that isn’t cheap either but is doable a few times a…

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Head on Rim

May 10, 2015

I was a newspaper correspondent in the summer of 1979 and assigned to go to a dormitory across the American River from Sacramento State University and get a story about any of the athletes preparing to compete the next day in the Golden West Invitational track meet for high school all stars. A meet official…

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Don’t Diss Pacquiao’s Hoops

February 25, 2015

For two decades Manny Pacquiao has excelled in a sport requiring mental and physical toughness, and when not punishing opponents in the ring he loves to relax playing basketball. He’s played the game all his life and does so fairly well. If no one’s near his five-six, short-armed frame, he can hit an unorthodox, two-handed…

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Clueless Kobe Bryant

December 12, 2014

Clueless Kobe Bryant yesterday cursed teammates for being inadequate and responsible for the Lakers losing most of their games. Kobe’s got it wrong. He’s the problem, and his compulsive gunning and low shooting percentage are why the Lakers are struggling. While Kobe hits an appalling 39 percent from the floor, most of his teammates are…

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North Korean Explains Race

May 11, 2014

We the happy and well-fed people of North Korea must maintain our racial purity lest we become like the suffering, ill-shaped barbarians who surround this paradise created by divine Kim Jong-Un and his father and grandfather. Ignore those who’re starving in our country. Don’t worry about those who’ve disappeared. Their blood was tainted by inferior…

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Alcohol v. Pot

March 27, 2014

I was a happy tourist at the pinnacle of Washington’s Monument when I became woozy and awakened an indeterminate time later in a dungeon. God, kidnapped by terrorists, I thought but reconsidered when several white males, attired in green surgical gowns, marched in and one said, “Experimentation will begin when the chief returns.” “Who’s he…

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