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Remembering the Rens
True, there are plenty of basketball stories right now amid March Madness and the ever-tightening races for playoff position in the NBA. But there’s an important addition that should not be overlooked. This weekend marks the 70th anniversary of a landmark event in basketball. On March 28, 1939, the New York Renaissance, an all-black professional…
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March Sanity
After four days of close, intense games and some memorable last-second shots, the NCAA Men’s College Basketball Championship Tournament, aka March Madness, has narrowed the field from 64 to 16 teams, and the results are surprisingly predictable. In each of the four regions, the top-three seeds are still playing; two fourth seeds, Xavier University and…
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Did You Do Your Women’s Bracket?
The NCAA Women’s Basketball Tournament starts Saturday, and I have a problem with that. The women’s tournament is easily the third-best collegiate sporting event, surpassed only by football and men’s hoops. While pundits love to debate the viability of the WNBA (and those who wish it would go away try to ignore that attendance was…
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Bracketeering for Fun and for Profit
The annual onslaught of March Madness, aka the NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament, always reminds me of when my alma mater almost made it to the postseason. It was 30 years ago, and in the final game of the season, our school needed to beat our archrival to have hope for a spot in the NIT.…
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Old Men of a Certain Age
People who think age is a b**** are being far too generous. Age is an angry beast with a big chip on its shoulder, and it always has a score to settle with you. No one feels this more acutely than professional athletes confronting the vagaries of increasing frailty at an age that society beyond…
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Hard Times on the Hardwood
During the last 30 years, the sports business has remained remarkably resistant to economic trends. The national economy goes up, and sports thrive; the economy dives into a recession, and sports still thrive. The reason is simple. Sporting events are a reliable deliverer of eyeballs to TV screens. Networks love this: Their costs are limited…
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Fallen Starbury
Some time in the not too distant future, some enterprising opera company is going to present a work by a hoops-loving composer based on the life of former New York Knicks guard Stephon Marbury. In fact, with the latest chapter in Marbury’s star-crossed saga—his exit from the Knicks after the world’s longest buyout negotiation—and his…
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The NBA's Trade Deficit
Last year, the week leading up to the NBA trading deadline was full of fireworks. All-stars changed addresses at such a furious pace; it seemed that the NBA had suddenly become a fantasy league. This year has seen a return to regular order; there was way more sizzle than steak. Shaq was said to be…
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Don't Hog The Ball, All-Star
When the NBA all-stars take the court in Phoenix Sunday night, it will mark a subtle but distinctive change in the game. During the last few years, the game’s top players have been moving away from the concept of a great player with a supporting cast toward a more team-oriented approach where the best player…
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A-Rod’s Price of Admission
When Sports Illustrated broke the news that Yankee third baseman Alex Rodriguez, by most reckoning the greatest active player in baseball today, had tested positive in 2003 for use of Primobolan and testosterone, I shrugged. But then the story got real interesting. My initial disinterest lay not in the story’s importance but in its tone.…
Black News and Black Views with a Whole Lotta Attitude
