Comments on I Can't Find a News Peg or Any Excuse ...

Josh, I don't believe UCLA won 3 NCAA championships in a row. Didn't they lose to Houston in the 1968 game in the Astrodome?

@1,
I was confused about that too. Elvin Hayes is, of course, my favorite player of all time.

Turns out Elvin's 39-point, 15-rebound face job on Jabbar (Alcindor) in the Astrodome in 1968 was just a mid-season game. The big deal about the game was that it ended UCLA's 47-game winning streak. (It was also the first-ever regular-season college basketball game to be televised nationally.)

UCLA actually went on to win the NCAA that year, beating Houston along the way in the semi-finals.

Jabbar and UCLA won the NCAA in 1967, 1968, and 1969.

How subtle can a religion that hits its followers with sticks be? Zen is anything but subtle (and not just because of the stick thing).

But Jabbar is a cool dude. Thanks for the book rec.

Maybe he's talking Japanese Zen, with tea ceremony, ikebana, and all that.

Forget Zen though, what did he say about acid?

Reminds me of what happened after Gary Snyder wrote Ed Abbey a fan letter, gushing about Abbey's writing and relationship with the earth. Ed wrote back and said, "Gary, I love your stuff too, except for all that Zen and Hindu bullshit."

And at that moment, for all his faults and because of them, I fell in love with Edward Abbey.

Currently reading David Halberstam's book on the NBA, Breaks of the Game, which is primarily about another mercurial UCLA center, Bill Walton (known as Lew Alcindor during college).

Does he talk about moonlighting as an airline pilot?

Come to my dojo and work out for a couple years, Josh. You'll understand Zen a bit better after that.

I am pretty sure that being set free from trying to be Zen is in fact some kind of major Zen milestone. That is, I was always given to understand that anybody who claims to have a firm grasp on the whole Zen thing is doing it wrong.

But I could be mistaken.

@5: one of my favorite Abbey quotes. Thanks for the reminding.

The Christian Brothers of Ireland (Edmund Rice) closed Lew's hs, Power Memorial Academy down years ago. But the alumni put together a great website.

Neither Kareem nor Giant Steps can hold a candle to the much greater Wilt Chamberlain and Wilt's amazing book Wilt: Just Like Any Other 7-Foot Black Millionaire Who Lives Next Door.

Try not. Do.

You're right, Josh, zen is too subtle for you (as it is for most Americans, we're over stimulated). Why don't you take a stab at right-wing fundamentalism? Nothing subtle about that, plus it would add an interesting viewpoint to the Stranger staff!

kareem was also a great jazz connoisseur and an old school new yorker. peep his new book on the harlem renaissance ( on the shoulders of giants.)

kareem would make a great coach for the sonics, but they have never called on him. instead they went for that choke artist carlissimo whose greatest accomplishment is having been choked by spreewell and playing second fiddle in San Antonio. kareem has coached native americans on reservations and advised the LA Lakers. but the league just will not give him a chance, despite being one of the best minds in basketball. the man is too outspoken.

@1: UCLA won SEVEN national basketball championships in a row. They also won 88 straight games, post-Alcindor.

@6: Bill Walton was not "known as Lew Alcindor during college".

UCLA has the coolest fucking sports alumni is the USA: Alcindor, Walton, Arthur Ashe, Rafer Johnson, Jackie Robinson, Flo-Jo and others. Suck it 'SC!

"Bill Walton (known as Lew Alcindor during college"

Ok this is just too out there to be a typo.

Lew Alcindor was Kareem. Lew Alcindor ruled the high school circuit in New York City. Lew Alcindor was not a tall red headed hippie. Bill Walton came of age at UCLA and was one of the baddest white boys ever.