Baseball has always been labeled the national pastime.
Pro football, actually, now appears be the nation’s most popular sport, judging by its intense interest and off-the-charts TV ratings.
College football is everybody’s favorite because of its appeal anywhere you go in the country.
Basketball, to me, is a cult enterprise, that attracts a different kind of fan.
To me, it’s always been the city game.
I am well aware of its national attraction. I know it’s been played in the farmlands of the Midwest, and beyond, and the great traditions emanating out of Indiana, for instance, are legendary.
Just recall the film “Hoosiers”, and you know what I mean.
But where I grew up it was the game played in the playgrounds of high schools, into the gyms, and eventually the palaces of basketball, such as Madison Square Garden in New York City, and the Palestra in Philadelphia.
This all dawned on me when I recently emceed a gathering of fans and former coaches who met for the 45th consecutive year in South Florida.
They called it the original South Florida Basketball Reunion, and it brought together those who have loved the game for as long as 60 years, with memories that will never leave.
Yes, there were former players as well, and outstanding ones to be sure.
Rick Barry, one of the greatest ever to play professional basketball was on hand again, as he is every year.
He was a star in the NBA as well as the ABA, the old American Basketball Associaion, and pays homage to those who played the game, and coached the game.
The three honorees this year were Brian Taylor, Jeff Ruland and Jayson Williams, all of whom learned to play the game in the metropolitan New York area or Long Island.
They all had careers in the NBA, ABA, or both.
They all had successful, if not Hall of Fame careers, and two of the three were All-Star performers.
My love for the game began when my father took me to the Garden, the old one on 8th Avenue between 49th and 50th streets. Smoking was permitted in those days, and cigarette and cigar smoke rose up above the court in the middle of the arena. There were guy wires as they were called, cables that connected to baskets, and other things all over the place.
The scoreboard which only featured the score of the game, didn’t hang down above the center of the floor as we know it today, but was located between the lower and upper decks in two locales.
We would see college games, Knicks games, the National Invitational Tournament and on once occasion, the NCAA first-round triple header.
There were two major Christmas college tournaments: the Holiday Festival at the Garden, and the Quaker City at the Palestra in Philly.
They never played on the same days and nights, so I often would see a doubleheader in New York one night, and take the train to Philadelphia and see the other tournament the next.
I would also listen to out-of-town games on the radio at home in Queens. It wan’t easy to find WHAS in Louisville or WBT in Charlotte through the crackling and static, but I ultimately heard Kentucky games on one station and Duke games on the other.
This was on Saturday nights when high school kids were on dates or going to parties.
But I wanted to hear the games.
One time, my mother walked by while I was fighting the noise to pick up a game, and she said to my dad, “Joe, what’s wrong with our son?”
As time has proved, there was nothing wrong with her son.
During that basketball luncheon a former coach came up to me and mentioned that he was a friend of someone I knew well during my time in Pittsburgh in the late 60’s.
Little did I know we would go on and make our mark in careers we could only dream about at the time.
Both involved basketball.
His name is Sonny Vaccaro. In Pittsburgh he organized a post-season high school basketball game for charity pitting the stars from Western Pennsylvania against a national team.
It was called the Dapper Dan classic and it drew a full house at the Civic Arena.
All the great college coaches were there to watch and recruit.
Sonny and I became good friends. We talked hoops all the time and he helped bring some of those over for me to interview for my sports segments on KDKA-TV.
Vaccaro, as some may know, became a sports marketing executive, where he is best known for his time with Nike, where he signed Michael Jordan to his first sneaker deal.
He left Nike for Adidas, then Reebok, and founded a camp that featured future stars such as Kobe Bryant and LeBron James.
There was a recent film called Air, all about the his signing of Jordan to Nik and ultimately the Air Jordan Brand.
Sonny was played by Matt Damon in the film.
Armed with his number, I called my friend from the past.
We spoke about our time together, how enthusiastic and hopeful we were about our future.
We were both grateful for what eventually transpired.
After the luncheon and my talk with Sonny Vaccaro I reflected on the things that grab hold of us at a young age, that carry us to places we never imagine.
How basketball, one of the many sports I was blessed to cover, was so unique to me as a youngster, and realizing I wasn’t the only one who regarded the game in a special way.
Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays to all our loyal readers.