Peter Vecsey
The Archive
Remembering gentleman Knick who balled at Rucker
The last time Pat Cummings and I were together, the mood was tense, the bitterness intense from years of rubbing each other raw with words that hurt and branding him...
Deron will be back with Nets, especially if Dwight joins
Soon after Bruce Ratner bought the Nets and revealed intentions to relocate from New Jersey to Brooklyn, he asked whether I’d attend more or fewer home games. It’d be impossible...
Walsh’s return to Pacers imminent; Bird to stay on as consultant
Donnie Walsh and I have been playing a little game for almost three decades. This is how it works: I call and leave a message, asking for verification on this,...
Swapping crowns leads King James to the throne
So, as I’m waiting to flotilla out of Florida, I felt compelled to support the newspaper industry by purchasing some of the local periodicals to get their take on what...
Coaching hire a risky one for Jordan
MIAMI — As usual, Charlotte owner Michael Jordan caught those shadowing him off balance. After Bobcats president Rod Higgins made it Bahamas’-water clear management was in the hunt for a...
Relax OKC; all the pressure is on Heat
MIAMI — So, 30 of 30 second-place finishers in NBA Finals history that were entrenched in the excavation site the Thunder are now wedged failed to claw their way out....
Thunder coach Brooks must keep Durant off James
MIAMI — The Thunder have discovered what the Heat already knew and continue to demonstrate despite the Heat’s 2-1 series status: The first three rounds of playoff pressure is nothin’...
Brooks needs to cut powerless Perkins’ time
MIAMI — Welcome to a place made famous by Jackie Gleason, Don Johnson and the Floridians. We are gathered here for the annual rite of the passage known as the...
Dream Team not worth glorifying
IRONIC how yesterday was Flag Day and here we are, draped in drool over the 20th anniversary of the narcissistic 1992 Dream Team. Like long time reader Lawrence Bentley of...
Blood & Thunder
I thought those damn Celtics would never go away At last we get to see what the vast majority of unaffiliated fans longed to see once this season was unlocked:...
Ellis illness makes joining ’72 Lakers bittersweet experience
On April 5, privileged life that I lead, at the invitation of Bill and Joyce Sharman, I attended the 40th reunion of the Lakers’ 1972 championship team, which practically paled...
ABA’s Brown out-LeBron-ed LeBron in 1970
Wilt Chamberlain and LeBron James are not the only two players to produce zaftig playoff numbers: 45 points, 15 rebounds and five (or six) assists.On May 19, 1970, I’ll have...
LeBron's death-defying feat
NOT that I’ve seen LeBron play all that often, you understand, but from the outset of last night’s leisurely Boston Harbor cruise, he appeared more unemotionally transfixed than ever before,...
Spurs coach tinkered with winning formula
In case you’re wondering throughout the read, this is no Pop Smear. Wunderkind that Gregg Popovich is, he was first to decipher the scrawl on the cave wall. It took...
NBA stars getting no love from whistle-happy refs
David Stern hasn’t been able to control his giddiness since the NBA’s conference finals were shrunk to two mini-series. So what if home cooking had held serve through Sunday, albeit...
Durant a great guy on, off court
Kevin Durant cannot possibly, as commonly portrayed, be as great a guy as he is a player, right? “He’s actually better!” Matt Tumbleson countered when posed the impious question while...
Spurs wise not to trade Parker, Ginobili
Last season at this time, the Spurs, who had finished at the top of the NBA’s Western Conference, already had been eliminated two rounds previously by the eighth-place Grizzlies. The...
Spurs may not steal all of the Thunder in this series
Some perspective and pragmatism might hit the spot following the Spurs’ methodical seminar against the Western Conference’s newest class of dilated pupils, who acted more like the Dunder, Blunder and...
Can’t wait for shootout at Alamo & OKCorral
It doesn’t get more captivating than the invincible Spurs against the near-impregnable Thunder. Had the Spice Bosh-less Heat not vividly reversed their 1-2 fade against the Pacers, the winner of...
Celtics-Sixers anybody’s series to win
With the desire to become farcically repetitive, do not expect Larry Bird, Kevin McHale and Robert Parish to walk into TD Garden tomorrow night for Game 7. No sweat! The...