In the first episode of the NBRPA's new talk show Holding Court, former four-time NBA all-star Otis Birdsong equates Magic and Bird to Kirk and Spock respectively, declares the bank shot all but extinct, and ponders the idea of Bill Russell in a new NBA logo.

Otis Birdsong...

So, I went to the Prudential Center in Newark to see the Nets play the Golden State Warriors last night. I think it was as nice of a live professional sports experience as I've been to in years. Please don't stop reading.

I know. I was watching two teams with...

The confetti air-drop in Dallas at Super Bowl XLV was merely prelude to the real NFL paper war. And it's a war the owners cannot lose. They never could.

Union reps, league spokespersons and media will prattle on about fairness and revenues. The NFLPA may be right that the owners...

Allow me to share an exchange I had with my good friend, the writer C.J. Sullivan, as we discussed the following question:

Are New York Marathoners Athletes?

Sullivan: I would answer that with a loud, "Hell No!"

Well let me qualify that. Out of the 37,000 duffers that...

My wife and I were showing a single lesbian friend of ours around the neighborhood. She just moved here. We pointed to one local drinking establishment that we heard had become a hangout for a lot of gay women. We poked our heads in and our friend sniffed dismissively, "golf...

When Dutch scholar Johan Huizinga wrote Homo Ludens: The Play Element in Culture (1938) he made the strong and enduring argument that in the "primeval soil of play" we find the origin of "the great instinctive forces of civilized life," of myth...

Sonny Werblin understood the value of star quality in sports long before the rest of his pro football brethren. In 1965, when Werblin, President and part-owner of the formerly New York Titans re-named New York Jets spent a then record-breaking $427,000 to induce Joe...

What makes people think spitting in public is okay? From Chinatown to Midtown, from Bushwick to Bayside, Gothamites openly expel their esophageal waters with impunity. It's gross. And, unlike other now hopelessly ingrained NYC rudeness's -- not letting people off the subway before getting on or halting the flow pedestrian...

To me, Dara Torres represents everything that sports should be. She's competitive, dignified, tough, smart, independent, clean, and innovative. She's puts herself out as a role model but not as a corporate prop, or a brand, or a reality show, or...

The Compton-born, Ivy-League graduate, retired NFL-All Pro Defensive End, co-host of ABC show Winners Bracket, ESPN Football Analyst has been a refreshingly candid and intelligent voice on a range of professional sports issues, most notably gun ownership. He minces no words in our conversation...

If you haven't gotten into Cash Cab yet, then your New Yorker status needs to be downgraded. The show is as New York as New York 1, the Sleepy's jingle and publicly-funded sports arenas. I got addicted a few years ago while...

UFC President Dana White confirmed today that vuvuzelas -- the infamous noise makers used at this year's World Cup by South African fans that have strained the patience of even the most culturally tolerant among us -- have been banned at MGM Grand Garden...

What is there to say anymore about a purely good deed? How do you recognize, celebrate, memorialize an act of kindness done for no other reason than it was the right thing to do?

On the scales of justice, how can the story -- the tragic,...

There are two Clint Eastwood stories I love. The first recalls an appointment between two young actors -- Burt Reynolds and Clint Eastwood -- and a major Hollywood producer. The actors submitted their resumes, chatted for a while. The producer smiled politely,...

(Recorded in February 2003)

John Wooden: The Wizard

He's still quick, but never in a hurry. The greatest basketball coach of all time admires Gonzaga, dislikes the dunk and loves his oatmeal.

Pete Newell, the great coach and teacher of big men, says that today there...

Richard Sandomir reported in The New York Times that Jason McIntyre's The Big Lead, a blog "fixated on sports media, news and gossip," was acquired by Fantasy Sports Venture's "for a figure in the low seven figures."

I saw it coming. I knew there...

Kids have their sports fantasies. (These days, sadly, kids also have fantasy sports.) One of my sports-related fantasies has always been to sing the national anthem at a major sporting event.

My dream came true summer 2006, when I sang the national anthem at a Newark Bears...

We like to bring our little one to Prospect Park. That's why we moved to close to it. Now that the weather is nice, every day can be a park day. Or so you'd think.

It appears the warm weather has been...

The primetime televised NFL Draft this week reminds us of the riches young men can find being employed as a professional football player. A straight-to-DVD documentary of the NFL off-season thus far could be titled "GMs Gone Wild" with headline wheelings...

It's NBA Playoff time. "Win or Go Home." Charles Barkley, Kenny the Jet and Ernie Johnson. Endless promotional spots on all Time Warner Networks. Keep an eye on the Dallas Mavericks. Since their mid-season 7-player swap the Mark Cubanos have been hotter than an...