The gem of a line was uttered during what today’s generation of basketball fan would tell you was the Neanderthal days of pro hoops (i.e. B.J.—Before Jordan).
It was the late-1960s and the utterer was a coach named Butch van Breda Kolff, whose last name was truncated by headline writers to simply VBK.
It was a time before three-point shots in the NBA, when there was another pro league that played with a patriotic red, white and blue ball and which had the three-pointer in its rulebook.
It was a time when the shorts only went to early-thigh and the sneakers were canvas and above the ankle. The Afros on the players’ heads added two inches to their listed height.
It was a time when the Lakers and Celtics routinely battled for the NBA championship.
See? Some things never change.
So here was VBK, coach of the Lakers, speaking in a snit about his lumbering star center Wilt Chamberlain, with whom he had a love/hate relationship.
“If the basketball court was made of grass,” VBK said of his seven-footer, “Wilt would wear out a one-square-foot patch.”
To b ...
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Article written by Greg Eno
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