Greg Manning

Posted on January 31, 2023 by Steinmetz

If you were a white kid growing up on Reading High basketball in the 1970s, especially one growing up in the suburbs, one thing became apparent and it became apparent immediately: If you were white, and you ever wanted to be any good, you better be able to play against Reading High, and all black players. Period. End of story.

And Reading High had black players. But Reading High and its players defied the stereotypes that often cloak black teams: undisciplined, poorly coached, up-and-down style, athletic but not fundamentally sound.

But I was lucky! I saw Reading High play basketball before I even knew what a stereotype was. And as I’ve said before, at Reading High, basketball was beautiful. The legendary Pete Carril coached there early in his career, and then came the best coach you never heard of: Jim Gano.

Reading High was more athletic than most of its opponents, but the Red Knights were also smarter. Reading High was quicker than most of its opponents, but it out-executed you into oblivion. Reading High players could dunk better than most opponents, but they could also pass and cut better than opponents. Reading had it all: The best athletes, the best coach, the most discipline on a court I’ve ever seen.

Of course there were terrific white players who came through Reading High: Gary Walters, Stevie Hahn and Perry Wentzel, Steve Rossignoli, Neil Christel, Tony Bonanno, Pete Pasko, Pete Mullenberg and plenty of others. But those white guys WERE ON Reading High. I was never going to be ON Reading High.

Then I saw Greg Manning play. Greg Manning was Steelton-Highspire’s incredible point guard who ended up going to Maryland. He graduated from Steelton in 1977, which means I saw him as a junior at 11 or 12 years old. Greg Manning was the template for me, the first white guy I saw up close who knew how to play against black players. Greg Manning and Steelton gave the Red Knights fits. I don’t know what the head-to-head record was between Reading High and Steelton in the 1970s, but both teams and fans had their share of incredible highs and immense lows.

Manning was 6-foot-3 and quick, but there were still things any young player could take from him. And I did. … the shot fake, the leaning in to create contact, the best way to take advantage of getting a half-step on a defender, make your damn free throws, get rid of the ball sooner rather than later, use both hands, and on and on and on.

A few years later, I started watching Larry Bird and he became my guy for more than a decade. But before Bird, there was Greg Manning and he was a bad, bad boy.

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Chris Mullin

Posted on January 30, 2023 by Steinmetz

Hopefully you’ll hear more about Chris Mullin from me, but he hit me here and he hit me now, and here’s why. Been thinking about this stuff I’m writing on this here blog, and invariably, something may happen … you know, someone may take offense. Someone may say what I wrote was untrue. Or maybe I’ll inadvertently betray a confidence.

All that got me to thinking about Chris Mullin, and the whole “on the record,” and “off the record” stuff. On the one hand, this is my blog, I’ve been around, I can write what I want. And as my dad would say … “let the chips fall.”

But trust me, the whole thing’s a nightmare. When you spend 90 percent of your life talking basketball, and it’s with basketball people, and it becomes your entire life, and don’t get me wrong, you love it, it does get difficult what to share and what to conceal, what to acknowledge and what to deny … what to say to whom and when and what not to say … if you know what I mean.

BTW, this isn’t about Mullin thinking I wrote something I shouldn’t have. Or Mullin getting mad at me for something. No this is about Mullin’s “philosophy” or “view” about loyalty, keeping secrets and the only way two people can ensure privacy.

Mullin and I were talking about confidences, etc., and he said, “Let me tell you what (former St. John’s coach) Lou Carnessecca told me a long time ago. He said there’s only one way to tell something to someone in confidence. First, you have to go to the beach with the person you want to confide in. Then you walk out into the Atlantic Ocean together until the water comes up to your chin. Then, and only then, do you know it’s a private conversation.”

It was also Mullin’s way of saying … “If I tell you something and we’re not in the Atlantic Ocean, then I’m trusting you with information and I’ll take my chances.” With Mullin you always erred on the side of caution … as in don’t ever tell anyone anything Mullin ever told me.

hard to remember what to reveal and what to conceal, what you want to share and what you don’t

and to whom and when, where why, and all of it.

the whole “on the record,” and “off the record” stuff. I was a journalist, covered the NBA for 15-20 years. Still go to games, still talk to many involved in the game. Text with basketball guys all the time: real NBA people, former NBA people, friends and colleagues I respect, friends from back home I respect

What you can write, what you can say on the radio, what you can tell someone else, what you can say you saw vs. what you heard or overheard.

Whole thing’s a nightmare if all you want to do is basketball.

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P.J. Carlesimo

Posted on January 29, 2023 by Steinmetz

Some of these might not be all good. P.J. Carlesimo became the Golden State Warriors coach in 1997, and he was a bad guy. But don’t take my word for it. That’s what he was billed as … literally. P.J. Carlesimo took over the coaching reins from a gentleman — and I say gentleman for a reason — named Rick Adelman.

Adelman coached the Warriors for two seasons before getting fired. All you need to know about Golden State at the time was that Adelman was successful before the Warriors, with the Portland Trail Blazers, and after the Warriors with the Kings and Rockets. But nobody succeeded in Golden State back then. Rick Adelman was fired after two years with the Warriors because he was too much of a “player’s coach.”

So they brought in Carlesimo, who was known as “Policimo” at the time. The Warriors’ marketing slogan to begin the 1997 season was “No More Mr. Nice Guys!” And it featured a billboard at the base of the Bay Bridge with Carlesimo and his assistant coaching staff wearing dark sunglasses, like they were bad-asses.

The reference was clear: There’s a new sheriff in town! The Warriors were going from a soft-spoken, knowledgeable coach in Rick Adelman to a ball-buster and a yeller and a screamer in P.J. Carlesimo. The whole thing became a pretext for what would occur later: Latrell Sprewell choking Carlesimo out. That would come about six months after Carlesimo’s hiring.

There’s an old saying that if you can’t say anything good about someone don’t say anything at all. So, here are two positive qualities of Carlesimo: He remembered names like nobody I’ve ever known. I mean everybody. He learned my name from Day 1, and he knew it when I’d bump into him 20 years later. The guy was just unreal with names.

He also could be generous. Before my first daughter was born, I received a box in the mail. It was a Warriors’ onesie for her. Nice gesture, no doubt. But as I would come to know Carlesimo he always reminded me of that one Bob Dylan line: “They smile to your face but behind your back they hiss.”

And that’s what P.J. Carlesimo did. I remember one time talking to Duane Ferrell, one of the classiest players and executives I’ve met in this business. Duane was a grown-up, and that’s the way he talked to you. I was young in my career, just learning the ropes of beat-writing and reporting in the NBA.

One time I’m talking to Duane in the locker room, and Carlesimo walks by. “Don’t tell him anything, Duane,” Carlesimo butted in. Carlesimo smiled, but that was the problem. He was dead serious. How do I know? Because Duane told me.

“He calls you the ‘dumb fucks,’ ” Ferrell said. “What are you talking about,” I replied. “P.J.” … Ferrell said … “He calls you guys the ‘dumb fucks,’ you guys in the media. Like after he talks to us after the game but before you guys (the media) come in … He always says: Now don’t say anything stupid to the ‘dumb fucks.’ “

I can’t tell you how much that bothered me. Not that he referred to me like that, but because he smiled to my face 99 percent of the time. I’m not hear to brag about my basketball pedigree. I have little … a dad who played at Kutztown, coached at Muhlenberg and then officiated. I played high school, then Division III. I was never going to be a pro and was never going to be a pro coach, but I didn’t love the game any less than Carlesimo. I didn’t have any less of a thirst for understanding the game than Carlesimo.

Carlesimo certainly wasn’t the first coach with disdain for the media. But he was the first coach I came across that was so dishonest about it.

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