The truth of man lies not in the stars but in his soul

“The truth of man lies not in the stars but in his soul” every human being from the cradle to the grave, is being tested!

                                       II

Basketball coach Larry Brown, growing up in Long Beach High School, and metamorphosing in coach Frank McGire- Dean Smith’s varsity (Billy Cunningham) at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

“Everybody is being tested,” said coach and psychiatrist, Dean Smith, a father figure to  Michael Jordan,   “a second father”,)a immortal in the University’ lore.

                                              III

Coach Brown of Southern Methodist University was  chargedwith violating, bridging NCAA “March Madmess” by having an assistant coach aid and abet a Macdonald’s player of the year to shine in the SMU varsity Heavens and to acclimate the Texas conference SMU “competed” in.

                                    IV

How could this be? Larry Brown raised in Brooklyn, recruiting at the corrupting edge? Competing with a immoral edge over competing young minds, off a flavor of the schoolyard and playground. 

Unbelievable!....the barrio’s Lincoln High School, the cream cheese bandit recruiting ineligible non Latinos to win at all costs…remembering “Honest Bill” Rosenblatt, LIU’s Jackie Goldsmith dumping games on point spreads.

                                      V

Following the Hall of Fame coach John Wooden of UCLA, why didn’t that heritage rub off on Larry Brown’s persona?

Didn’t the Dean Smith yesterdays rub off on Larry Brown? All that comroderie with the likes of Billy Crystal, a neighbor fromLong Beach..

                                      VI

The metamorphosis playing out on the court is not the marketplace front office.…the competition is simply an appearance of all the humans, untainted by  insidious ego trips,but the  appearance of what Dioniyius or Hamlet, in their odyssey swing through March Madness and the NCAAfirmament, regulating   the “testing” and the  rebounds of their surrogate father figure coaches. 

The kids buy into, during their years of “March Madness” eligibility.

                                          VI

Where else on our planet can young men and women play outtheir character…

”Your character is your fate” is accessible to devious young men in a culture where the need to win is at the apex of the University’s claim to notoriety,  addressing the needs of the young me to motivate..

                                          VII

A Hall of Fame immortal is the feat of character, the realization of the player’s dream, presiding over his sojourn of four years of competitive juices and passionate discipline..

“Cheating doesn’t pay. It’s a outrage and sellout. Remember cheaters never prosper. Living with their lie.

                                     VII

“We are all underlings Horatio,” said Hamlet. “We are all being tested..If in doubt, give him the benefit of the doubt. Don’t call it out.””

September 29, 2015. The City that neversleeps.  

Whether Mandrake the Magician knew about Stephen Curry

Whether Mandrake the Magician knew about Stephen Curry in a double dribble tandem with his coach, Steve Kerr of the Golden State Warriors, the NBA Houdini (s), he knew being a father of a newborn daughter, he had to show Mandrake his own magic ,leading Steve Kerr’s team to those heights of a pro basketball dynasty.

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“Shades of the Bay area” quoteth Mandrake the Magician”…. the University of San Francisco and that duo of K.C. Jones and the 6 foot nine inch center Bill Russell made “hoi poloi” withRed Auerbach’s Boston Celtics…on their parquet floor musical weave into Eternity  and lore, folklore.……the stuff that legends are made. Wherever the cognoscenti ramp up basketball dreamers into NCAA college  and NBA continuity.

                                             III

As reality had it, Auerbach’s parents owned a delicatesn  andlater a dry cleaning store, Brooklyn’s Williamsburg.

A cast of Bill Sharman, Sam Jones, Tommy Heinsohn from the corners,  John Havlicek off the bench, Holy Cross’s Bob Cousyorchestrating the weave, bringing the pumpkin down, on a Ruasell rebound and pass..

Frank Ramsey and number six man Don Nelson rounded out the defensive rebounds. converting into a outlet pass or fast break, that broke the Harry Houdini Mandrake the Magician spoof of smoke, wide open. Into a fantastic metamorphosis….the time clock tickng, the player’s own cardiac beats boom booming ..

                                        IV                                    

But on television’s ABC network, Stephen Curry the Mandrake, orchestrated his dribbling, his two handed magic…switching hands, setting up his tee vee machinations, caught up in the magic of Curry’s new persona as a baby faced demon Richard Widmark...his most viable “swish”

                                        V

The Magician’s grin that breaks the defensive player’s back; the  screen by a teammate to get into his three point range from “downtown “.

A consummate diagnostic magician who puts the defenders into his spell…still a kid no one would suspect, abounded from the school playground….

“Elementary, my dear Mandrake.”

                                       VI

Modest Houdini demonstrated his guile for sandwiching two basketballs, as Magician’s 

Convening the Continent’s audience to a dribbling repartee that takes one’s breathe away.

Like his father, a Cro Magnom magician, he taunts the opponent into anxiety…shoot? Pass? Drive? Shield?.Time out, construct a play?

                                         VII

Steve Kerr, the other twin soul of the Houdini- Mandrake the Magician duo …his Pacific Palisades High School gym.. owneagle eyed persona at  Palisades High , his father an administrator (President)_ at American University in Beirut, Lebanon, gunned down.

Lost to the Kerr’s Physical Education (football and track coach, Valley College, Van Nuys, Ca), by a assassin, the son going tothe University of Arizona for his own Houdini evolution.

Into Mozart’s basketball heaven….the Magic Flute. Of dribbling disguise ‘s and  switching keys, masked by schoolyard’s eternaldeception 

                                       VIII

Steve Kerr ‘s own Houdini brand of magic was  adopted by the Chicago Bulls franchise and coach Phil Jackson, his alter ego ,Tex Winter inventing the triangle stratagem for the duo of Michael Jordan and Scotty Pippen.

Kerr masterminding his three point shot heard around the Bulls offices. And the practice court in Lake Forest, Illinois.

                                    IX

In those interludes of basketball dreams , Steve Kerr found his way back to Northern California and the Golden StateWarriors..Mimic-ing his own coaches…high school, college, NBA teams.

Phil Jackson, a long time number 6 man on the Knick bench, was elevated to the head honcho’s role,(director, operations) at the Madison Square Garden magical Harry Houdini basketball heaven..

“Steve come to the Big Apple” pleaded his vintage Knick and Chicago Bull magician.

                                        X

But Steve Kerr in his own Harry Houdini magic, knew he had Stephen Curry…declining the offer to stay with the Warriors.

Between Mandrake the Magician and Harry Houdini, the Kerr-Curry magic is but a metamorphosis, an incarnation of a transfusion of coaching nebula between  UCLA ‘s Wilbur Johnscoach, and his successor John Wooden..

Only one of four Hall of Fame players, who became a Hall of Fame coach.

                                        XI

May the Ker Curry twin soul tandem renew its all court magic in the same breath as the pioneers that made the schoolyard mimicry, a foretaste of what life on the planet’s own playground, could be and become.

September 24, 2o015. The City that never sleeps.

                                           

The Holy Grail

The Holy Grail…a trip of 24 hours by  Pope Francis to the Big Apple and the United Nations, the Man from La Mancha, the Sheik of Araby, an elderly knothole kid from the foregone EbbetField bleachers……the  respectful soul searching denizens along the corridor of Champions, praying for a Holy blessing, a sanctuary of a quiet mindedness, and deliverance from agonizing stress here and abroad.

                                       II

How could a divinity of the Vatican, know that the Man from La Mancha, the Sheik of Araby, the senior citizen from the EbbetsField bleachers, a former knot hole kid, were subdued, waiting for the Pope’s open roof  Pope mobile 

to pass….catch a vaunted glimpse and a immortal memorable image. 

                                      III

A metamorphosis beyond Darwin’s voyage to the Galapagos Islands, wouldn’t you say.

A raising of consciousness. A cyber space aura of connectivity to the Big Apple’s own evolution.…..

”The homeless, the weary” dynamics comprising part of the masses, over the past century’s three wars and  Middle East Vietnam invasions.  .

But in this instance, the spiritual reality transcends the confetti blitz                                       upon Pope Francis and his caravan.

                                     IV

The Statute of Liberty held her torch high, revelers in Times Square played out dignified personas as they were in awe, at themiracle occurring in their midst.

The Sheik of Araby’s swagger was liberated from his once 5thgrade charismatic persona to become himself. 

The Man from La Mancha , his musical heritage andimagination brought down to Earth by the Papal pilgrimage ….two  lifetimes in the making.

                                   V

The hand of the smart phone and its apps, was quieted. Quality human beings were asserting themselves by recognizing a higher power, sanctifying their destinies.

With promise, optimism, good health  and humor. Seeing themselves in the mirror of a higher power, orchestrating his own Saint Peter’s Basilica, to bestow a lasting presence among millions of Big Apple denizens…. launching life preservers to stay afloat and grow.

”Praise the Lord ”

                                   VI
Remembering that moment in “Lost Horizon” Robert Riskin’s,(Bay Ridge, Brooklyn) dialogue by Shangri-la’s 125 year oldHigh Llama.   “We have been waiting a long time for you, Mister Conway.”

September 19, 2015   The City that never sleeps.