Great Q&A interview with Boston writer Bob Ryan. Talks NBA

[Hey Yo]

He talks about old school (and today's) NBA, flopping in the 70's, how Bird could dominate a game w/o taking a shot, Jordan, LeBron, Havlicek etc....good read.

http://www.si.com/nba/2014/10/06/bob-ryan-scribe-review-michael-jordan-lebron-james-larry-bird-celtics

[Dr.J4ever]

Shots fired vs. 90's Bulls fans. This is what us 80s fans believe.

"I can write down 12 names

[Dr.J4ever]

Interesting....

" Michael is the greatest individual virtuoso. Russell is the greatest team dominant player, no one can argue against his record. I

[Thorpesaurous]

I love Bob Ryan. I'll definitely read his book.

When I was a kid The Boston Globe was running Peter Gammons on Baseball, Will McDonough on Football, and Ryan on Baseball. And they were all at the end of their real careers. But my grandfather reading those guys and my picking up those papers to understand him griping. We were from CT, and he was a Yankee and Celtic fan, so Ryan was a god and Gammons was often a moron. But even as a Yankee fan I loved Gammons. And the NY Papers were also incredibly well staffed.

I think part of the reason I love PTI and ATH is parly because of my longtime fondness for sportswriting. And most of the ATH I'm not even that fond of. But I remember maybe a decade ago I used to listen to Kornheiser's radio show all the time, which was great. And he was interviewing I think Lebatard. And some athlete was having a press conference, and Kornheiser rarely had athletes on. He said something along the lines of not being interested in what the majority of athletes had to say, because it wasn't their job to think about most of the stuff they did. And even the ones who did were better served by not mentioning it. Writers are paid to form opinions. Some you agree with and some you don't, but it is their job to find context in what they're seeing. So it stands to reason that what they say will be more interesting than most athletes. And even since then the entire sports world has gotten further and further from that as athletes become more accessible, and the writers that cover them need to curb their opinions to maintain that access.