FWD: Peter Vecsey Remembers Red Holzman

[wayray@ix.netcom.com (Way Of The Ray)]

                               [New York Post]
                                    SPORTS

                       BELOVED SELMA GONE, RED DIED OF BROKEN
                                       HEART

                    By PETER VECSEY
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                    OFFICIALLY, Red Holzman died of leukemia at
                    Long Island Jewish Hospital at 10:20 p.m
                    Friday night.

                    In reality, Red Holzman died of a broken
                    heart.

                    His wife, Selma, passed away earlier this
                    year. The two of them had done everything
                    together. She shared his love of
                    basketball. And without her, Holzman could
                    not go on.

                    The two of them had basketball in the
                    winter and a cabana in Atlantic Beach in
                    the summer. He would play tennis. They were
                    always together.

                    I remember after he retired going out to
                    dinner in the '80s and Selma said that they
                    stayed together all these years was
                    because, Neither one of us wanted to take
                    the kids, Selma told me, referring to their
                    daughter, Gail.

                    I told Red and Gail the story earlier this
                    year at Larry Bird's induction into the
                    Hall of Fame. Gail laughed. Red laughed but
                    it was obvious he really wasn't in the mood
                    for small talk.

                    Back in those days, my wife, Joan, and I
                    would go out to dinner and I discovered the
                    sense of humor that could often be biting,
                    but never negative.

                    Our wives got along famously because both
                    of them loved restaurants and take-out
                    food. Selma once said that she turned her
                    stove into a planter long ago.

                    I heard his sense of humor in the early
                    '70s. In 1971, I coached a Rucker League
                    team. I had Julius Erving, Charlie Scott
                    and Billy Paultz. We were known as the
                    Westsiders. We finished in third.

                    Don't ever write anything negative about my
                    coaching if that is the best you can do
                    with that team, Red pulled me aside and
                    said.

                    Red knew how to handle a team. Because of
                    him, the Knicks were the first team to
                    charter a plane after back-to-back games.
                    They served lobster, chicken and steak on
                    the plane. Red treated his players with
                    respect.

                    He knew how to mistreat the media. Neal
                    Walk, the man who was selected by the Suns
                    with the second pick in the 1969 draft
                    after Lew Alcindor, told me how Red used to
                    rip into his players in the locker room.
                    Then the next day Walk would only read
                    positive comments in paper. He wouldn't
                    even say anything bad off the record about
                    anybody.

                    Red had a ritual after every game; he would
                    go out with the writers. My first day on
                    the beat, the traveling secretary, Frankie
                    Blauschild, invited me to go out with Red
                    and the rest of the reporters, but he told
                    me that everything was off the record. I
                    wouldn't agree to that. From then on I was
                    an outsider.

                    He was known as a boring interview, but he
                    just knew how to handle the press. He
                    wanted the players to have the attention.
                    But former Post reporter Leonard Lewin -
                    who wrote four books with him - called him
                    a literate Casey Stengel.

                    He would never use a chalkboard or a
                    notebook on the bench. Recalled Lewin, If
                    they don't know how to it by now, then I'm
                    not doing a good job.

                    Red Holzman died at 78. His wife was gone.
                    Now, it is winter and there is no
                    basketball. He so wanted the lockout to
                    end. He needed both.



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