Will McDonough On Rick Pitino

[Way Of The Ray <wayray@ix.netcom.com>]

                 [Boston Globe Online / Sports]

                 Harrington will bid to keep Vaughn here
                   
                 By Will McDonough, Globe Columnist, 09/26/98
                 <snip>
                 When Rick Pitino left Long Island as a teenager to enroll
                 at the University of Massachusetts, he never dreamed that
                 one day he would raise $1 million in a single dinner
                 event in Boston for scholarships at the university in the
                 name of his late son, Daniel. ''One of the big reasons I
                 chose the University of Massachusetts was to play with
                 (Dr. J [Julius Erving],'' said Pitino. ''I practiced
                 against him [as a freshman] but never got the chance to
                 play with him because he left [for the ABA] after his
                 junior year.'' Still, judging by these remarks he made
                 during an interview at UMass recently, Pitino had
                 indelible memories of Erving: ''Everybody would wait in
                 line for miles just to see him dunk. In those days, you
                 could not dunk during a game. But he would do it in
                 warmups. He would dunk two basketballs and take off from
                 the foul line. It was a treat because no one else could
                 do it.'' This was how basketball was transformed into a
                 game played above the rim. Erving brought the style to
                 the ABA, then to the NBA, where it is still copied by
                 players today.<snip>


                 Will McDonough is a Globe columnist.



                 This story ran on page G01 of the Boston Globe on
                 09/26/98.
                 © Copyright 1998 Globe Newspaper Company.