Vox Populi

You have said many times that teams that like to run don't end up winning championships. How is it that the Showtime Lakers of the '80s were able to win five championships with their fast-breaking style? — Earl, Irvine, Calif.

Two reasons:

Magic Johnson was a freak — a power-forward-sized point guard who was simply irresistible on the run. Nobody could keep him from blasting his way into the paint, and Dennis Johnson was the only opponent who could force him to turn his back while bringing the ball across the time-line. Magic was the exception that proves the rule.

The other reason for the Lakers' success was Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. If the Lakers couldn't generate the kind of shot they wanted on the break or in early offense, they'd wait for Kareem to show up, settle into the low post, and then watch him launch his unstoppable sky hook.

Sooner (with Magic) or later (with Kareem) the Lakers could outscore all comers.

Travels with Charley

After the 1988-89 season, the CBA had arranged for an All-Star team to participate in a tournament in France. Since Henry Bibby's Tulsa Fast Breakers had swept my Rockford Lightning in the finals, Bibby was named the head coach of this squad and I was asked to be his assistant. Bibby, though, reserved the right to handpick the members of the team.

All expenses paid for the 10-day trip, and I could even bring my wife.

However, since I wasn't exactly a fan of Bibby's, I passed. My wife (ex-wife now) went nuts. How could I not go? Was I crazy? I must be crazy!

Of course I was crazy, but that was beside the point.

I simply didn't want anything to do with Bibby's on- and off-court philosophy in which the ends always justified the means. Plus, he was a hypocrite, an avowed Born Again who remained a notorious womanizer. His penchant for back-stabbing anybody who got in his way was likewise proverbial — when he was named an assistant coach at USC, everybody who knew him said that it wouldn't be long before he'd either get fired or hired as the head coach. Indeed, within a year he was USC's head coach. The same prognosis was made when he was named Mo Cheeks' assistant — this time he was fired before he could stab Cheeks in the back.

The CBA team finished with a 3-3 record in the tournament but reportedly wowed the local media with their non-stop partying.