We're visiting Scottsdale and went to the old town gallery district today. We went into a little alley artist studio/gallery area and I noticed one of the shops had an old poster of Tom and Dick Van Arsdale from their playing days with the Suns. We went in and found Dick Van Arsdale, now in his mid 70s alone in a gallery/studio where he and his brother paint and show their artwork. He was very friendly and we talked a little about his playing days and going up against the Walton-era Trail Blazers. He remembered how tough it was to play that team. Dick had a stroke a couple of years ago and the artwork was his way of helping to work through that medical crisis. I found this article about him online: https://www.azcentral.com/story/spo...iginal-sun-now-makes-original-art/1539010002/
I was on a lunch break about 10 years ago and had gone into a golf store to take some swings in their new swing speed calculator. In walks Bill Russell and his caretaker/helper/whatever. He was looking at clubs and just sat down and watched. I gave him a look and a (returned) head nod, but even as a grown-ass 30 year old I didn’t want to bother the Man. Good on you for talking to living history.
I shiteth thou not (about the snow): https://www.azfamily.com/video/snow...deo_bb44bd91-b0f2-54c0-9141-f3683234717b.html
Bill was working color for a radio broadcast with some Seattle radio broadcaster when they got into a dispute that escalated. Finally the play by play announcer said something like, if you know what's going on then here you take the mike. The play by play guy then went silent for the rest of the game leaving it up to Bill to do the whole broadcast. The way I heard it, there was a lot of silence that night.
Uplifting article. They spend all their time together. I guess it's true that twins are so compatible. When one dies, I hope it doesn't kill the other. When you get old, it's rare to have such a close friend. I don't need one since you fucks love me so much. They were both good starters, but I didn't follow their teams. Bland, all-around-good but not great at one thing. I remember that late in their careers, at least one got moved from SF to SG. Havlicek and Lou Hudson did, too. You see from his wrist in the picture how husky they are. Basketball used to have some players with football frames. I used to wonder whether guys like that were in the wrong sport. Nowadays they seem to get sorted earlier into the right sport.
I met Bill Walton during the preseason of the championship year. They were practicing in Howard Hall that day and was using our baseball locker room and a teammate and I were going in to change to do a workout and lo and behold Bill Walton was laying on a bench and we had a little chat with him. He was very friendly and down to earth.
When did Russell ever do local color? He did for years on national network Saturday games, but never local Seattle. (Unless you have a strange 1-game exception that I missed. Also, I was gone 1989-91.)
Well, you're just wrong. It was long ago. I'm guessing somewhere in the early 90s. Wish I could remember the name of the play by play guy. I remember he was an overweight gentleman. He didn't do a lot of games and now perhaps we know why.
I guess it was in that 1989-91 period I was out of state. The fat guy was there when I was, though. Good voice. He quit because he wanted the station to spend more money on his show. Wheeler was later his replacement, I think. Russell was famously taciturn. The Sonic station should have known this after hearing him as a national TV colorman for years. He was an underrated Sonic head coach.
One time I hired a guy to mow my lawn and he claimed he did video for the Blazers as a side gig. Didn't sound very credible though. barfo
