Bob Spitz: commitment

Transcript context

…One of my favorite books of yours is your New York Knicks book about the team in its glory years. Yes. Another thing I had no interest in, no knowledge of. Somebody asked me to write a book on the 1969 Knicks. I was a poor, young, up-and-coming writer at the time, and I said, “Sure, I’ll do it.” I didn’t know anything about basketball, but I got to talk to all these wonderful individuals who played for the Knicks, and not only them, but all the great players. I sought out all the great players who played opposite them—Oscar Robertson and Jerry West—who explained the game to me and explained how they interacted with the wonderful Knicks, Bill Bradley and Walt Frazier, and Dave DeBusschere, a team like we’ve never seen in New York since those days. I learned all I could about basketball, and I became a lifelong Knicks fan. It’s one of the great things about writing, not knowing Led Zeppelin, not knowing basketball, never voting for Ronald Reagan, and yet becoming his biographer. Very fortunate that I may not have gone to grad school, but I’ve done a PhD in heavy metal. I’ve done a PhD in Republican politics and basketball. What a wonderful experience. I saw some of those Knicks games at the time. Now, how did Dave DeBusschere end up as coach of the Detroit Pistons at age 24? That sounds so impossible today.…

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