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UNION TRIBUNE: Lion Pete Newell Honored Again
March 6, 2008
Pete Newell, Basketball Hall of Fame member and Loyola graduate, was inducted into the San Diego Hall of Fame on March 4. Here is the article written in the San Diego UnionTribune.
Article By Jay Posner Bruce Binkowski still remembers the parking lot. Former NBA coach Rick Carlisle called Pete Newell, "The greatest treasure we have in our sport. He is the godfather of modern basketball." On an early spring day in 1970, the San Diego Rockets held a news conference at the Sports Arena to introduce their No. 1 draft choice, Michigan forward Rudy Tomjanovich, taken with the second overall pick. After the proceedings were complete, Binkowski was walking to his car when he noticed Tomjanovich standing with General Manager Pete Newell. Except the two men weren't just standing there. "I looked over," said Binkowski, then the Rockets' assistant director of public relations, "and the next thing I know, Pete Newell is directing Rudy on defensive stances, running him through some drills. Right there in the parking lot. "That's Pete - always thinking . . . always basketball." Not surprising, then, that Binkowski will be one of hundreds in attendance at the Town and Country Hotel tonight when Newell, a longtime resident of Rancho Santa Fe, is inducted into the Breitbard Hall of Fame along with three others. "In 30 years of dealing with athletic directors and coaches, I have had a lot of opportunity to talk to people," Binkowski said, "and every time I bring up Pete Newell's name - every time - everyone knows him and talks about him with respect. "I introduced myself to Bobby Knight and he was semi-cordial . . . until I said Pete Newell wanted me to say hi. All of sudden the wall came down and he was as cordial to me as anybody. That's what Pete Newell does to people." Newell is Knight's longtime friend and mentor, but then again, Knight hardly is alone in holding that status. Newell has influenced so many people it's hard for anyone to sum up what he has meant to basketball in this country over the past six decades or so. Bill Walton recently called his fellow Hall of Famer a "visionary" who was "far ahead of his time," while a few years ago former NBA coach Rick Carlisle told ESPN The Magazine:
"The chance to spend a week with Pete Newell is like a student of literature getting to spend a week with Hemingway or Frost. The man is the greatest treasure we have in our sport. He is the godfather of modern basketball." Newell was a head coach for just 14 seasons - four each at USF and Michigan State and six at Cal - which normally is one short of the number needed for induction into the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame. No matter: Newell made it anyway in 1979. For the entire article, visit the UNION-TRIBUNE. |
