I dribbled by the hour with my left hand when I was young. I didn't have full control, but I got so I could move the ball back and forth from one hand to the other without breaking the cadence of my dribble. I wasn't dribbling behind my back or setting up any trick stuff, but I was laying the groundwork for it.

Back then every small town had a gym, and if itseated more than 2,000 then we'd be interested in playing in it.

Indiana gets credit for having the most rabid basketball fans in the union, but Maine is a very, very active basketball state.

These days I smile benignly at the fights that I see in NBA games. There aren't any broken noses or black eyes, which happened quite often when I played.

My biggest win was getting the meal money bumped from $5 to $7.

We hung out on the streets, played stickball, and did all of the things that other kids did.

We played every night. Sometimes we'd stay overnight after a game, but we'd usually drive on to our next destination.