February 19: Bradley Making It -- In His Own Quiet Way One of the books Bill Bradley has read of late is "Making It," the reflections of Norman Podhoretz, a young right-wing critic-intellectual on the hustle. The title of the book is apt enough for the moment because it describes the condition of things with Bradley and the Knicks. Bradley was in the midst of things last night as the Knicks were beaten, 113-109, by Los Angeles, and he was something to watch. At six-foot-five, he gave away seven inches guarding the seven-foot Mel Counts. It was among the widest height disparities in pro basketball, and it made for one of the notable David vs. Goliath matchups of recent times.
Counts had a good game. Yet, Bradley didn't fare badly. The disparity in height was interesting because it illustrated the kinds of tasks Bradley tackles as a pro. It points up the ridiculous idea once held in many places-including Left Field-that Bradley would emerge as a superstar who would lead the Knicks out of the wilderness. Among insiders that feeling was discounted almost immediately, and now reality is beginning to be accepted by even the die-hard Bradley fans. The Knicks have emerged from the darkness and Bradley has been one of the capable spear carriers. That suits him. Not even the shell of modesty with which he covers himself can hide the fact that he truly enjoys basketball in its purest sense-a man making a contribution to a team that is winning. He said, "Sure, I am quite happy about the way things have been turning out. This is a winning team. This is a happy team." He spoke after getting a whirlpool treatment in the locker room the other day for "the aches and bruises of a season." Nobody else was there; he was as relaxed and comfortable as he ever can be with strangers. Most people are strangers to Bradley, who is having the his first taste of the give-and-take of the real world after having been relatively cloistered in the midwest, at Princeton and then at Oxford. People think Princeton and Oxford; they see this quite-shy man trying to make a place for himself among the superficially-hip savants of the swinging sports scene, and they pin the name "Straight Arrow" on him. That's not meant to be an unkind name, yet it is far wide of the mark. Straight Arrow connotates: midwest, Republican-banker father and Princeton. Bradley is all that. But he is something more. First and foremost these days, he is a basketball player. And he is a young man who has gone up to Harlem to read to underprivileged kids as part of a self-help program there. He has come to Long Island to speak at a rally for left-wing Congressional candidate Allard Lowenstein "because he is a good man and should be in Congress." He has allowed his name to be used in the movement against South Africa's apartheid sports policy "though I wouldn't want to be pictured as very militant in the matter." When the question of his reading came up, he said, "Well, whatever I'm reading doesn't mean that is the only kind of reading I do. I read all sorts of books. I am an eclectic reader because I read for self-understanding." He pulled out his current reading matter. There's Gorky's reflections on Chekhov, Tolstoi and Andreyev. As of late, he has read, "Cannibals and Christians," by Norman Mailer, whom he admires, "though I haven't read "Deer Park" or "An American Dream." And he's read "The Pine Barrrens" by his friend John McPhee and T.E. Lawrence on"Lawrence of Arabia." It would pain the young man for people to get the idea from all this that he is an intellectual. All thinking young men are reading books like this and talking like this these days. There are basketball players among them, so Bradley isn't that different. But he is different. He addressses almost everybody older than himself as "Mr." He is different enough for people to be amused by the shy way he goes about being one of the boys. . One of the Bradley watchers around the Knicks says, "Sometimes I have gotten the feeling he doesn't know, for example, that there are hookers all over Eighth Avenue. Right now I think he's learning to drink beer with the boys. I think he's seeing a side of life that he never saw before, and I think he's going to be much better for it. You know all that wild talk about him becoming President? Well, if he ever did make it, I think he would be better for having been a part of the hurly-burly of pro basketball."
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8. Bill Bradley & Others 
