This was fun ...

Somehow, through an old friend and PR colleague, Jack Gallagher, my name made its way to Ed Odeven, an editor at The Japan Times.  Today, Ed posted this:

The Definitive interview!

http://edodevenreporting.wordpress.com/2014/10/02/thedefinitiveinterviewwithterrylyons/

Brian McIntyre to Receive HoF Honor

This breaking news from the Basketball Hall of Fame in Springfield is quite welcome news considering the terrible devastation experienced by the birthplace of basketball and many of the surrounding towns in the Pioneer Valley region...

A very special note of congratulations to the one and only Brian McIntyre:

SPRINGFIELD, Mass - June 2, 2011--NBA Executive Brian McIntyre, who has spent over 30 years in the league office, has been selected to receive the 2011 John W. Bunn Lifetime Achievement Award by the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame, it was announced today.

The Bunn Lifetime Achievement Award was instituted by the Board of Trustees of the Basketball Hall of Fame in 1973 and is the most prestigious award presented by the Hall of Fame outside of Enshrinement. Named in honor of Hall of Famer John W. Bunn (Class of 1964), the first chairman of the Basketball Hall of Fame Committee who served from 1949-1964, the award honors coaches, players and contributors whose outstanding accomplishments have impacted the high school, college, professional or international game.

“Brian McIntyre has dedicated his stellar professional career to the NBA and the game of basketball, making him an outstanding recipient of this year’s John W. Bunn Lifetime Achievement Award,” said John L. Doleva, President and CEO of the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame.  “Since joining the NBA, Brian has worked in almost every capacity to help enhance the sport globally and impact the overall growth of the league.”

“The Bunn Lifetime Achievement Award was created to honor our colleagues who have made significant contributions in basketball,” said Jerry Colangelo, Chairman of the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame Board.  “Over the last three decades, Brian has had a critical role in developing the game around the world through his role at the NBA and helping to develop and implement many of the league’s most important global assets.”

McIntyre, who is in his 33rd NBA season, currently holds the title of Senior Communications Advisor to NBA Commissioner David Stern.

"Few people have done more to help mold the history of the NBA than Brian McIntyre,” said Stern. “During his tenure, he oversaw the NBA's PR efforts for every major event -- from the NBA Draft Lottery to All-Star Weekend to The Finals -- and was intimately involved in the league's international expansion and in the creation of the WNBA and the NBA Development League. More importantly, however, Brian has been a true friend and unwavering in his loyalty to the NBA. I can think of no one more worthy of the John W. Bunn Lifetime Achievement Award. On behalf of the entire NBA family, I congratulate him on this truly deserved honor.”

The NBA hired McIntyre in November 1981 as Director of Public Relations after three and a half years as Director of Marketing and Media Information for the Chicago Bulls. He was promoted to Vice President, Public Relations in March 1989. Under McIntyre, the Public Relations Department expanded to become the Communications Group, and he was named Senior Vice President in November 1997.

In addition to managing public relations activities for every major NBA event from 1982 through 2010 and the emergence of the WNBA and NBA Developmental League, he also created numerous NBA awards, including the Defensive Player of the Year award, the Sixth Man Award, and the Most Improved Player. He was responsible for initiating White House visits by NBA Championship teams, creating a media training program for players, instituting the use of satellite postgame feeds at major NBA events, and a host of other initiatives. In conjunction with USA Basketball, McIntyre has been actively involved in public relations planning, activities, and onsite execution of the 1992, 1996, 2000, 2004, and 2008 Olympics and the 1994, 2002, and 2006 World Championship of Basketball.

A graduate of Loyola University of Chicago, McIntyre has served as a member of the FIBA (International Basketball Federation) News Council and on the USA Basketball Media Advisory Committee. He was inducted into the Loyola (Ill.) Academy Athletic Hall of Fame in 1999, and the National Association of Black Journalists honored him with a Merit Award in 2009. The Professional Basketball Writers Association honored McIntyre in 2010 when the organization named its annual media relations tribute "The Brian McIntyre Media Relations Award." He is on the Board of Advisors for Loyola University's School of Communications.

McIntyre will be presented the John W. Bunn Lifetime Achievement Award during the 2011 Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame ceremonies, to be held at the “Hall of Fame Family Reunion Dinner” on Thursday, August 11. The annual Enshrinement Ceremony will be held on Friday, August 12.

Congrats to Brian McIntyre

McIntyre to serve as senior adviser to Stern

NEW YORK -- Brian McIntyre, who has directed the NBA Communications Department and later the Basketball Communications Department, since 1981, is stepping down from daily oversight to become Senior Communications Advisor to Commissioner David Stern, the NBA announced today.

A 32-year NBA veteran, McIntyre joined the NBA office under then-Commissioner Larry O'Brien and is the longest-serving league office executive hired by Stern.

"Brian has made numerous and invaluable contributions to the growth and success of the NBA, the WNBA, the NBA Development League and USA Basketball over his distinguished career," said Stern. "Although he will be stepping down from his broad responsibilities, I am pleased that he has agreed to continue to make his skills and experience available to the NBA, albeit on a less intensive basis."

"It has been a privilege and an honor to have worked in the NBA the last 30-plus years," said McIntyre. "I've enjoyed immensely working with our teams and media and have had the incredible fortune to have worked with so many talented and dedicated individuals. I want to thank David and so many others for the incredible journey, and I look forward to continuing to contribute to the NBA and the game of basketball in my new role."

McIntyre was hired by the NBA in November 1981 as Director of Public Relations after three and a half years as Director of Marketing and Media Information for the Chicago Bulls. He was promoted to Vice President, Public Relations in March 1989. Under McIntyre, the Public Relations Department expanded to become the Communications Group, and he was named Senior Vice President in November 1997.

He has overseen public relations activities for every major NBA event since 1982, including The Finals, NBA All-Star, the NBA Draft Lottery, the McDonald's Open and other events. He was involved in the launch of both the WNBA and the NBA D-League. He developed and implemented many of the communications policies and procedures currently in place for all three leagues. McIntyre also created numerous awards, including the Defensive Player of the Year award, the Sixth Man award and the Most Improved Player award. He was responsible for initiating White House visits by NBA Championship teams, creating a media training program for players, instituting the use of satellite postgame feeds at major events, and a host of other initiatives. In conjunction with USA Basketball, McIntyre has been actively involved in public relations planning, activities and onsite execution of the 1992, 1996, 2000, 2004 and 2008 Olympics and the 1994, 2002 and 2006 World Championships of Basketball.

A graduate of Loyola University of Chicago, McIntyre has served as a member of the FIBA (International Basketball Federation) News Council and the USA Basketball Media Advisory Committee. He was inducted into the Loyola (IL) Academy Athletic Hall of Fame in 1999 and was honored with a Merit Award by the National Association of Black Journalists (NABJ) in 2009. The Professional Basketball Writers Association (PBWA) honored McIntyre in 2010 when the organization named its annual team media relations tribute the Brian McIntyre Media Relations Award. McIntyre serves on the Board of Advisors for Loyola University's School of Communications.

Here's to Johnny "Red" Kerr ...

My thoughts are with Big Red's family and all of his close friends throughout the NBA, including the great Brian McIntyre who loved Kerr like a brother:

Ap wrote this after the services:

OAKBROOK TERRACE, Ill. -- Laughter flowed while friends and relatives toasted Johnny "Red" Kerr one more time.

Considering he drew smiles from just about everyone he came across, it was an appropriate send-off for the Chicago Bulls' first coach and longtime commentator.

"To me, he was more than a father," son Matthew said during Kerr's funeral Thursday. "He was an inspiration and a friend."

An overflow crowd spilled out of the main chapel at Hennessy-Bruno Funeral Home to remember Kerr, who died of prostate cancer last week at age 76. A tribute video played in the lobby and a floral arrangement with red roses spelling "Red" stood a few feet from his casket.

Kerr, a Chicago native who starred at Illinois, spent 12 seasons in the NBA for the Syracuse Nationals, Philadelphia 76ers and Baltimore Bullets. Who made three All-Star teams and played in a then-NBA record 844 consecutive games.

He led the Bulls to the playoffs during their inaugural 1966-67 season, then worked in the front office and spent the past three-plus decades analyzing their games.

Broadcast partner Neil Funk joked that "Johnny was put on this Earth to torment me," and that "Johnny considered himself my other wife."

General manager John Paxson called Kerr "a very lovable man," and his love for life never seemed to waver, even though he endured some tough times. His son Jay died at age 3, and his wife Betsy died in October 2000.

In failing health, Kerr received the Basketball Hall of Fame's John W. Bunn Lifetime Achievement Award and saw the Bulls unveil a statue of him during an emotional halftime ceremony just more than two weeks before his death. That night, he told the crowd, "I want to thank everybody here in the audience who has seen the Bulls play not because of Red Kerr but because of Michael Jordan, Scottie Pippen and all the other people in the organization."

On Thursday, there were a few tears to go with the laughs -- and they were all for Kerr.

Al Bianchi joked that he earned a medal of honor for rooming with Kerr on the road during their years as teammates in Syracuse, then let his mind drift back to the Bulls' first tryouts.

He and Kerr walked into the gym and were shocked to find several hundred people "with old, beat-up sneakers and shoes who [looked like] they had just come from the farm."

"I say to John, 'What are we going to do?" said Bianchi, an assistant under Kerr. "He looked around and he said, 'Let's line them all up and have them count off by twos, and we'll send all the twos home.' And that's Johnny."

-TL-

Ramble On ... Pete Pays Tribute (Must Reading)

For the start of this Sunday's Ramble On, I am turning the keys of the car over to the great NY Post sports columnist Peter Vecsey. Through the magic of the wonderful computer world we share and the evil ways of the internet and its cut and paste pace, I am passing along my valuable space and your precious time to call attention to column that Peter knocked home this morning.

Here's the deal:

Earlier this week, after attending the memorial service for Joe Goldstein and hearing everything that Peter wrote below, I thought to myself that I needed to track down the exact wording of many of the stories told at Joey's service, especially Jeremy Schaap's remarks that REALLY struck home with me after the words and delivery brought many of us to tears of laughter.

So, what happens? You get too busy. You write some of it but need a sentence or two more that I couldn't quite remember word-for-word. What really happens? Time passes by and you go on to other pressing matters.

No, maybe it's better if you pick up the NY Post on Sunday. Each week, you are treated to column after column of Peter's work. I am sure he admits, some columns are better than others. I am sure he admits, he takes a step OVAH the line now and then. But, more often than not, you learn something about the game. (And, that is the highest compliment you can provide to someone at the typewriter or on the TV tube).

Read this and log on to the NY Post to get it in its full glory...As you read it, I encourage you to think about the people in your life that were a part of building you up. Do you keep in touch with them now that you are busy? Do you stop and make that extra call or go out of your way to change your itinerary to go and visit them on their turf.

Think about it.

At Joe’s memorial service Jeremy Schaap began his tribute saying, his (illustrious) father, Dick, had three wives and six children so “I wasn’t left much monetarily. But I did inherit Joey Goldstein.”

***

Here's Peter..

The headline was: Memorable Men: Goldstein, Gerage Were Two of the Greats

Two Fridays ago, I reached out to Joe Goldstein. The notable publicist and unofficial NBA encyclopedia had sent me a note a while back on Ossie Schectman, his Boca Raton buddy and earliest (1946-47) Knick. I promised his request would make the column the Sunday after the All-Star Game.

Then I asked Joe for a favor. That’s how we do. Sal Gerage’s health was plainly failing. I knew he and Joe went way back. Blanks needed to be filled re the virtuoso newspaper career of the first editor who took the time to critique my undisciplined copy, didn’t mutilate already-flimsy confidence and pushed me hard to cultivate what he felt was an original style.

It took all of one weekend for Joe to provide the answers. They had graduated from Seward Park High School just after D-Day (June 6, 1944). Senior year both had worked as copy boys for afternoon dailies.

Dissuaded by his father from following in his frozen footsteps at the Fulton Fish Market, Sal took a job at the World Telegram in the sports department. Joe was hired by the New York Sun. Six years later the two papers merged and became the World-Telegram and Sun.

“Sal became known as a wonder boy,” e-mailed Joe, who decided around that time to become a press agent, learning the nuances by hanging around Haskell Cohen, the NBA’s first PR man.

Meanwhile, Sal became a valued sports desk person, working the midnight-to-eight lobster shift and putting out the first edition.

“When the Journal American ceased publication, Sal became the Sports Editor of the mixed operation,” Joe reported. “This means he was the Sports Editor of the new, but not destined to survive paper. He was selected over Harold Claussen and Max Kase.

“The World Journal Tribune represented a fusion of seven newspapers—the Journal, the American, the Evening and Morning World, the Sun, Herald and Tribune. With the demise of the World Journal Tribune, Sal went to the Daily News, then owning a daily circulation of 2 million plus, as Brooklyn Editor, which included Queens and Nassau/Suffolk. For a time, he was Sports Editor.”

Last Wednesday, on my way to Phoenix for the All-Star Game, I called Joe in Florida to thank him for the newspaper history lesson and for setting Sal’s career straight sequentially.

Friday, Joe, 81, died after suffering a stroke and a heart attack. At last count, 44 articles celebrated his flamboyant life and chronicled his colorful client list that featured Smokin’ Joe Frazier, who attended Tuesday’s standing-room-only service with his son, Marvis.

Addressing Frazier, Robert, the oldest of Goldstein’s three boys, declared, “You’ll always be the greatest champion in our family. You didn’t dance, you didn’t hide. You came to fight three minutes of every round.”

Robert remembers his father introduced him to Washington Post sports editor George Solomon. “Later on he was familiarized with Joe’s press agent

Credo: “Even if you can’t respect the man, respect the paper he works for.”

At Joe’s memorial service Jeremy Schaap began his tribute saying, his (illustrious) father, Dick, had three wives and six children so “I wasn’t left much monetarily. But I did inherit Joey Goldstein.”

“Joey was connected everywhere, from Riyadh to the Rose Garden,” Jeremy continued. “When his good friend Kevin Sullivan (former Mavs and NBC PR person) became director of communications for president George W. Bush, Joe was invited to the 2007 White House Hanukkah party. How could there be a white house Hanukkah part and not Joey?

“As you’d expect Joey had a hot date….the very married, very pregnant Anna Tiven, who at the time was not yet thirty. When Joey and Anna were introduced to the president and the first lady, before the president could even extend his hand, Joey pointed at Anna’s stomach and said, loudly enough to be heard at the capitol.”I’m not responsible.”

‘To his credit, the president instantly replied., “I was kinda hoping you were.”

Some of Joe’s marquee accounts were Madison Square Garden, ESPN and The New York Marathon. One of his least likely clients was the kingdom of Saudi Arabia.

“The Saudis’ fondness for Joey was a testament to their pragmatism—and, of course, his as well,” Jeremy said. “Joey was an avowed Zionist, but, like the Saudis, he was also an avowed capitalist.”

Dick Schaap knew Joe for about 50 years. He covered the 1984 Olympics in LA and even wrote a book about those games, as well as every other sporting event and sports figure he ever laid his eyes on, for that matter.

“But the single most vivid memory my father took away from LA was not Mary Lou Retton on the horse, Edwin Moses in the hurdles or Carl Lewis in the sprints.

“It was Joe, who’d set up shop in the Saudi consulate in Beverly Hills, being paged on the consular P.A. by David Israel, and hearing words never uttered before or since in that particular diplomatic redoubt: ‘Mr. Israel, paging Mr. Goldstein. Mr. Israel, paging Mr. Goldstein.’”

Three days after Joe passed, Sal died peacefully at 5:30 (one minute shy of the number he played daily all his life) with his family by his bedside. He was buried yesterday minus any pageantry or virtual homage outside his immediate household.

This isn’t a grievance it’s simply circumstance. Unlike Joe who worked a big room until his dying day, Sal retired before the turn of the century and was all but forgotten. He knew the score and gracefully faded out of sight and mind.

“He used to tell me all the time, ‘when you’re out, you’re out.’ That’s the way it is,” understood his son Christopher...justly indicting an all too often self-aggrandizing profession and its subsidiaries that writes off those no longer of use to them.

That doesn’t mean Sal didn’t appreciate being appreciated. He was all smiles for weeks after John and Denis Hamill visited. Mark Kriegel’s call from Los Angeles greatly touched him. Phil Pepe came around. Joe Goldstein phoned.

There were other pupils and colleagues, of course, from the News, Post, Tablet and Sports Eye who tracked him down to pay their respects. Still, where was the heap of young writers he helped develop whose nothing stories were presented like Pulitzers?

Nobody was better at breaking someone in—starting him slow with a side bar, then a feature and then an assignment to a sport that few people paid attention to so mistakes could be made without causing much of a fuss or mortification.

Nobody but nobody was more gifted at laying out a page or creating clever headlines.

“That was Sal’s genius,” said Pepe, a renowned, now-retired sportswriter who started under Gerage as the World Telegram’s schoolboy editor. Paul Zimmerman followed. “I remember during the 1961 World Series, I wrote a story about Clete Boyer, who turned one game around with his defense. To illustrate the story, Sal used a picture of a glove and the caption read, ‘Clete Boyer…as the Reds saw him yesterday.’”

When Paul Hornung and Alex Karras got thrown out of football for betting on games they weren’t involved in Sal felt their punishment was too severe. Thus his editorial over the story: They Get Life For Passing A Red Light.

“Sal never had words with anyone his whole life,” his wife Mary said at the wake. No argument there. .

Not even with columnist Dick Young who used his juice as the News’ lead lure to get management to name him sports editor. Asked to stay and be second in command Sal stated, “I respect him but I can’t work for him.”

I swiftly seconded that emotion. Young kicked me out of the department soon after for bashing him on the radio concerning the Mets/Tom Seaver/M. Donald Grant controversy. My allegiance then was to Sal and that never changed. He was there for me when I didn't have a clue what I was doing. Never discouraging! Always encouraging!

That didn't mean Sal let things slide. He was very demanding. He knew what he wanted and knew what he wanted from his writers, yet remained open to suggestion and compromise.

Working for him was fun; you improved and your stature grew. Working for Sal must be what it’s like playing for Mike D'Antoni; he gives guys freedom to strut their stuff and doesn't get uptight about scrupulous misses or mistakes.

Before Sal rejected the slot, and I left for the Post break-dancing and rejoicing, I was involved in a prank that nearly got me suspended along with Dave Hirshey and Clint Roswell.

Billy Joel (Piano Man), Maria Muldour (Midnight at the Oasis) and another singer whose name I can’t recall had just come into their own. The allure of the sultry-voiced Muldour naturally stoked our passion to buy front row tickets for her first concert at Carnegie Hall. Wives and girl friends weren’t invited.

One line in one of Muldour’s sensual songs particularly grabbed us. Undulating to the beat of our quiver, she warbled, “It ain’t the meat, it’s the motion.”

Hirshey, Roswell and Vecsey made a bet that night: First one who could sneak those words by the desk and into print would get a night out on the town at the expense of the other two.
Two days later, we were summoned onto the carpet of the managing editor who was not amused. In our first try, covering three separate sports, the three of us had snuck Muldour’s steamy words past sleepy, sloppy late night copy readers.

Sal was furious we’d embarrassed the paper and his sports section. However, his debonair disposition allowed him to take a joke. He got his boys off the hook.

No two ways about it; I had a man-sized crush on Sal. Loved how we didn’t hesitate to show each other our faults. Fathers and sons do that all the time without being judgmental…complete acceptance for who are we are.

Loved how he brought his work home with him, instructing his young children to edit raw copy, crop pictures and write headlines and captions; shocking that Christopher, Annette, Camille and Loretta all joined the newspaper fraternity for varying amounts of time.

Loved Sal’s enduring loyalty for his wife of 52 years. No matter what, he was madly in love with Mary ‘till the end.

Loved watching 38 years of interaction with his famed hockey-playing grandson and their 20-year argument about who’d win their fantasy fight, Joe Louis or Muhammad Ali.

Moments before Sal died, Jimmy Vivona squeezed his hand and said, “Grandpa, you were a great example for me and for everyone else. I love you for that. You lived life the right way…and Joe Louis might’ve been able to knock out Muhammad Ali.”

Lastly, as promised, Ossie Schectman, 89, the first Knicks Captain, reversed the trend and is moving north (Tarrytown) because of health considerations for his wife, Evelyn, and his own.

He will live near his son Stu in Westchester. Ossie scored the first BAA (NBA) basket at 27 seconds (it is guessed) against the Toronto Huskies at Maple Leaf Gardens on Nov. 1, 1946.