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Remembering a friend of the game
Greetings, Hoopheads. As a rule, writing my weekly Hoop Thoughts column should not be a serious endeavor. This week, however, I must make an exception. You see, I lost a friend last week -- and so did you, though you may not have known it. Therefore, if you'll grant me this chance to say a sad goodbye, I promise not to take myself -- or this game -- too seriously over the next four months, if only because Larry Donald wouldn't have had it any other way. Two weeks ago, I traveled to Chapel Hill, N.C., to work on the North Carolina scouting report I was assigned to write for Sports Illustrated's College Basketball Preview issue. It was one of those perfect North Carolina autumn days -- 80 degrees, no wind, not a cloud in the sky. On my way out of the Dean Dome, I happened to run into Larry Donald, the publisher, editor, senior writer and primary stamp-licker for Basketball Times, a monthly tabloid newspaper. Larry, who had come to the Dean Dome to interview Joseph Forte, looked tanned and fit and was in his usual good spirits, especially with the weather so great and the season about to get under way. "It's been like this every day for the last six weeks," he marveled, glancing skyward. We stood in the parking lot and chewed the fat for about 20 minutes, trading opinions and updates about a variety of teams as well as our many mutual friends in the profession. As a young (well, youngish) writer on the college basketball beat, I have always valued Larry Donald's vast knowledge and insights. Most of all, I've just plain enjoyed his company. I saw Larry again the following week -- only 10 days ago -- at Madison Square Garden. He had traveled north for the Coaches vs. Cancer Ikon Classic. When I spotted him in the press lounge I said, "This must be an important event if you're here." It was true. Along with guys like Jim O'Connell of the Associated Press and Dick (Hoops) Weiss of the New York Daily News, Larry was one of the acknowledged deans of the college hoops beat, a man who never acted as if covering this sport for a living constituted work. Larry and I sat together for a couple of the postgame press conferences and later bade each other a pleasant goodbye. "See you down the road," he said. Or so we both thought. Last Thursday, Larry collapsed suddenly and died while walking beside a golf course near his home in Pinehurst, N.C. Larry was just 54 years old. A month before, he had gone in for a routine physical and was given a clean bill of health. The cause of death is still murky -- it might have been a heart attack or a brain aneurism -- but the sense of loss felt by the national basketball community is all too clear. Larry Donald was, first and foremost, an eminently decent man, but he was also a first-rate journalist who loved this sport like few others. As Basketball Times associate editor Dan Wetzel put it, "The cruelest thing about it is that it happened just as the season was starting." Larry owned several sports publications, including Eastern Basketball, but Basketball Times, which he bought in 1980, was his true love. If you're not one of BT's 20,000 or so subscribers, then you are truly missing out. The paper lends a forum to dozens of the most authoritative voices in the game and provides in-depth coverage to schools and issues that are glossed over nearly everywhere else. Besides handling the business and organizational duties involved in running the tabloid, Larry penned two regular columns (including his "From The Publisher" essay that opened every issue) and wrote at least one major article per month. He was also fond of doing long interviews with the game's major movers and shakers. Running Basketball Times certainly didn't make Larry rich, but he loved it just the same. Larry's devotion to bettering the game was surpassed only by his devotion to bettering his profession. He was one of the driving forces behind the U.S. Basketball Writers Association, which today has almost 1,000 members, making it the largest organization of its kind in the country. (The best fringe benefit to being a member is the free subscription you get to Basketball Times.) Larry was the only person in the organization's 44-year history to serve as president for two terms (1986-88), and in recent years he has served as the editor of its Tipoff publication. In 1992, Larry was inducted into the USBWA's Hall of Fame, and in 1998, he was honored with the prestigious Curt Gowdy media award by the Basketball Hall of Fame in Springfield, Mass. I am sure the USBWA will find some appropriate way to honor Larry, but his work for that organization will be sorely missed. It's not easy to replace a franchise player. I know there are hundreds, perhaps thousands, of writers, coaches, players and administrators, both past and present, who reacted with the same shock and sadness as I did upon hearing that Larry Donald had died. Many of them knew him better than I, and each of us will remember him in our own way. For me, it will be how he looked during our impromptu meeting in North Carolina two weeks ago. I can still picture him that way, standing outside one of the game's greatest landmarks, a warm sun baking overhead, a smile curling beneath his mustache, his heart full of glee and gratitude for the arrival of a brand new season. Sports Illustrated staff writer Seth Davis covers college basketball for the
magazine and is a regular contributor to CNNSI.com. Hoop Thoughts will appear
each Monday throughout the college basketball
season.
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