EP339: Inspiration from Dad and Kerouac and From Hangtime to Primetime: The Rise of the NBA

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Call your local State Farm agent for quote today. This is Lee Habib and this is our American stories to show where Americans store and the American people to hear the podcast version show described on the iHeartRadio app forever. You get your podcast and now we hear from one of our regular contributors Paul Cox gives a tribute to his father in a brief history of American author Jack Kerouac hears all. I was listening to an interview on the radio discussing the need for the presence of fathers and dancing kids lives. I think back to my own dad who taught me many aspects of navigating life's daily concerns shared his own anecdotes of wisdom and challenged me to be better and he heard someone else tell him I was a good man that I possessed a certain trait.

He would often tell me is one example so-and-so told me you're a very fine teacher will direct praise is not as common in my own childhood at home until I later became a man, and my father was facing his own death. Do to a prolonged illness at the time in the late 90s I asked for some feedback on an incomplete dissertation dealing with learning styles and aptitude. He said you write like Jack Kerouac will on the road. One of Kerouac's finest works possess this kind of spontaneity that was valued by many.

Kerouac is generally considered to be the father of the beat movement, although he actively disliked such labels. Kerouac's method was heavily influenced by the prolific explosion of jazz, especially the bebop genre established by Charlie Parker and Dizzy Gillespie felonious and others leader Kerouac introduced ideas he developed from his Buddhist studies that began with Gary Snyder. He often referred to his style as spontaneous prose. Although Kerouac's prose was spontaneous and purportedly without edits. He primarily wrote autobiographical novel based upon actual events from his life and the people with whom he interacted. Interestingly enough, Kerouac spoke French with his family and began learning English at school around age 6, he began speaking it confidently in his late teens. He was a serious child who was devoted to his mother, who played an important role in his life. She was a devout Catholic and still this deep faith in both of her sons.

He later said she was the only woman he ever loved after his brother died, his mother sought solace, interfaith while his father abandoned it much to be said about Kerouac's upbringing in life exploits, but I was focused on my own writing and trying to finish this work where I had been stuck in a holding pattern. At the time I did not know who Kerouac was.

I had to look him up because it was a comment that came from my dad and I wanted to know the significance of this pronouncement, Kerouac. As mentioned before is recognized for his style of spontaneous prose like all of us had his fans and detractors you would've appealed to the beat generation. My dad said I was kind of worried because at the time I was stuck in my writing and did not think I would ever finish. Some believe that it times that Kerouac's writing style did not produce livelier energetic prose. The famous Truman Capote said of it that's not writing, it's typing it.

According to Carolyn Cassidy and others. He constantly rewrote and revised his work at the time of my father's comments I was encouraged because as I learn more about Kerouac. He had an attraction to the writing of Joyce. This is often overlooked by scholars of prose. Kerouac alludes to his choices work more than any other author.

Also, Kerouac had high esteem for Joyce and he often used his stream of consciousness technique appreciated. Experimenting with this language to but in this case, my discussions with my dad.

I was trying to finish this dissertation were stream of consciousness wasn't highly valued but the ability to make statements supported by varied literature where a clear methodology in your work is quintessential style of its own. I was grateful for this time and advice with my dad connected with this idea was this elimination of the. Substituting instead along connecting – as such, the phrases occurring between dashes might resemble improvisational jazz licks and when spoken the words take on a certain musical rhythm and tempo well in writing this I returned back to reflection of the influence my dad's comments had on me. My dad wasn't very generous in praise, but he was there in the background and could be a presence when I needed that extra push in the moment was right was my writing like improvisational jazz licks. Did they have a musical rhythm and tempo. Like many thought of Kerouac dad may not of been the one to go to all your games are events, see when you did something well or frequently comment on it. But when he did, it made an impact. I am indebted for this. He passed away in April 2000 and I still miss him. The words my dad had for me had an influence at the time I had to delve into Kerouac to bring to life. My dad's comments which seem incomplete and asking for and tapping when he fully meant I may never know the true extent and a great job on the production is always by Robbie Davis and a special thanks to Paul Cox and by the way we love doing listeners stories send them to our American stories.com and you may just hear your story on our airwaves and on our podcasts. My goodness, it shows once again we talk about a time again importance of fathers and sons and daughters lives in just this little discussion about a dissertation and spontaneity my leg. Not many people think of term papers and dissertations as spaces or spontaneity of the dad suggestion. The dads prodding moving his son forward and along his own path. Paul Cox's story and tribute to his father and one of his favorite American authors dear on our American story. We have been here, the host of our American stories everyday on the show were bringing inspiring stories from across this great country stores for big cities and small towns, but we truly can't do the show without you are stories are free to listen to, but they're not free to make if you love what you hear but our American stories.com and click the donate button a little of a lot, go to our American stories.com and millions will make Medicare coverage decisions for next year and United healthcare can help you feel confident about your choices for those eligible Medicare annual enrollment runs from October 15 through December 7. If you're working past age 65. You might be able to delay Medicare enrollment. Depending on your employer coverage.

It can seem confusing, but it doesn't have to be this@uhcmedicarehealthplans.com to learn more United healthcare helping people live healthier lives. I know everything there is to know about running a coffee shop for small business insurance. I need my State Farm agent make sure my business days typing call and confident the business owners to help you best.

State Farm is in your corner and on leg and a neighbor. There call your local State Farm agent for quote today doing household chores can Artie be time-consuming and tedious.

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We returned to our American stories. Founded in 1946 we consider the national basketball Association for the MBA to be a cultural icon, but it certainly didn't start off that way and it took the hiring of a man named Larry O'Brien to get on the path to being a serious organization there with the story of the rise of the MBA is a business is Pete Corrado, author of from hang time. The prime time taken away. The MBA in his early days in the 1940s, 1950s was really originally it was a league team for base in the Midwest and East Coast. The furthest team West was St. Louis, so it really was a regional league and was a league that really struggled for mainstream acceptance it for years it had trouble getting a favorable national television contract for years if played in arenas that really were antiquated.

A rundown knower close to the entertainment meccas that we see today was a second-tier professionally. They fought always been America's game's roots were established for years and years and years and the NFL had gained a foothold television thanks to the 1958 NFL championship game which was the league first overtime game. The MBA didn't have anything like that. It was really an afterthought to college basketball which was huge in 1950s and even to the home Globetrotters.

In fact, NBA games typically were the previews or the first act so to speak to Holland globetrotter came to college basketball game, especially New York City and if you replay her autobiographies or play biographies from the 1950s 1960s and 70s. A lot of these players had second jobs you know they had other business interests. They were making exorbitant salaries, you know now if you sign a professional contract as a highly touted rookie with any of the four major sports you're pretty much set for life back then that wasn't the case. So the MBA in 1940s 50s even in the 1960s was a league that was looking for relevant it was looking for a foothold into America sporting culture the MBA need to make a leap to become legitimate and by putting lie O'Brien in that position. It is the first step toward saying hey were a business, we mean business lie. O'Brien was a major factor in democratic national politics. He was somebody who as time goes on. I think we forgot what political figure who was in the 1950s in the early 1970s, the Larry O'Brien was part of JFK's Irish Mafia evasively help Jeff take it to the White House. He was on the plane coming back from Dallas after JFK was assassinated. After that he was a member of Lyndon B. Johnson cavities Postmaster Gen. and after that he was the chairman of the Democratic National Committee, Eddie for two terms. The cover of Time magazine, so he was somebody who was a major, major figure in national politics lie O'Brien.

By the time 19 the mid-1970s roll around. He had become a relic he's retired. For the most part he is somebody who is really looking for something to do and when to Walter Kennedy decides that he's had enough being dandies Commissioner. He looks to lie O'Brien. He preached that a lie.

O'Brien specifically asked him to take over, and behind says no because here's the thing, now when someone is elected to be the Commissioner of a of a sports league that is a clear pinnacle for Roger get out the NFL for Rob Manfred at Madeley baseball Gary Bettman at the NHL.

That is a pinnacle when you dive the leader obituary with the fact that you are the commission of any child. Madeley baseball for lie O'Brien. This was a step down so we MBA really courted him because for two reasons.

First, they knew that he was a basketball fan because he was someone who grew up watching the Celtics get season tickets to the next blurb I was all somebody was going to give the league instant credibility and the MBA. Ultimately, one lie O'Brien over after numerous attempts because they convinced him look, you'll have absolute power here.

This isn't going to be a real figurehead position you have to be able to do things here will be able to make decisions and carry out policy, you'll have impact and his election as Commissioner His Highness Commissioner was significant for two reasons. First, he gives the MBA as I mentioned before instant credibility. This is a league that was really struggling for national relevance. It was struggling to become a player and Larry O'Brien give the MBA cachet. It was headline news that he was that he was the MBA commission may people take notice. So there is that in the second thing is is that he brings order to the empty the heads of the MBA before lie.

O'Brien brief Karloff and J. Walter Kennedy became of age. The they were ingrained in the MBA outside influence and lie. O'Brien came in and he was not associated with the MBA. He didn't have allegiances.

He was somebody just wanted what was best for the so he came in with no biases. He was his own man and he also had the ability the ability to manage lie. O'Brien ran the best meetings and that may not sound like much but you have to understand that meetings before in this in the 50s and 60s were contentious bickering affairs, like a Thanksgiving dinner with different political opinions being penny back and forth so Larry O'Brien coming in existing look this what were doing were just convict on last acts. It doesn't sound like much, but for a league that couldn't get out of its own.

It wish you this really comes across in the NBA's absorption of the aviation American Medical Association because Larry O'Brien. No just want to get the deal done and one wanted to leave for meeting to try and figure out how to to absorb and what money should change hands.

You know that the meetings are going on and on a 1976 and in the closing days are O'Brien just says to the owners look up or down, meaning we could stay here and bicker about these contracts or take the money, get a new plane cash or checks and make make a small fortune before the days and and for the PBA which had a lot of bankrupt owners and financially struggling owners lab. I was able to just distill their problem into a simple question up or down and Natalie and being in the end he needed someone to just get down to the brass tacks of running a business, but one of his greatest gifts was somewhat policy enacted or edicts that handed down.

He did his fair share what Larry O'Brien did was he recognized talent and he could delegate and one thing that he is that he hired a young lawyer who was outside counsel for the MBA named David Stern and he bought him in as a second and David Stern later went on to become the MA Commissioner and in my mind is the most influential sports Commissioner of the last 50 so lie O'Brien's ability to recognize David Stern as somebody who could do the dirty work who could get to know the GM's and the team owners and the union representatives having David Stern clear a path and basically get a five year start to become the Commissioner of the MBA that was Larry O'Brien greatest legacy and I think that's why he is one of the most overlooked figures in the rise of the listening to Pete Corrado telling the story of the MBA and what's so interesting about this take is is looking at it from a business angle. No business of sports. No sports, no business of entertainment. No entertainment in the 40s and 50s.

While the league didn't extend past St. Louis. Good luck with the TV contract in the old days, NBA players had summer job and then comes Larry O'Brien and then comes David Stern is second in command when we come back more of the remarkable story of the MBA with Pete Corrado, author of from hang time to prime time here on our American Stern soup millions will make Medicare coverage decisions for next year and United healthcare can help you feel confident about your choices for those eligible Medicare annual enrollment runs from October 15 through December 7. If you're working past age 65. You might be able to delay Medicare enrollment. Depending on your employer coverage. It can seem confusing, but it doesn't have to be this@uhcmedicarehealthplans.com to learn more United healthcare helping people live healthier lives. I know everything there is to know about running a coffee shop for small business insurance.

I need my State Farm agent make sure my business days: incompetent business owners to help you best. State Farm is in your corner and on my neighbor call your local State Farm agent for quote today doing household chores can Artie be time-consuming and tedious. And there's nothing more daunting and facing piles and piles of laundry that need to be done can be overwhelming for anyone.

If you want to get those larger laundry loads down right and get back to your life. Try all three clear maggot packs all three clear mega packs are bigger packs two times the cleaning ingredients compared to a regular pack so that you can tackle any laundry load without the worry all three clear maggot packs are also 100% free of perfumes and dyes and their dental and skin which is great for any family sensitive skin needs my family. We definitely have sentence again the next time the whole family gets home from long vacation or you get the kids back from summer camp or whatever the situation as that's cause this big pile of dirty clothes is not all three clear maggot packs purchase all three clear maggot packs today and conquer any laundry load for all fabric types, and we returned to our American stories and the story of the MBA. We last left off NBA Commissioner Larry O'Brien fed hired a young lawyer by the name of David Stern to be his second in command and Stern himself would soon take over Larry's job changing the MBA forever your again is Pete Corrado larva was one of those bosses where it came at 9 o'clock.

He went to his office, shut the door and you saw the 5 o'clock David Stern was everywhere he was at the arena as he was talking to the GM's. He was talking to the rest he was talking to the network that aired NBA games so every week. David Stark would go on a conference call with the broadcast crew at USA Network. The cable station that aired NBA games and there's one meeting where David Stern says look guys focus on the stock were about the records.

Don't worry about who's going who's losing focus on the star if it's a terrible matter. Was he the clippers are playing the Celtics.

Let's say focus on don't have a check on the account there folks that people know and that to me was David Stern's genius was that he was able to recognize that to generate interest. He had identify ways for Joe and Jane public to watch a fast bulging beyond two minutes and that was the stars that was with Magic Johnson and Larry Bird and Julius Irving focus on them and that star system is what sustains the NBA sustained today. That is the return and it comes about in a number of ways.

Verse is the skeleton of MBA, which is what David Stern creates so MBA in him becomes this sort of archive of game footage and player interviews and all this material gets called into halftime features and advertisements that extol the best and brightest of the empty later on.

MB entertainment takes all this footage that they stored from games and and whatnot an intranet into videos highlighting players so you have a Michael Jordan videocassette have a Magic Johnson videocassette yellow. I reverberated David Stern partners with the television stations facility with CVS and comes up with a game plan each game with you have at least two players I got to the casual band want to see. They want to see stocks held and covered.

You also have NBA properties, which again is David Stern led development which focuses on apparel that focuses on players. Players faces what they do. So you know if that is getting a 76ers T-shirt Irvington. Charles Barkley is getting a Magic Johnson or a Magic Johnson sweatshirt.

So it is a multipronged attack that David Stern and it all comes down to the players because think of it this way, kids. I think get their sports right from their grandparents from their family from allegiances. If you are somebody who is getting in the MBA has a low like I will. I had parents who were not really not not really sports fans.

My parents didn't know what Hannah baseball for the gravity for players then comported and if you know the players through commercials. If you highlight their best attributes like Magic Johnson smiled for a live birth competitiveness you are going to win people over, and it also helps if you work with a television network like CVS CBSSports that knows how to frame the gains television when you have magic versus Larry your not just focusing on these two great players you're focusing on the two sterling franchise in the MBA and the Boston Celtics and the Los Angeles Lakers you're focusing on East versus West and you're turning all those components into a narrative that anybody can get so the NBA finals. Any NBA game is just a sporting event becomes an episode of television, where the same way that if you want to television pilot you get the character's storyline and you get no happy ending or ending the same thing happens with NBA games on CPS you get a beginning, middle and end. Get a flash introduction you caught up with me with where things are and then you get a game that is filmed almost like a movie with quick cuts and close-ups and reaction shots. You get personality into the game and that personality bleeds through every product whether the VHS tape with T-shirt does matter what it is because as David Stern said it's not what people think about you is how they feel about that is the mantra of the MBA. It is an emotional lead and that is the lifeline for the NBA's story for success over the past 3540 but Marvin Gaye's national anthem at the 1983 MBA off the Los Angeles to me is a pivotal point in the ending because that's when the MBA became the world's cool sport. You have to remember that for the longest time, the national anthem was performed in a very straightahead fashion but Marvin Gaye's national anthem comes at the right time when hip-hop is making its ways in the American culture and also a major cultural figure, Marvin Gaye, Motown and sexual healing seen the song and is also the sign that the MVA wasn't in a play by the rules of the NFL. Obviously baseball it was going to do it because here was an unabashedly African-American version of that song that reflected who was on the court. You had a majority of aftermarket players, but it also represented what you saw on the court. Her style of play that national anthem. If anyone hasn't heard it is a soulful stirring rendition that incorporates R&B, gospel singing over a prerecorded reflected what the MBA was and what it could. It was a cool sport. It was in the sport for your mom and your dad and your grandma and grandpa. It was sport that was for the cool kids at the table for that further the teenagers for the young American who wanted different that one was that belonged to and that national anthem set the stage for everything that happened afterward in the NBA's cultural history because it was defiantly nontraditional, but in a way that was entertaining and fun and exciting different for any young sports fan growing up in that era, and afterward that's with the MBA representative for South Africa representing different players look different. They carry themselves in a different way of thinking was filmed differently.

The players did things differently. They talk differently. That anthem also change the way the MBA organize a false argument became more than just versus West very best for my it also became. What can we do to give the audience the best time possible. So Marvin Gaye in a lot of ways launch a business revolution and even listening to Pete Corrado tell a heck of a story about the MBA. There were huge hoops friends in my house when I was a kid I did Bobby Knight's camp captain of my high school basketball team twice to hear the story told so well by someone like Pete log brings back a lot of memories when we come back more of Pete Corrado on the story not only Larry O'Brien but how David Stern helped turn the MBA into the cool game. The cool thing in American culture. Millions will make Medicare coverage decisions for next year and United healthcare can help you feel confident about your choices for those eligible Medicare annual enrollment runs from October 15 through December 7.

If you're working past age 65. You might be able to delay Medicare enrollment. Depending on your employer coverage. It can seem confusing, but it doesn't have to be this@uhcmedicarehealthplans.com to learn more United healthcare helping people live healthier lives. I know everything there is to know about running a coffee shop for small business insurance. I mean, my State Farm agent make sure my business days. Cool and confident business owners to help you best. State Farm is in your corner and on neighbor call your local State Farm agent for quote today doing household chores can Artie be time-consuming and tedious. There's nothing more daunting than facing piles and piles of laundry that need to be done can be overwhelming for anyone. If you want to get those larger laundry loads down right and get back to your life. Try all three clear maggot packs all three clear mega packs are bigger packs two times the cleaning ingredients compared to a regular pack so that you can tackle any laundry load without the worry all three clear maggot packs are also 100% free of perfumes and dyes and their dental and skin which is great for any family sensitive skin needs my family. We definitely have sentence again the next time the whole family gets home from long vacation or you get the kids back from summer camp or whatever the situation as that's because this big pile of dirty clothes. All three clear maggot packs purchase all three clear maggot packs today and conquer any laundry load for all fabric types returned to our American stories in the final segment on the rise of the national basketball was last left off Pete Corrado, author of from hang time to prime time telling us about how David Stern Marvin Gaye television drama of the MBA and its superstar players launched into the success it is today. The MBA was a high point. They were about to partner with the growing cultural force that would take them even higher. Here again is Pete Corrado the MBA really started to become a mainstream force in 1979 with the arrival of Magic Johnson 1929 is also the year that rappers delight.

It's the airwaves And the Will Is a Youth Culture, Especially the Youth Culture in the 1980s and Early 90s. The MVA Has Always Been about Doing What Was Relevant and a Tradition That It Has No Credit so Partnering Hip-Hop with the MBA or Rather the MBA Partner Was Really a No-Brainer. Hip-Hop Has a Youthful Audience That Has Money to Spend and Once When the New Doesn't Want to Seem Old Thing Doesn't Want They Don't Want to Listen to Mick Jagger. The One Stuff They Don't Want to Hear Stories of Mickey Mantle and Jim Brown They Want What's New NBA's Partnership with Hip-Hop Was a Match Made in Is Also Because Hip-Hop Really Started As a Byproduct of City Culture.

Basketball Is Very Much a City Game, They Did Take Place. Gymnasiums Obviously Did Take Place in the Suburbs but Basketball's Biggest Implicit Is in the City You Don't Need Much Room to Put up a Basketball Court. You Don't Need Much Room to Put Even a Hoop. The Game Really Was a Way for City Kids Assimilated American Culture, Procedures, and African-Americans, so It May Seem Unusual That the Enemy to Partner with Hip-Hop but Really It's Not As the MBA Is Becoming Youthful Leave That's Going Mainstream Thanks to Stars like Michael Jordan and Magic Johnson Hip-Hop Is Enjoying the Same Renaissance MTV Soft Playing Rap Videos Rat Starts to Mimic with courses and books and also incorporate elements of rock, for example, walk this way you fight for right departing those songs have that young thing get into even if they don't like. It's different.

It's the new rock 'n' roll. And that's that.

The also have artists that now are really more like entertainers, Smith family have God help us analyze the all kinda coming to that era. So as any of the property that also generates a line of culture and a line of clothing that specifically sneakers that hooks not only the young audience, but the players so it is a natural marriage of the two go hand-in-hand. Even to this day and all the forces aligned with with Michael Jordan and with Nike and with the market and here's why for a number of the MVA stars were always total help model citizens serving thinking packages, team oriented stars such as Magic Johnson and Larry Bird part of arrival for they were just more so Michael Jordan comes along with this, you that is courting potent band by the MVA. It doesn't look like an issue you ever seen it's gotten white, black and red is completely formed and they have Michael Jordan who embodies the spirit of the chief because he is a soloist. He is not part of a team not established. He is brand-new is marketed as a rebel by going over players by putting the ball in the hoop in ways that many people have not seen and play. He's in a short a player and he is somebody that looks good on these extremely attractive he's amendable height of 6 foot six. He is a matinee idol for basketball.

So all those things come to And current issue into cultural force is not just the shoe you are flying the necking inversion of the leather jacket for the Davey Crockett and when it's embraced by not only basketball petrified hip-hop artists by city kids by whomever and when clothing comes out to match the shoe the cat out of Michael Jordan really represents the beginning of the fact of the of the sneaker clothing fashion trend in popular culture. I think because he was somebody who who you could represent who you could aspire to be. Just by wearing shoe and if your teenager and you want to be rebellious.

It's very easy to talk up $65 $100 hundred $50 to become rebellious to become part of of of a movement, especially that movement is represented by somebody who is as was a brilliant player of Michael Jordan is a very easy Association to make, and process so if you want to be like Steph Curry or Kevin Durant for government Kari Irving buying their shoe buying their pal is a way to get close and Michael Jordan is a start. DMA now is a global business. I mean it is. It is worth billions and billions of dollars and it has thousands of employees across the globe. It is constantly trying to so it's ease of development in different areas of the world. I mean, I think Africa is now the latest continent to come under the NBA's perfect so it is greatest is now this behemoth and the MBA is part of our part of her life, whether online or watching TV minutes.

I think most people know know who Lebron James is the rent is there cultural institutions. I think we forget that the MVA wasn't always like this. The MVA wasn't always a colossus in international costs.

What's amazing to me that the MVA we see today about because the efforts of people log basketball just love the MVA. Lovely could these are people that just work tirelessly to elevate the game. Love passion about Jeremiah Brian Larry heard Magic Johnson, Jordan, but the NBA's Rockies is the result of so many people that have fallen into the cracks of history, men and women like Paul Gilbert I just don't think it had shaker filing development. Men and women who who work tirelessly and sacrifice and some embarrassments to turn the MVA into a part of our lives, their efforts have been have been forgotten and it's a crying shame MVA's rise to success didn't come about because of Michael Jordan, David Stern, Larry Bird and it's a story of dozens and dozens of people working together to create what was seated in a great job on the production by Monty Montgomery and a special thanks to author Pete Corrado's book from hang time to prime time is available on Amazon and the usual suspects. What a story it tells and it starts early. Baseball is America's pastime football. Second, by the way 50s, but it took Larry O'Brien, David Stern and a bunch of others to put the MVA on the map, and indeed it took some great players to Bird and Magic also combining with rap music in this remarkable remarkable merger of cultural forces.

The partnership between the two. A match made in heaven. As Pete said, then came Jordan Nike in the market. Let's face it, Jordan was a matinee idol, a master salesman virtuoso performer and the MVA turned into a pop culture force. Indeed, my own daughter. Reagan Christmas one of the Nike blue North Carolina.

Jordan's proving that he still in the MVA. Still a cultural force. The story of the MVA here on our American story