I wonder where she is today. At this very minute, as you begin to read this column, Joan is probably walking along a Phoenix street, pushing a grocery cart that contains all she owns. “People don’t understand the hell of living on the street,” Joan says. She has been on…
That which does not kill us makes us stronger. sign above Charles Barkley’s dressing stall Here comes Charles Barkley. He seems almost eerily calm. It is 90 minutes before the start of last Sunday’s fifth and deciding game against the Los Angeles Lakers. The Suns’ locker room is quiet. On…
What if Fife Symington paid Annette Alvarez $1 million to have sex with him? What if Fife Symington paid you $1 million to have sex with him? What if Annette Alvarez paid Fife Symington $1 million to have sex with her? What if Ann Symington paid Fife Symington $1 million…
I remember: All season long, the writers came from all over, from Germany and France and even New York City. They came from the New York Times, The Sporting News, Sports Illustrated, Esquire, Newsday and the Chicago Tribune. In the NBA, it was like a visit to Mecca. They all…
This is the silent season for Suns fans. It is a time for gnawing doubt and fear. Charles Barkley’s shoulder injury has revealed more than Suns loyalists ever wanted to know about their team’s limitations. Here’s what it comes down to. Remove Barkley from the lineup, and the Suns are…
Perhaps it has finally ended. I have some irreverent and possibly unprofessional things to say about this haunting murder trial: All during Max Dunlap’s trial for the murder of Don Bolles, the Arizona Republic gave more space and more enthusiastic coverage in its news pages to the Rodney King case…
:I, for one, am going to miss Fife Symington. When he’s gone, there will be so many priceless and amusing incidents to remember. Take the latest tale, the one about the governor’s surprise birthday party. It was thrown for him by his wife, Ann, and his staff. It was set…
For almost a dozen years, arguably the finest independent bookstore in town has been Dushoff Books Ltd. in the shopping center at 32nd Street and Camelback. Last week a sign with a dreadful message appeared on the empty magazine rack near the front door. It informed Dushoff’s many faithful customers…
But most amazing of all: the expression on people’s faces as they look toward the press box in the middle of the seventh and watch the man sing the song. Remember the look of wonder, then the smile on Richard Dreyfuss’ face when he saw the actual aliens at the…
We proceed along the downhill path to wisdom. Already, the triumphal march upon Philadelphia is behind us. Renowned as the Bad Boy of the NBA, Charles Barkley was supposedly hated in the City of Brotherly Love. Instead, he was treated by his old fans as though he were General Charles…
1. Who will benefit from the Super Bowl’s coming to Tempe? It will be a fine thing for hotels, airlines, rental-car people and restaurants in Scottsdale. The average man need not expect any dramatic change in lifestyle. All of the available tickets will go to local politicians and business insiders…
On the talk shows, the right-wing zealots pretended they were not responsible for Dr. David Gunn’s murder. Over in Mesa, a place made famous by the incredible number of conservative pit bulls in residence, they brag about raising a defense fund for the admitted killer. Why not, they say? After…
Fantasy time is over. The joyous figures on the wedding cake have toppled. Reality has set in. Only those Phoenix Suns fans who dress themselves up in purple costumes from the company store in the America West Arena remain true believers. Success has turned the Suns into a complacent, overconfident…
It was none other than Bill Denney, the television sportscaster. With a great deal of nonchalance, Denney sauntered up the center aisle of Judge Norman D. Hall’s courtroom. He took his seat in the witness chair. Max Dunlap, the accused killer of Don Bolles, nodded his head like an avid…
It’s easy for me to remember the Phoenix Suns’ opening-night game this season. It was Charles Barkley’s first home appearance in a Suns uniform, and America West Arena was packed for the occasion. I hadn’t seen the Suns play in person for a couple of years. I became bored with…
Max Dunlap’s chair was squeaking. He signaled to the courtroom bailiff, who immediately came over and squirted WD-40 into the wheels. Then Dunlap, impeccably dressed, sat down again. You could see the whites come up on his knuckles as he gripped the chair’s arms. It was 9:12 on the morning…
I’m having breakfast in the cafeteria on the main floor of the Maricopa County Courthouse. Since I’m going to the Suns game that night, I’m sitting there checking the box scores of the previous night’s NBA games in USA Today. Al Sitter, for 20 years an investigative reporter for the…
The shameless selling and shilling of Shaquille O’Neal by the NBA is the clearest indication of panic I have yet seen by the men who run professional sports. Phineas Taylor Barnum at the peak of his promotional powers did not blow as many horns nor crash as many cymbals to…
Before the trial is over, defense attorney Murray Miller must convince the jury that the guilty man is not Max Dunlap but a sinister, alcohol-deranged lawyer named Neal Roberts. All of this will take more than three months in the courtroom of Judge Norman Hall. Prosecuting attorneys Fred Newton and…
Chuck Daly, who won two NBA titles with the Detroit Pistons, once said he always felt he had a three-day contract written in ice. On the other hand, his players were wealthy young men with long-term contracts worth millions of dollars. “But sometimes you’ve got to scream at them,” Daly…
A man called and asked if I wanted an exclusive interview with Max Dunlap. The conditions were unusual. I would meet with Dunlap, but I was not to tell anyone that he had talked to me. This was in 1990, during the waning days of Bob Corbin’s reign as Arizona’s…
I have to hand it to him. All these years, I thought Fife Symington was just another low-level hustler with an Ivy League veneer. I never figured him to possess either the gall or the imagination to become a real character. Now my hat’s off to him. J. Fife Symington…
