Basketball is the most difficult of the traditional American sports to write about. The ball moves too fast to describe. There are not just a half-dozen important plays; there are hundreds. Sometimes, dazzling bits of showmanship follow each other in a breathtaking series of acrobatic events that shifts constantly from…

The biggest challenge the prosecution faces in pursuing the Don Bolles murder case is that time may have finally drained all passion from what was a shocking crime. Nevertheless, prosecutors Fred Newton and Warren Granville have been working through mountains of documents and interrogating hundreds of witnesses for two years…

Each afternoon, just before the sun went down, Eva Byington, our neighbor, came out to water her lawn and flower beds. She had lived at the corner of Ninth Avenue and Latham for decades. “The weather is wonderful,” she would say. “It was never this good back in Ohio. I…

By now everyone in town has seen the television footage of Charles Barkley climbing over the scorer’s table in New York’s Madison Square Garden. The film shows the pride of the Phoenix Suns acting in what is clearly a state of the highest dudgeon. At the apex of his trek…

1. There’s a clear signal President Bill Clinton might give during his inaugural address. It would diminish the fears of those who voted for him, because they believed him when he promised he was going to be the agent of change. First, Clinton could assure everyone that the bombing of…

As a writer, all you can do is pick a street and go for the ride, putting things down as they come at you. –Tim O’Brien, The Things They Carried Judge Gregory Martin leaned forward in his chair. Martin enunciated each word with great care. The young man standing before…

I usually don’t look upon anything Charles Barkley says as being especially prophetic. I should have listened to him the other night, though. “We had a perfect month,” Barkley said after the Suns had won their 14th straight game. “Now the season starts for real. It’s gonna be tough.” I…

For all you television-football fans, let’s get this straight first. Joe Bugel’s the one hunched over on the sidelines with the greased black hair and the headphones. He calls all those dumb plays during the Phoenix Cardinals games. And, yes, he’s the guy most responsible for losing the games. And…

You’re Kevin Johnson, once a spectacular performer. But now you must hear the whispers that the Phoenix Suns are a better basketball team without you. At this point, you don’t know how much longer it will take before your various physical ailments will allow you to return to the lineup…

Paul Rubin’s book about jazz musicians is clearly a labor of love. Constructed in the form of interviews with 22 outstanding musicians, it takes the genre made famous by Studs Terkel to a higher level of performance. Readers of New Times, familiar with Rubin’s work as one of the most…

This scene I am not likely to forget. Peter MacDonald, at one time the most honored and powerful Indian in North America, was being sentenced in a federal courtroom in downtown Phoenix. Everything that takes place in the federal building has an ominous ring to it. No television cameras are…

And–and–what comes next? –Buddenbrooks, Thomas Mann Sir Charles Barkley smiled. His eyes twinkled. That fierce warrior look vanished. But that does not mean his guard was lowered. “You guys don’t know anything about basketball,” Barkley said. “And it’s you people, who really know nothing, that are picking us to win…

Shortly before four o’clock last Sunday afternoon, Michael Jordan strode onto the floor of America West Arena for the first time. The cavernous place, which would later seat more than 19,000 fans, was empty. There was an eerie quiet. People who work the concessions were just starting to arrive. It…

Traffic is light as I drive north on I-17 from downtown. I spot the Woodstone Apartments on the right side of the highway. I know I’ve arrived when I see the big, block letters on the wall of the 700-apartment development. They read: Intelligent Living Intelligent Minds As I turn…

The temperature was below freezing. It was one of those Chicago winter days when the sky comes up slate gray and the sun never appears. I was one of a group of reporters and photographers who were all huddled against the wind at the entrance to the old Chicago Coliseum…

I got to America West Arena almost two hours early last Saturday night. It was the opening of the Charles Barkley era in Phoenix Suns’ basketball. Outside, the sidewalk was jammed with fans. Traffic crept and horns honked constantly as the garages and parking lots filled. It was a carnival…

I don’t have the opportunity to listen to local radio broadcasting teams all over the National Football League. But I’d guess that the current radio team broadcasting the Phoenix Cardinals games over KTAR-AM comes close to ranking as the league’s worst. First of all, they are an absurd trio of…

“Where’s Johnny Johnson?” a man asked. “Don’t bother,” a friendly photographer said. “He won’t talk.” “You’re kidding,” the man said. “He just played a hell of a game.” “We tried to get him as he came off the field,” said the TV camera operator. “He said he won’t talk.” Johnny…

You’re John McCain, who put yourself up for sale from the first moment you were elected to Congress. You were sent there to represent Arizona, but you had larger plans and they included only yourself. Inside, in the place where a man keeps the trophies of his life, you can…

I was startled the other day to see Red Barber’s photograph in the New York Times. He had been the voice of the Brooklyn Dodgers when I was a kid growing up in New York City. I remember so clearly his calm Southern drawl helping me to keep my own…

Tell the real John McCain story and you indict the entire political system. It is not a pretty story. No one really wants to know. I truly believe that if you spelled it out so people could really understand the McCain phenomenon, few would thank you. Instead, they would probably…