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To the east, Pegasus gallops into view
Found: 1 Day 10 Hours 44 Minutes ago
Boston Globe - Every season, every month, even every week of the year has its own particular arrangement of stars and constellations in the evening sky. Each of these shifting arrangements is as sure a sign of the calendar as autumn leaves, winter snow, or baking summer heat. More so, in fact - because the stars are immune to the vagaries of weather ......
Springfield welcomes Basketball Hall of Fame Class of 2008
Found: 1 Day 17 Hours 9 Minutes ago
Union News & Republican - NBA stars Patrick Ewing, Hakeem Olajuwon and Adrian Dantley led a star-studded Enshrinement class.Photo by Dave Roback / The RepublicanIncoming Basketball Hall of Famer Patrick Ewing appears on the steps of Springfield City Hall Friday with daughter Alexis, age 11 months. Photo gallery
More: Ceremony Photos | Ewing, Olajuwon forever linked
By RON CHIMELIS
rchimelis@repub.com
SPRINGFIELD - Growing up in Nigeria, Hakeem Olajuwon said he knew little about the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame.
As one of its newest members, Olajuwon said Friday he now knows what an honor has been bestowed upon him.
"I just played to win, but everyone knows how special it is to be mentioned as a Hall of Famer. I thank God for this blessing," said Olajuwon, one of seven members of the Hall's Class of 2008 inducted Friday night at the Hall of Fame.
He was joined in the spotlight by former NBA superstars Patrick Ewing and Adrian Dantley, coaches Pat Riley and Cathy Rush, broadcaster Dick Vitale and William Davidson, the owner of Detroit's two pro teams, the NBA Pistons and the WNBA Shock.
The glamorous group's careers have, in many cases, crisscrossed each other's. Riley won four of his five NBA titles with the Los Angeles Lakers, and the other in Miami, but also coached Ewing with the New York Knicks.
As two of the greatest centers in the history of basketball, Ewing and Olajuwon faced each other in nearly two decades' worth of big games.
It started in college, when Ewing led Georgetown to the 1984 NCAA title, and Olajuwon played for the University of Houston, which reached three straight Final Fours.
"Patrick was a very physical player, a player who earned the reputation of being tough," said Olajuwon, who savored entering the Hall of Fame in the same year as Ewing.
Ewing shared the sentiment.
"I have a lot of history with these guys - A.D. (Dantley), Dream (Olajuwon's nickname), and Pat Riley, my main man," he said.
"Growing up in Cambridge, I'd been to the Hall of Fame many times, but never in my wildest dreams did I think I'd be enshrined."
Ewing holds several all-time Knicks records. He said he is especially proud of ranking first in steals, a rare skill for a 7-foot center.
"When they announced that, I looked over to Riley and said, see?" Ewing said. "I don't think I always got credit for my defensive ability, for all the other things (besides scoring) I did."
Riley said Ewing was easy to coach.
"Patrick was maintenance-free," said Riley, who coached the Knicks from 1991-95. "He was a great leader by example."
Dantley not only scored 23,177 points in the NBA, one of the league's top 25 point totals, he won a gold medal with the 1976 U.S. Olympic team.
"For some reason, people always seem to talk about 1972, not 1976," said Dantley. The Americans lost the 1972 final to the Soviet Union, a game that ended with refereeing controversy that remains to this day.
"There was pressure on us in 1976 to beat the Russians," said Dantley, who led the gold-medal team in scoring. "But they lost in the semifinals, so we never got to play them."
Rush's selection rewards her success at Immaculata (Pa.) College, where in the early 1970s she turned the "Mighty Macs" into the first women's team with a national following.
"The nuns would beat the drums for them," said New York broadcaster Bob Wolff, recalling the excitement Immaculata brought to Madison Square Garden - and the spotlight Rush's teams gave the women's side of the sport.
As Pistons owner, Davidson fired Vitale in 1979. The deposed coach went into broadcasting, beginning a career which led to his election as a contributor.
Health issues have limited Davidson's participation in Hall of Fame activities. The 84-year-old executive was not able to attend Friday's public celebration on the steps of City Hall, where hundreds of fans and onlookers cheered the other new inductees.
"I'm an old-time fan; my favorites are Patrick and Hakeem," said Kevin S. Williams of Hackensack, N.J., who said he has attended the last 18 Enshrinements.
Susan Bennett of Wilbraham laughed as she referred to herself and her friend, Karen LaRocque of Ludlow, as "Springfield Symphony Orchestra groupies," but they know and love basketball, too.
"Pat Riley ... oh, my God," Bennett said as she spotted the coach.
"I'm an old Lakers fan from the 1980s, but I'm a big NCAA fan, too," LaRocque said.
Click here for a photo gallery from the event.
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GOP tips hat to Mitt Romney
Found: 2 Days 9 Hours 37 Minutes ago
Boston Herald - Former Gov. Mitt Romney will kick off the first meeting of the Republican National Committee after delegates formally appointed Sen. John McCain as their presidential pick.......
$400m gift makes center on genomics permanent
Found: 2 Days 14 Hours 4 Minutes ago
Boston Globe - A record-setting $400 million gift announced yesterday will provide financial permanence for the Broad Institute, a Cambridge genomics research center that in just four years has become a worldwide leader in the effort to unravel the genetic basis of diseases....
Woman hurt in fall during court ceremony
Found: 2 Days 14 Hours 7 Minutes ago
Boston Globe - A probate and family court judge's swearing-in ceremony was briefly disrupted yesterday when a woman apparently protesting a recent court decision fell from a second-floor balcony onto a staircase, landing in front of Governor Deval Patrick and other dignitaries....
Harvard cop fights racial profiling charge
Found: 2 Days 22 Hours 27 Minutes ago
Boston Herald - Harvard University police officer Theresa McAuliffe has spent the past decade teaching self-defense to women and patrolling the Cambridge school's hallowed grounds but......
Broad Institute gets $400 million gift from founders
Found: 3 Days 2 Hours 9 Minutes ago
Boston Business Journal - The Broad Institute of Harvard and MIT, a world-renowned genetics research operation founded just five years ago, has received an additional $400 million endowment from founding donors Eli and Edythe Broad....
Broads give $400M to MIT-Harvard biomed institute
Found: 3 Days 8 Hours 15 Minutes ago
WWLP 22 News - Associated Press - September 4, 2008 9:44 AM ET CAMBRIDGE, Mass. (AP) - Billionaire philanthropists Eli and Edythe Broad have announced they're adding $400 million to a joint biomedical venture......
Boston Music Fest aims to find Hub's best band
Found: 3 Days 21 Hours 41 Minutes ago
Boston Herald - More than 150 bands will perform at 11 venues during the second edition of the seven-day Boston Music Festival, which kicks off on Monday. For Revere-based rock band......
Garlic farm steadily grows in Salisbury backyard
Found: 4 Days 13 Hours 48 Minutes ago
The Daily News - SALISBURY and mdash; Whether it's imparting its savory goodness to food, lowering cholesterol, curing the common cold, boosting the immune system or just hanging on the bedpost warding off vampires, the blessings attributed to garlic have been extolled since ancient times when Egypt, Greece and Rome were the world's super powers....
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