Quote of the Day/Week-Larry Bird

First of all thanks to those of you in Armenia?!*, Nigeria and Venezuela who are checking out our blog today. In honor of the upcoming 2012 London Olympics, we are quoting American athletes who won gold or silver medals at previous Summer Olympics. Last month, we did quote athletes from other countries, just ask Belarusian gymnast Svetlana Boginskaya. (**and***).

We are going with NBA Boston Celtics great Larry Bird, 55, of French Lick, Ind., because he won a team gold as a member of the Dream Team in the 1992 Barcelona Olympics; he is also one of the two subjects in a brand-new Broadway play called "Magic/Bird," which depicts the rivalry and friendship between Bird and Los Angeles Lakers great Magic Johnson.

In an excellent April 23rd article in "The Washington Post" by Preston Williams, Tug Coker, 34, who plays Bird on stage was profiled. The native of Stafford, Va., relatively close to Washington, DC, and even closer to the historic city of Fredericksburg, Va., actually briefly played college basketball at William and Mary. Coker also had aspirations of being a big-time basketball player as a youth, so in a fitting irony, he ended up on Broadway instead.

As for Bird, he won won three NBA titles with the Boston Celtics during his career (1979-1992), including championships in 1981, 1984 and 1986. Bird is now an executive with the Indiana Pacers, a team that lost to the Miami Heat recently in the NBA playoffs. But, his old team, the Boston Celtics fared better as they won in Game 7 over the Philadelphia '76ers by an 85-75, with Rajon Rondo of the Celtics scoring 18 points. They will now face the Miami Heat in the Eastern Conference finals.

Here is Bird's quote:

"It doesn't matter who scores the points, it's who can get the ball to the scorer."

*-I am a Turkish-American, and there is a bit of a row between Turks and Armenians. I would go into more details, but I am not a history professor at Princeton University.

**-Yes, we seriously doubt that Boginskaya has time to read our blog; she is now reportedly a gymnastics coach in Houston, Texas.

***-We believe, however, that we did actually spell her name right!

Quote the Day/Week-Charles Barkley

Ahh, yes, we could be watching the film "Man's Favorite Sport (1964, dir. Howard Hawks) with Rock Hudson and Paula Prentiss right now on TCM, but instead, we are dedicating an entry with a quote from Charles Barkley, who was not the inspiration for the 1980s sitcom "Charles in Charge" with Scott Baio of "Happy Days" fame.

Today, we are starting a month-long series of quotes from American athletes who won gold or silver at the Olympics. And, even though Barkley's Phoenix Suns lost to his friend Michael Jordan's Chicago Bulls in the 1993 NBA Finals, the Auburn alum did win two gold medals in basketball at the 1992 Barcelona Olympics and at the 1996 Atlanta Olympics as part of the "Dream Team."

Barkley lead the Dream Team in scoring during the 1992 games when he scored 30 points in a 127-83 win over Brazil. Barkley was also involved in an ugly incident when he elbowed Herlander Coimbra from Angola, in a game that the Dream Team won by an overwhelming 116-48 margin. Some players from the other teams were reportedly so delighted to be on the same court with the likes of Barkley, Jordan and Magic Johnson, that that some of them actually, allegedly sought autographs from the Dream Team members after the game!

Barkley also played for the Philadelphia 76ers and the Houston Rockets during his NBA career; he is now a commentator for TNT.

Here is his quote:

"I don't think of myself as giving interviews. I just have conversations. That gets me in trouble."http://www.charlesbarkley.com

Special Quote of the Week- Magic Johnson

Since we quoted Larry Bird, we may as well quote his former rival and current friend Magic Johnson. The Los Angeles Lakers great shocked the world 20 years ago when he publicly disclosed that he was HIV-positive.

"The Washingtonian" has an excellent article in its current edition about how the HIV/AIDS epidemic affected the DC-Metro area in the '80s and '90s and how the recently deceased actress Elizabeth Taylor played a major role in getting then-president Ronald Reagan to publicly talk about the impending major problem at the time.

Here is the quote from Johnson:

"I tell you, it's funny because the only time I think about HIV is when I have to take the medication twice a day."