A vote for 1970s Louisiana high school basketball

       This is a subject that is going to have a limited audience, and it's not exactly timely. But for fans of basketball -- specifically, high school boys basketball in the state of Louisiana -- here is a history lesson.

     And a premise: For Louisiana high school hopes, nothing beats the 1970s. Yes, six decades ago for greatness.    

     We've done the research (it took days) and we'll put it out there. The competition is stiff; Louisiana has a helluva history for athletic talent, and you could pick any of the last six decades -- through today -- as the best for basketball and not be wrong (it's subjective). 

      But we'll take the '70s.

      Admittedly, we're partial, having covered -- for Shreveport's newspapers -- seven state tournaments in those 10 years. Saw some great players then, and the idea for this blog came from two early 2021 developments:    

      (1) The selection and upcoming (delayed) induction of Louis Dunbar to the Louisiana Sports Hall of Fame;

      (2) An "SEC Storied" production on the SEC Network on the 1978 Kentucky NCAA men's basketball championship team that included Rick Robey.

      Dunbar and Robey. Big men in a big time. With plenty of '70s company ...    

     Start the list with Robert Parish, and yes, he's a personal favorite, with close ties to the schools where he played (Woodlawn High, Centenary College).  

     Ask me, and I'll tell you Robert is the best player to come out of a Louisiana high school (certainly the best 7-footer). The most regular-season games played by anyone ever in the NBA over an astounding 21 seasons, four NBA championships (with an assist from Larry Bird and Michael Jordan), the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame.

    And, yes, I know that puts Robert above Bob Pettit, Willis Reed, Elvin Hayes, Karl Malone, Joe Dumars and others in my estimation.   

     Watching the SEC story on Robey was a reminder of his unique achievement: state champion (Brother Martin in New Orleans, 1974), NCAA champion (Kentucky) and NBA champion (with the Celtics). Doubt any player in Louisiana history can match that.

    (Reminder, too: Robey (6-foot-11) was a backup center to Parish for five years with the Celtics.)

    As I've written before, several times, Dunbar --a high school and college rival of Parish's -- was the most versatile, most talented Louisiana high school player I've seen. At 6-foot-8, he could, and did, play anywhere on the court; he was a Magic-like point guard and the future Globetrotters "clown prince," player personnel director and coach.

     The start of the 1970s also gave us the greatest scorer in high school basketball in the country to that point: Ebarb's Greg Procell, the rapid-fire hot shot 6-foot guard whose 6,702 points (1966-70) included the 100-point night he had against Elizabeth on January 29, 1970.     

      What a start to the decade that was.

      Louisiana high school basketball, we would guess, has improved by the decade as players are bigger and stronger. Personally, I can't say for sure because we've been gone from there for more than three decades. 

     But here is a major reason why the game grew -- and was so much fun to watch -- in the 1970s: full integration.

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      The 1969-70 school year was the last year of operation for the Louisiana Interscholastic Athletic and Literary Association (LIALO), the all-black schools' organization which had existed for decades and included some 185 schools.

      There was some newspaper coverage of the LIALO, but for the most part, its championships were conducted in a separate -- and not as publicized -- setting. 

     The last LIALO championships -- state basketball tournament in March -- were in 1970. Parish, then a sophomore at Union High in Shreveport, played there. But we didn't get to see any of the sensational Parish vs. Dunbar (Union vs. Webster High) battles in 1969-70. We only read about them.

      Because some students (and athletes) transferred from all-black schools to mostly white ones -- these were majority-to-minority transfers -- and because New Orleans private schools were beginning to integrate, the Louisiana High School Athletic Association (LHSAA)  state basketball tournaments in 1969 and 1970 included talented players such as Collis Temple of Kentwood, Skip Brunet and Dale Valdery of St. Aloysius/Brother Martin, Melvin Russell of Woodlawn and Jeff Sudds of Captain Shreve.

     That was just a preview of what was to come.  

     By the fall of 1970, the great majority of the LIALO schools were either closed or reduced to middle schools, and with that came the full influx of black athletes into LHSAA schools. Plus, the all-black schools that remained open moved to the LHSAA, too.

     All of a sudden, the game became faster and played much more above the rim. Dunks were rare before integration; afterward, there were some rim-rattlers ... and crowds going nuts about them.

       My opinion: Other than in New Orleans -- especially at the Catholic League schools -- and at the smaller, rural, non-football-playing schools (Class B and C) around the state, the ones where teams could play 50-60 games a season, with a dozen tournaments -- basketball was a secondary sport in Louisiana high schools through the decades ... until perhaps the mid-1950s. 

       But it began changing at the larger schools for several reasons: (1) bigger gyms were built and opened -- for example in Shreveport at Byrd and Fair Park late in 1956; (2) more basketball-specific coaches took over programs, rather than just football assistants as caretakers; and (3) more players whose main sport was basketball and who weren't just playing another sport after football season ended.

     The biggest step, though -- and we've written about this (https://nvanthyn.blogspot.com/2020/03/louisianas-marsh-madness-was-magic.html) -- was the start of the state basketball tournament, the Top Twenty, in 1961. 

      That took the last two rounds of the state playoffs from the smaller home gym to the big stage where the fans got 3-to-5 days of championship basketball.

      Can't judge what high school basketball coaching is like these days. Can tell you, state-wide, it was high caliber in the late 1950s, 1960s and 1970s.

        Another big step was master motivator Dale Brown taking over the LSU men's coaching job in 1972-73, tirelessly promoting the game state-wide and eventually being able to recruit many of the state's top stars to play for the Tigers instead of heading elsewhere.

     But through the late 1950s, 1960s and into the 1970s, the Louisiana state colleges had outstanding coaches/promoters, too: Ralph Ward, Fred Hobdy, Orvis Sigler, Lenny Fant, Cecil Crowley, Billy Allgood,  Scotty Robertson, Beryl Shipley, Tynes Hildebrand, Don Landry, Benny Hollis.  

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    Below is the list of the state's best high school boys basketball players, by decades (these are based on their senior years). We don't have space for detail on their careers). But we'll list the most prominent ones first.

    Please remember: This does not include such names as Bill Russell, Clyde Drexler and Marques Johnson -- all born in Louisiana but long gone by the time they were in high school. 

    Nor does it include some of the all-time Louisiana college greats such as Pistol Pete Maravich, Shaquille O'Neal, Chris Jackson (Mahmoud Abdul-Rauf), Mike Green, Bill Reigel and Dwight Lamar. All were imports from out of state.

     We are going to start with the 1970s, because that's our No. 1 choice. But we, in particular, loved the 1960s (my high school decade), and the 1980s are pretty darned strong, too. 

    If you want a starting five currently active in the NBA, here are Paul Millsap, D.J. Augustin, Garrett Temple, Robert Williams III and Skylar Mays.

     Take your pick of decades.

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1970s

   Robert Parish (Woodlawn-Shreveport); Louis Dunbar (Webster-Minden); Calvin Natt (Bastrop); Rick Robey (Brother Martin-New Orleans); Larry Wright (Richwood-Monroe); Orlando Woolridge (Mansfield); Mike Sanders and John Rudd  (DeRidder); Bruce Seals (Booker T. Washington-New Orleans); Kenny Simpson (Fair Park-Shreveport); Collis Temple (Kentwood); Greg Procell (Ebarb); Aaron James (Cohen-New Orleans); Edmond Lawrence (W.O. Boston-Lake Charles); Kenny Natt (Bastrop); Jeff Sudds and Mike Harrell (Captain Shreve), Skip Brunet,  Dale Valdery and Glenn Masson (St. Aloysius/Brother Martin-New Orleans); Steve Cooley (Bolton-Alexandria);  Walter "Tootsie Roll" Meshell (Ebarb); Chris Raymond (Plaquemine), Sammy White (Richwood-Monroe); Jeff Cummings (Rummel-Metairie); Mike McConathy (Airline-Bossier City); Billy Burton (Booker T. Washington-Shreveport); Doug Williams (Cheneyville);  Floyd "Super Dragon" Bailey (Central Dubberly); Carl Kilpatrick (Bastrop); Carlos Zuniga (Holy Cross-New Orleans); Tommy "Pop" Green and Ethan Martin  (McKinley-Baton Rouge); Victor King (Newellton); Lester Elie (Cloutierville); James Ray (L.B. Landry-New Orleans); Jordy Hultberg (De La Salle-New Orleans); Fred Chaffould (Carroll-Monroe); Wade Blundell and Barry Barocco  (Rummel-Metairie) Earnest Reliford (Ashland); Wayne Waggoner (Logansport);  Sean Tuohy (Newman-New Orleans); Keith Richard and Howard "Hi C" Carter (Redemptorist-Baton Rouge); John Derenbecker (Country Day-Metairie Park); Paul Thompson and Frederick Piper (Peabody-Alexandria); Tyrone Black (Capitol-Baton Rouge); Cherokee Rhone (Springhill); Dave Simmons and Johnny Jones (DeRidder); Larry Wilson (Central Lafourche).  

      Future NFL stars: Sammy White (Grambling WR-Minnesota Vikings), Doug Williams (Cheneyville-Grambling QB, Super Bowl MVP for Washington Redskins), Carlos Pennywell (Captain Shreve-Grambling WR-New England Patriots).

    Future LSU QB Alan Risher, Salmen-Slidell (All-State football and basketball).  

     Consider, too, that Karl Malone, Joe Dumars, John "Hot Rod" Williams, Leonard Mitchell and Benny Anders -- big stars in the early 1980s -- did play as underclassmen in the 1970s.

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1940s

     Warren "Dr. Red" Perkins (Warren Easton-New Orleans); Frank Brian (Zachary); Nick Revon (St. Aloysius-New Orleans); John McConathy (Bryceland); Billy Wiggins (Winnsboro).

1950s

     Bob Pettit (Baton Rouge High); Jackie Moreland (Minden); Dick Brown (Oak Grove); Jimmy "Red" Leach (Florien); Ray Germany (Holly Ridge); Bobby James (Ruston); Larry Teague and George Nattin (Bossier); Ellis Cooper (Springhill); Gene Wright (Negreet); Phil Haley (Belmont); Glenn Cothern (Fortier-New Orleans); Pete Gaudin (De La Salle-New Orleans); Raymond Arthur (Natchitoches); Jerry Callens (Pleasant Hill); Harold Ray Strother (Plainview-Glenmora); Maury Drummond (Istrouma-Baton Rouge); Max Lewis (Simsboro).

1960s

     Willis Reed (Lillie); Elvin Hayes (Rayville); Bob "Butterbean" Love and Lucious Jackson (Morehouse-Bastrop); Charles "Cotton" Nash (Lake Charles); Don Chaney, Cincy Powell and Fred Hilton (McKinley-Baton Rouge); Bob "Lil' Abner" Hopkins (Jonesboro); James Silas and Jimmy Jones (McCall-Tallulah); Charles Beasley (Fair Park-Shreveport); Leslie Scott (Scotlandville-Baton Rouge); Wilbert Frazier (Webster-Minden); Jerry Hood, Charles Sheffield and Leon Barmore (Ruston); Glynn Saulters (Lisbon); Barrie Haynie and Billy Ray (Ringgold); Donnie Henry (Athens); Walter Ledet (St. Mary's-Natchitoches); Wayne Pietri and John Arthurs (De La Salle-New Orleans); Bill Wilson (Baton Rouge); Jerry Salley (Pleasant Hill); Bob Benfield (Byrd-Shreveport); James Speed (Valencia-Shreveport); Harold Sylvester (St. Augustine); Cecil Upshaw and Tommy Thigpen (Bossier); Bobby Lane (Newman-New Orleans); George Restovich (Jesuit-Shreveport); Peter Michell, Herbie Mang, Billy Fitzgerald and Fabien Mang (Jesuit-New Orleans); James Wyatt (Belmont); Billy Jones (Pineville); Charles Bishop (Summerfield); Al "Apple" Sanders (Baton Rouge); James "Poo" Welch (LaGrange-Lake Charles); Kenny Covington (Haughton); Jerry Brandon (Zwolle); Tommy Joe Eagles (Doyline); George Corley (Florien); Melvin Russell and Larry Davis (Woodlawn-Shreveport). 

1980s

     Karl Malone (Summerfield); Joe Dumars (Natchitoches-Central); Avery Johnson (St. Augustine-New Orleans); P.J. Brown (Winnfield);  Benoit Benjamin (Carroll-Monroe); Randy White (Huntington-Shreveport); Bobby Phills (Southern Lab-Baton Rouge); Jaren Jackson (Cohen-New Orleans); John Williams (St. Amant); Robert Pack (Lawless-New Orleans); John Tudor (Pineville); Wayne Smith (Trinity Heights-Shreveport); Derrick Taylor (Redemptorist-Baton Rouge); Nikita Wilson (Leesville); Anthony Wilson (Plain Dealing); David Benoit (Lafayette); Ervin Johnson (Block-Jonesville); Keith Smart (McKinley-Baton Rouge); Leonard Mitchell (St. Martinville); Larry Robinson (Airline-Bossier City); Bobby Joe Douglas (Marion); Willie Jackson (Sibley); Benny Anders (Bernice);  Donald Royal (St. Augustine-New Orleans); Gerald Paddio (Rayne); Derrick Zimmerman (Wossman-Monroe); Don Redden (Ouachita-Monroe); Michael Cutright (Zwolle); Fess Irvin (East Ascension); Tim Breaux (Zachary); Ledell Eackles (Broadmoor-Baton Rouge).

1990s

     Kerry Kittles (St. Augustine-New Orleans); Stromile Swift (Fair Park-Shreveport); Randy Livingston (Newman-New Orleans); Marcus Fizer (Arcadia); Billy Thomas (Loyola College Prep-Shreveport); Clarence Ceasar and Tierre Brown (Iowa); Kedrick Brown (Zachary); Dedric Willoughby (Archbishop Shaw-Marrero); Gerard King (McDonogh-New Orleans); Jerald Honeycutt (Grambling); Andre Brown (Vandebilt Catholic-Houma); Kedrick Brown (Zachary); Lester Earl (Glen Oaks-Baton Rouge); Mark Davis (Thibodaux); Mike Smith (West Monroe); Bernard King (Gibsland-Coleman). 

2000s

     Paul Millsap (Grambling); D.J. Augustin (Brother Martin-New Orleans); Garrett Temple and Glen "Big Baby" Davis (University Lab-Baton Rouge); Brandon Bass (Capitol-Baton Rouge);  Greg Monroe (Helen Cox-New Orleans); Tyrus Thomas (McKinley-Baton Rouge); Danny Granger (Grace King-Metairie); Marcus Thornton (Tara-Baton Rouge); Chris Duhon (Salmen-Slidell); Von Wafer (Pineview-Lisbon); Elijah Millsap (Grambling); Tasmin Mitchell (St. Martinville); Matt Derenbecker (Country Day-Metairie Park); Demond "Tweety" Carter (Reserve Christian).

 

2010s

     Robert Williams (North Caddo-Vivian); Skylar Mays and Wayde Sims (University Lab-Baton Rouge); Jared Butler and Ricardo Gathers (Riverside-Reserve); Langston Galloway (Christian Life-Baton Rouge); Ja'Vonte Smart and Damion James (Scotlandville-Baton Rouge); Markel Brown (Peabody-Alexandria); Elfrid Payton (John Ehret-Marrero); Jarell Martin and Brandon Sampson (Madison Prep-Baton Rouge); Melvin Frazier (Higgins-New Orleans); Jacob Evans (St. Michael's-Baton Rouge);  Mitchell Robinson (Chalmette). 

Thanks, NCAA ... your timing is absurd

Robert Parish at Centenary
(The Shreveport Times photo)

     The top part here was written by John James Marshall for the designatedwriters.com web site (check it out), with the headline: "Out of record book? Parish the thought!"

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     It is not often -- ever? -- that "Centenary basketball" and "Son of Sam" gets used in the same sentence. There you have it!

     This is all due to the recent announcement that the NCAA will now officially recognize Robert Parish's statistics while he played for the Gents in the 1970s. As David Berkowitz -- 1970s serial killer in New York City known as "Son of Sam" -- said when they came to arrest him, "What took you so long?"

     The beginning and the end to this story defy description as far as absurdity is concerned. To make a very long story short, back in 1972 when Parish was about to enter  Centenary, the NCAA used a formula based on high school grades and standardized tests to predict a player's GPA, which needed to equate to at least a 1.600. But Parish didn't take the SAT, so Centenary converted his score from the ACT and used that for the NCAA formula. Centenary had done this for the previous two years and nary a peep. But when the No. 1 recruit in the nation showed up, the NCAA took notice and told Centenary that the move was "illegal." (Parish wasn't the only Gents player who this had been applied to.) 
     So the NCAA dropped six years on probation on the Gents -- unless they yanked the scholarships of Parish and four others. Centenary told the NCAA to go jump in the lake.
     (One questions remains more than 45 years later:  Why didn't Parish and the others just take the SAT? It's not like they have to achieve a Harvard-like score.)
     Eventually the NCAA did away with the formula (called the 1.6 rule), but still stuck the hammer to Centenary. There is the favorite (and often misquoted) line by famed coach Jerry Tarkanian, who often said (kind of): "Every time the NCAA gets mad at (UCLA/Kentucky/other big guys), they add another two years' probation to (Centenary/Cleveland State/other little guys). Tarkanian filled in whatever blanks he needed to fit the audience, but the message was clear -- Centenary was getting hosed.
     Parish and others could have gone anywhere else and been instantly eligible, but they stayed on Kings Highway and had a memorable four-year run.
     When it was over, he had 2,334 points and 1,820 rebounds, but you'd never know it because the NCAA did not recognize his stats in its record book. Only two players in the history of college basketball have more points AND rebounds than Parish's totals.
     So what happened? Did someone wake up at the NCAA one day last week and say, "OK, it's been 40 years. Enough's enough?" Were there protest marches outside the NCAA office and they were worried about the PR hit they were taking?
     Actually, to Centenary's credit, the school made an appeal last year to the NCAA seeking "reinstatement." After they woke up the guy in charge of such things, the appeal was granted. And then the NCAA turned around and slapped Louisville around by denying its appeal of the vacated 2013 championship.
     Somewhere out there, Jerry Tarkanian is smiling.
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     My take (as a sportswriter who wrote about Parish's high school and college careers in Shreveport):

     Surprised by this, but I am not thrilled about it. It's OK.

      It was so long ago, and the NCAA's "banishment" of the Parish statistics did not hurt his fabulous Basketball Hall of Fame career at all. 

      Don't see that it makes a lot of difference now, except for the principle that the NCAA -- after 42 to 46 years -- is admitting how petty it was in 1973-76.

      Centenary benefited greatly from Parish being in school there, Robert and his family benefited greatly, and so did the basketball fans of Shreveport-Bossier and North Louisiana.

      Can't tell you that Centenary did not break rules in admitting Robert to school. LSU (Dale Brown) and Indiana (Bob Knight) gladly would have taken him in their program, but were clear to Parish's high school coach (Ken Ivy) that he would not qualify academically.

      Still, what the NCAA did to Centenary was best captured by then-Gents athletic director/head basketball coach Larry Little's remark that Centenary was given a death-penalty sentence for a speeding ticket.

      Parish, in those years, got enough publicity to be known in many parts of the nation; I know this because I was the Centenary sports information director his senior season and set up several interviews with writers from other areas.

      Plus, we sent out a flier touting Robert's accomplishments to most major newspapers and college/pro basketball sources in the country, and each week the NCAA statistics came out, we made sure to note where Robert would have ranked in points, rebounds, shooting percentage, etc.

      Centenary showed up regularly in the Associated Press national Top Twenty or Top 25 polls because Jerry Byrd of the Shreveport Journal was on the voting panel in Parish's last couple of seasons and would vote the Gents No. 2 or 3 each week, giving them enough points to wind up in the Nos. 17-20 positions. (For some reason, Byrd's vote was taken away after that last season.)

      Where the NCAA six-year penalty hurt Centenary most -- my opinion -- was not Parish himself, but the team not being eligible for postseason play.

      It is highly unlikely that Centenary had a good enough record and enough victories over prominent opponents to have been selected for the NCAA Tournament, which then had a 32-team field (but no more than one team per conference). But the NIT (16-team field) would have been a strong possibility -- a likely spot, because of Robert's presence -- for Centenary.

      The example is this: In the 1975-76 season (Robert's senior year), one of the teams chosen for the NIT was U. North Carolina-Charlotte (UNCC), featuring Cedric Maxwell and Lew Massey and coached by Lee Rose. That season Centenary beat UNCC in Shreveport and lost by one point at Charlotte in the season's next-to-last game (and Centenary missed a wide-open last-second shot).

      UNCC finished second in the NIT, in Madison Square Garden (lost to Kentucky). 

      The next season UNCC made the NCAA Tournament, and went all the way to the Final Four (lost to eventual champion Marquette, by two points). 

      Maxwell would go on to be a teammate of Robert Parish with the Boston Celtics and be the MVP of the 1981 NBA Finals. Lee Rose would move from UNCC to coach at Purdue, and was back in the Final Four with a Joe Barry Carroll-led team in 1980.

       (Small-world department: The Golden State Warriors made Joe Barry Carroll the No. 1 pick in the 1980 NBA Draft and their starting center, and traded their previous starter. That was ... Robert Parish, who made the most out of being sent to Boston. First year: NBA champions.)

       But, of course, Parish then was still persona non grata to the NCAA, and remained that way through this last week. Yes, a 7-footer who could not be seen.

       We saw him. People in Shreveport and North Louisiana saw him. People all over the country, and the world, saw him -- after he got to the NBA. 

       And now we can even see where he ranked -- officially -- in the NCAA statistics. Like it matters a lot now. 

       If the NCAA had done this anywhere from 1973 to 1976, it would have been a lot more appealing to me. 

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http://www.designatedwriters.com/daily-happen/record-book-parish-thought/

Don't make a race issue out of this

     "Mr. Parish, although a worthy consideration, would not be a 'close call' with Terry Bradshaw if the hypersensitive racial climate was not a reality, thanks to our beloved potus."

Robert Parish, "The Chief," had a career
that was hard to top (photo from Getty Images)

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     Read that Facebook comment above, and what does it say to you?
     That Robert Parish was nowhere as good as athlete as Terry Bradshaw? That he only is so highly regarded because he is an African-American? And that it is President Obama's fault?
     That's how I read it. And what else do I read? That it's an offensive remark. Yes, I do.
     There's no place for it here. It's an ignorant comment. It's a comment that belongs in the past. Unfortunately, it's in the present. And that stinks.
     The background: A week ago when the Louisiana Tech Football page on Facebook posted a congratulatory note about Terry Bradshaw being selected No. 1 in The Shreveport Times' poll of the greatest athletes with Shreveport-Bossier ties, I posted a comment saying it was a close call between Terry and Robert at No. 1.
     I made the same statement in the first blog piece I wrote about The Times' poll and my vote in it. I didn't name Bradshaw and Parish then because it wasn't time to reveal my vote, but they were clearly Nos. 1 and 2 for me in that poll.
     And, not necessarily in that order. I can make a very good case for Parish being a greater player than Bradshaw.
     I would have had no quarrel if the rest of the panel had decided to put Robert at No. 1. I think that much of both guys, and I was proud to have played a small role in their careers (compiled their stats when they were in high school and college, wrote about them for various newspapers).
     But, damn, let's not make this a racial issue.
     Race had absolutely nothing to do with the way I voted in this poll, and I'd like to think it had little or nothing to do in the way I wrote about athletics or the way my papers covered them.
     My theory: Best to try to be color blind when it comes to athletics.
     Of course, there were times when I was accused -- one way or the other -- of leaning toward one race. I'm sure that's happened to a lot of writers at a lot of papers. Ask my friend Buddy Davis how often people in Ruston, La. -- home of Louisiana Tech -- chided him for his coverage of nearby Grambling State University athletics.
     I've written about race and my coverage in athletics previously, about the days when high schools and college programs integrated. Earlier this year I wrote a four-part series on the first black athletes in football and basketball at Louisiana Tech. I enjoyed doing those, talking to some of those former athletes.
     And so, it was a bit stunning -- and disappointing -- to see that comment on a Louisiana Tech page. I know the name of the person who posted it, but it's not worth posting for you.
     But (1) I think it reflects badly on Louisiana Tech, where he apparently has ties to the school, and that's too bad because Tech, like a lot of universities, has done a good job mixing its black athletes with the whites; (2) it is not at all fair to Robert Parish and (3) why bring President Obama into this?
     I think, I hope, Louisiana Tech has come a long way since the May night in 1968 when I heard cheering -- enough to tee me off -- when the death of Dr. Martin Luther King was announced on television in the dormitory. 
     On Parish, he -- like Bradshaw -- played on four championship teams in the pros. Robert's high school and college careers were sensational, and he played more games than anyone in NBA history. He played 21 years in the NBA and was chosen as one of the all-time top 50 players.
     The only reason I gave my No. 1 vote to Bradshaw was he was the MVP in two Super Bowl victories, and Parish did not earn that type honor in the NBA Finals. But I can argue that on a game-to-game basis, Robert was more consistently a star than Terry and certainly for much longer.
     In a blog piece last week on The Times' top-20 greatest Shreveport-Bossier athletes poll, I criticized the exclusion of Willard Brown, a baseball star of the 1930s, '40s and early '50s, mostly in the Negro Leagues. But I don't think he wasn't in the poll because he was a black player; I think he wasn't in it because voters weren't aware of how good he was, and his ability -- some felt -- was hard to measure.
     Without a whole discussion on race -- I don't profess to have any expertise; I am a sports writer, not a social commentator -- it's obvious we still have a tremendous racial divide in this country.
     Sure, we have come a long way since the 1950s and '60s when I was a kid, but you see the many situations in the news today -- Ferguson, Mo., New York City, Baltimore, white cops killing black people (as in nearby Arlington, Texas, recently), a black man killing a white cop in my hometown -- and we have plenty of problems still.
     Blame President Obama? Too easy. When is the President, any President, not blamed for everything by one party or another, by one race or another?
     The anti-Obama sentiment, sadly, crosses racial lines far too often. At least that's what I see on Facebook, and I don't like it. It's acceptable to be critical of one's politics; it's unacceptable to be personally hateful. I can't go there.
     There are athletes I think are punks, it's because they act or talk like self-centered fools. But it's not a black-white-Hispanic thing, and some of them even play for teams I love. But hate? No, they're people, with families -- and fans -- who love them.
     Back to the comment at the top: When, exactly, since the 1950s when black people seriously began standing up for themselves, have we not had a "hypersensitive racial climate?"
     Abrasive, pointed, uncivil remarks don't do anyone any good.
     I would suggest the world, and America, would be a better place if we were color blind. That's just too idealistic. Reality says we should keep working on solving the racial divide, not split it open.
     To make a racial issue of a newspaper poll that was fun to think about and discuss, a poll that is innocuous but debate-worthy, that's just really out of place. It's not fair.
      Don't diminish Robert Parish's career. Better to recognize -- and not be ignorant -- that "The Chief" was every bit the equal athlete, if not better, than "The Blond Bomber."