A collector’s item for a mere pittance

Updated 1/3/2022 5:56 PM

Sometimes a rare nugget reaches your pan when you’re not even mining for gold.

A couple of weeks ago, I scanned the library in my study for a book entitled “The Coach’s Art.” It was written in 1978 by Jack Ramsay, then head coach of the Trail Blazers, with help from Portland writer John Strawn, an old friend of mine.

Strawn, who lives in Portland and later enjoyed a prominent career in the golf design and publishing fields, had helped put together the book in the months following the Blazers’ 1977 NBA championship.

“I had left teaching because I wanted to be a writer but didn’t think I could make a living at it right away,” says Strawn, now 77. “I had started a little construction business and was doing free-lance writing to make my way forward.”

Another Portland writer, Strawn’s friend Larry Colton, had landed a contract to write “Idol Time,” which examined the aftermath of the championship season. Ramsay, meanwhile, had a contract to write his own book and was seeking a ghost writer. Colton, who didn’t have time to collaborate, recommended Strawn.

“During training camp in Salem, I met with Jack and we hit it off,” Strawn says. “And later, I ended up remodeling his house. So I was either a full-service ghost writer or a full-service contractor for him.

“Jack would dictate to a secretary in his office, who would transcribe it and get it to me. I’d take it and shape it and talk to Jack about it before putting it together. The book was going to sell if it was good or a piece of crap because of the popularity of the Blazers and of Jack. People were just in awe of him.”

I enjoyed the book and thought it was well-done. It’s a combination of a collection of Ramsay’s coaching philosophies and a historical perspective about the Blazers’ championship team and how it was put together. My copy, however, was nowhere to be found — the victim, quite likely, of a move to a new residence a year ago.

I also couldn’t find my copy of David Halberstam’s classic, “The Breaks of the Game.” Written in 1981 by the former Pulitzer Prize winner, it recaps the Blazers’ 1979-80 season and contains plenty of the likes of Bill Walton, Maurice Lucas, Kermit Washington and Billy Ray Bates, along with extensive discourse on race in the NBA during that period.

I wanted both books, so I Googled the titles, hoping to find a couple of used copies to fill my void. I came across a pair offered by “Thriftbooks,” which I’d never used before. The quality of “The Coach’s Art “was listed as “good.” The quality of “The Breaks of the Game” was deemed “acceptable.”

A week or so later, the books arrived and I opened “The Coach’s Art” for a quick perusal.

On the first page inside, I noticed an inscription. The book had been given as a gift to someone, I reasoned. Then I looked closer. In cursive, the note read, “To John Paul McKinney, my right hand man for all seasons. With gratitude, Jack Ramsay.”

On the upper left corner of the adjoining inside cover was an address label: “Jack McKinney, 1035 Tarpon Cove Drive, 101, Naples, Fla, 34110.”

Ramsay had given the book to McKinney, his lone assistant coach in Portland from 1976-79. McKinney had played for Ramsay in high school and in college (at St. Joseph’s in Philadelphia) and had replaced Ramsay as head coach at St. Joe’s when Ramsay left to become general manager of the Philadelphia 76ers in 1966.

McKinney would go on to become head coach of the Los Angeles Lakers in 1979. Less than a month into his stint there — the Lakers, with rookie Magic Johnson, were 9-4 — McKinney suffered a near fatal head injury in a bicycling accident. Assistant coach Paul Westhead took over and guided the Lakers to a 60-22 record and a spot in the NBA Finals. McKinney never regained his job, though he later was head coach of the Indiana Pacers for four years and for nine games with the Kansas City Kings. He died in 2018 at age 83.

Ramsay, who would be inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in 1992 and enjoyed a long career as an NBA radio analyst, died in 2014 at age 89.

Somehow, the book had gotten from McKinney to Thriftbooks, a bookseller headquartered in Tukwila, Wash. And into the hands of a long-time Portland sportswriter who knew Ramsay and had covered the Blazers for many years. The odds of that happening have to be about the same as the book landing on the moon. It was like a political wonk being handed a copy of “Profiles in Courage” gifted from John F. Kennedy to Lyndon Johnson.

After I re-read the book, it will gain prominent display in my den at home. It will not go for re-sell again during my lifetime.

Fee paid to Thriftbooks including shipping: Less than $7. Value to me: Priceless.

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My latest book is now for sale, Jerome Kersey: Overcoming The Odds. You can buy regular, autographed, and inscribed copies of the book in my new and improved online bookstore here.

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