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Letters
Go, Nellie!
While with Dallas, Don Nelson acquired the draft rights to Dirk Nowitzki (Friendly Fire, April 23) for a pick the Bucks used on Robert (Tractor) Traylor. Then he got Steve Nash for Bubba Wells, Martin Muursepp and Pat Garrity. The real story is how Nelson was able to foresee MVP talent in these two young players.
Dave Kacsur, Elm Grove, Wis.
Good Knights
The 10 young women of the Scarlet Knights basketball team have brought pride to a university and a state that often get no respect (PLAYERS, April 23). Their improbable run to the national championship game and classy response to the Don Imus--created media frenzy were the results of love for, and faith in, their teammates. I have never been prouder to call myself an RU alumnus.
Alan B. Haratz, Ocean, N.J.
Thank you, Mr. Imus, for your supremely disgusting, idiotic act. Without it I would not have been so gloriously reminded that dignity, grace, wisdom and especially forgiveness are divinely human gifts that actually exist.
Natasha A. Zoller, Lakewood, Colo.
The Carlisle Indians
Finally, history reported in a way that reflects positively on American Indians (The Team That Invented Football, April 23). Sally Jenkins did us proud in her tribute to Jim Thorpe and the Carlisle Indians.
Jim Abeita, Pueblo of Isleta, N.Mex.
I was more riveted by Jenkins's article than I was by the Swimsuit Issue. Did I just say that?
Larry Bergen, Wynnewood, Pa.
My wife's grandfather, Roy Large, played for the 1912 Carlisle Indians. One of our family treasures is a letter to him from President Eisenhower, on White House stationery. Large had written to Ike in 1956 about the game between Carlisle and the West Point team on which the young Eisenhower played, kidding him that it was not very Indian-like for them merely to have broken Ike's leg, but the players didn't know they were roughing up a future president. Ike wrote back, "I have had good reason over these years for vividly remembering our encounter!"
Robert Moxley, Cheyenne, Wyo.
Man of Steel
How interesting that Michael Farber's April 23 article on Penguins teenage superstar Sidney Crosby was titled Getting His Feet Wet. Farber, of course, referred to Crosby's initial foray into the NHL playoffs. The irony is that Sid the Kid revealed two days after the Penguins' first-round loss to the Ottawa Senators that he had played the last 2 1/2 weeks of the regular season and the first-round playoff series with a broken bone in his left foot. He didn't miss a game, and that level of courage and commitment is a big reason why we Pittsburghers still have a franchise to call our own for years to come.
Bob Trimble, Aliquippa, Pa.
Justice for Pressler
I find it unbelievable that fired lacrosse coach Mike Pressler and his family have not received an apology (LIFE OF REILLY, April 23) from the likes of Duke athletic director Joe Alleva and president Richard Brodhead. It amazes me that Duke would bail on the 2005 NCAA Coach of the Year a mere 23 days after his players' alleged sexual assault occurred; in this country you are innocent until proven guilty. That Alleva didn't support his coach shows what type of man he is. Pressler, now at Bryant University, is better off at a school that supports him as much as he supports his players.
Jim Lomker, Doylestown, Pa.
I think I know why Alleva didn't return SI's calls—embarrassment. Show me another coach in Division I that has achieved a 100% graduation rate for a 16-year span. That is the ultimate goal of our universities, correct?
Kevin Mogee, Oreland, Pa.
Your story says that Coach Pressler's wife hugged all the lacrosse team players after the charges were dropped. I hope she slapped them in the face afterward. Their choice to have an alcohol-soaked party to which they brought sex workers was the proximate cause of all that came after. They do not seem to have any sense of their own culpability in this fiasco.
Gary Steele, Waupun, Wis.
Kudos to you for sticking it to my alma mater, Washington and Lee, and all the others that gave up on Pressler, a fellow alum, by not hiring him. I'm keeping the 50 bucks I send them each year to buy better beer.
Jim Hamlin, Arlington, Va.
When the Duke athletic director told Coach Pressler that his firing wasn't about "truth" but was rather about "the faculty, the NAACP and the special interest groups," that was only part of the story. It was also about money. Suppose three of the school's basketball players were charged with crimes but not convicted: Does anyone seriously believe that Duke would have fired Coach K and canceled the basketball season?
Tom Schlafly, St. Louis
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GREG NELSON
