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ANDY STAPLES
Inside College Basketball
The difficulties of coaching at a school like Kentucky, with its rich history
CHRIS MANNIX
Inside the NBA
Kobe and the Lakers overtake LeBron and the Cavs in the latest Power Rankings
TIM MARCHMAN
Inside Baseball
The Curse of Bernie Madoff and a look at the many weaknesses in the Mets' lineup
MICHAEL JORDAN
Crossover Dreams
Six months after his first retirement from the NBA, Michael Jordan suited up for the sport he dreamed of playing as a kid. This week marks the 15th anniversary of Jordan's first game as a professional, his debut with the White Sox Double A affiliate Birmingham Barons. SI.com takes a look back as Jack McCallum gives his take on Jordan's motivation, while Ted Keith asks Jordan's Barons teammates about playing with a legend and Steve Aschburner chats with current NBA players, pondering whether one of them would ever try to switch to baseball.
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FROM SPORTS ILLUSTRATED
MARCH 31, 1969
By leading UCLA to a third straight NCAA title, Bruins center Lew Alcindor ended his illustrious college career in storybook fashion. SI's Joe Jares described the introverted star from New York City who changed the face of college basketball.
SHARP observers of basketball figured out long ago that 7'1½" Lew Alcindor was going to be one of the great net-straighteners of all time. They were so right. For four years at UCLA, where the New Yorker toiled on a grant-in-aid under coach Johnny Wooden, one way or another Alcindor was always straightening out nets. When they were tangled, he stood flat-footed under the basket and, with that patented nonchalance of his, reached up to fix them. When they were empty, why, he filled them—with 56 points in his first varsity appearance three years and 90 games ago, and with more than 2,300 points in all. In between, he helped draw the biggest indoor basketball crowd in history, led the Bruins to 88 victories against two losses and, last Saturday afternoon in Louisville's Freedom Hall, was the man most responsible for UCLA's becoming the first team ever to win three national championships in a row.
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FRED VUICH (WOODS)
READY TO ROAR Tiger looks to master the field.
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CHUCK SOLOMON (JORDAN)
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RICH CLARKSON (ALCINDOR)
THREE PHOTOS
