Sports Poets Society

https://www.nba.com/pistons/news/maskin_070411.html April 11, 2007 - 2:11 PM EDT There are many ways to measure the remarkable growth the NBA has experienced in the 50 years since the Pistons relocated to Detroit from Fort Wayne, Ind., but perhaps none more dramatic than the role of a team’s public relations director then and now. Where today’s public relations directors must filter dozens of media requests a day and do their best to permit access to players without overwhelming their schedules, their predecessors were more salesmen trying to generate interest in a league that barely penetrated the public’s consciousness. George Maskin, the first public relations director the Pistons hired upon moving to Detroit, was the perfect man for the job. Maskin, who died at age 90 last week after a brief illness, is remembered as a man of great warmth and kindness who cared deeply about athletics of all kinds and at all levels. “He was just a kind, caring man dedicated to athletics and everyth...

https://digital.bentley.umich.edu/djnews/djn.2007.04.12.001/73 Obituaries are updated and archived on JNonline.us . Whether wielding a referee's whistle or a reporter's notebook, George Maskin was a legendary figure in Detroit athletics for more than six decades. "There wasn't a part of the local sports scene that George wasn't involved in," said Rabbi David Castiglione of Temple Beth El in Bloomfield Township, who spoke at the funeral. Mr. Maskin, 90, of Novi, died April 6, 2007. George officiated at sporting events in eight decades — the 1930s-2000s — at every level including middle school, high school and college and in several sports including football, basketball, baseball, softball and volleyball. His lifetime's work won him a place in the Michigan High School Sports Hall of Fame and the Catholic League Sports Hall of Fame. In 2003, he was inducted into the Michigan Jewish Sports Hall of Fame. As a reporter, he was elected to the Baseball Writers of ...

https://vault.si.com/vault/1993/11/08/demolition-man-dennis-rodman-who-has-brought-his-unique-act-to-san-antonio-is-a-relentless-rebounder-a-ferocious-competitor-and-a-strangely-tormented-soul RICK TELANDER  - Sports Illustrated NOVEMBER 08, 1993 DENNIS RODMAN, WHO HAS BROUGHT HIS UNIQUE ACT TO SAN ANTONIO, IS A RELENTLESS REBOUNDER, A FEROCIOUS COMPETITOR—AND A STRANGELY TORMENTED SOUL TABLE OF CONTENTS ORIGINAL LAYOUT Somewhere the worm is turning. But where? It is late summer, and the Detroit Pistons have not seen their All-Star forward in months. To say the relationship between 6'8", 210-pound rebounding fool Dennis Rodman (a.k.a. the Worm) and his team of seven years is strained is to say the relationship between dirt and soap is strained. The Pistons' dazed-and-confused player-personnel director, Billy McKinney, is at his wits' end with the fugitive forward. "My next move is to take a picture of him and put it on a milk carton ," McKinney says. The r...