Walt Frazier will discuss poetry and hoops in City Lore fundraiser

City Lore Gallery
56 East First St. between First & Second Aves.
Thursday, October 16, $40, 7:00
212-529-1955
www.citylore.org

“I began announcing nine years after I ended my playing career, and I had to catch up with some new terminology,” New York Knicks basketball legend Walt “Clyde” Frazier wrote in the afterword to the 2010 edition of his 1974 book, Rockin’ Steady: A Guide to Basketball & Cool. “‘Dishing’ was passing off. So in time I would add ‘swishing.’ ‘Dishing and swishing’ became one of my trademark calls. Then came ‘wheeling and dealing,’ and ‘believing and achieving.’ The blackboard was now generally called ‘the glass,’ and so when there was an exceptional rebound pulled down, it was ‘splendor on the glass.’” The Hall of Famer, who practiced saying such words as ubiquitous, tenacious, and mesmerizing in the mirror after seeing them used in articles on arts and entertainment, will be at City Lore on October 16 for the special program “The Poetry of Basketball,” a fundraiser for the organization whose mission is to “document, present, and advocate for New York City’s grassroots cultures to ensure their living legacy in stories and histories, places and traditions.” The Atlanta-born Frazier, one of the all-time-stylish New Yorkers and captain of the Knicks’ 1970 and 1973 championship teams, also uses such phrases as “hustling and bustling,” “bounding and astounding,” “posting and toasting,” “shaking and baking,” and “hacking and whacking,” is as cool and smooth away from the arena as he is in it, and opinionated as well, so get ready for plenty of “moving and grooving,” “stopping and popping,” “dancing and prancing,” and maybe even some “draining and paining.”