3 Chicago Blackhawks trades that get them back into first roundVincent Pariseon May 27, 2022 at 12:00 pm
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What the Celtics can learn from a failed NBA dynasty 10 years agoon May 27, 2022 at 1:35 pm
BOSTON — As they find themselves on the precipice of the 2022 NBA Finals, the Boston Celtics might find motivation in a series that happened a decade ago.
The Oklahoma City Thunder were near the top of the basketball world in 2012, having reached the Finals with a roster featuring three future MVPs — Kevin Durant, Russell Westbrook and James Harden — all of whom were within their first five years in the league.
When the Thunder lost to the Miami Heat in five games in the Finals, the assumption was it would be the first of many OKC appearances in the NBA’s championship round. They appeared to be a dynasty in the making.
That dynasty never happened.
Harden was traded to the Houston Rockets before the next season began, and year after year, a combination of injuries, bad luck and excruciating playoff losses saw the Thunder fail to return to the Finals before eventually breaking apart.
The lesson? Don’t assume another chance is coming.
That Thunder team is one example of how fleeting the kind of moment the Celtics have in front of them can be. They host the Heat in Game 6 of the Eastern Conference finals (8:30 p.m. ET, ESPN) with a chance to close out the series and return to the Finals for the first time in 12 years.
“This is a great opportunity,” Boston’s Jaylen Brown said after the Game 5 victory. “Leave everything on the floor. You don’t want any feelings of regret.”
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The Celtics have made it to the East finals six times since that last Finals trip in 2010. This, however, is arguably the closest they have been since they found themselves in the same position a decade ago: heading home to TD Garden after winning Game 5 of the East finals against the Heat to take a 3-2 series lead.
The difference was those Celtics — an aging team led by Paul Pierce, Kevin Garnett and Ray Allen, with one title and another Finals trip under its belt — were going up against LeBron James at his peak. James went on to play the game of his life to deliver Miami a win before the Heat would secure Game 7 and, eventually, beat the Thunder in five games as James won his first championship.
Six years later, the Celtics were in a similar position, leading James — in his second stint with the Cleveland Cavaliers — 3-2 in the series. James dropped 46 points, 11 rebounds and 9 assists to tie the series in Game 6, and while then-rookie Jayson Tatum threw down a memorable dunk over James in the fourth quarter in Game 7 in Boston, it was James and Cleveland who prevailed.
“Yeah, it does,” Tatum said with a smile when asked if it feels different to be in this position now than it did four years ago. “I’m a lot better, [Brown] is. We’re just older. And we’ve been through those tough times.”
In 2020, the Celtics ran up against the Heat in the bubble, falling in six games.
This year, the Celtics are the clear favorites. While Boston has dealt with its share of injuries — Robert Williams III‘s recurring knee issues, Marcus Smart‘s right leg injuries and Al Horford missing Game 1 of the series due to NBA COVID-19 health and safety protocols — Miami has been decimated by them.
The Heat’s three best perimeter players — Jimmy Butler, Kyle Lowry and Tyler Herro — are either playing with obvious limitations or unable to participate at all. Even if all of them were healthy, the Celtics’ league-leading defense is putting an already suspect Heat half-court offense into a sleeper hold.
“If you want to break through and punch a ticket to the Finals, you’re going to have to do some ridiculously tough stuff,” Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said after Game 5. “Getting on to Boston and figuring that out collectively, those are the emotions and the breakthroughs that you have that you remember the rest of your life.”
AP Photo/Lynne Sladky
Four months ago, none of this seemed possible. Boston was floundering around .500, seemingly meandering its way to a second straight mediocre season. But thanks to the combination of timely transactions, improved health and coach Ime Udoka’s philosophies translating into success on the court, Boston turned into a juggernaut that was the NBA’s best team for the final two-and-a-half months of the regular season.
Now the Celtics find themselves with their best opportunity, after years of knocking on the door, to finally break through.
“Nothing changes,” Udoka said of the team’s mindset heading into Game 6. “We had to come out with the right mentality after a win, and we did that. We want to do the same [in Game 6], close it out at home.”
This is only Tatum’s fifth NBA season, but his third East finals. It’s the fourth for Brown in six seasons, and the fourth for Smart in eight. It’s both a reminder of how much playoff experience Boston’s young core has together, and how hard it is to make it to that final step.
The Celtics hope their experiences will be enough to prepare them for the biggest game of their lives Friday, when they’ll have a chance to punch their ticket back to the Finals.
Like that Thunder team, the Celtics look like a group that could be positioned for an extended run of excellence. Seven of Boston’s top eight rotation players are between the ages of 23 and 28 (Horford, 35, is the lone exception). Five of them are 25 and under.
The Boston Celtics lead the Miami Heat 3-2 with a trip to the NBA Finals on the line. You can catch all the action on ESPN.
Game 6: Fri., Heat at Celtics (ESPN)
Game 7*: Sun., Celtics at Heat (ESPN)
*If necessary
All games at 8:30 p.m. ET
If Boston does reach the Finals, Tatum and Brown will become the fourth 25-and-under tandem to do so while leading their team in scoring in the past 40 years, according to the Elias Sports Bureau.
The other three? Hakeem Olajuwon and Ralph Sampson with the Houston Rockets in 1986, Shaquille O’Neal and Anfernee Hardaway with the Orlando Magic in 1995 and Durant and Westbrook in 2012.
None of those tandems made it back a second time.
“We got an opportunity to do something with this group that’s special,” Brown said. “So let’s not take that for granted. Let’s come out Friday on our home floor, and play the best version of basketball we played all season.”
The Mavs are in a lone-star state — can they win an NBA title with just Luka?on May 27, 2022 at 12:58 pm
NOBODY IN THE Dallas Mavericks‘ front office exchanged high-fives after details were finalized on the deal made minutes before the Feb. 10 trade deadline. The consensus in the room was that moving on from big man Kristaps Porzingis was in the best interest of the franchise, but it wasn’t a cause for celebration.
Porzingis, after all, had been acquired in a blockbuster deal two years earlier to pair with Luka Doncic as the franchise’s foundational pieces. Porzingis was supposed to be the co-star the Mavericks and their 23-year-old superstar needed to help form a long-term contender.
But Dallas, led by new general manager Nico Harrison and first-year coach Jason Kidd, eventually came to the realization that Porzingis, when he wasn’t injured, provided clutter for Doncic instead of the space he needed to operate. The team determined Porzingis wasn’t a fit alongside Doncic, and he wasn’t going to be the ticket to one in a trade.
So the Mavs broke Porzingis’ maximum salary into two smaller ones the Washington Wizards wanted to shed, bringing Spencer Dinwiddie and Davis Bertans to Dallas, citing flexibility and depth as reasons the trade made sense. Dallas didn’t anticipate taking a step back because of the trade — the Mavs had a better record without Porzingis than with him — and hoped Dinwiddie and Bertans would benefit from a change of scenery and provide scoring punch to the bench, but it certainly wasn’t considered to be a win-now move.
Mostly, it signified a return to square one in the team’s yearslong search for a star sidekick for Doncic. And it introduced another question: Did the Mavs need to follow the modern NBA trend of having multiple stars to contend?
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“You always want talent to win championships,” Kidd said after Dallas defeated the LA Clippers behind a career-high 51 points from Doncic on the night of the trade deadline. “As we go through this journey, we’ll see if we come across a No. 2 guy.
“It could be the team that we have where there is no real second star. You’ve just got guys who play roles at a very high level. And you’ve seen teams win championships that way, too.”
The last title team to fit that mold? The 2010-11 Mavericks, when a 38-year-old Kidd was one of several role players who complemented Dirk Nowitzki so well.
“You had one superstar and the rest were burgers,” Kidd said that night with a smile, using Nowitzki’s favorite playful insult that became a term of endearment.
Now, in the wake of a surprising run to the Western Conference finals that ended with a gentleman’s sweep against the Golden State Warriors, the Mavs’ brain trust must determine how these playoffs should influence the process of constructing a championship roster around their prodigy. Winning two rounds and eliminating the No. 1-seeded Phoenix Suns gives some credence to the belief that the Mavs can contend with a lone superstar.
“This year, we made a huge step, maybe a couple of steps,” Doncic said after the Mavs were eliminated with a 120-110 loss in Thursday’s Game 5. “Obviously, there is a lot to do, but we made a huge step and I think we’re on a great, great path.”
JALEN BRUNSON‘S FIRST reaction to the Porzingis trade was to figure out whether he was part of it. There had been rampant discussion around the league that the Mavs would attempt to get value for Brunson in the trade market instead of leaping into the luxury tax by re-signing him as an unrestricted free agent this summer.
The price to do so has since gone up significantly after the 25-year-old guard played a major role in Dallas’ playoff run. He averaged 21.6 points per game in the postseason, highlighted by 41- and 31-point performances in a pair of first-round victories over the Utah Jazz while Doncic sat out because of a strained calf.
What will the Mavericks’ roster look like next season surrounding Luka Doncic? Noah Graham/NBAE via Getty Images
Mavs governor Mark Cuban, who last dipped into the luxury tax for that title team 11 years ago, has been adamant he will pay what it takes to keep Brunson in Dallas. If not, the Mavs wouldn’t have any salary-cap room to sign a replacement for their second-highest scorer.
“The whole co-star talk, I don’t really think about it. It is what it is,” Brunson told ESPN. “It can be anyone any given night. Obviously, I want to put my team in position to win, but having that mindset of being the co-star is going to give me expectations that I don’t really need personally. I want to be a significant piece on a championship team.”
Brunson, a 2018 second-round pick who has grown comfortable playing on or off the ball, is one of a few homegrown developmental success stories who have adapted to become great fits with the ball-dominant Doncic. Dorian Finney-Smith and Maxi Kleber, in particular, have developed into excellent 3-and-D players whose moods don’t waver depending on how often they touch the ball on offense. Reggie Bullock, who was signed with the midlevel exception, is a similar type of player and part of the Mavs’ core.
Doncic has led the league in usage rate the past two seasons — he bumped it to historic highs this postseason — and gets targeted defensively by opponents, both because that’s often the best way to attack the Dallas defense and a method for wearing down a superstar who has had to play his way into shape the past two seasons.
It’s a must for the Mavs to surround Doncic with role players who provide him space offensively and protection defensively. If anything, the Mavs had to rely too much on Bullock and Finney-Smith, who rank first and second in the league in minutes this postseason. They’re asked to take on the toughest defensive assignments every game, and they have to fight off fatigue from playing 40-plus minutes to make open shots to keep the Mavs’ offense humming.
The return of a healthy Tim Hardaway Jr., who missed much of the season and the entire playoff run due to left foot surgery, would provide more scoring punch. But dependable wing depth — in the form of a shooter who is a solid defender — is a need entering the summer.
The Boston Celtics lead the Miami Heat 3-2 with a trip to the NBA Finals on the line. You can catch all the action on ESPN.
Game 6: Fri., Heat at Celtics (ESPN)
Game 7*: Sun., Celtics at Heat (ESPN)
*If necessary
All games at 8:30 p.m. ET
So is an upgrade at center, where Kleber played the majority of the minutes in the playoffs despite being a backup to Dwight Powell.
“They’re one player away,” an Eastern Conference executive told ESPN, suggesting the Mavs could win a title as soon as next season if they figured out a way to add an impact center — in the mold of 2010-11 Tyson Chandler — who could be a primary Doncic pick-and-roll partner, rebounder and rim protector.
It’s an opinion shared by several other rival coaches, scouts and executives who have recently discussed Dallas’ outlook with ESPN.
Cuban also believes this kind of roster construction — with some upgrades — can set the Mavs up to be long-term contenders.
“We see what we need,” Cuban said in the wake of the Warriors’ closeout win. “When one of their guys is getting 17, 18 rebounds a night, it kind of tells the story. That’s one of the things that we’ll try to fix.”
The players on the Mavs’ roster don’t believe drastic moves need to be made for the franchise to win a championship.
“We’ve definitely got enough in this locker room to do something special,” Finney-Smith told ESPN during the conference finals. “We’re here. We’re a top-four team in the NBA. You can try to find another star, but you never know how that’s going to mesh with Luka or the other personnel. It’s an adjustment to play with somebody like Luka, too, and I feel like [Brunson] adjusted well and [Dinwiddie], too.
“The bunch-of-stars s— don’t even work anymore. Fit matters.”
CUBAN HAS LONG made pursuing a star a priority. It’s why he didn’t keep an aging roster intact after the franchise’s lone title, opting to instead create salary-cap space in hopes of signing Chris Paul or Dwight Howard or other big names who didn’t end up in Dallas — or, in the case of Deron Williams, signed with the Mavs after his star had faded.
It’s why the Mavs pushed their chips to the middle to trade for Porzingis midway through Doncic’s rookie season. Dallas also had pipe dreams of pairing Doncic with Giannis Antetokounmpo, but those evaporated when Antetokounmpo signed a contract extension with the Milwaukee Bucks and then led his franchise to a championship last season.
Spencer Dinwiddie has meshed with Luka Doncic since arriving to Dallas at the trade deadline. Ezra Shaw/Getty Images
It’s also one reason why Cuban hired Harrison, the former longtime Nike executive who has strong relationships with players and agents throughout the league, as the Mavs’ new general manager last summer.
However, at this point, the Mavs don’t have a clear path to even making a pitch for another star. Dallas wasted the flexibility of having Doncic on a rookie contract, failing to make a splash in free agency over the past few years, and his supermax extension kicks in this summer. They also still owe a 2023 first-round pick to the New York Knicks, limiting their assets in the trade market.
The Mavs could benefit at some point from the NBA trend of disgruntled stars forcing their way to certain contenders via trade. Doncic has certainly proven that he lives in the league’s elite stratosphere. But he doesn’t have deep-rooted relationships with stars from around the league, typically formed as teenagers and/or on Team USA. And Doncic’s playing style might not be attractive to other stars accustomed to frequently having the ball in their hands.
These Mavs, meanwhile, emerged as contenders with Doncic and a cast of high-caliber complementary pieces who embraced their roles. They live in Luka’s world and have learned to thrive in it.
“I learned how I need to play without a rhythm,” Brunson said. “I don’t need a rhythm. It’s Luka Doncic. S—‘s not changing. It’s Luka Doncic. I’ve come to the conclusion that he’s an amazing player, he’s going to do a lot of great things and this organization is going to build around him. …
“Certain guys have that aura about them.”
As far as Cuban is concerned, the Mavs “without question” established an identity in the first season of Kidd’s tenure that gives the franchise a chance to grow into champions.
“Hard-playing, physical, multitalented,” Cuban said, listing off the distinctive traits of players on the Dallas roster. He continued, “Being able to complement Luka, knowing how to play with Luka. That probably is No. 1.”
6 people wounded by gunfire in Chicago Thursday
Six people were wounded in shootings across Chicago Thursday.
A 17-year-old girl was hurt in a shooting Thursday afternoon in Ravenswood Manor on the North Side. The girl was traveling in a vehicle just before 5 p.m. in the 4600 block of North Francisco Avenue when someone opened fire, police said. She suffered a graze wound to the neck and was transported to Illinois Masonic Medical Center in good condition, police said.About a mile away, a man was inside a car when he was shot after an argument with someone outside. The man, 41, was in the 3500 block of West Collum Avenue about 6:30 p.m. when he was shot in the neck, police said. He was taken to Illinois Masonic in critical condition, police said. Hours later, a man, 31, was with a group of people outside in the 500 block of South Francisco Avenue when he was shot in the buttocks and leg, police said. He was taken to Mount Sinai Hospital in serious condition, officials said. Another man, 44, was in an alley in the 6000 block of South Champlain Avenue about 11:30 p.m. when he was shot in the left flank, police said. He was dropped off at St. Bernard Hospital and then transferred to Stroger Hospital where he was listed in good condition, police said.
At least two others were wounded in shootings across Chicago Thursday.
Nine people were wounded, one fatally, in shootings across Chicago Wednesday.
6 people wounded by gunfire in Chicago Thursday Read More »
3 trades for the Chicago Bulls to move up in 2022 NBA DraftRyan Heckmanon May 27, 2022 at 11:00 am
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‘Fire Island’ on Hulu: Joel Kim Booster, a former Chicago comedian, reimagines Jane Austen on the beach
The idea for “Fire Island,” written by and starring former Chicagoan Joel Kim Booster and debuting June 3 on Hulu, started “as a threat,” Booster says.
A decade or so ago, Booster and Bowen Yang (pre-“Saturday Night Live”) took their first trip to Fire Island–a popular summer tourist destination for the LGBTQ community in New York. Think Door County, but gay.
Booster, a writer and performer whose credits include “Sunnyside,” “Shrill,” “Big Mouth” and his own Comedy Central stand-up half hour, was reading Jane Austen’s “Pride and Prejudice” one day on the beach and noted just how much the book tracked with his Fire Island experience.
“Specifically, the ways in which people communicate across class lines,” Booster says. “I said, ‘Wouldn’t it be funny if I wrote a gay version of ‘Pride and Prejudice’ set on Fire Island?’ And everyone booed and threw things at me.”
In 2018, Booster’s agent encouraged him to adapt an essay he wrote for Penguin Random House, titled ” ‘Pride and Prejudice’ on Fire Island,” into a script. What began as a TV pilot for the erstwhile content platform Quibi turned into a feature-length film after being purchased by Searchlight Pictures.
The plot of “Fire Island” begins as not too far-flung a concept for a romantic comedy before diving into Shakespearean terrain. Booster and Yang play fictionalized versions of themselves — best friends embarking, with a small entourage, on their annual Fire Island vacation getaway. The pair attempt to ingratiate themselves with the Fire Island elite for the sake of finding love and making lasting memories. The cast includes other up-and-coming names in comedy (Matt Rogers, Torian Miller) in addition to the longtime comedy luminary Margaret Cho.
Director Andrew Ahn, whose resume includes the independent features “Spa Night” and “Driveways” and an episode of the FX docuseries “Pride,” received the script for “Fire Island” a year into the pandemic, a time he admits was pretty isolating. “Reading something like Joel’s script, that celebrates queer Asian American friendship, was so exciting to me,” he says. “I hadn’t gone out to a club to dance, drink and be stupid with my friends [in so long, at that point], and I loved being able to revel in that within Joel’s script.”
“It was great to work with another queer Asian American creative,” Ahn adds. “And what I love about our collaboration is that, yes, like, we share a lot of things, but we also have very different perspectives on things. I think that’s indicative of how diverse even our intersectional identity is.”
“Fire Island” director Andrew Ahn said he loved reading a script “that celebrates queer Asian American friendship.”
Searchlight Pictures
Booster’s script certainly contains a plethora of party scenes, but touches on Fire Island’s power as a haven for the kind of queer-friendly debauchery not often seen on the mainland.
“[There] is a tangible energy [on Fire Island] of everything it meant to gay men a century ago versus what it means to us now,” Booster says. “You don’t realize the weight you carry around with you in the normal world until you’re in a place like Fire Island where it’s suddenly lifted and you’re free to be as gay as you want to be with your friends. Yes, there’s [some] toxicity there, but if you go with the right people, you can overcome that and experience something really transformative.”
Booster’s own transformation was accelerated by Chicago. In addition to hanging out at both Montrose and Hollywood beaches — mini versions of Fire Island, he says — he spent two years grinding shows as a stand-up comic and actor.
He says his favorite show to do in Chicago was Entertaining Julia, a weekly showcase at Town Hall Pub in Boystown. Booster loved the unpredictable nature of the show, which routinely hosted local comics but was home to the occasional celebrity drop-in, including Robin Williams.
“Chicago is an incredible incubator for any sort of risks, especially in the performing arts,” says Booster, whose stand-up special “Psychosexual” premieres June 21 on Netflix. “I was able to do so many different things, wear so many different hats and was afforded the space to perform, write and do comedy and theater — and was never asked to pick a lane.”
It’s the kind of city that can nurture the idea to, say, write a gay rom-com version of “Pride and Prejudice” set on Fire Island — and encourage someone like Booster to make good on his threat.
Gene Pesek, Sun-Times photographer who captured memorable shots of Beatles, Bears, Mirage tavern, dead at 95
Gene Pesek viewed the world as if he were a camera.
“I see photography no matter where I am,” he once said in an interview with videographer Jim Quattrocki, whose career Mr. Pesek helped inspire by giving him a camera when he was 6. “I see pictures. I can be driving on [the] Dan Ryan and looking straight ahead, and I’ll see a picture.”
Mr. Pesek chronicled the beautiful and the bestial in a nearly 40-year career as a Chicago Sun-Times photographer. Some days, he’d be assigned to shoot movie stars or spring flowers. Other times, he shot crime scenes, plane crashes and political conventions.
He died May 16 at the Matteson home of his daughter Debra Wallace. He was 95.
Gene Pesek made this photo of onlookers watching as the police removed the bodies of eight student nurses killed by Richard Speck at 2319 E. 100th St. in July 1966.
Gene Pesek / Sun-Times
“He could do anything,” said Rich Cahan, an author and former Sun-Times picture editor who worked with him.
Gene Pesek captured gospel legend Mahalia Jackson shopping at the old Goldblatt’s department store on State Street.
Gene Pesek / Sun-Times
He had work shown at the Art Institute of Chicago.
“He was very meticulous in his craft and the way he lit things,” said former Sun-Times photographer Bob Black. “I used to ask him, ‘How’d you do that?’ He was a master.”
Then-Vice President Richard M. Nixon in Chicago, as seen in a Gene Pesek photo.
Gene Pesek / Sun-Times
To capture a memorable moment, Mr. Pesek might go up in a helicopter with the doors wide open. Or he’d board an amusement-park ride –and ride it backward to capture the look on the faces of those behind him.
John Lennon and George Harrison through Gene Pesek’s lens at the Beatles’ press conference at the Stock Yard Inn before their first Chicago performance, in 1964 show at the International Amphitheatre.
Gene Pesek / Sun-Times
Gene Pesek captured a moment as the Beatles arrived on the field at Comiskey Park before their performance on Aug. 20, 1965.
Gene Pesek / Sun-Times
Gene Pesek captured the screaming adulation of young fans seeing the Beatles at the old Comiskey Park in 1965.
Gene Pesek / Sun-Times
One of Mr. Pesek’s proudest achievements was working on a blockbuster investigation in the late 1970s involving a team of reporters from the Sun-Times and the Better Government Association that he couldn’t talk about while he was working on it.He and fellow photographer Jim Frost shot undercover photos capturing shakedowns for bribes at the Mirage tavern, a dive bar at 731 N. Wells St., that the Sun-Times bought to catch and expose corruption.
Using automatic shutter release on another camera, Sun-Times photographers Gene Pesek (right) and Jim Frost photographed themselves in the hideaway they worked undercover from at the Mirage tavern.
Sun-Times file
The resulting stories by Sun-Times reporters Zay N. Smith and Pam Zekman exposed kickbacks, tax fraud and government inspectors who ignored problems in exchange for a cash-filled envelope left atop the bar.
“It was such an incredible story,” Mr. Pesek told Quattrocki. “They said, ‘We have a special assignment for you. You can take it, it may be dangerous, we don’t know. But if you don’t want it, we’re not gonna to tell you about it. If we tell you about it, you gotta take it.’ So I says, ‘Well, you know, it sounds good.’ I said: I’ll try.”
Gene Pesek (far right) at the 40th anniversary celebration in January 2018 of the Mirage tavern sting with (from left) reporters Zay Smith, Pam Zekman and Bill Recktenwald, fellow former Sun-Times photographer Jim Frost and then-Sun-Times editor Chris Fusco.
Kevin Tanaka / Sun-Times
Working on the Mirage investigation, he and Frost pretended to be repairmen in an effort to avoid suspicion. They’d hide their cameras in their toolkits.
“He would put on overalls and a flannel shirt” to work at the Mirage, according to his daughter Pamela Tietz.
Frost said he cut a hole in a wall and covered it with a vent in order for him and Mr. Pesek to secretly shoot photos.
“I took it home, and I beat it all up because it was not a pretty place,” Frost said, “and a shiny vent would have been out of place.”
He said he and Mr. Pesek understood how important it was for them to document the corruption.
“The whole thing was hanging on me and Gene in a big way,” Frost said.
A cutaway illustration of the Mirage tavern showing undercover Sun-Times photographers Jim Frost and Gene Pesek ready to capture images of bribery and corruption that Chicago bar owners faced.
Jack Jordan / Sun-Times
“The fact that Gene and Jim actually had pictures of fire inspectors taking a bribe and had photos of what was going on made the series three-dimensional,” Cahan said. “It was the key to the whole series.”
Young Gene grew up near 70th Street and South Lawndale Avenue. His father was an architect, which influenced his way of seeing the world’s lines and patterns, he said in the interview. For his graduation from Davis grade school, his dad gave him a gift: a box camera.
He went to Kelly High School, where he met Dolores “Duckie” Cook, who would become his wife of 61 years.
When he tried out for the football team at Kelly, his daughter said, “The coach told my dad he’d be much better off in the Camera Club.”
During World War II he served in the Army Air Forces in Hawaii, according to his family.
High-schooler and future Bears linebacker Dick Butkus with his mother Emma and father John at their home at 10324 S. Lowe Ave. in 1959.
Gene Pesek / Sun-Times
Working for the Sun-Times in an age long before GPS and step-by-step directions on smartphones, Mr. Pesek had a knack for getting around quickly, the way news photographers needed to do, Cahan said.
“He knew the city inside and out,” he said. “You had to know the fastest way to events.”
Gene Pesek shot this image of singer Harry Belafonte (left) and civil rights leader John Lewis at a news conference on the South Side held by the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee.
Gene Pesek / Sun-Times
Mr. Pesek often shot cover photos for Midwest, the newspaper’s old Sunday magazine.
Muhammad Ali adjusts his cap before a Nation of Islam convention at the Coliseum in February 1966.
Gene Pesek / Sun-Times
Gene Pesek made this image as Abbie Hoffman left federal court in Chicago on Sept. 18, 1968, after he and other protest leaders who came to Chicago for the 1968 Democratic National Convention were charged with conspiracy and inciting a riot.
Gene Pesek / Sun-Times
For Mr. Pesek, photographing celebrities was just part of the job. Not that he always knew who it was he was making pictures of. Once, he told his daughters he was going to be shooting a band named Twigs, or maybe it was Branches.
“It was Styx,” Tietz said.
Ms Magazine founder Gloria Steinem as seen through the eyes and lens of Sun-Times photographer Gene Pesek in 1981.
Gene Pesek / Sun-Times
Mr. Pesek retired in 1991 after more than 38 years for the Sun-Times, save for a brief period when he left to operate his own photo studio.
Mr. Pesek and his wife volunteered at the Animal Welfare League in Chicago Ridge, and they ended up taking in dogs at least five times, according to their daughter Sandra Vail.
Rocky the beagle was his special dog, though.
“If my dad had coffee cake,” Tietz said, “Rocky had coffee cake.”
Once, he and his wife rescued a sparrow that had fallen from a nest. They fed it with an eyedropper. When they tried to set it free, it kept flying back to them. So they kept it and named it Chicken. The bird lived for five years and would perch on Dolores Pesek’s shoulder while she cooked dinner.
They enjoyed relaxing together.
“They’d sit outside and drink Hilty Diltys,” a cocktail, their former neighbor Rosemary Quattrocki said.
Mr. Pesek’s wife died in 2010. In addition to his daughters Debra, Sandra and Pamela, he is survived by eight grandchildren and six great-grandchildren.
Mr. Pesek preferred to write notes on paper plates rather than on paper. So, at his funeral service on Tuesday, his daughters placed paper plates in his casket bearing messages they’d written, saying they loved him.
Curry awarded inaugural West finals MVP trophyon May 27, 2022 at 7:55 am
SAN FRANCISCO — Stephen Curry celebrated the Golden State Warriors‘ return to the NBA Finals by adding a new trophy to his collection as he was named the first Western Conference Most Valuable Player on Thursday.
After the Warriors eliminated the Dallas Mavericks with their 120-110 win in Game 5, Curry was handed the brand-new Magic Johnson Western Conference finals MVP trophy and immediately hugged and lifted in the air by teammates. Nine members of the media voted on the series MVP at the end of the game.
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Drawing a lot of Dallas’ defensive attention, Curry finished Game 5 with 15 points and nine assists but he averaged 23.8 points, 7.4 assists and 6.6 rebounds in the series.
For Curry, the real reward is returning to the NBA Finals. After making five straight Finals from 2014-15 to 2018-19, Golden State missed the playoffs for two straight seasons. Curry missed 60 games during the 2019-20 season due to a fractured left hand.
But now the two-time NBA MVP will be going for his fourth NBA championship.
Curry is the first Magic Johnson trophy winner. The league introduced new trophies for the MVP of both the Eastern Conference finals and Western Conference finals. The NBA named the Western Conference MVP trophy after Johnson and the Eastern Conference MVP trophy after Larry Bird — the two legends credited with raising the game to new levels in the 1980s.
Curry awarded inaugural West finals MVP trophyon May 27, 2022 at 7:55 am Read More »
Warriors, whole again, savor return to NBA Finalson May 27, 2022 at 7:55 am
SAN FRANCISCO — The Golden State Warriors are heading back to the NBA Finals for the first time since 2019 and for the sixth time in the last eight years.
The Warriors punched their ticket with their 120-110 win over the Dallas Mavericks in Game 5 on the Western Conference Semifinals on Thursday night.
Klay Thompson played his best game of the series, finishing with a game-high 32 points on 12-of-25 shooting, including eight 3-pointers.
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Golden State took control of the game early, building an 18-point lead in the second quarter — the largest first-half lead for the Warriors and the largest first-half deficit for the Mavericks this postseason.
Dallas made a run in the third, outscoring the Warriors 15-2 in the final 3:51 of the quarter, cutting the Mavericks’ 25-point deficit down to seven.
But the start of the fourth quarter brought the Warriors their own small run to rebuild a comfortable lead, and they were able to keep the Mavericks at arm’s length for the remainder of the game.
All five of the Warriors’ starters finished in double digits. In addition to Thompson’s best offensive performance of the series, Draymond Green had his best scoring game of the playoffs, finishing with 17 points on 6-of-7 shooting and nine assists. Andrew Wiggins added 18 points, while Kevon Looney had 10 and Stephen Curry scored 15.
Thursday’s Game 5 was also a showcase of the Warriors’ depth, which was much needed with Otto Porter Jr. sidelined with left foot soreness. Nemanja Bjelica checked in first in place of Porter, and instantly provided strong defense, posting a plus-14 net rating in his first 11-minute spurt.
Moses Moody, who’s been tapped to fill Gary Payton II‘s minutes, gave the Warriors an offensive boost, scoring seven points in his nine minutes.
Overall, though, the Warriors’ offense wasn’t at its best, and their defense greatly fueled their win, especially when it came to containing Luka Doncic.
The Warriors held Doncic to just six points in the first half — the fewest points in any first half all season for Doncic, including regular season and playoffs. All 12 of Doncic’s first-half shot attempts were contested. He finished with 28.
Golden State will face either the Boston Celtics or Miami Heat in the Finals.
Warriors, whole again, savor return to NBA Finalson May 27, 2022 at 7:55 am Read More »
Luka: ‘I played terrible,’ but proud of Mavs’ runon May 27, 2022 at 7:14 am
SAN FRANCISCO — Luka Doncic‘s initial reaction to the end of the longest playoff run of his young NBA career was to express disappointment in himself.
“I don’t like losing, especially like this,” Doncic said after the Dallas Mavericks were eliminated Thursday night with a 120-110 Game 5 loss to the Golden State Warriors. “I played terrible.”
Doncic finished his final game of the season with 28 points, nine rebounds and six assists, but it was a performance that fell far short of his high standards, especially in potential elimination games. He was only 10-of-28 from the floor, including 3-of-13 from 3-point range, and frequently failed to get back on defense after his misses.
Doncic scored 15 points as the Mavs rallied in the third quarter, but Dallas couldn’t overcome a deficit that swelled to 25 points in part due to his poor performance in the first half, when he was just 2-of-12 from the floor with three turnovers.
Nevertheless, it was the 10th time in these playoffs that Doncic led Dallas in points, rebounds and assists, breaking the record set by LeBron James in 2013 for the most such outings in a single postseason. He averaged 31.7 points, 9.8 rebounds and 6.4 assists to lead the Mavericks, who had last won a playoff series during the franchise’s 2011 championship run, to the Western Conference finals.
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“If we talk about our season, I’m really proud of this team — everybody, every player, every staff member,” Doncic said. “Nobody had us here. But I promise we fought until the end. Congratulations to Warriors. They were obviously the better team. But I’m really proud of this team.”
Warriors coach Steve Kerr described Doncic as “impossible to guard.” At 23, Doncic has already proven to be a historically elite offensive threat in the playoffs, joining Wilt Chamberlain as the only players in NBA history to average at least 30 points per game in each of their first three postseasons, according to ESPN Stats & Information.
Doncic said he’s confident that the Mavs are “on a great path” to become a championship team, but he said he needs to make significant strides defensively for the team to reach those heights.
“I think defense has got to be way better for me,” said Doncic, who was frequently targeted by playoff opponents. “Honestly, I think I made a huge step this year defensively, but there’s so much room for improvement. I’ve got to be way better there. I think that’s one spot that can take us to the next level.”
Doncic also discussed the “great relationship” he developed with first-year Mavs coach Jason Kidd, a Hall of Fame point guard whose on-court leadership played a key role in the Mavs’ lone title. He emphasized his trust of Kidd, who publicly challenged Doncic on a few occasions this season, such as calling him out for arguing with referees instead of running back on defense and challenging him to “participate” on defense.
Doncic earned his third consecutive first-team All-NBA selection despite having to play his way into shape. He reported to training camp weighing more than 260 pounds for the second consecutive season, and he didn’t perform like an MVP candidate until after taking three weeks off in December to recover from recurring ankle sprains and work on his conditioning.
Kidd didn’t specifically mention Doncic when relaying the postgame message that he delivered to the Mavs in the locker room, but it seemed to be intended for the superstar, who will spend much of the offseason playing for the Slovenian national team.
“Now it’s about, what is our appetite come next season?” Kidd said. “Are we going to tiptoe into the season or are we going to be hungry? Then, are we going to train this summer to understand what it means to play into May and June? Because it’s a long season.”
Doncic has made steady improvements since his Rookie of the Year campaign, such as adding a Dirk Nowitzki-esque one-legged fadeaway and polishing his floater. Mavs management anticipates that Doncic will return to Dallas with even more.
“That’s what the great ones do,” Mavs governor Mark Cuban said. “He’s a top-three, top-one, top-two player in this league, and he’ll continue to get better. Some guys, who they are is who they are. That’s not Luka. Luka will continue to get better.”
Luka: ‘I played terrible,’ but proud of Mavs’ runon May 27, 2022 at 7:14 am Read More »