Back in the days before the internet, I cannot tell you how thrilling it was to approach October, the start of the new NBA season, when the new Zander Hollander Complete Handbook of Pro Basketball would come out.
You’d keep checking in the Sports section of the bookstore — which for me was a Barnes and Nobles in Manhattan on 8th Street and Broadway — to see if it had arrived.
And then there it would be — a quick purchase and could not wait to start reading it on the subway home to Brooklyn.
Zander Was On Point & Funny
It was more than a treat — the unique feature was the funny and accurate bios of each player that Hollander provided, which were part scouting report, part standup comedy, but always razor sharp and on the money. Zander pushed the envelope. This type of writing, on sports players, was not available anywhere.
Zander also provided statistics for each player, a scouting report on players just drafted, and predictions — a complete handbook.
Analysis of Zander’s Analysis
I’m providing here a sampling of the 1981 Handbook — which came out just before the 1980-81 season, and featured stats for the 1979-80 season. I’m presenting the pages for the Knicks team — under Fair Use doctrine of Copyright law, and with perfect hindsight, will analyze Zander’s analysis.
The 1980-81 Knicks
The 1979-80 Knicks had gone 39-43 in the beginning of a rejuvenation with young guards Michael Ray Richardson and Ray Williams, and star rookie center Bill Cartwright.
NY had a great team on paper in 1977-78, which won 43 games but didn’t play defense, and were swept in the 2nd round of the playoffs by Philly. The Knicks had began their rebuild by trading Walt Frazier at the start of that season, then continued it by trading Spencer Haywood to New Orleans in January 1979 for Joe Meriweather, and a month later (in February 1979) trading Bob McAdoo to the Boston Celtics for three 1st-round picks: two 1st round picks in 1979 — which ended up being Larry Demic at #9 and Sly Williams at #21– and one 1st-rd pick in 1980 — which ended up being the #3 overall pick, that they used to pick Bill Cartwright.
The Knicks went 31-51 in 1978-79, as rookie Michael Ray Richardson underwhelmed. NY then fired Willis Reed as coach, and re-hired Red Holzman. And in 1979-80, Richardson took off, Cartwright had the splendid rookie season and the Knicks took off with them — going 39-43 and missing the playoffs by a game. They would go 50-32 in 1980-81 — the coming season as Zander wrote the below.
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This was to be the year of the Knicks’ Twin Tower offense, with 7’1 Bill Cartwright joining 7’0 Human Eraser Marvin Webster — who had been a dominating defensive force in Seattle before NY signed him as a free agent before the 1978-79 season. Webster had a decent first yr for the Knicks, but in 1979-80 was limited to 20 games due to foot issues.
However in the coming year — 1980-81, Webster would be a part of the 50-win story, playing 82 games for NY — 20.8 minutes per game off the bench. It would begin a streak of 3 straight years of 82 games played for NY — 18 to 23 minutes a game — before playing 76 games in 1983-84, then missing 2 years with foot issues, and retiring after a year in Milwaukee.
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All of NY was in love with Bill Cartwright as a rookie — as he was a big-time inside scoring star center. Zander was one of the first to point out his rebounding wasn’t what it was supposed to be. In those days there was no sports radio or internet, so this type of analysis wasn’t picked up and discussed by fans.
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Toby Knight remains one of the forgotten Knick heroes. He was drafted by them and was a very good all around player, who could score 20 ppg and play decent defense. “Led the team in offensive rebounds (which wasn’t difficult)” is pure Zander.
Unfortunately Toby blew out his knee before the start of the 1980-81 season, and missed the year. He would try a comeback in 1981-82, and average 5 pts in 13 minutes before having to call it quits.
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Michael Ray Richardson electrified New York City in his 2nd season, teaming with Ray Williams and Bill Cartwright to lead the Knicks to within a game of the playoffs.
This was the first writeup that Zander did of Earl Monroe that was unflattering. According to Zander, GM Werblin told Pearl at the end of the prior season, “You’ve outlived your usefulness here.”
Larry Demic did not turn out to be the star power forward the Knicks envisioned when they selected him as the #9 overall pick in 1979.
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Zander on Mike Glenn: “The prototype shooter who never learned to do anything else.” Reading Zander is like going to a comedy club for an evening.
On Hollis Copeland: “Something of value found on the beach… Discovered playing in a summer league in Atlantic City and invited to rookie camp because he lived in the area..”
Zander fanned on Marvin Webster — a rarity for Zander. As discussed above, Marvin got back on track in 1980-81, starting a string of 3-straight 82-game seasons for NY, and then a 76-game season after that — playing 18-23 minutes a game and teaming with Bill Cartwright at times a Twin Tower offense. Webster was there for the Bernard King era as well.
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A rookie Mike Woodson! Who the Knicks picked with the #12 overall pick in June 1980. Woodson had a decent rookie year, averaging before being traded in June 1981 to the Nets for 33-year-old Mike Newlin, who averaged 20 ppg throughout his career, but played 1 year for the Knicks before retiring. Woodson had an 11-year career, averaging 18 ppg several times. Stupid trade.
Thank you Zander Hollander for all of the amazing, on-point writeups and the laughs.
Here is a full picture of the front cover of the 1981 Handbook:
Here is a full picture of the back cover: