Article on Larry Coon and his impact on the NBA

[MFFL]

https://archive.is/K2UAc

[DanSchwartzgan]

https://archive.is/K2UAc

Thanks for posting this.  I probably started reading NBA content at a higher level in this same late 90’s timeframe.  Up to that point I just kept up with enough data to compete in Baseball, Football and Basketball fantasy leagues.  The time I had to do that faded as kids and career crowded them out.  But NBa trades and free agency ended up being kind of a mental escape where I could distract my mind from business and sleep at night.

My early resources were Patricia’s page and then contributing to the LMF forum.  Back then, a guy named Ron was kind of the FG of the board.  He didn’t particularly tolerate people posting cap stuff and free agency stuff that was ill-informed.  I remember him telling me one time that if I was going to post ideas, I needed to get familiar with Coon’s site.  It proved to be invaluable advice.

[SkenfromLMF]

The late Ron Haneberg! Who for years was credited on Coon's site along with David Lord.

My major disagreement with Ron was that he had no love for Don Nelson. I appreciated Nelson for at least being competent as a GM after dealing with Frank Zach(the HACK)anelli trading away Kidd and handcuffing the team with AC (Solid Gold) Green. Somehow Zach felt the roster was better with JimJackson and Jamal Mashburn than with Kidd. Both of those guys were doing everything possible to get out of Dallas - anyway those days were incredibly impactful and as much as the current situation frustrates at times, they are still better than a Ross Perot Jr. run organization. (caveat: Season Ticket office not withstanding)

Gary A'donato was also key to those 90's LMF days. Though GA was more of the eye test guy - he gave a ton of recaps that made the media guys look like amateurs (or expose that they were the mouthpiece of the "interests" - team or otherwise) .

I think if there were a Mt. Rushmore of the Mavs fans of the early internet era Ron, GA and Patricia were fundamental to that small community - DLord would probably be the 4th.