Ready! Fire! Aim!

In the early 1960s, when a network could purchase NBA rights for even less than Bronny James futures, Bob Cousy, the Celtics’ dynamic point guard who played as if Earl Monroe would soon share his basketball DNA, had just retired.

Cousy also was ABC Sports’ exec Roone Arledge’s favorite player. Both were from Queens, and Arledge insisted that ABC hire Cousy as its lead NBA color analyst.

So, it wasn’t until Cousy’s first national NBA telecast as an ABC commentator that Arledge learned that Cousy spoke with a strong, steady speech impediment.