Rant #1,387: Passings

Four people passed away during the past few days that are worth noting.

One of the people you are sure to know; the other three, you might or might not have heard of, but if you are a sports fan, you probably have heard their names.

Going in my own order, I will start with Anthony Mason, the rugged forward who had an interesting career in the NBA, with his most fame coming from his time with the New York Knicks in the 1990s.

This player--a third round draftee--wasn't ready for the NBA when he was originally drafted, and he played several years overseas to hone his craft.

But once he made it to the NBA, he played like he never wanted to leave.

He was one of those hard-nosed defenders that New York basketball fans love, and he was part of the very successful--though non-championship--teams that the Knicks had 20 years ago.

I also had an affinity to him, because he grew up in the outskirts of my old neighborhood, Rochdale Village in South Jamaica, Queens.

He went to Springfield Gardens High School, the high school I would have went to if we had not moved from the community.

He was not a Hall of Fame player, but in New York Knicks fans' hearts, he was probably one of the most popular players ever to don that uniform.

Then we have Minnie Minoso, one of those athletes that comes around once every generation.

Minoso was a excellent player for baseball's Chicago White Sox mainly in the 1950s and 1960s, one of the first Hispanic players that I knew about when I was a kid.

He was the first Hispanic star, and the first player of color to play for either of the Chicago baseball teams.

The thing with Minoso is that he never officially retired.

For several years, the White Sox would literally cart out this player, to play an inning or make an appearance on the field, and he did this for several years, long after his actual playing career was over. He even batted twice in the 1980s, and he probably got away with it because no one knew his age. He supposedly was about 90 when he died, so his last at bats came when he was in his late 50s or early 60s.

Sure, it was probably something of a publicity stunt for the White Sox, who forever will be the second team in a two-team town with the Cubs, but fans bought into it, making Minoso probably one of the most popular players of all time.

He isn't in the Hall of Fame, but he did have a fine career, even if it went on way, way too long.

Next comes Earl Lloyd, who I knew as an NBA coach, but whose legacy is much, much more important than that.

This NBA Hall of Famer broke the color barrier in a sport that is now probably 90 percent black. He was the first black player to actually play in a game in the NBA, and he did it more than 60 years ago in the early 1950s.

There is a lot of controversy about just who the first black player in the league was. Was it the Knicks' Nat "Sweetwater" Clifton, or was it the Celtics' Chuck Cooper? Each of these players have their own claims to fame related to being the first, but Lloyd was the first black to ever enter an NBA game.

It is hard to believe that the NBA, today with all its glitz and glamor, was once little more than a barnstorming league, where the pay was low and the players were all white, and with a large percentage of those players being Jewish.

When Lloyd formally broke the color barrier on the court, he opened the door for the Bill Russells, the Wilt Chamberlains, and the Oscar Robertsons to follow.

And without Lloyd to open the door, there would be no Lebron James.

Finally, the most famous person of three people we look back at today is Leonard Nimoy, veteran actor who played Mr. Spock on the cult TV series "Star Trek."

Nimoy was a pretty much nondescript actor when he was offered the Star Trek script, no different from the other main actors on the show.

He was hard to characterize at the time, because of his look and demeanor.

He was in a lot of TV shows, but he didn't have the All-American look producers often went for back then, and, like he fellow Trek cast member William Shatner, he was Jewish.

When the Spock character came about, Nimoy took that character literally into another dimension.

His portrayal of the half Vulcan/half-human was full of the philosophy that he had learned as a boy in his local synagogue, with this hand salute and the "live long and prosper" codas directly linked to his Jewish teachings.

Although the original show was never a ratings winner, it made him and Shatner, in particular, cult heroes of the baby boomer generation, and it also allowed him to dabble in other things, including making records and writing poetry.

He was perhaps the first renaissance man of American TV, and he understood just how important the role of Spock was to him.

He often said that the role not only defined his career, but it also gave him a career.

Mason, Minoso, Lloyd and Nimoy made their marks on their own respective courts of endeavor, and I honor them today with this column.

To take something from Nimoy, may they all "live long and proper" wherever they may be today.