Cervi was a fiery competitor sometimes compared with baseball's Eddie "The Brat" Stanky. Both were athletes who, if they couldn't outplay you, would out-hustle and out-think you in order to win.

What jumped out at me from a 1992 Syracuse Post-Standard interview republished by syracuse.com were Cervi's views on how basketball had changed since he quit coaching. Not surprisingly, he had a low opinion of today's game.

This is common among athletes who are quizzed a couple of generations after they've retired. Baseball old-timers are the most notorious because they've been bad-mouthing "today's players" for more than 100 years.

How you react to such comments pretty much depends on what year you were born. Still . . . no matter how hard we try, once we pass a certain age it's impossible to completely purge the urge to say, "Well, when I was a kid ..."

IT'S NATURAL to resist change, especially with things we love, things that came with sets of rules we learned and lived by as children. In Cervi's case, his reaction to basketball changes was very much about disregard for the rules:

"I've never seen such garbage!" he said in 1992 when Post-Standard writer David Ramsey asked him about the NBA. "And people are buying it! They palm the ball all the time! The three-second rule - they haven't called it since 1804!"

One reason I find Cervi's opinions so interesting – and you can see it coming, can't you? – is that I agree with him. And one reason I agree is because I played the game by those rules and those rules were enforced. Life on the basketball court would have been easier had I been allowed to palm the ball. When it came to dribbling, I needed all the help I could get. As for the three-second rule, I always thought it was idiotic, but I had to abide by it.

IF BASKETBALL would acknowledge the stupidity of certain rules, then abolish them, there'd be no complaint, at least from me. Cervi apparently felt officials were giving an unfair break to today's players who have transformed basketball into a very different sport from the one played 50 years ago.

Back then dunking was outlawed for a time. I can't remember the reason. Whatever it was, the ban didn't bother most people, me included. I strongly agree with these Cervi comments:

"All this dunking, I don't see what the hell it has to do with basketball! Dunking is useful, sure. It's useful for players who can't shoot!"

While I met Cervi many, many years ago, I didn't actually know him, but I suspect his opinon of the NBA, already sinking, went into freefall when the league sanctioned dunking competitions as part of the annual all-star game festivities.

ACCORDING TO the 1992 article, Cervi said the NBA's golden era ended in 1960. He blamed a shift in emphasis from defense to offense, from passing the ball to driving with the ball, and from playing for the team to playing for yourself.

Disagree all you want, but Cervi also said something that is beyond dispute: in his time, the coach was the boss. Players listened and responded. Today, more times than not, the players are in charge. And many of the players – Cervi singled out Michael Jordan, who in 1992 was the league's superduper star – are whiners, always begging for fouls to be called on the other team, but never on themselves.

Unlike Cervi, I stopped watching NBA games, though I continue to watch college basketball which has similarly changed since I was a kid.

As for whiners, they're everywhere, though the most visible are on the football field, especially on pass plays when incompletions find would-be receivers flinging their arms in a gesture that tells officials an interference penalty should have been called. It's a response that is automatic, but usually without merit, fuel for old-timers who claim today's players are a bunch of babies.

When I watch Syracuse University basketball games I often wonder how Jim Boeheim feels about the way his sport has changed since his days as a player. Boeheim and other successful coaches obviously have adjusted to these changes, perhaps even endorsed many of them. But I can't help but think he feels a lot of his players are misguided and undisiciplined, but attempting to change them is an impossible task. His teams have been highly entertaining and successful over the years, but you have to wonder if the game they are playing is basketball or something that should be called (please overlook any unfortunate connotations) helter-skelter, an apt description of the chaos that often ensues.

BACK TO AL CERVI: He shows up elsewhere on this website because NBA players in the 1950s, while well-known in their communities, were readily accessible and lived pretty much like the rest of us. Cervi and his team's biggest star, Dolph Schayes, spent a few hours one day at the Solvay High School gymnasium in 1951 giving tips to members of the Solvay Tigers basketball team, posing for our team photo before they left. Cervi also spent a day watching a local Biddy League tournament, after which he selected the tournament's most valuable player, which happened to be my cousin, Jim Smolinski.

One of my high school teammates, Bill Hall, watched the Syracuse Nationals practice and was able to get a private free-throw shooting lesson from Schayes, one of the best foul shooters of all-time. (I have to add, however, that Hall already was so good at this himself that no improvement was needed, perhaps wasn't even possible. Hall's real intention was to impress the NBA star. What's important to me is that Schayes took the time to work with a high school player.)

Also, my cousin, Bob Smolinski, remembers when he played for LeMoyne College, which at the time had no gymnasium on campus. The team wound up sharing practice facilities with the Nationals and the teams often scrimmaged each other at the Jefferson Street Armory in downtown Syracuse.

A FAVORITE Cervi memory involves what for many years was the NBA's most famous game, a five-overtime battle between Syracuse and the Anderson Packers in 1949. The game eventually was won by Syracuse, 125-123, but the Nats actually trailed by two points when the second or third overtime ended with a personal foul that sent rookie Ray Corley to the line with an opportunity to tie the game.

However, Corley had to wait several minutes while Cervi vented some frustration on the referees. I listened to the radio broadcast and the announcer, probably Jim MacKechnie, was astonished that Cervi continued to rant while his player stood at the foul line. It was the equivalent of a football coach icing the kicker, except that Cervi was icing his own player.

Obviously, Corley made both free throws and the game continued. A total of 122 fouls were called that night, and as I recall (though I've nothing to confirm this), one or both teams ran out of eligible players.

I believe officials resolved this problem by allowing players to re-enter the game, but with the condition that a foul on anyone over the limit would be viewed as a technical, giving their opponent the ball out of bounds after the free throws were shot.

CERVI HAD tremendous regard for his players and as years passed he grew more and more upset by people who belittled teams from the early days of the NBA. He put it this way in that 1992 Post-Standard article:

"They say the old guys couldn't play today! They are liars, and I am very angry about that! The old players would be bigger stars today than they were yesterday! My 1955 team, I'd take that team and go into pro ball tomorrow. We had everything - good balance, good shooters, decent height."

That team included Dolph Schayes, Paul Seymour, Earl Lloyd, Bob Kerr, Red Rocha, George King, Wally Osterkorn, Billy Kenville, Bob Tucker and Dick Farley. Also appearing in the team photo, but in street clothes, is Billy Gabor, a Syracuse favorite who played only three games that season, his last. Few of those names likely would be recognized by today's fans, who'd dismiss Cervi's claim as ridiculous.

My own guess is this team could indeed hold their own. I'd love to see some of today's prima donnas try to score on Paul Seymour or try to out-muscle Wally Osterkorn for a rebound. One thing may be certain – today's players probably wouldn't stand a chance against Cervi's team if the rules were enforced. And if Cervi were coaching, he'd see to it that they were.