Basketball diaries

Salon's Jake Tapper goes among the redwoods, with camera in hand, at Bill Bradley's Madison Square Garden fund-raiser.

By Jake Tapper

  • Pages 1 2 3

Nov 17, 1999 | Bill Bradley scored big-time here at Madison Square Garden on Sunday, hosting his "HOOPLA! Bill Bradley back in the Garden" fundraiser, which brought in NBA legends and $1.5 million.

As is always the case with events such as these, the most interesting stuff doesn't make it onto the evening news -- it happens behind the scenes.

The following snapshots were taken by Washington correspondent Jake Tapper:

Bradley spokesman Eric Hauser is attacked by a ravenous press corps before the start of the event. I wanted to know if actor Harvey Keitel was going to be showing the crowd his penis, as seems to be in the fine print of the contracts for many of his films of late. Hauser had no comment.

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The Weekly Standard's Matt Labash interrogates illustrator LeRoy Neiman, a favorite artist of athletes as well as Hugh Hefner. Big donors to Bradley's 1978 Senate run received a Neiman poster of the candidate with his sleeves rolled up and a silhouette of New Jersey in the background.

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Lakers great, "Airplane" co-star and all-time NBA leading scorer Kareem Abdul-Jabbar is the first star introduced to the crowd.

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