Franchise in Fragments: A Too Often Forgotten Great

Junior!

There’s been a tendency to denigrate Moore - to imply his jersey shouldn’t be retired.

Try living through the doldroms of the mid to late 80s as a Spurs fan. Let’s just say Drossos’ Jumbotron wasn’t enough to get people excited. The team certainly wasn’t doing it (though Walter Berry did have his charms. Another tangent: in the recent Ludden “Robinson” article he implies that Berry chased Alvin Robertson around the hotel with a butter knife. I CLEARLY remember initially reading that Alvin chased Walter. 48MOH: can you use your vast media influences to get to the bottom of this. My suggestion: ask Frank Brickowski. He was probably nearby. I remember Buck Harvey initially putting the butter knife in Alvin’s hand but then the magic butter knife years later jumps into Walter’s hand.)

Anyway, Moore in some ways symbolized the feeling of loss of this era because of how his career was cut short. Moore represented something positive, even if it was something tragic.

Is it odd to retire his jersey? Maybe.

Hey, he was a better player than Brad Davis. Didn’t they retire his jersey in Dallas?

So yes…Junior!

Spinal meningitis. They called it Desert Fever at the time. Right when he and Alvin Robertson were poised to be one of the best backcourts in the league he contracts a rare disease and is never the same. It’s quite possible he picked this up on a roadtrip to Phoenix…I’m just saying.