Spring 2019

The Death of Cool

The Death of Cool

By JOEL LANDSKROENER

From 1967-80, one NBA point guard exhibited the essence of cool in everything he did. Number Ten. For the New York Knicks. Walt “Clyde” Frasier! When I was a kid, there was one number my teammates clamored for when the basketball coach handed out uniforms—Number Ten! Not because it was a number expressing perfection as in a “Perfect Ten.” No, it was the number denoting “cool.”