peter_vecseyIf only there were video. Last night in Springfield, Mass, at the pre-induction dinner for NBA Hall of Fame weekend (you may have heard – Jordan’s getting in), Peter Vecsey gave an absolutely horrendous speech that, according to sources, left David Stern livid, the crowd uncomfortable and aghast, and ended with his microphone being turned off so his 30-minute ramble could finally end. The quote of the night, according to one attendee:

“Hey Calvin … Calvin Murphy … I haven’t seen you since 1982 during the NBA Finals when you wanted to fight me and called me a “punk ass bitch” Right, right? That’s what you called me right? A punk-ass bitch.”

It doesn’t appear as if Vecsey was drunk. (Jeff Pearlman, who blogged about it, and also doesn’t think Vecsey was drunk.) But from the outset he was unhappy – Michael Jordan left the room prior to Vecsey taking the stage, and the NY Post scribe felt snubbed. Among the lowlights, from a source:

* Vecsey didn’t thank anyone (not even his family), but in his 30-minute speech (everyone else kept theirs in the 5-10 minute range), he basically bragged about himself
* He fired a barb at Doug Collins (who was in attendance accepting an award), and then strangely said (paraphrasing) “Vivian Stringer … I don’t know who you are we don’t know each other, we don’t have a relationship …”
* He told a senseless story about John Stockton where the punchline was something to the effect of, “… I went to Utah and Stockton gave me nothing … I ended up writing that Stockton’s given it up more than Madonna…” at which point the camera focused on Stockton, whose facial expression was one of incredulity; the audience laughed, and Vecsey thought they were laughing at his joke

Not that anyone should be terribly surprised by any of this from the increasingly irrelevant Vecsey. From SI in 1998:

Peter has been guided by none of journalism’s notions of fairness and ethical probity. He once hit up a coach he was covering, Kevin Loughery of the New Jersey Nets, for a job as an assistant. During the 1981-82 season, Peter accepted two low-interest loans totaling $60,000 from Leon Spiller, a close friend of Nets owner Joe Taub’s, to build a house on Shelter Island, in New York. Peter was questioned about the loans by his bosses at the Post, who chastised him but did not suspend him. The loans were a textbook example of conflict of interest—and a firing offense at most newspapers.

And to think, when we first arrived in New York, a decade ago, we thought he was one of the better NBA reads in all of newspapers.