Peter Vecsey (sports columnist)
| Peter Vecsey | |
|---|---|
| Born |
July 1, 1943 Queens, New York, U.S. |
| Occupation | Sports columnist, analyst, TV color commentator |
| Years active | 1959-present |
Peter Vecsey (born July 1, 1943 in Queens, New York) is an American sports columnist and former NBA TV sports analyst.
Peter attended Archbishop Molloy High School in Briarwood section of Queens, where he was among the school's first 4-year class. After graduation, Peter worked in the U.S. Merchant Marines for a year before enrolling at Hofstra University, where he played freshman basketball before leaving to accept full-time job as a sports statistician for the New York Daily News, where he'd been employed during the baseball seasons while a junior & senior at Archbishop Molloy HS. He spent 14 years there, including two in the United States Army after getting drafted on May 13, 1965. Vecsey volunteered for the Airborne & Special Forces (Green Berets) but never was deployed overseas, receiving an honorable discharge on May 12, 1967 as Sergeant E-5.
Vecsey left the News in '76 to become an NBA columnist—first such national specialist in any sport—for the New York Post. Joined USA Today as its NBA columnist for three years in early '90s when legislation forced Rupert Murdoch to sell the Post. Returned in '94 when Murdoch re-purchased it. With David Stern's approval, Vecsey was hired by USA Network for the NBA's first year on cable. He was fired after three shows for negative remarks about a player or more. Vecsey originated the first NBA pre-game show (Earl Monroe and Mike Breen and Hubie Brown shot the pilot with him), which he wound up co-hosting with Hubie. Roughly 75 percent of CBS affiliates picked up the ten half-hour segments. Vecsey beat out 50 plus journalists who auditioned for 1 of 2 'Insider" roles on NBC when the NBA switched from CBS in '91. The first studio team comprised Bob Costas, Pat Riley, Bob Ferry and Vecsey, who remained on the air as co-host, primary features' interviewer and news breaker for all 12 years NBC carried the NBA. During that time, he served in similar roles as TNT-TBS studio analyst/news-breaker for 4 1/2 seasons. After that, he worked another five seasons for NBATV where he performed the same duties. Won back-to-back Victor Awards in the mid-90s as the country's best sports columnist.
Vecsey resigned from the Post effective Sept 6, 2012. His final column appeared July 1. His thrice-weekly columns provided readers with behind-the-screens enlightenment and entertainment. He broke hundreds of exclusive stories, some of the biggest being Julius Erving's $3M sale by the Nets to the 76ers...Latrell Sprewell's choking of coach P.J. Carlesimo at Warriors practice, Gilbert Arenas & Jarvaris Crittenon threatening each other with guns in the Wizards' dressing room, the 76ers' early-season firing of Gene Shue/hiring of Billy Cunningham, Charles Barkley's trade from Philly to Phoenix and Penny Hardaway's team vote to get rid of Magic coach Brian Hill…Knicks buyout of Larry Brown/replaced by Isiah Thomas…death of Drazen Petrovic in a car crash…Nets' hiring of Chuck Daly as coach... as well as first to report the Lakers were contemplating axing Paul Westhead.
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