SHENKAR COLLEGE
Pays To Be Sports Minded
RON ROTHSTEIN,
first coach of the Miami Heat and coach of the Detroit Pistons, recalls
his childhood days in the Bronx. He delighted in teasing his younger
brother Warren, who was a very
quiet kid until he was five.
One day Warren couldn’t take it
anymore and grabbed one of the plastic stacking tables and broke it over
his brother’s head.
“We crawled on the floor to
pick up all the pieces,” Ron said. “We were afraid our father would
kill us both.”
Now
a successful businessman – chairman of Worldwide Web NetworX and ceo of
ATM Service Ltd. – Warren was honored with a dinner at New York’s
Waldorf-Astoria by the American Committee for Shenkar College in Israel.
“I’m
52 and it’s good to be someone’s little brother,” Warren cracked.
Actually he did follow in his
brother’s footsteps, at least in his college days. Warren attended the
University of Texas at El Paso on a basketball scholarship.
Sonny Shar,
committee president, also honored Kenneth J. Rood, head of Ralph
Lauren Home, and Sami Sagol, ceo of Keter Plastics, an Israeli
company that manufactures garden furniture and bathroom accessories.
When Sonny called Rood to be an
honoree, Rood asked, “What do I have to do?”
“You make a speech and send me
money,” an unabashed Sonny told him.
It was a good choice, as far as
doling out honors to deserving sports minded persons.
In 1978 the New Jersey Nets
drafted Rood after a two-year stint as an all-star in the Continental
Basketball Association, the farm system for the NBA. In 1982 he was
inducted into the Hofstra University Basketball Hall of Fame.
And
Sagol? He’s athletic in his own way. He owns Hapoel Keter, Israel’s
leading soccer team.
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