Recollections of Bill Bradley’s 1970 visit to Afghanistan

By Ed Odeven
TOKYO (Sept. 7, 2014) — I recently wrote an article on Bill Bradley’s reflections on the 1964 Tokyo Olympics for The Japan Times.

Six years later, the future Senator visited Afghanistan after capturing his first NBA title as a New York Knick. That visit was touched upon briefly in the following article: (http://www.japantimes.co.jp/sports/2014/08/28/olympics/nearly-50-years-bradley-recalls-1964-tokyo-games/).

Here’s a bit more about that trip.

Before and after the 1964 Summer Olympics, Bradley made lasting impressions with individuals from all walks of life. Venturing far from Tokyo can provide a glimpse of that.

In a recent phone interview, TomGouttierre, director of The Center for Afghanistan Studies at the University of Nebraska at Omaha, recalled his first meeting with Bradley — in Kabul — in the summer of 1970. And he remembers what Bradley and his U.S. teammates accomplished on the basketball court in Tokyo. “The Americans were invincible,” was his…