Feb. 2, 2008

by Kurt Streeter, Los Angeles Times - Read the complete L.A. Times story

SAN FRANCISCO -- He is an imperfect man. A man shadowed by scandal, tragedy and addiction.

Tonight, I will pull for him -- for his University of San Francisco Dons basketball team in its game at Pepperdine.

It's nothing against Pepperdine. It's just that I like fighters, people who bounce back from mistakes and war with their demons. The imperfect. The humbled. That's Eddie Sutton.

That will be him on the sidelines in Malibu tonight. He is 71 now, more worn than we remember, silver haired, hunched by arthritis and hard living. He walks and talks slowly, but his basketball mind is still strong and fast.