Midway through their first championship year, the Pistons traded Adrian Dantley for Mark Aguirre, who had a checkered reputation with the Dallas Mavericks.

But just as wrongdoing can tarnish stellar achievement, the success of Illinois this season demonstrates how achievements wrought by hard work can clear up a checkered reputation.

Mosque leaders say the risk is that younger Muslims, already feeling under assault in the United States because of the faith's checkered reputation, might choose one of two extremes.

The Kremlin, which began its bid eight years ago, sees membership as crucial to its effort to remake its checkered reputation as a tough place to do business.

It is a testament to how quickly a checkered reputation can give way to a better one.

He also made countless friends in their locker room despite having developed a checkered reputation as a teammate during his first three seasons, in Carolina, and his fourth in New Orleans.

The service has a checkered reputation, due to the polluted water in the khlong and the haphazard nature in which the service is operated.

Admittedly, the film does little for Nureyev's checkered reputation as a choreographer.

But Mr. Daniels shrugged off his checkered reputation and concentrated on the soulful, supremely assured style of nightclub music that was his trademark.

No." Mayor Guido had something of a checkered reputation among Arab-Americans here, not least because his first campaign, in 1985, distributed a leaflet promising to address the "Arab problem.