WEBVTT - Michael Cooper on Guarding Larry Bird, Kobe’s Draft Workout, 80’s Players Getting Disrespected 0:00:10.360 --> 0:00:21.480 Mm hmmm mmm. 0:00:24.360 --> 0:00:28.440 Welcome back all the smoke twenty twenty five here presented 0:00:28.480 --> 0:00:30.000 to you by DraftKings. 0:00:30.720 --> 0:00:32.479 The crown is yours. They got to put that on that. 0:00:32.560 --> 0:00:34.000 When you get that new money, Jack. 0:00:33.800 --> 0:00:35.040 Your ship was look good right now. If you had 0:00:35.040 --> 0:00:36.919 a crowd, you got your easy out right now. Yeah, 0:00:36.960 --> 0:00:39.280 I'm just you know, off real quick. Yeah, I sure can't. 0:00:43.680 --> 0:00:45.760 No Jerry Croll, no no products in there. 0:00:46.000 --> 0:00:48.159 It look wetter? Is it dry? When Coop you never 0:00:48.200 --> 0:00:51.560 had one of those? You kept this hit? I know, yeah, 0:00:51.640 --> 0:00:53.280 I know, y'all. I didn't think my house was like this, 0:00:53.360 --> 0:00:54.480 but yeah, black people. 0:00:54.240 --> 0:00:58.600 Got good at too many Coop, Jerry curl Bo. I've 0:00:58.640 --> 0:01:03.160 had hair Coop. Coop kept this year. Hey man, we 0:01:03.280 --> 0:01:05.280 work man. It's and I got bounced because they I 0:01:05.280 --> 0:01:09.240 got bounced. It's been a long time coming. I don't 0:01:09.240 --> 0:01:12.200 think it gets more la than than than the gentleman 0:01:12.319 --> 0:01:16.200 we have here today. Twelve year pro, eight time All Defense, 0:01:16.319 --> 0:01:18.760 nineteen eighty seven Defensive Player of the Year. That's five 0:01:18.959 --> 0:01:23.440 time NBA champ, eight, two time w NBA champions ahead coach, 0:01:24.680 --> 0:01:26.959 one of the first OG's of three and d We're 0:01:26.959 --> 0:01:30.160 gonna get into that today. Congratulations to the newest member 0:01:30.200 --> 0:01:33.160 of the twenty twenty four Hall of Fame class. Welcome 0:01:33.160 --> 0:01:34.399 to the show Man, Michael Cooper. 0:01:34.680 --> 0:01:39.520 Coop. We appreciate it, guys, We appreciate you. Matt. Let 0:01:39.560 --> 0:01:41.160 me say something before we just started. 0:01:41.560 --> 0:01:44.520 Oh, sure, a lot of things that you want to 0:01:44.640 --> 0:01:47.160 do in your life, but I have fucking arrived. 0:01:47.520 --> 0:01:48.920 Yeah you're here. I'm here man. 0:01:49.200 --> 0:01:54.760 Yeah cool, so good, damn Coop. And we've been trying 0:01:54.800 --> 0:01:56.640 to get you for a minute, Coop, even dodging us. 0:01:56.840 --> 0:01:59.880 Yes, sir, I'm I'm I've always reminded you, not on 0:02:00.200 --> 0:02:03.120 for the basketball. You played with the defensive side of 0:02:03.280 --> 0:02:05.360 me and Matter, two guys that really loved and took. 0:02:05.240 --> 0:02:06.320 Pride to playing defense. 0:02:06.880 --> 0:02:08.520 And you were one of the first ones of when 0:02:08.560 --> 0:02:10.720 I first started watching basketball to see take pride in 0:02:10.800 --> 0:02:15.079 it and to be at eight time eight time like that, 0:02:15.320 --> 0:02:17.959 that's a lie to me. But what made what made 0:02:18.040 --> 0:02:20.359 you take pride and what made you just want to 0:02:20.400 --> 0:02:23.720 be a defender? Well, Jack, you know that was my 0:02:23.800 --> 0:02:26.480 sticking point when I got to the Lakers. Obviously growing 0:02:26.520 --> 0:02:30.679 up here in California, Pasadena, what people don't know is 0:02:30.680 --> 0:02:33.840 that I was an offensive juggernaut when I went to 0:02:33.960 --> 0:02:36.560 junior college, I averaged twenty six points a game at 0:02:36.560 --> 0:02:39.679 Pasadena City College. I went to New Mexico, and I 0:02:39.720 --> 0:02:42.640 think I got changed right there. My coaching, Norm Ellenberger, 0:02:42.760 --> 0:02:45.640 was a defensive binded coach. I finally get drafted by 0:02:45.680 --> 0:02:48.359 the Lakers, and Jerry West came up to me, the 0:02:48.480 --> 0:02:52.160 Lake great Jerry West. He said, cool, we got magic Kareem, 0:02:52.320 --> 0:02:54.600 Jamal Willis, Norman Nixon, ain't enough. 0:02:54.440 --> 0:02:56.840 Shots for you. So you have to play some defense. 0:02:56.880 --> 0:02:58.840 And that was my strongholding. I stuck to it, and 0:02:59.400 --> 0:03:01.200 that was how I was gonna stay there, to get. 0:03:01.080 --> 0:03:02.239 In the court, To get on the court. You know, 0:03:02.560 --> 0:03:04.920 Greg bob Brich told me that when I first got 0:03:04.960 --> 0:03:07.840 to San Antonio. He's like, you see all the stars got. 0:03:07.919 --> 0:03:08.880 If you want to get on in the court, you 0:03:08.960 --> 0:03:12.440 better play defense. Larry Bird, one of the best basketball 0:03:12.440 --> 0:03:15.560 players of all time, talked about you as being one 0:03:15.600 --> 0:03:16.560 of the best defenders ever. 0:03:18.760 --> 0:03:21.239 You was, how do you feel hearing it from a 0:03:21.280 --> 0:03:22.799 guy like Larry Bird? You know what. 0:03:23.040 --> 0:03:24.800 One of the things that we all know this playing 0:03:24.840 --> 0:03:27.679 against your peers, you always want to be respected, and 0:03:28.200 --> 0:03:30.079 he was one of the best. I never tried to 0:03:32.080 --> 0:03:34.600 hurt him or anything like that. Like, you know, Detroit 0:03:34.680 --> 0:03:37.600 had the Jordan rules and Philadelphia and I just tried 0:03:37.640 --> 0:03:39.800 to play Larry head up and just playing as honest 0:03:39.800 --> 0:03:42.080 as I could, because the great ones, You're not gonna 0:03:42.080 --> 0:03:44.520 affect him with that bullshit to come, you know, pulling 0:03:44.560 --> 0:03:46.400 his shirts, talking shit to him. But you couldn't talk 0:03:46.440 --> 0:03:49.240 to Larry because he didn't ignored you. But to hear 0:03:49.400 --> 0:03:52.400 him say that shows me that the things that I 0:03:52.520 --> 0:03:54.280 was doing on the court was the right way to 0:03:54.360 --> 0:03:56.920 do it. And again, just being respected by your peers 0:03:57.000 --> 0:04:00.480 is always nice. Take me into preparing for or being 0:04:00.520 --> 0:04:02.600 one of the best defenders ever. Take me into preparing 0:04:02.720 --> 0:04:05.440 for Gardeners or Star like larr Berry, Like what do 0:04:05.520 --> 0:04:07.000 you do, Like how do you prepare for a game? 0:04:07.040 --> 0:04:08.960 Because like I don't know if they had skying reports 0:04:09.040 --> 0:04:10.920 like they did back then, because we had sky reports. 0:04:11.040 --> 0:04:13.560 Yeah, did you have sky reports as well scouting reports. 0:04:13.600 --> 0:04:14.720 But again it was a lot of video. 0:04:14.840 --> 0:04:17.600 You know, you just beta and VHS, so it was 0:04:17.640 --> 0:04:20.520 just a lot of video watching of him, like watch 0:04:20.640 --> 0:04:22.520 all his games back then. A lot of our games 0:04:22.600 --> 0:04:24.920 was on tape delay, so we had a chance to 0:04:25.000 --> 0:04:26.840 play and then after the game. I'll come home and 0:04:27.120 --> 0:04:29.560 watch our game and then watch it. So preparing for 0:04:29.640 --> 0:04:32.240 the great ones, though, it's gonna always be hard because 0:04:32.240 --> 0:04:35.880 it's not about anybody in the NBA and the basketball 0:04:35.960 --> 0:04:38.040 in general can get a shot off. And I think 0:04:38.120 --> 0:04:40.360 as a defensive minded person and Jack you probably a 0:04:40.480 --> 0:04:42.000 tested this a little bit. All you want to do 0:04:42.160 --> 0:04:42.880 is affect their shot. 0:04:43.800 --> 0:04:46.120 Alter it. Mayke can shoot a little bit higher. 0:04:46.440 --> 0:04:49.440 But the one thing that I've always recognized about great 0:04:49.520 --> 0:04:52.840 offensive players is their spots on the court that they 0:04:52.920 --> 0:04:56.680 shoot the ball well from. And George Gervland told me, 0:04:56.760 --> 0:04:59.000 they said, cool, listen, if I get to my spot, 0:04:59.279 --> 0:05:01.880 ain't shoot you for do with me? So and thinking 0:05:02.040 --> 0:05:03.800 like that, my job was just to keep them off 0:05:03.839 --> 0:05:05.640 that spot. And Larry that's what I tried to do 0:05:05.760 --> 0:05:07.880 with him. But you know, people ask me all the 0:05:07.960 --> 0:05:10.480 time who's the hardest player, and I always say him 0:05:11.760 --> 0:05:13.920 because I played against Michael. 0:05:13.680 --> 0:05:16.800 Jordan, George Gervin, Andrew Tony. 0:05:17.200 --> 0:05:19.000 And those guys when they passed the ball, they have 0:05:19.080 --> 0:05:21.600 a tendency to take a break for a second. Larry 0:05:21.720 --> 0:05:23.360 never was gonna take a break. Larry's gonna go get 0:05:23.360 --> 0:05:25.480 an offensive rebound. He's gonna go sell a back pitch. 0:05:25.640 --> 0:05:28.560 He was gonna do something to impact that possession. So 0:05:28.720 --> 0:05:30.960 that's why he was the about six eight six nine, 0:05:31.040 --> 0:05:32.480 six nine. 0:05:32.880 --> 0:05:34.240 Constantly on the moves. Crazy. 0:05:35.000 --> 0:05:37.240 What's your opinion on when some of these younger players 0:05:37.320 --> 0:05:39.760 being disrespectful to day saying players in the AD didn't 0:05:39.800 --> 0:05:40.440 have any skill. 0:05:41.560 --> 0:05:43.719 Don't like it, but you have to respect their game. 0:05:44.000 --> 0:05:49.559 And again talk is cheap for me one to mine. 0:05:49.640 --> 0:05:53.120 And I really liked this young man, Anthony Edwards, some 0:05:53.240 --> 0:05:55.760 of the things he said. You know, and I asked 0:05:55.800 --> 0:05:57.480 somebody the other day, I said, do you think he 0:05:57.560 --> 0:05:59.200 could app ask you guys, I do you think he 0:05:59.240 --> 0:06:01.920 could have played in our era back then, eighties, nineties? 0:06:02.800 --> 0:06:06.200 I think he atted to so in saying that he 0:06:06.360 --> 0:06:08.240 has to respect the game because he's looking at it 0:06:08.320 --> 0:06:10.840 from his point of view. Now, always tell these guys, 0:06:10.960 --> 0:06:14.599 now google me and then you'll get a chance to see. 0:06:14.680 --> 0:06:16.760 But you know what, basketball was tough when we came up, man, 0:06:17.240 --> 0:06:21.600 Basketball was hard, physical basketball. It was referees had I 0:06:21.720 --> 0:06:23.839 tell people this all the time we played. I don't 0:06:23.839 --> 0:06:25.080 know if you guys did, but I played when there 0:06:25.120 --> 0:06:29.600 was only two officials and so they didn't see everything, 0:06:29.839 --> 0:06:32.280 so you could lay some wood on somebody and and 0:06:32.440 --> 0:06:34.640 hit them. But again, the young players that are talking 0:06:34.720 --> 0:06:37.720 this game now, it's a different game. It's a perimeter 0:06:37.880 --> 0:06:39.880 game now. When we grew up, it was about take 0:06:39.920 --> 0:06:44.040 that motherfucker to the who and inside out all the time. 0:06:44.200 --> 0:06:46.839 So I respect these young kids, but I just wish 0:06:46.880 --> 0:06:49.000 they would respect us a little bit more instead of 0:06:49.000 --> 0:06:51.599 opening your mouth. Look at how the game has changed 0:06:51.640 --> 0:06:55.480 to where we have made it easy financially for you guys, 0:06:55.520 --> 0:06:57.080 as well as the game the way they play the 0:06:57.120 --> 0:07:00.640 game because the rules have changed. I was not so 0:07:00.800 --> 0:07:03.520 much physicality in the game, but it is slowly getting there, 0:07:03.560 --> 0:07:04.320 but we changed that. 0:07:05.000 --> 0:07:07.200 I think you touched on something though, because obviously right 0:07:07.279 --> 0:07:09.400 now there's talks you know, with the ratings being down 0:07:09.480 --> 0:07:12.160 and viewership being down. You came in the era and 0:07:12.240 --> 0:07:16.320 we piggybacked off the era you left of inside out basketball, physicality, 0:07:16.360 --> 0:07:18.520 getting to the basket, getting to the foul line, playing 0:07:18.560 --> 0:07:19.040 in the paint. 0:07:20.160 --> 0:07:22.560 You know, Steph Curry comes along. This is a copycat league. 0:07:22.600 --> 0:07:26.160 They started dynasty in the whole world, from grassroots basketball 0:07:26.160 --> 0:07:28.480 to the pros are shooting way too many threes. Now, 0:07:28.520 --> 0:07:31.600 what are your thoughts on the game of basketball as 0:07:31.600 --> 0:07:31.880 a whole. 0:07:31.960 --> 0:07:34.160 Right now, you know what, mad I looked at the 0:07:34.240 --> 0:07:36.720 game when the Vlades and some of the other players, 0:07:36.800 --> 0:07:39.480 Ku Koch and those guys were coming in, and I 0:07:39.680 --> 0:07:42.160 love that because I think international basketball is a little 0:07:42.200 --> 0:07:45.040 bit more fundamental than ours. And Norm Nixon and I 0:07:45.240 --> 0:07:47.880 was talking about this, how the international players, we thought 0:07:47.920 --> 0:07:50.440 that we would change them, but they changed our game 0:07:51.000 --> 0:07:52.920 and they have really made that big and it they 0:07:53.000 --> 0:07:55.760 BIG's obsolete now almost you know, you got Winby that's 0:07:55.800 --> 0:07:58.040 doing something. But he plays more like a European player, 0:07:58.480 --> 0:08:02.240 but mb players like that. There's no more inside games. 0:08:02.280 --> 0:08:05.680 So for me, it's a game that has changed twice 0:08:05.880 --> 0:08:08.600 since I've been watching it growing up here watching it 0:08:08.680 --> 0:08:11.200 in the sixties and seventies, how the game was very slow. 0:08:11.800 --> 0:08:14.240 Magic and Bird comes in and they makes passing, they 0:08:14.280 --> 0:08:16.920 make team play, they make the passion for the game 0:08:16.960 --> 0:08:19.920 a little bit more lively. So viewership shot out the roof, 0:08:20.200 --> 0:08:22.920 and now through the eighties and nineties and two thousand 0:08:23.360 --> 0:08:25.920 is going back to that again. So viewership is down 0:08:26.000 --> 0:08:28.720 because the way people are playing the game, and I 0:08:28.800 --> 0:08:32.679 think the way we played a little bit more creativity athletically, 0:08:32.960 --> 0:08:35.360 although you got some athletes that can play. Now, these 0:08:35.400 --> 0:08:39.240 guys here are stuck on three point shooting, and that 0:08:39.679 --> 0:08:42.120 to me is just killing the game. But it's about 0:08:42.160 --> 0:08:44.360 the dunk now. It ain't about the mid range game. 0:08:44.400 --> 0:08:46.959 It's not about that layup. It's not about scoring easily. 0:08:47.320 --> 0:08:49.920 It's about making it really look creative. And you know 0:08:50.800 --> 0:08:56.560 the and one videos and the PlayStation games that has 0:08:56.720 --> 0:08:59.079 changed the game, that has helped changed the game in 0:08:59.200 --> 0:09:00.480 a negative way, but also. 0:09:00.320 --> 0:09:02.600 Want a positive way to the game. Question I want 0:09:02.640 --> 0:09:06.640 to ask you, growing growing up in LA, how does 0:09:06.679 --> 0:09:10.160 it feel to be on the one of the best 0:09:10.640 --> 0:09:12.839 Laker teams ever and also one of the best being 0:09:12.920 --> 0:09:15.319 one of the best Lakers ever growing up in LA? 0:09:15.720 --> 0:09:17.760 Like that's that's That's like me saying I'm growing up 0:09:17.800 --> 0:09:19.880 in Houston and I retired as one of the best, 0:09:20.080 --> 0:09:21.079 the best Rockets ever. 0:09:21.679 --> 0:09:23.599 You know what I'm saying. So, I mean, isn't that 0:09:23.640 --> 0:09:25.040 a great feeling to say you from here and you 0:09:25.160 --> 0:09:26.600 one of the best Lakers ever? Jack? 0:09:26.640 --> 0:09:30.240 Absolutely feeling you don't want growing up and coming up 0:09:30.320 --> 0:09:32.640 And actually the day that I got drafted in nineteen 0:09:32.720 --> 0:09:35.080 seventy nine, I was at the park because I didn't 0:09:35.080 --> 0:09:35.960 think that I was gonna get. 0:09:35.920 --> 0:09:38.800 Drafted by the Lakers. There's been some great players. 0:09:39.120 --> 0:09:41.560 Just to throw one out, the Reggie Dias, great player 0:09:41.600 --> 0:09:44.679 of morning side, Reggie with Chicago. So I'm thinking all 0:09:44.760 --> 0:09:46.600 of us are going back east, back east. So when 0:09:46.600 --> 0:09:49.199 they told me that the Lakers are drafted me, my 0:09:49.440 --> 0:09:51.559 job then was to kind of like be one of 0:09:51.600 --> 0:09:53.880 those players, which I eventually became to just play for 0:09:53.960 --> 0:09:55.920 one team and play their home team, And. 0:09:56.080 --> 0:09:58.120 Very proud of that, very very proud of that. But 0:09:59.520 --> 0:10:01.040 it is it's a dream to come true. 0:10:01.240 --> 0:10:03.120 You know, as young people, we grow up and we 0:10:03.240 --> 0:10:05.199 think about certain things in life, where you want to 0:10:05.200 --> 0:10:08.880 be an astronaut president. I thought about being a basketball player. 0:10:08.960 --> 0:10:12.000 But the way my career is unfolded, it's still I 0:10:12.120 --> 0:10:14.720 pinched myself every day on half. You can say that, yeah, 0:10:15.000 --> 0:10:17.920 it is absolutely amazing to do the things that I 0:10:18.040 --> 0:10:19.520 was able to do here at home. 0:10:19.880 --> 0:10:21.959 You almost didn't get a chance to play basketball. You 0:10:22.000 --> 0:10:23.680 cut your knee when you was young. The doctor said 0:10:23.679 --> 0:10:25.080 he never thought you'd be able to walk again. 0:10:25.200 --> 0:10:25.680 Never walk. 0:10:25.840 --> 0:10:28.840 You know, my grandmother and halloweens to in the sixties 0:10:28.880 --> 0:10:32.400 and seventies, they cooked that chicken grease and bacon grease 0:10:32.480 --> 0:10:34.120 and stuff, and they put it in that folzier can 0:10:34.200 --> 0:10:35.800 that they cut off the top and they put it 0:10:35.840 --> 0:10:38.480 by the back door, sort of cool. If they wanted 0:10:38.520 --> 0:10:40.280 they go get a spoon and dip out of it. Well, 0:10:40.720 --> 0:10:43.160 this was some hot grease and it had melted. I 0:10:43.200 --> 0:10:45.560 mean it hadn't frozen up yet, so some dogs had 0:10:45.640 --> 0:10:46.160 knocked it over. 0:10:47.000 --> 0:10:49.040 We had a dog. So I walked outside and slipped 0:10:49.080 --> 0:10:51.079 on that and fell right in the middle of me. 0:10:51.160 --> 0:10:54.079 Being a skinny person, my knee was caught right in 0:10:54.160 --> 0:10:55.760 there and it cut it all the way to the bone, 0:10:55.760 --> 0:10:59.200 one hundred and two stitches. But you know, my grandmother 0:10:59.360 --> 0:11:01.240 was a very huh, let's catch you off. Hold were 0:11:01.280 --> 0:11:04.440 you about five? And I was skinny, so I mean, 0:11:04.480 --> 0:11:06.480 I'm like, the do this thing here? So I mean 0:11:06.559 --> 0:11:09.599 it was an easy cut. But my grandmother was a 0:11:09.800 --> 0:11:12.440 woman of faith, prayed a lot and went to church. 0:11:12.520 --> 0:11:14.559 And I tell people this from the age I was 0:11:14.640 --> 0:11:18.160 born until I went to college, I went to church 0:11:18.240 --> 0:11:21.160 three times a week my whole life. So she sat 0:11:21.240 --> 0:11:24.079 up with me that whole night and prayed. And you 0:11:24.160 --> 0:11:27.040 know that not only was I able to walk, but 0:11:27.240 --> 0:11:28.520 some people said I was able to fly. 0:11:28.800 --> 0:11:33.320 Yeah, so definitely that went to Pasadena High School, Pasadena 0:11:33.360 --> 0:11:36.960 Community College. Talk about the JUCO to the NBA route 0:11:37.440 --> 0:11:40.920 back then, I a lot of people. 0:11:41.200 --> 0:11:42.600 Look at D two. 0:11:44.080 --> 0:11:47.880 Small college, junior college is a bad way to take. 0:11:48.000 --> 0:11:50.280 I think for me it was a good route because 0:11:50.360 --> 0:11:52.600 I didn't have the credentials coming out of high school. 0:11:53.080 --> 0:11:57.760 Uh to go on and now nowadays AAU basketball is 0:11:57.840 --> 0:11:59.920 killing the game. I mean these kids here because all 0:12:00.040 --> 0:12:03.199 of them think you got kids being held back. So 0:12:03.360 --> 0:12:05.199 for junior college, that was a good route for me. 0:12:05.320 --> 0:12:07.800 It helped me academically because I was a bad student. 0:12:08.040 --> 0:12:10.120 I went to school to be an athlete student. I 0:12:10.160 --> 0:12:12.319 didn't go to be a student athlete. And I became 0:12:12.400 --> 0:12:15.679 academically an eligible at junior college and that set the 0:12:15.760 --> 0:12:17.599 path for me to get my grades right. So my 0:12:17.720 --> 0:12:20.319 sophomore year I turned things around and that's when I 0:12:20.360 --> 0:12:22.640 became a better athlete on the floor because I was 0:12:22.720 --> 0:12:26.079 taking care of business off the floor and that led 0:12:26.120 --> 0:12:28.320 me on. But junior college is a good route. Sometimes 0:12:28.360 --> 0:12:32.240 you get good players there. There's many of them, and 0:12:32.559 --> 0:12:35.160 it can be a slow route for you because sometimes 0:12:35.200 --> 0:12:37.160 when you go straight D one you're being pushed that 0:12:37.240 --> 0:12:39.840 you don't get a chance to really enjoy the college life. 0:12:39.920 --> 0:12:41.640 But I got a chance to do that. I went 0:12:41.760 --> 0:12:42.319 for two weeks. 0:12:42.640 --> 0:12:47.200 You got guys like Tiny Archibald, Jimmy Butler, Steve Francis, 0:12:47.280 --> 0:12:50.120 Larry Johnson's, Bob McAdoo, Dennis Robin, all those guys. 0:12:50.240 --> 0:12:50.679 Pretty well. 0:12:50.840 --> 0:12:55.400 Yes, when did the og high socks come in? Did 0:12:55.440 --> 0:12:57.080 you start wearing them at a young age or when 0:12:57.120 --> 0:12:58.600 you got to the league. That's when you start wearing 0:12:58.600 --> 0:12:59.839 the socks to your thighs. 0:13:00.080 --> 0:13:04.719 Boy, you know what Jack really? First of all, I 0:13:04.800 --> 0:13:06.760 was away to keep make my legs a little bigger. 0:13:07.080 --> 0:13:10.360 Back then it was about to I didn't have big cass. 0:13:10.440 --> 0:13:14.680 But how that unfolded was nineteen seventy four. We were 0:13:14.720 --> 0:13:17.240 playing a team called El Rancho. It was the first 0:13:17.280 --> 0:13:20.240 time they had brought back Al Rancho El Rancho, and 0:13:20.320 --> 0:13:21.920 it was the first time they were bringing back high 0:13:21.920 --> 0:13:23.920 school game of the Weeks because it had disappeared in 0:13:24.040 --> 0:13:26.760 nineteen seventy, so seventy four they was bringing it back 0:13:26.800 --> 0:13:29.960 with my grandmother at that time had glaucoma, wasn't. 0:13:29.800 --> 0:13:33.839 Doing well, and my team was all black, and so 0:13:34.160 --> 0:13:35.280 they were coming back. 0:13:35.360 --> 0:13:37.559 She had a little small black and white TV, and 0:13:37.640 --> 0:13:41.560 she said, baby, you gotta do something so I can 0:13:41.640 --> 0:13:44.360 distinguish you from the other one. So what I did 0:13:44.520 --> 0:13:46.959 is I wore two white sweat bands. I wore my 0:13:47.200 --> 0:13:50.160 socks up high, and I pulled my strings out and 0:13:50.400 --> 0:13:52.520 I was, you can see you, yeah, And I was 0:13:52.720 --> 0:13:55.840 I had the twenty four point fifteen rebounds and four 0:13:56.000 --> 0:13:58.199 dunks that game. And I said, if you know what 0:13:58.280 --> 0:13:58.920 I'm rolling with. 0:14:01.679 --> 0:14:03.480 I love it all. That's a dope story. 0:14:03.679 --> 0:14:07.240 Drafted in seventy nine, same year that Jerry Buss buys 0:14:07.280 --> 0:14:10.080 the team. You arrived one year prior to Magic, your 0:14:10.160 --> 0:14:12.880 rookie year. Jerry West was the coach, Kareem was the 0:14:12.920 --> 0:14:13.400 big dog. 0:14:14.120 --> 0:14:15.040 What does that scene to you? 0:14:15.160 --> 0:14:17.720 As Jackson stated, you know, we talked about your whole career, 0:14:17.760 --> 0:14:21.440 but going back to the very beginning Pasadena Pasadena College, 0:14:21.480 --> 0:14:24.120 you say, you make a pit stop in New Mexico. 0:14:24.640 --> 0:14:26.600 But now you're a Los Angeles Laker. But this is 0:14:26.680 --> 0:14:29.320 before the Lakers are everything. You know what I mean, 0:14:29.360 --> 0:14:31.520 you helped make them everything. But what was it like 0:14:31.640 --> 0:14:34.480 when you first, you know, stepped in and got a 0:14:34.560 --> 0:14:37.280 chance to see the form and meet Cap and Jerry 0:14:37.320 --> 0:14:38.000 and all these guys. 0:14:38.440 --> 0:14:40.880 You know what that you guys know this when you 0:14:41.000 --> 0:14:43.240 get to a team and you're coming in from college 0:14:43.320 --> 0:14:45.640 to the pros. And the first thing I did, we 0:14:45.720 --> 0:14:49.000 just parked over at Loyal and Marymount, and I remember 0:14:49.080 --> 0:14:51.400 going into training camp. I was kind of nervous, really 0:14:51.480 --> 0:14:53.320 didn't know what to expect. And I walked into the 0:14:53.440 --> 0:14:56.280 gym and at the other end was Kareem shooting Scott 0:14:56.400 --> 0:14:58.880 Hook's and I looked at him and I said, damn, 0:14:59.040 --> 0:15:01.640 that's for me. It was Louil Sindor because i 'new 0:15:01.680 --> 0:15:04.160 it before then, but Kareem. So I go in there 0:15:04.480 --> 0:15:07.720 and he looks at me. He go, hey, man, what 0:15:07.760 --> 0:15:11.240 the fuck are you looking at? I said, I'm sorry, 0:15:11.280 --> 0:15:13.200 I'm just trying to said fucking locker rooms over there. 0:15:13.360 --> 0:15:15.800 Go in there and get your shit ready. This Kareem 0:15:15.960 --> 0:15:18.000 talked the first time, you guys in every convery time 0:15:18.000 --> 0:15:22.640 I ever met him. So I go in there and chained, 0:15:22.720 --> 0:15:25.040 and then one thing led to another. But the fold 0:15:25.160 --> 0:15:29.200 became very, very passionate because with Doctor Buss buying the team, 0:15:29.560 --> 0:15:31.960 his whole goal was for Los Angeles to be loved 0:15:31.960 --> 0:15:34.640 by everybody. And the one thing Doctor Buss always said, 0:15:34.680 --> 0:15:37.440 is you guys want We want you to entertain the entertainers, 0:15:38.160 --> 0:15:40.440 and that was our role. So they bring in Magic 0:15:40.520 --> 0:15:44.080 Johnson and this guy here, man, I had never been 0:15:44.160 --> 0:15:47.400 around a player that enjoyed and loved the game so much. 0:15:47.800 --> 0:15:50.040 I mean, this dude came every day. And back then 0:15:50.080 --> 0:15:51.720 we used to have them big old boom boxes that 0:15:51.800 --> 0:15:53.600 you have and you carry around there, you go one 0:15:53.640 --> 0:15:56.120 back there. But Magic was bigger than that one. And 0:15:56.640 --> 0:15:59.160 he was always playing Frankly Beverly and Mays or Luther 0:15:59.280 --> 0:16:01.320 Vandros or something like that. And he used to come 0:16:01.400 --> 0:16:04.880 in and just very infectious. And when we got with 0:16:04.960 --> 0:16:08.200 the Lakers, they had a lot of old super old g's, 0:16:08.720 --> 0:16:13.040 Ron Boone, Lou Hudson, Kenny Carr, Kenny Thompson. They had 0:16:13.080 --> 0:16:15.640 a lot of older veterans that are on their way out. 0:16:16.480 --> 0:16:18.600 So we had to fight, and them dudes had that 0:16:18.680 --> 0:16:20.640 old man's strength. And you know you're playing them dudes 0:16:20.680 --> 0:16:22.080 in the gym, they hold you by the arm. You 0:16:22.120 --> 0:16:24.800 can't get away from him. But they taught us how 0:16:24.840 --> 0:16:27.080 to play the game, a very rugged game. But once 0:16:27.200 --> 0:16:29.800 they got out of the set and it became Magic's team, 0:16:29.920 --> 0:16:34.320 things became magical, and it was about enjoyment, entertained, passed 0:16:34.360 --> 0:16:36.480 the ball. If you held on to it too long, 0:16:36.640 --> 0:16:39.200 you would hear people saying, move the ball, Move the ball. 0:16:39.560 --> 0:16:43.400 And that was something that wasn't familiar with the seventies 0:16:43.680 --> 0:16:46.240 growing up because the Celtics was winning everything. The Lakers 0:16:46.400 --> 0:16:49.680 and everybody was just dribble, dribble, dribble. And Magic changed that, 0:16:49.960 --> 0:16:51.840 and he changed it for us, and doctor Bus took 0:16:51.880 --> 0:16:55.640 it and brought in the Laker girls, and oh the 0:16:55.760 --> 0:16:58.680 world just changed real quick. Did you get a chance 0:16:58.720 --> 0:17:00.840 to see I think you might have been able to 0:17:00.840 --> 0:17:02.680 play with I know Matt for sure, but I think 0:17:02.840 --> 0:17:05.080 you might have been because you that motherfucker had a 0:17:05.080 --> 0:17:06.080 little nasty aning too. 0:17:06.840 --> 0:17:08.680 One thing that we missed a couple of games. I 0:17:08.760 --> 0:17:11.600 probably been stuck in that little club, the farm club. 0:17:11.880 --> 0:17:12.919 I probably been sleeping there. 0:17:13.520 --> 0:17:13.760 Listen. 0:17:14.160 --> 0:17:18.320 Then you got traded. Magic said you go up there, 0:17:18.400 --> 0:17:19.919 but you better be on the bus the next day. 0:17:20.080 --> 0:17:23.360 So that was Magic ru Jerry's rule. 0:17:23.520 --> 0:17:26.040 That was everybody's rule. But said, hey, listen, you can 0:17:26.119 --> 0:17:28.639 have fun, but I should his business man come playing. 0:17:29.040 --> 0:17:31.480 And when we got into certain cities, we go out 0:17:31.520 --> 0:17:34.800 on the road and Magic would tell everybody, listen, if 0:17:34.840 --> 0:17:38.200 we played the next day, you got one o'clock curfew. 0:17:39.000 --> 0:17:41.239 It was this dude said a curfew for me. All right, 0:17:41.760 --> 0:17:44.440 funk around and you come back and see Magic was 0:17:45.119 --> 0:17:46.080 a big part of the team. 0:17:46.359 --> 0:17:47.160 You may not play. 0:17:48.040 --> 0:17:50.119 So we all kind of learned that and we just 0:17:50.200 --> 0:17:53.280 fell in line because that is the things that breed championships. 0:17:53.640 --> 0:17:56.960 You remember your first experience at the farm Club. I 0:17:57.080 --> 0:18:01.320 was buried, so you didn't function. I walked through there 0:18:01.359 --> 0:18:01.879 with my wife. 0:18:02.000 --> 0:18:05.520 Yeah, but I would look yeah, okay, listen, my blinders 0:18:05.600 --> 0:18:07.440 were like this. They weren't like that. They were more like, 0:18:07.560 --> 0:18:10.439 are you still married to the same woman? No? Okay, 0:18:10.640 --> 0:18:13.720 well okay, we've been married for twenty three years, a 0:18:13.760 --> 0:18:14.200 long time. 0:18:14.760 --> 0:18:17.200 Yeah, but talk to I mean, obviously, all jokes aside, 0:18:17.200 --> 0:18:18.520