The Clyde Lovellette Interview
By:
Michael D. McClellan
|
Thursday, September 15th,
2005
The
Minneapolis Lakers and the Boston Celtics conducted annual preseason
barnstorming tours throughout New England, often playing up to 17 games in
twenty-one days. What memories to you have of these exhibitions, and what
was your first impression of the Celtics' brash young coach, Arnold "Red"
Auerbach?
When
you play that many games on that many nights, and you ride the bus with the
other team…well, the first night and the first game is pretty nice.
Everybody got along and everyone sat with one another and talked about a lot
of things. And no one was really interested in whether you won or lost.
But all of that changed after the second or third game that you played.
Tempers got raw. Sometimes you wouldn't be sitting with a Boston Celtic.
You'd be sitting with a Minneapolis Laker. Or you'd be sitting on one side
of the bus and they'd be sitting on the other. And sometimes it got kind of
hairy [laughs]. But overall, it was a good experience. You got your
training, you got your workout, you got in shape…all of those things…but
sometimes it got a little tight with the players you were competing
against. It might be someone you had just finished hitting in a game, or
someone you might have outscored, or someone that you fouled hard – and then
you had to get on the bus and sit near him…or even right beside him. Of
course they don't do that now, but it was an experience that every
ballplayer should go through once.
After the
1957 NBA Playoffs, you were dealt to the Rochester Royals along with Jim
Paxson for Ed Fleming, Bob Burrow, Art Spoelstra, and a first-round draft
pick (which the Lakers used to select Rod Hundley). Please tell me about
your time spent Cincinnati.
Rochester
at one time was a great franchise. When they moved to Cincinnati, I guess
[Royals owner] Les Harrison got some tax breaks or something, or maybe a
break on the rent. I'm not really sure why Harrison decided to move, but I
thought he was a nice guy, and we had some good talent the year that I was
there. Jack Twyman was there, and Maurice Stokes. Stokes got sick the year
that I got there. He would have been a superstar in the NBA. We had George
King and myself. We had some good ballplayers, but I wasn't happy in
Cincinnati. So it was sort of a stop-off place. I wanted to go straight
from Minneapolis to St. Louis, because Ben Kerner had drafted me to come to
Milwaukee and I then didn't go there. I think he'd been a little bit
disappointed that I didn't end up with him in the first place, because I
would have played in Milwaukee and probably would have been part of the move
to St. Louis.
It was contract time, and Harrison met with me and said that he was going to
cut salaries. I said 'No thanks', and asked to be traded. I had no idea
where I was going, but I was happy to end up in St. Louis. Bob Pettit was
there, and Cliff Hagan. Slater Martin came out of Minneapolis and he was
there. Jack Mcmahon. Sihugo Green. So there was a good nucleus of
ballplayers, and they had just won the championship the year before. I
thought I could fit right in. Charlie Share was the center. I had to beat
him out – we split time the first half of my first season in St. Louis, and
then he was traded to Minneapolis.
But back to your question – Cincinnati was just a blur. If I'd have stayed
there long enough I would have gotten to play with Oscar Robertson. Who
knows, maybe we would have won a championship.
You've
just touched on my next question: A season later, you were traded to the
reigning NBA-champion St. Louis Hawks. Former Celtic "Easy" Ed Macauley was
a teammate, as were players such as Bob Pettit and Cliff Hagen. Please tell
me about each of these gentlemen.
"Easy"
was a very good ballplayer when he played for the Boston Celtics. I ran
into him a lot of times when I was with Minneapolis and Cincinnati. We had
great battles. Then he went to St. Louis, where he played and became the
team's head coach. But you have to remember that when I got to St. Louis,
"Easy" was in the twilight of his career. He was a fine man.
The two players that I like to talk about the most are Pettit and Hagan.
When I played with Cliff and Bob, it was like a trio made in heaven. I
don't know what it was. The three of us just jelled together, we had our
own roles to play, and we knew how to move in each other's space on the
court. I could be inside, I could go outside. I developed the one-handed
outside shot – it would be a three-pointer today. Cliff could move inside.
We could switch the defense – if we had a big guy on me, like Wilt
Chamberlain, I could move him out and then Pettit and Hagan could have free
reign inside. For the four years that I played as a starter for St. Louis,
we were the top scoring frontline in the NBA. So we had a really good
nucleus until I got hurt. I tore my Achilles tendon, and that's when Boston
picked me up for the final two years.
St. Louis
won 49 contests during the 1958-59 season, but the team was shocked in the
division finals by Minneapolis and its exciting rookie, Elgin Baylor. After
all of those years in a Laker uniform, what was it like for you to play this
series from the other side?
It
was terrible because I would have liked to have won it against the Lakers.
You always get up when you play your old team. We just didn't get up high
enough. It was disappointing because we felt we could go all the way. We
flubbed up and didn't do what we were supposed to do.