The Ed Pinckney Interview
By:
Michael D. McClellan
|
Monday, April 5th, 2004
You were a McDonald’s All-American while at Adlai
Stevenson High School on LaFayette Avenue in the Bronx,
New York. Several other Celtic greats have strong ties
to New York, including Red Auerbach, Bob Cousy, Satch
Sanders and Tiny Archibald. Please tell me a little
about the basketball culture in New York in general, and
about your high school career in particular.
There is a strong basketball culture in New York City,
and it begins in the streets. Guys earn reputations on
playgrounds and in pickup games, and they want to expand
on that by going into different areas of the city. If
you’re from Manhattan, you want to go into Brooklyn, the
Bronx and Queens. If you’re from the Bronx, you want to
play in the other Burroughs to make a name for
yourself. I was certainly no different in that
respect. I played all over New York, against all types
of competition. Growing up I really enjoyed that aspect
of playing basketball.
You were the leading scorer on the US team at the 1983
World University Games, where your teammates included
Karl Malone, Charles Barkley, Kevin Willis and Johnny
Dawkins. What was it like to represent your country in
that event?
That tournament was a preliminary to the Olympic Games,
so it was a great honor to represent the United States.
The guys you mentioned were fantastic to have as
teammates, and we’ve kept close ties with each other
through the years. We’ve followed each other’s careers
and have kept in touch. It was a lot of fun and a great
experience, even though we weren’t able to win the gold
medal.
The 1985 Final Four – you were a huge part of the
greatest upset in NCAA basketball history. Please take
me back to Villanova’s 66-64 upset of heavily favored
Georgetown University, and the impact that it has had on
your life.
It’s something I’ll cherish for the rest of my life.
Even though I went on to play twelve seasons in the NBA,
that game defined my career as a basketball player. We
were the biggest underdogs in the history of the Final
Four, and everyone was picking Georgetown to win that
game – with the exception of the players and coaches on
our team. Every year all of those memories come back.
It’s a good feeling to know that you were a part of
something so special.
What was it like going up against Patrick Ewing in that
situation? What was your strategy for shutting him
down?
Remember, you're not talking about the offensive Ewing
that he ultimately became with the New York Knicks. You
were far more concerned about him on the defensive end.
He was an intimidator, and his presence on the court
always gave you something to worry about. Am I going to
get my shot blocked? Is he going to throw my shot in
the stands? But that isn’t to say that Ewing couldn’t
score; there wasn’t much you could do to stop him when
he got the ball deep inside. I remember a point in that
game when he caught two alley-oop passes. My adrenaline
was pumping, and I went up as high as I could on both of
those plays. Ewing was still two feet over me! I
considered myself a good jumper and a good athlete, so
to have him do that tells you what kind of player he
was.
Georgetown had lost only two games all season, by a
total of three points. What gave your team the
confidence that it could pull off the upset?
We were both from the Big East, we’d played Georgetown
in the regular season, so there was a certain level of
familiarity between the two teams. And even though we
didn’t win those games we didn’t get blown out, either.
For the most part we held up against Georgetown’s
defensive pressure, which was smothering, and except for
some breakdowns at the end of those games, we managed to
stay competitive.
Our goal in the championship game was to be patient – if we ever got ahead we were going to take our time and try to take the best shot possible. We knew that rushing things would lead to mistakes and play into their hands. Rollie [Massimino, Villanova head coach] talked about that offensive discipline the whole time. "Get the best shot. I don't care how long it takes. Just get the best shot." And with no shot clock, that's exactly what Gary McLain, Dwight Wilbur and Harold Jensen did.
