The M.L. Carr Interview
By:
Michael D. McClellan
|
Thursday, March 22nd, 2012
You were born in Wallace, North Carolina. Please tell me a little about your childhood, and some of the things that led you to the basketball court.
You’re right, I grew up in Wallace, North
Carolina. It was an agricultural town. I
grew up in the
segregated
South. I was twelve years old when I went
out to the local golf course to get a job as
a caddie. I didn’t know anything about
caddying, but I met a man there who would go
on to have an incredible impact on my life.
His name is Davis Lee. He took me under his
wing and that day, and told me that with my
attitude and his wallet we’d make a great
partnership. It’s a relationship that I
value greatly – we’ve remained closely
connected for 50 years – and he and I are
now in business together in Huntsville,
Alabama.
Not only did he hire me as a caddie that day, he also convinced me that I should help integrate the local high school. There were people on both sides who didn’t think it was a good idea for me to go to a white high school, but I took his advice and it turned out to be a great decision. He was also the one who convinced me to go out for basketball. I told him that I didn’t like basketball, and that I really didn’t want to do that, but he was persistent and really stayed after me. I told him that I wasn’t a very good player, and then he countered telling me he’d send me away to a basketball camp and that I’d come back with a great shot at making the high school basketball team.
That camp was a life-changing experience for me. It was held at Kimble College – Kimble University now – and it was one of the oldest and largest camps in the country. There were two reasons it was such a big deal for me –the legendary John Wooden was there, and so was ‘Pistol’ Pete Maravich. It was an unbelievable experience. Pete pulled me aside and let me hang out with him at the camp – it would be like LeBron James doing that one of the kids at his camp today, or a Larry Bird asking a kid to hang out with him for the week. So that really got me excited about the game.
You played your
college ball at Guilford College in
Greensboro, NC. What was it like to play
for the Quakers?
Great experience. It’s about a two-and-a-half hour drive from Wallace, close enough to home but still far enough away to fully experience life on a college campus. The decision to go to Guilford was one of the best decisions I ever made. I’m still involved in the school today.
My freshman year we placed fourth in the 1970 NAIA Tournament. As a senior we finished with a 29-5 record and defeated the University of Maryland-Eastern Shore in the NAIA championship game. I played forward for Coach [Jack] Jensen, and I learned so much from him. Our team went 101-25 those four years. I averaged 18 points and 12 rebounds my senior year and was name NAIA First Team All-American, but the thing I was most proud of was graduating from Guilford with academic honors and a history degree.
You were drafted by
both the NBA and the ABA, and you took a
circuitous route to the Celtics. Please
take me back to this period on your life.
I spent three years trying to figure out how to get into the NBA or the ABA. I was cut from three teams. I ended up going to play in the old Eastern League for a year, and that’s when [Red] Auerbach discovered me and wanted to hide me for a year, because he thought I could play at the NBA level. So he sent me to Israel to play there for a year. I played for an organization called the Israel Sabras, experienced success there and ended up getting noticed by scouts in both leagues, and when I came back I decided to play for the ABA’s Spirits of St. Louis under a one-year deal. In 1976 the two leagues merged. I was considered a free agent because I’d only signed for one year, and Detroit was offering me the best deal at the time – it was for three years, so I couldn’t turn that down. So I signed to play for the Pistons.
What was your time
like with the Spirits of St. Louis?
It was a great group of players, a very talented group, but we really weren’t a real good team. We had great individual stars. For me, it was an opportunity to come back to the states and put on a professional basketball uniform, so I was there for that year before moving on to Detroit. On paper it was one of the most talented collection of players ever. Moses Malone, Marvin Barnes, Caldwell Jones, Don Chaney, Mike D’Antoni. Joe Mullaney started that season as the head coach, and Rod Thorn finished it. It was a great learning experience for me because both of those men really knew their basketball. It helped to transition me from the ABA to the NBA.
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