The Rick Robey Interview
By: Michael D. McClellan | He is equal parts Kentucky royalty and NBA rank-and-file, a former blue collar big man who played for two of the most storied basketball traditions the game has ever known. How many players can say they’ve won a national championship playing for the Kentucky Wildcats, and then gone on to win an NBA crown with the Boston Celtics?
Rick Robey can.
He can also say that he’s won a state high school title at Brother Martin in Louisiana, and added an NIT championship to his Kentucky haul, effectively hitting for the cycle in terms of bringing home the hardware. And Robey is a legend in the Bluegrass State for his remarkable collegiate career, which culminated with that national championship and with him being named a consensus NCAA All-American Second Team selection (1978).
Growing up, Robey’s family moved frequently, with stops in Florida, Tennessee and Alaska before settling in New Orleans. By then he was making a name for himself on the basketball court, and being recruited by most of the top programs in the country. He narrowed his choices to Notre Dame and Kentucky, eventually settling on the Wildcats.
Prior to Robey’s arrival, the UK basketball program was in the midst of an identity crisis. Legendary coach Adolph Rupp had retired following the 1972 season, and Joe B. Hall, who had won a championship playing for Rupp in 1949, was tasked with trying to win the school’s first title since 1958. Hall guided Kentucky to an SEC championship and an Elite Eight finish in his first season, but the team regressed during the 1973-74 campaign, finishing with a 13-13 record and failing to qualify for the tournament. The Wildcats’ rabid fan base was soon calling for Hall’s firing.
Robey’s arrival in Lexington proved to be a turning point for Hall and the Kentucky basketball program. With Robey starting as a freshman, the Wildcats quickly recaptured the SEC championship, qualifying for the NCAA Tournament and stunning heavily favored and previously undefeated Indiana 92-90 in a regional final. Back in the Final Four, Kentucky would defeat Syracuse before falling to UCLA in John Wooden’s last game as head coach.
An NIT title would come the following season, with Robey missing half of the games due to a knee injury. Kentucky would reach the Elite Eight during Robey’s junior year, setting up a storybook ending to his final season, which would end with Kentucky claiming its first national championship in 20 years. Robey’s 20-point (on 8-of-11 shooting), 11-rebound performance was key to the Wildcats’ title clincher against Duke, and helped elevate his stock ahead of the 978 NBA Draft. The Indiana Pacers, in search of a big man, selected Robey with the third overall pick in the 1978 NBA Draft. Then, 43 games into his first NBA season, Robey suddenly found himself traded to the Boston Celtics.
“It was a shock,” Robey says, “because I’d just been drafted by the Pacers, and it seemed as if they wanted me to be a part of their rebuilding plans. They didn’t wait to see how things were going to develop, but it worked out for me because the Celtics were about to take off.”
Robey’s first Celtics team finished with a 29-53 record, but the once-proud franchise’s fortunes would change a season later, thanks to the arrival of Larry Bird. With Bird leading the way, Boston finished with a 61-21 regular-season record before falling to the Philadelphia 76ers in the 1980 Eastern Conference Finals. Robey contributed 11.5 points and 6.5 rebounds and, just like that, the Boston Celtics were relevant again.
A year later Robert Parish and Kevin McHale were added to the mix, launching the Big Three Era in Boston. Robey’s numbers dropped to 9.0 points and 4.8 rebounds with the arrival of Parish and McHale, but he was still a valuable member of the rotation. Boston would avenge the previous year’s playoff loss to the Sixers, rebounding from a 3-1 series deficit to beat Philly and reach the NBA Finals. Boston then dispatched the Houston Rockets, 4-2, to win the teams 14th NBA Championship. Just like that, Robey was on top of the basketball world once again.
“It was a dream come true,” Robey says, reflecting on that playoff run. “That series against the Sixers was so intense, and not many people thought we could climb out of that hole to beat them. But we did, and at that point we knew we were good enough to win the championship.”
Robey’s role in the Boston rotation would continue to decline over the next two seasons, as the Celtics continued to search for the right pieces to win another title. And then, during the summer of ’83, Auerbach traded Robey to Phoenix for disgruntled guard Dennis Johnson. With Johnson providing lock-down defense on the perimeter, Boston would go on to reach four consecutive NBA Finals, winning two of them (1984 and 1986). Robey would play parts of three seasons for the Suns, retiring in 1986, but his NBA career remains most closely-associated with the Celtics. And with DJ helping deliver those two titles, Robey indirectly played a large part in the team’s mid-80s success.
Call it addition by subtraction, if you will. Whatever the case, Robey will always be a known as a UK Wildcat and a Boston Celtic, and he’ll always be remembered for having played a hand in the resurgence of these storied basketball traditions.
You were born in Coral Gables, Florida and went to high school in Louisiana. Please tell me a little about your childhood – the sports you liked to play, the schools you went to, and the memories that stand out.
My dad worked for the federal government, so we moved around quite a bit. We lived in three different places in Florida, and then we lived in Memphis, Tennessee. From the time I was seven years old until I was about ten, we lived in Kodiak, Alaska. Kodiak is the place where I really learned to like basketball. It was so cold there, so there wasn’t a whole lot to do. We lived on a naval base, so I played a lot at the gym against different military people and people that were older.
My mother came down with cancer while we were up there and passed away at a young age. She died at thirty-six. We really moved to New Orleans because of Ochsner Clinic, which was one of the top cancer clinics in the country at that time. After her passing we ended up staying put, which was from my sixth grade year all the way through high school graduation. My dad ended up being the head of naval intelligence for that region.
You went to Brother Martin High School in New Orleans. What memories stand out about your high-school career?
Brother Martin High School is a private school. I was in the public school system in junior high, at Edna Karr Junior High, and in New Orleans they tend to recruit the good players into the private schools. So I ended up going to Brother Martin. In fact, I had to sit out a year due to the transfer, so I got to play my junior and senior years there. Ironically, during my sit-out year, Brother Martin ended up playing against Robert Parish and his team. We ended up beating Robert for the state championship. Robert was Player of the Year in Louisiana that year. And then two years later we ended winning the state championship, and I ended up being the Louisiana Player of the Year that year. It’s a small world – Robert and I ended up playing together with the Celtics, and his high school played against my high school for the championship, and we were both recognized as the best players in the same state. He and I also played together at the Pan American Games in Mexico City, so those are some of the things that tie us together.
Let’s talk Kentucky basketball. What were your first three years at Kentucky like?
I was recruited by just about everybody, but I had pretty much narrowed it down to Kentucky and Notre Dame and ended up going to Kentucky. I had four great years there. I started as a freshman and played with four seniors – Kevin Grevey, Bob Guyette, Mike Flynn and Jimmy Conner. We ended up making it the finals, losing to UCLA in John Wooden’s last game as head coach. My sophomore year was exciting because we won the NIT Championship, but that was also the year I had a knee injury and ended up missing half of the season due to that. So it was also a little bit frustrating in that respect. My junior year we advanced to the Eastern Regionals, losing to North Carolina. That was back when there wasn’t a shot clock, and they got the lead and were able to run the four-corner offense. They hit 35-of-36 free throws in that game, and ended up beating us, so that was disappointing. But we knew we had a lot of potential coming back the next season.
Kentucky won its fifth national championship during your senior season, defeating Duke 94-88. What was it like going against guys like Mike Gminksi and Jim Spanarkal on the game’s biggest stage?
We were able to get it done, so that was a huge thrill. We had Jack Givens, who was an outstanding player and was recognized as such that season – he was the Final Four Most Outstanding Player, the Helms National Player of the Year, and just a tremendous college basketball player. We also had Kyle Macy, Mike Phillips, and from to to bottom it was a truly great group of guys. That last game was an intense match-up because Duke had such a great team, with guys like Gminski, Spanarkal and Gene Banks. So winning meant everything to us – to be able to win a championship for the Kentucky fans was something special that I’ll never forget.
You were the 3rd overall pick in the 1978 NBA Draft.
I was selected by the Indiana Pacers with the third pick in that draft. They needed size and liked how I’d played during my senior season and in the tournament. It was an interesting draft, because Boston used the seventh overall pick on Larry Bird, even though they knew they had to wait a year to get him, and that they might not get him at all.
Midway through the 1978-79 season you were traded to the Boston Celtics. How did you find out, and what were your thoughts of joining such a tradition-rich franchise?
It was funny, because about a month-and-a-half into the season we played a game against the Celtics. I went up against Dave Cowens in that game, who was the player-coach at the time. After the game Dave told me that the Celtics were going to try their best to make a trade for me. He said it would be at some point in the next month to month-and-a-half. And by golly, come January I got the call that I’d just been traded to the Celtics. It was exciting. I knew they’d already drafted Larry Bird as a junior-eligible player at the time. Then Larry shows up, and he’s even better than advertised. And the next year they were able to get Robert Parish and Kevin McHale, and it was history from then on.
That 78-79 Celtics team endured an ownership change and a coaching change and finished with only 29 wins. Please tell me a little about that chaotic first season in Boston.
You could tell they were getting ready to make some major changes on that team. They had Curtis Rowe, Bob McAdoo and ‘Bad News’ Marvin Barnes, and for whatever reason things just weren’t working out. They still had Jo Jo White, a great guard who was in the latter part of his career. So there were a lot of rumors floating around that they were going to make some major moves. But that season was definitely a tough season for us.
As you’ve mentioned, everything changed the next season with the arrival of Larry Bird.
I think once they were able to get Bird signed, and then put the McHale-Parish deal together for Joe Barry Carroll, things really started to roll. Bird was the trigger point for the turnaround, no question about it, but having those other guys meant a lot, too. And don’t forget, Red Auerbach was also great at making moves for the perfect role players, guys like Danny Ainge and Gerald Henderson and M.L. Carr and Cedric Maxwell. Just a great group of guys and great players.
What was it like to play for a coach as demanding as Bill Fitch?
I think the guys that played a lot of minutes were more aggravated with him than I was. He was a guy who loved to practice a lot and loved to watch a lot of film. I think it was harder on the guys that were playing 30-40 minutes a game, because his harder practices, combined with watching a whole lot of film, wore on them after a while. For me, the harder practices really helped because I wasn’t getting as many minutes as the other guys. The only time I’d see that many minutes was if Robert ended up getting into foul trouble, of if someone got injured or something like that. But Bill was a fine coach and it worked out well in the end. You can’t argue with success, and Bill was able to win a world championship.
The arrival of McHale and Parish was huge.
Robert and Kevin were outstanding players and even better people. They were both funny, too. The public didn’t really see that side of Robert, but in the locker room he was one of the funniest guys on the team, always joking around. Kevin was just an unbelievable player who could do it all underneath the basket. To pull off that trade with Golden State, that really shows you the genius of Red Auerbach.
Take me back to the ’81 Eastern Conference Finals against Philly.
I don’t recall how many teams had come back from a 3-1 deficit to win a series at that time, but I know that there hadn’t been many. I remember every game coming down to the wire, and I remember Bird having a great series. But the whole team played well together. And I think that was the stepping stone we needed to not only win the title that year, but to prove that we could break through and compete for the championship every year.
The Celtics won their 14th NBA Championship that year, beating Moses Malone and the Houston Rockets. Take me back to that series.
After we got past the Sixers we felt pretty good about our chances against Houston in the Finals. The Rockets had Moses Malone and had gotten past the Lakers the series before that, and everyone had the Lakers picked to reach the Finals and probably win it all. They had Malone, Robert Reid, Calvin Murphy, Rudy Tomjanovich, Mike Dunleavy. So they had a very good team. But we were able to get up on them early in the series, and I felt like we had better depth and had a better overall team than the Rockets.
To win a title was a dream come true. I was a pretty lucky athlete. I won a title in high school, In college I was part of a team that won the NIT and the NCAA tournaments. And then I end up with the Celtics and win an NBA Championship. I think that I’m the only person that’s ever done that. It was kind of like putting the icing on the cake.
And the city – to be able to play in Boston was an unbelievable experience. The fans there are a lot like the Kentucky fans. It was like playing in a college town. I can remember the parade after we won, there were hundreds of thousands of fans out there. I’d never seen anything like it. It was a neat place to play.
You are part of a rare fraternity, winning NCAA and NBA championships for legendary teams. Does one mean more to you than the other?
I think they’re special in different ways. At Kentucky I played a major role in winning the championship. In Boston I didn’t get to play quite as much. But just being a part of a championship team is something that you’ll always remember, so both titles are equally special, just in different ways. To this day I have people coming up to me and asking me about my Kentucky days, or my Celtic days, so that brings back a lot of memories.
You didn’t play for Adolph Rupp or Red Auerbach, but both men are iconic. Please tell me a little about each.
The thing that I remember most about Rupp was that he was on the Olympic Committee when I arrived at Kentucky. At the time, freshmen weren’t really allowed to try out for the Pan American Games, and Rupp was able to get me an invite to Salt Lake City, Utah, where they had 150-200 players trying out for the team. I was able to go out there and make that team after my freshman year, so if it wasn’t for Rupp I wouldn’t have had that experience with Parish, and Otis Birdsong, and Johnny Davis and that group.
As for Red Auerbach – he was an unbelievable man. I can remember my father and I sitting in his office, negotiating my second contract, just the three of us. That’s the kind of guy that he was. Again, some of the trades that he pulled off were just amazing. I remember getting a call from KC Jones, who was one of my dearest friends and who had just been named head coach. KC told me that I’d just been traded to Phoenix for Dennis Johnson, and I just had to laugh and tell him that the Celtics had just gotten a pretty good deal. And that’s another one of those Auerbach trades that I’m talking about.
Final Question – What is the one memory of playing for the Boston Celtics that stands out among all of the others?
It would have to be that day the final buzzer sounded and we were world champions. As a matter of fact, I had the ball at the end of the game and I kept it – I still have it [laughs]. I had it signed by everybody. The other thing would be the opportunity to play with the greatest front court ever. With Bird, Parish and McHale, you’ll never see a front court any better than that one. Even in today’s game, I’d put them up against anybody. It was a great experience with the great group of guys that we had on that team.
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