The Bill Sharman Interview
By:
Michael D. McClellan
|
Monday, March 20th,
2006
After winning four championships with the Celtics as a player, you won an
NBA championship (and earned Coach of the Year honors) with the Los Angeles
Lakers in 1972. What was it like to coach the great Jerry West, and what
did it mean to you to win a title as coach of the Lakers?
Coaching
Jerry West was a dream come true. I had played against him when I was
Celtic – he was a rookie during my last year in the league – and I knew that
he was going to be something special. He had a brilliant basketball mind,
and he had all of the physical tools to be a star. So, for me, it was an
honor to actually coach someone who had the ability and who wanted to win so
badly.
You have to
remember, Jerry was approaching the end of his career, and he wanted a
championship very badly. He had been to the NBA Finals on many occasions,
only to be turned away by Bill Russell and the Boston Celtics. Seeing Jerry
finally win that championship after all of those years of frustration – that
was a very special moment, and one that I will never forget.
Wilt Chamberlain was renowned for his basketball prowess, especially on the
offensive end of the floor. He was also something of an enigma, a player
who seemed to disappear in the big games. As a coach, how were you able to
get the best out of Wilt?
It
was a challenge, for sure. As a coach, I recognized his importance to what
the Lakers were trying to do, and I knew that we needed Wilt if we were
going to reach our goal of winning a world championship. This doesn’t take
anything away from the other players on the team – Jerry West was one of the
best to ever step on the court, and just a magnificent basketball player.
So intelligent! Gail Goodrich was his backcourt mate, and he was one of the
most talent guards in the league. Both are in the Hall of Fame. But I knew
that, if we were going to win it all, Wilt Chamberlain was going to be the
key. We needed his presence under the basket. Happy Hairston was going to
grab his share of rebounds, but Wilt was still one of the most dominant
centers in the league. So I worked hard at motivating him and keeping him
involved – it became a game that we played between ourselves. I'd just keep
asking Wilt questions about strategy until he came up with the right answer.
Then I'd play to his ego; I’d tell him how smart he was, and what a great
idea he'd come up with [laughs]. Thinking that every important strategy was
his, that he had ownership of the decision-making process, Wilt then went
out on the court and played a championship brand of basketball.
And what about those morning shoot-arounds? Did Wilt and the rest of the
Lakers buy into it?
A
lot of players actually liked it – Jerry West and Gail Goodrich in
particular. Jerry really took to the idea. He said that it made a lot of
sense for him, because, like me, he was the nervous sort on games days. But
without naming names, not everyone bought into it. Surprisingly, Wilt
wasn’t one of them.
The summer before the season started, I contacted each player and explained the concept of the game-day shoot-around. I was able to get in touch with everyone on the team except for Wilt, who was in Europe at the time and didn't get back to Los Angeles until a week before the season started. So, I asked him to join me for lunch so that I could see him on the idea. As I recall, I was wearing a sweat suit with no pockets and I had forgotten my wallet! It was a horrible feeling; here I was – I had invited Wilt out to convince him of something that I felt was very important to the team’s success, and he was going to have to pay for lunch. Thankfully, it worked out. He said, 'Bill, you know I don't like getting up early, but let's try it and if it helps the team. If it does, then, I'll go along with it.’ And to my recollection, Wilt only missed two shoot-arounds all year long, and both times he was gracious enough to call me. I think he bought into the philosophy, especially after we started winning. That was a great selling point.
The Lakers steamrolled the league during that 1971-72 regular season,
finishing with a 69-13 record that included a history-making 33-game winning
streak, which still stands as the longest winning streak in the history of
major American professional team sports. Please tell me a little about that
unbelievable winning streak.
We
were nine games into the regular season, and Elgin Baylor had just announced
his retirement from the NBA. We weren’t concerned with setting records or
breaking records at that point, we just wanted to win the game that was in
front of us. That was our solitary focus – getting that first one. Then,
we focused on winning the next game. Our goal wasn’t to go out and break
the record for most consecutive wins – at the time I wasn’t sure what the
record was, to be completely honest with you. I only learned that it was
Milwaukee, with 20, after our streak reached 18. It was special to go for
more than two months and not lose a game, but for me it was more special to
win the championship. If we had set the record and then fallen short of our
goal, which was an NBA title, then I don’t think the record would have had
the significance that it enjoys today.
You are one of only three people, along with John Wooden and Lenny Wilkens,
to be enshrined in the Basketball Hall of Fame as both a player and a
coach. What does this recognition mean to you?
What
a wonderful, wonderful honor. I'm in such great company to be included with
John and Lenny. It's really something that I will cherish, because being
inducted into the Hall of Fame is the greatest honor that this profession
can bestow. I was very humbled when I was inducted as a player, in 1976,
and this is makes it all the more special. I am being recognized for what I
have accomplished as a teacher of the game. I always took great pride in
that.
Final
Question: You’ve achieved great success in your life. You are universally
respected and admired by many people, both inside and outside of the NBA.
If you could offer one piece of advice on life to others, what would that
be?
Work
hard and be honest, always!
