The Fred Roberts Interview
By:
Michael D. McClellan
|
Tuesday, March 6th, 2012
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You were born on August 14, 1960 in Provo, Utah. Please tell me a little about your childhood – the sports you liked to play, the schools you went to, and what led you to the basketball court.
The biggest influence on me was family – I have five brothers, and we were really fortunate because
we grew up in a small
town that had a great baseball program.
We got involved with that pretty early
on. I got to watch my two older brothers
play ball, and I loved going to the
games and watching. So I was never
bored, and when I got old enough to
play, my passion for the competition of
sports just increased.
Baseball was my first love, and then later on it was baseball and football. They had an organized Punt, Pass and Kick program in my hometown, and that was great fun. I wasn't all that crazy about basketball at first, because it took me a lot longer to become any good at that. Overall I think basketball is a more challenging sport, and by the time I reached junior high that was the only sport that my school offered. So that's what I matriculated to. I grew into the sport, and as I got taller I realized that was a good fit for me. It was a good sport where I lived because we could play indoors – Provo can get cold like Massachusetts.
In high school I had the privilege of watching a great high school basketball player and a great athlete in Bruce Hardy, who was also the first high school player to appear on the cover of Sports Illustrated. So watching him was inspiring. I made the varsity team as a sophomore, and we won the state championship my junior and senior year. The community was involved so that was exciting and fun for us. I had a good bunch of friends on the team, and we got to compete against a bunch of big schools and did pretty well.
You were teammates with James Worthy on that 1979 USA Junior World Championship Team. What was that experience like for you?
That was a great team and a great experience. We had some really strong players, and we were able to go to Brazil and compete. We went to one city and won that pool, and then we went to another city and played our way to the championship. We went through the Russians and then we beat Brazil on their home court, which was really good for us.
To even make the team, you had to try out at the Sports Festival in Colorado Springs. I was on the South team, and we had James Worthy, Sam Perkins, a bunch of really good players. And from that tryout they put together the team that went to Brazil. And it was fun. We beat a lot of good teams down there, and we beat a lot of bad teams. Worthy and I both started, and I think I was a better player then that I ended up being. It seemed like we got every rebound, and we'd take off down the floor, and either Worthy would dunk it or I would dunk it.
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You stayed close to home when deciding to play college ball. Take me back to your time at Brigham Young – what memories stand out the most, and what was it like to play with future Boston Celtics teammates Danny Ainge and Greg Kite?
I was motivated to go to Brigham Young. My older brother played on the basketball team, and I had hoped to play with him. Danny was a year ahead of me. He came in and brought a new excitement to the school and to the basketball program. So I looked forward to playing with Danny. He was a tough guy, and he was a real competitor, but he knew how to have a good time. He was fun, and knew how to relax. That was a little more difficult for me. I took everything a lot more serious. If we'd get beat I'd really get down about that. Danny competed and played just as hard as anybody else, but when the game was over he moved on. That was something that I tried to learn from him.
We had a good time. When Kite joined us we were able to go to some of the bigger schools and compete with them. My junior year – Danny's senior year – we had that run to the Elite 8. We beat UCLA and beat Notre Dame before losing to Virginia. That Notre Dame game was the game where Danny sprinted the length of the court and scored on Kelly Tripucka to win it at the buzzer. So I had a great time playing ball at BYU.
