The Fred Roberts Interview
By:
Michael D. McClellan
|
Tuesday, March 6th, 2012
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You were selected by the Milwaukee Bucks in the second round of the 1982 NBA Draft, but decided to play a year overseas. What led you to make that decision? And what was it like playing in Europe in the early '80s?
My best year in college was my junior year. My senior season was a disappointment –
Danny was gone, which meant that we were
bringing in a pair of freshmen guards,
and there was some frustration involved
because they were young and just
learning to play college basketball. And
I don't think I was ever in as good a
shape as I needed to be at that level.
As a result, I was drafted a lot deeper
in the draft than I thought and hoped I
would be.
Don Nelson was the Milwaukee coach at the time, and he made it sound like I was going to have a real hard time making the team. In retrospect I should have been a little bit stronger mentally, and I should have went to camp and tried out. But I had another opportunity and I went overseas – I had a contract waiting on me in Italy, so I went over there instead. It was actually good in some ways because we worked really hard on conditioning and fitness. I was always a pretty good runner, but I'd never had a coach who really pushed his players as hard as my coach in Italy. And when I came back to the States I think I was better prepared. I was a big man who could run, which really served me well. I think that's the reason I was able to stay in the league as long as I did.
You have been a part of some interesting trades. You were traded to two teams before ever playing your first NBA game, and you were part of a trade package that involved and NBA head coach. Please tell us a little about both of those transactions.
I joke about it, because I like to say that I've been traded for everything but a player [laughs]. When I was in Italy, Milwaukee traded my rights to the New Jersey Nets. I believe Phil Ford was involved in that transaction. In Italy, there was an NBA team came over and played some exhibition games. Stan Albeck was the coach of that team, and he was the head coach in San Antonio at the time. They played us, and I really excelled that night. I scored 43 points and really played well, and I think Albeck may have went back to San Antonio and told some people to keep me on their radar. And as luck would have it, I was still property of the Nets when Albeck later decides he wants to coach in New Jersey. So my rights were included as compensation for Albeck being allowed to leave San Antonio to coach the Nets.
It was a good fit for me. I was able to go to San Antonio play a year-and-a-half. I may have stayed there longer, but the team was in transition at that point in time. They went through three coaches during my time there, and it was the tail end of the good years, so that's when I ended up playing in Utah.
Let's talk about your journey to Boston: The Utah Jazz traded you to Boston for draft picks and home team rights to an exhibition game?
That's correct [laughs]. I think there were two exhibition games that were part of that deal. You'll have to ask Kevin McHale about that, because he hated that deal – we had to come to Utah to play that exhibition game, which McHale whined about the whole time [laughs].
I played in Utah a year-and-a-half. I had a really good first year, but the second year they drafted Karl Malone. With Malone on the team, my minutes went way down. At the end of the season I became a restricted free agent, and during the summer I went to Boston to play in their summer league. That's when the Celtics signed me, and that's when Utah traded me with the restrictions to include the exhibition games.
You joined a Celtics team attempting to repeat as world champions. What was that like?
Had Len Bias lived, I probably wouldn't have been a Celtic. Bias was going to be the next great player for Boston, and he was going to play a reserve role at forward that season. But when Bias died, the Celtics were suddenly in need of a big man. I think that's how they ended up having some interest in me.
I still had a small town attitude and mentality when I arrived in Boston, so I was pretty nervous when I got there. These guys had just won the world championship. Every time I played them with San Antonio they'd whipped us. When I was with Utah they'd whipped us. In fact, the year before the Celtics won that '86 championship they'd come to Salt Lake and Bird had a quadruple double.
So when I got to Boston I didn't know what to expect, especially with Robert Parish. And then I'm in the locker room getting ready for that very first practice, and in walks Parish. He just smiles at me and asks me what's up [laughs]. He was very different in person than what you would expect from him after seeing him on the court. So I'll never forget how he walked in that locker room the first time and made me feel at home. And from then on I felt like I could handle being a part of the team.
For some reason I always felt that there were two teams within that team, at least from the public and the media point-of-view: There was the five starters that had won the championship, and then there was the rest of us. I always felt that if we won, it was the starters who were responsible. If we lost, then it was the bench who let them down. That was kind of a hard thing for me, and a challenge mentally.
I remember that Eastern Conference Finals against the Pistons, and seeing those warriors out there on the court going toe-to-toe against the Pistons. Detroit had Bill Laimbeer, Rick Mahorn, John Salley, Dennis Rodman...they all took turns at Bird at one point or another in that series. Larry was just unbelievable. They'd guard him, grab, scratch, fight, whatever they could do to try and slow him down. But it seemed like the tougher the competition the more Larry liked it. He just rose to the occasion, and he really invited that challenge to be put on him. He wanted the challenge to be as tough and as hard as it could be, and I just remember what a warrior Larry was, especially in that series. And that steal in Game 5. If he hadn't made that steal we were done.
We had so many injuries that year. It started with Bill Walton. We kept wondering if he was going to come back, and if he was going to be the difference because he'd been the difference the year before. We were playing well and winning a lot of games, but everybody felt like we were missing a piece. Scott Wedman was out, and everybody was waiting for him to come back. And I don't know if everyone felt this way, but I sort of felt like the starters were just putting up with the bench until they got those main guys back.
