The Greg Kite Interview
By:
Michael D. McClellan
|
Tuesday, January 3rd, 2012
What is your favorite Larry Bird moment while playing with the Celtics?
Larry was a great teammate with a lot of
common sense, on the court and off. As far
as a player, he'd have stretches when he
was at the top of his game that would leave
you shaking your head. Probably the thing he
did best was pass the basketball. He was
also one of the best defensive rebounders.
He'd have some stretches where he'd have 10
or 11 assists, a dozen rebounds and 30
points. He was just phenomenal to watch.
Just some of the things he could do were
amazing, but he also wasn't afraid of trying
and possibly failing. He wasn't afraid of
that at all.
Larry's from Indiana, and where he's from
fishing is a big thing. Down there, if you
can't fish and if you can't mow then you
don't have game [laughs]. Rick Carlisle
tells a funny story along those lines. Rick
went down to French Lick with Larry one
summer to hang out, and he said that they'd
get up at 6 a.m. and run a few miles, come
back and shoot, lift some weights, play some
tennis. Rick said that by 10 a.m. they'd
done more work than he was used to doing in
a whole day [laughs]. Then they'd go play
golf in the afternoon and then more
basketball in the evening. This would go on
every day except Thursday, because Thursday
was mowing day. Larry had something like 10
acres, and he and his brothers would get out
on these riding mowers and go town. So Rick
felt bad because he wasn't doing anything to
help. He asks Larry what he can do to pitch
in, and asked if he could help mow the lawn.
Larry turned him down cold, and told him
that he wasn't going to touch one of his
mowers [laughs].
Great on the court story: We're playing the
Knicks, and the Knicks had a trainer named
Mike Saunders, and they were messing around
on the court before the game. Larry was a
great trash talker. He and Saunders were
going back and forth, and Saunders bet Larry
five bucks that Larry wouldn't bank in a
three-pointer during the game. So, we get in
this game. It's a close game, and there's
like 40 seconds left when Saunders catches
Larry's attention from the sideline. He was
smiling and holding up five fingers, because
Larry hadn't banked one in at that point.
And with about 20 seconds left Larry banks
in a three-pointer to win the game, and he
just turns to Saunders and smiles and holds
up five fingers of his own. Larry had that
kind of nerve and confidence [laughs].
Midway through the 87-88 season you were released by the Celtics. Please
take me back to that period in your NBA career. What was it like leaving the
only pro team you'd ever played for?
The Celtics had picked up Artis Gilmore, so
I was waived by the Celtics and picked up by
the Clippers. The Celtics kept me on the
injured list for a few weeks and tried to
keep me, but the NBA and other teams were
questioning whether I was legitimately
injured or not. So I went on to the
Clippers. It was the exact opposite of the
Celtics in that it was chaos as an
organization, and it was a team that wasn't
winning and didn't have a winning tradition.
But it was good for me from the standpoint
that I actually got to play significant
minutes for the first time in my career.
Same thing with Sacramento. So those next
two-and-a-half years were good for me in
terms of getting to play. I got to go out
there and make mistakes and get minutes on
the court. So that really helped me to
develop in some areas and also help
establish me in this league as a backup who
could come in and help a team in an eight or
nine man rotation.
From there I signed a one-year contract with
Orlando, which was great because it's where
my wife was from. We met at BYU where she
played basketball on the women's team. It
was great to be able to come home there,
because we had a young family. I ended up
getting a four-year deal and ended up
playing three of those four years there. I
was very thankful for the opportunity. That
first year I started all 82 games. Orlando
was a second year expansion team, and that's
the year we had Scott Skiles and Sam Vincent
on the team. The next year is when they
selected Shaquille O'Neal, so I got to back
up Shaq for a year and a half. That's when I
hurt my Achilles tendon, which was the only
serious injury I ever had, so I had to sit
out the rest of that year.
Orlando added Penny Hardaway, and I ended up
being released by the Magic. I played
briefly for the Knicks and then ended up
with the Pacers. That's the year the Magic
made it to the NBA Finals, beating us in the
Eastern Conference Finals to get there. So
it was a good experience there.
It was a fun experience all the way around.
I was lucky to marry the woman that I
married, and fortunate to play for the Magic
those years because it was so close to home.
We have 10 children from 26 to ten years
old. Two sets of twins. My wife said she
wanted a big family, so I think we covered
that pretty well [laughs].
During the 1989-90 season you were perfect from the 3-point line. What were
you doing shooting the ball from downtown?
I led the league in three-point shooting one year. I was 1-for-1 shooting threes for the Sacramento Kings. So I quit while I was ahead. I like to say the only guys holding me back from a career behind the arc are the guys in suits and ties coaching the team. I could make some threes in practice, but I wasn't a shooter. Just happened that I had the ball in my hands behind the arc with the clock running down so I let it fly. I just don't understand why they didn't run the same play the next time down the court. I guess they wanted me to keep that league-leading percentage [laughs].
Final Question: Let's compare the NBA today to when you played for the Celtics.
Just look at the Miami Heat. Today they get all of the media attention. They're pretty good and have a lot of talent, and they're going to get better, but when I look back at the NBA in the '80s there were some pretty good teams that never made it to the NBA Finals. Just look at the Milwaukee Bucks. That team was loaded with All-Stars – Jack Sikma, John Lucas, Terry Cummings, Sidney Moncrief. They talk today about teams like the Heat with their Big Three, and I'd put a team like the Bucks up against them any day of the week. And I will always believe that our 1985-86 Celtics team was the greatest team that ever played.
