The KC Jones Interview
By:
Michael D. McClellan
|
Sunday, August 4th, 2002
I’ll
never forget where I was when I learned that Len Bias
had died from a cocaine overdose. It was such a
tragic event, because Bias seemed like a genuinely good
person. How did you find out about what happened?
I was driving home from work in my car.
I found out about it on the radio, and it broke my
heart. I’d just spent time with him the day
before. He had gone to Boston following the draft
to meet his new team, and then he returned to Maryland.
He went back to the Maryland campus to celebrate with
his friends – I use the term loosely, because these
people weren’t his friends. Not when they’re
doing drugs. It was a tragedy.
It hurt, no question. Larry lobbied Red to draft
Bias. He grew more excited as the draft got closer
and it looked like we were going to land Len.
Larry was making plans to attend the rookie camp so that
he could start working with Len and preparing him for
his first year in the league. The two
of them had met, and they were fast friends.
So it really hurt Larry to find out that Len
had died from drugs.
Larry Bird as coach. Evaluate his
three year career as the coach of the
Indiana Pacers.
It was a fabulous coaching job. Larry took over an
Indiana team that had been coached by the great Larry
Brown and took them to the NBA Finals. And he did
it with basically the same team that Brown had the
previous year. That’s not a knock on Brown,
because I respect him a great deal. He’s one of
the best coaches in the game. But for Larry (Bird)
to come into that situation and excel, that was truly a
special job.
It also disproved the
thinking that great players don’t make great coaches.
Exactly. Larry blew that theory out of the water.
When I
watched Larry coach, his style and demeanor brought to
mind another soft-spoken coach who succeeded famously.
You know, the one who won a couple of rings back in the
mid-eighties.
Are you talking about me? [Laughs].
