The Larry Siegfried Interview
By:
Michael D. McClellan
|
Tuesday, May 16th,
2006
You
were honored as an AP, UPI, and Helms Foundation All-American. What did these
honors mean to you then, and what do they mean to you now?
At
that time you’re a kid, and you really can’t comprehend it. And I’ll tell you
again, I really struggled at Ohio State. But I will say this – as I look back,
the awards and accolades don’t mean much to me anymore. It’s what I’ve learned
from those experiences – the things that I carried into my life, the things that
have become a part of my existence and my being – that mean the most. The
awards and all of that other stuff – all of that stuff doesn’t mean anything to
me. Now, I’m not going to sit here and say that it doesn’t matter at all,
because it does to a certain degree. But being named All-American doesn’t
define who I am as a person. I’ll tell you this right now – the man that I am
today is a result of the experiences that I’ve had, good and bad, pros and cons,
and that does matter. I am who I am today because of those things. And I think
people who know me, know that I mean what I say. I’m a straight shooter. I owe
a lot to Fred for what he taught us, but I’m not going to sit here and tell you
that he and I had it peachy-peachy. Because I struggled. And I’m not ashamed
of it.
Two of
your teammates were also honored as All-Americans – Jerry Lucas and John
Havlicek. Please tell me a little about each of these men.
Luke
was a great college center. He was a very talented big man. He had great
hands, good jumping ability, could run the floor, could pass the ball. He
was a good shooter, a good rebounder. He was just a great, great college
center. His high school and college career is second to none. He took Ohio
State to the national championship game three years running. That speaks
for itself. As far as John, in my opinion John was a better athlete than he
was a basketball player. Now I don’t mean that in a negative way, but what
I’m saying is that Luke was a basketball player. I would consider myself a
basketball player. John was a great athlete who was a basketball player.
There’s a difference between the two. There are guys who can play
basketball who aren’t great athletes. John was a great athlete. He was
drafted to play football. He could play baseball. He was an outstanding
athlete. Now, could John dribble and do all of the things that a pure
basketball player might be able to do? No, that’s no John. But he had a
good work ethic, played well, played unselfishly, and had great career. In
fact, I think he had a better pro career than he did in college. That’s my
opinion. He blossomed as a pro – he ran wild and shot the ball. But in
college, maybe he never reached his full potential. Maybe it’s the same
thing that I’ve been talking about. But those two guys were really great
teammates. Of course you had Joe Roberts and Mel Nowell and all of those
other guys. You can’t discount them. They were great teammates and a big
part of our success. All of those kids were good kids, and I think that was
why we were able to win.
The year we won the national championship, I think our starting five averaged a 3.6 GPA out of 4.0. I’m not saying that we were high IQ, but we were kids who worked hard, studied hard, and did well in the classroom. Now, Luke had that amazing memory – he memorized the entire bible – and I think he was a perfect 4.0 student. The thing I’m saying is that the team was a very intelligent club. So, when Fred got the information to teach us, the kids that we had were able to learn it, absorb it, and play it. I would say that there are very few clubs that could carry out and execute a game plan like that group of kids. Not only because of the athleticism of the team, but also because of our intelligence.
You were
the third overall selection 1961 NBA Draft, chosen by the Cincinnati
Royals. Please take me back to this period in your life.
That’s
a simple matter. In ’61, the University of Cincinnati had beaten us in the
finals for the national championship. There was so much turmoil between the
two cities and universities because of the basketball rivalry – it was back
and forth, back and forth. In fact, Ohio State and Cincinnati are just now
starting to rekindle that relationship between the schools. There was so
much hatred going on between the schools at the time – painting statues on
school grounds, vandalizing classrooms…you just wouldn’t believe some of the
things that were going on. And to be honest with you, that’s the main
reason that I didn’t play professional ball in Cincinnati. There was no way
that I was going to play ball in Cincinnati. No way. If it had been any
other place than Cincinnati, I would have gone.
Well, what happened was that they were starting that other league in Cleveland. At that time, my NBA options were Cincinnati or nothing. So I signed to play for the Cleveland Pipers in the American Basketball League. The team was owned by George Steinbrenner. John McClendon of Tennessee State was the head coach, and he practically brought the entire Tennessee State team with him. So that kind of pushed me out the door. I really didn’t get an opportunity to play. That was the first season. And then the second they folded.
Red
Auerbach nabbed you for the $1,000 waiver fee. Tell me how this played out.
Well,
after the league folded I started teaching school in Columbus. As I said, I
wasn’t going to play for Cincinnati. I taught, and I also played with an
independent basketball team, and we played preliminary games on college
campuses. About halfway through the season, I got hooked up with another
small league with teams in Michigan, Ohio and Indiana. By then, Havlicek
was in Boston playing for the Celtics. He called, and he said that he
wanted me to travel to Cincinnati because Red wanted to talk. So I went
into the locker room prior to the game between the Celtics and Royals, and
Red asked me if I’d be interested in playing for the Celtics. I said sure.
In the meantime, Cincinnati had traded my rights to St. Louis. They knew
that they weren’t going to sign me, and so they just threw me into some deal
that they’d done with the Hawks.
After talking to Red, I wanted to go straight to Boston – but I couldn’t, because now my rights belonged to St. Louis. I went to training camp, but their first round draft choice that year was a guard. There was no way the Hawks were going to keep me over him. And that’s what happened. Even though I had a great training camp, they still cut me. That’s when Red offered me a contract. And that’s how I ended up in Boston.
