The Nate Archibald Interview
By:
Michael D. McClellan
|
Friday, November 6th, 2004
You
suffered an Achilles tendon injury the following season, but 1974-75 marked
your return to greatness. You averaged 26.5 points and 6.8 assists,
returned to the All-NBA First Team, and the Kings reached the playoffs for
the first time in nine years. What was it like to finally taste the
postseason?
The single
biggest factor was probably the return trip that I made to New York after I
tore the Achilles tendon. I went back to work with the youth in the
neighborhood, and all of these kids were so supportive. They were saying,
“Tiny, you can still play. You can come back from this injury. You’ve
still got it.” And here I was in New York, supposedly mentoring them, and
they were ones imparting the wisdom. It made me work hard to regain my
speed. I didn’t want to let them down.
Coming back, I had the quickness that made me such a dangerous player. All of the self-doubt was gone; I was healthy again, and it showed in the way I played the game. Years later, I had suffered some nagging injuries and ended up being traded from the Nets to the Celtics. I weighed 240 pounds when I got to Boston, which was a far cry from the 170 pounds that I carried in my prime. Red [Auerbach] took one look at me and said that if I didn’t lose the weight that I wouldn’t play. It wasn’t that he didn’t want me, because he did. He just didn’t want two of me [laughs]! So Red told [Celtics’ trainer] Ray Melchiorre to help me lose the weight. Ray put me on a diet; skim milk with Raisin Bran for breakfast…no sugar, no butter, no jelly. I love fried eggs, but he cut those out, too. I could have them hardboiled, and that was it. Lunch was a dry salad – no dressing – and no tomatoes. Dinner was skinless meat, broiled. Nothing to drink but water and grapefruit juice. And if that wasn’t enough, Ray made me wear a fat suit when I worked out [laughs]. He was into scuba diving, so he brought one of those scuba suits to the training facility and had me put it on. It wasn’t a short suit, either – it was one of those long ones. Putting it on was no problem, but taking it off was almost impossible [laughs]. But it all worked, because the weight came off and I was back to my playing weight to start the season. I had my speed back, and I was back to running for my life [laughs].
But to answer your question, it was a dream season because we finally made the playoffs. We had solid players on that team – Jimmy Walker, Nate Williams, and Sam Lacey to name a few. Scott Wedman was a rookie that year, and he really helped us. But we lost to the Chicago Bulls in the playoffs, so that was a big disappointment. Anytime you’re eliminated it’s a bitter pill to swallow.
You
mentioned that Scott Wedman was your teammate while with the Kings.
Ironically, you would both go on to win NBA championships with the Boston
Celtics. Please tell me about Scott.
Scott was
a really good player. Those first couple of years he was kind of in the
shadows in Kansas City, because he was a young guy just getting started and
he wasn’t one of the focal points of the offense. But as time went on he
became one of the team’s stars, and one of the better players in the
league. He could shoot the lights out. Nobody in the league shot it any
better. He was a role player when he went to Boston, which was a big change
for him, but he really wanted to win a championship. He knew that he’d
never take Larry Bird’s spot, and that his job would be to come off the
bench and provide a spark on offense. That’s exactly what he did, and the
Celtics won two championships with him on the roster.
You
averaged 24.8 points and 7.9 assists during the 1975-76 season, again
earning All-NBA First Team honors. The Kings, however, struggled in the win
column. Was there ever any doubt that you’d win an NBA championship?
It was frustrating, but I just kept playing my game. I was never satisfied
when we fell short of the ultimate goal. It had been like that since I’d
started playing basketball. We added Bill Robinzine through the draft, but
we just didn’t put things together like I thought we would. We won 31 games
and missed the playoffs, so to me that was a huge step backwards. It didn’t
matter what I’d done as an individual. We didn’t get it done as a team, so
there was some doubt about contending for a championship.
The next
couple of seasons were marked by injuries and trades, as you moved from the
Kings to the New York Nets and Buffalo Braves. Please tell me about this
period in your life.
It was a
difficult time for me as a professional basketball player. I was hurt and I
only played in 34 games for the Nets. We didn’t make the playoffs, and then
I ended up being traded to Buffalo – and didn’t play at all during the
1977-78 season. So it was a very challenging period for me mentally. I had
to deal with the injuries, and at the same time stay positive and focused on
coming back.
