The Nate Archibald Interview
By:
Michael D. McClellan
|
Friday, November 6th, 2004
You were traded to the Boston Celtics on August 4th, 1978.
Despite a rocky start, the Celtics would soon add such hall-of-fame talent
as Larry Bird, Kevin McHale and Robert Parish. At what point did you
believe that a championship was in your future?
Larry Bird was
drafted as a junior eligible, so we had to wait a year to find out what kind
of player he was. He was our hope, although the press kept saying that he
was too slow to play in the NBA, and that he couldn’t jump or shoot or play
defense. When he arrived, and we actually got to see how good he was, that
was when I started to believe that we’d compete for a championship.
Larry was
easily one of the greatest players I’d ever played with. Everyone calls him
Larry Legend, but I’ve always liked to call him Larry the Professor. He was
so smart. He could analyze things on the court, and then diagnose a play
almost before it even happened. He dissected his opponent. And while he
might not have had the greatest physical tools – he wasn’t going to jump
through the roof like a Dominique Wilkins – he was a master of the
fundamentals. Nobody was any better at doing the little things
collectively, like boxing out and making the extra pass. He had the highest
basketball intellect that I’ve ever been associated with. It was a
privilege to play with him, and also with Kevin and Robert. They were the
heart of our team and the reason we won it all in ’81.
The
1979-80 Celtics won 61 games and reached the Eastern Conference Finals,
eventually losing to Dr. J and the Philadelphia 76ers. You were once again
an All-Star, and a big reason for the turnaround. How did your role change
with the arrival of a young Larry Bird?
That was classic
Red. He knew he needed a quarterback to run his team, especially since he
was assembling such a talented front line, and he wanted to motivate me to
be the player that I was before the injuries. But he also knew that he
needed a player who could distribute the ball, someone who didn’t need to
score a ton of points, and by that time in my career I was more than ready
to share the load offensively. I’d been a big-time scorer, but I hadn’t
gone deep in the playoffs. I wanted a ring. The pieces were coming
together. Max [Cedric Maxwell] was already there, Larry was there, and
Robert and Kevin were on their way the following season. And with Larry on
the team we were able to turn it completely around. We only won 29 games my
first season, and then we won 61 games the next. At the time it was the
biggest turnaround in NBA history. Larry was the focal point of the
offense, and that was fine with me. The next year we had Robert and Kevin,
as well as M.L. Carr, so there were a lot of options. And we were all
close, which was the best part. Max and I were like brothers. We stayed in
the same house, we went to his home in North Carolina during the offseason,
and we had a lot of great times together. The camaraderie on those teams
was unbelievable. Nobody can take that away. The practices were real
battles, and they made us closer as a team. There were fights, but that’s
only because the intensity level was so high. Nobody was giving up, not
even for a minute. And the individual records didn’t matter. We were all
after the same thing, which was to be recognized as the best in the world.
The following season you were named the MVP of the All-Star Game. After
suffering so many injuries in recent years, how did it feel to be recognized
as the best of the best?
The 1980-81 Boston Celtics came back from a 3-1 series deficit to defeat the
76ers and advance to the NBA Finals. Please take me back to that classic
series. What stands out in your mind after all these years?
People may
forget this, but our best battles back then were against the 76ers. They
had Doc [Julius Erving], Andrew Toney, Bobby Jones, Caldwell Jones, Darryl
Dawkins, Doug Collins, Steve Mix, Lionel Hollins, and Maurice Cheeks.
Philly was loaded. We had to beat them just to get to the Finals and face
the Houston Rockets. It was a great series, probably the best I’ve ever
been involved in.
That first year in Boston was ugly. We won 29 games and didn’t have much
hope. Satch Sanders started off as the head coach, but he was fired and
Dave Cowens took over as player/coach. On paper there was some good talent
on that team – Cowens, Chris Ford, Curtis Rowe, Jo Jo White, Don Chaney –
but the mixture wasn’t right. We even had young guys like Cedric Maxwell
and Rick Robey. Bob McAdoo was on the roster for twenty games or so. But
there was just so much turmoil and negativity that things went from bad to
ugly, and they just stayed that way.
My role changed every year, which goes back to what Cooz told me my rookie
season. That first year in Boston I didn’t play lot, at least by my
standards. I wasn’t sure where I fit in or if I’d remain on the team. Red
and I had some interesting conversations – he loved to walk through the
locker room and tell you about the great Celtic teams that he coached during
the 50s and 60s, and about all of the championships that he won on the
parquet. Red would also sit you down in his office, which was a
smoke-filled room loaded with championship mementos, and he’d try to
motivate you to play up to those standards. I remember sitting down with
him one day, the cigars stinking up the place, and he wanted to welcome me
to the team. He said, “Tiny, I’m not sure where you’re gonna be by the end
of the season. You’re out of shape and overweight, and I want guys who are
in shape. I’m just not sure if you’re gonna be any good. You gotta
compete. To be in this picture you’d better want to win.”
It was special. I was healthy again, and I was on a team that had a chance
to win it all. I never doubted my ability, so it was good to be able to
remind people that I could still play the game at a very high level.
Nobody was giving up. There was no quit on that team. Philly was the team
to beat, they had the big lead in the series, and we just kept playing as
hard as we could. Larry told us to take one game at time, and we were able
to focus on that. All of the games were very close, and very intense.
Those last three games all went down to the wire, and they reminded me of
the great Red Sox-Yankees series, with the Red Sox coming back from a 3-0
deficit to win.
