The Rick Robey Interview
By:
Michael D. McClellan
|
Sunday, February 26th, 2012
Which brings us to your senior season. Kentucky won its fifth national championship, defeating Duke 94-88. You were outstanding, scoring 20 points on 8 of 11 shooting from the from the floor, and grabbing 11 rebounds. What was it like going against guys like Mike Gminksi and Jim Spanarkal, and what was it like to play so big on the game's biggest stage?
We were able to get it done, so that was a
huge thrill. We had Jack Givens, who was an
outstanding player and was recognized as
such that season – he was the Final Four
Most Outstanding Player, the Helms National
Player of the Year, and just a tremendous
college basketball player. We also had Kyle
Macy, Mike Phillips, and from to to bottom
it was a truly great group of guys. That
last game was an intense match-up because
Duke had such a great team, with guys like
Gminski, Spanarkal and Gene Banks. So
winning meant everything to us – to be able
to win a championship for the Kentucky fans
was something special that I'll never
forget.
You were the 3rd overall pick in the 1978 NBA Draft. Please take me back to that experience.
I was selected by the Indiana Pacers with the third pick in that draft. They needed size and liked how I'd played during my senior season and in the tournament. It was an interesting draft, because Boston used the seventh overall pick on Larry Bird, even though they knew they had to wait a year to get him and that they might not get him at all.
Midway through the 1978-79 season you were traded to the Boston Celtics. How did you find out, and what were your thoughts of joining such a tradition-rich franchise?
It was funny, because about a month and a half into the season we played a game against the Celtics. I went up against Dave Cowens in that game, who was the player-coach at the time. After the game Dave told me that the Celtics were going to try their best to make a trade for me. He said it would be at some point in the next month to month-and-a-half. And by golly, come January I got the call that I'd just been traded to the Celtics.
I knew they'd already drafted Larry Bird earlier, in the same draft that I was in. Bird as a junior-eligible player at the time, and had decided to play one more year of college ball. So I knew he was coming.
And everything snow-balled from there – they were able to get Robert Parish and Kevin McHale, and it was history from then on.
That 78-79 Celtics team endured an ownership change and a coaching change and finished with only 29 wins. Dave Cowens was player / coach by the time you arrived, and the team was a revolving door in terms of the roster. Please tell me a little about that chaotic first season in Boston.
You could tell they were getting ready to make some changes on that team. They had Curtis Rowe, Bob McAdoo and 'Bad News' Marvin Barnes on that team, and for whatever reason things just weren't working out. They still had Jo Jo White, a great guard who was in the latter part of his career. So there were a lot of rumors floating around that they were going to make some major moves. But that season was definitely a tough season for us.
