Bob Cousy responds to J.J. Redick

Bob Cousy responds to J.J. Redick: ‘People with less talent will always try to make a name for themselves by criticizing other people’

https://www.yahoo.com/sports/bob-cousy-responds-j-j-150046776.html

Dan Feldman
Fri, May 20, 2022, 11:00 AM
Chris Paul‘s play this postseason has inspired plenty of beef.

Between Patrick Beverley and Paul? No surprise.

Between J.J. Redick and Chris “Mad Dog” Russo? Their job is to argue on ESPN.

Between Bob Cousy and Redick? That one I didn’t see coming.

While debating Russo about Paul’s and Cousy’s all-time rankings as point guards, Redick said Cousy “was being guarded by plumbers and firemen.”

A 93-year-old Cousy responded.

SiriusXM NBA Radio:



Cousy said, but this is how quotes work on this board:

Bob Cousy wrote:People with less talent will always try to make a name for themselves by criticizing other people and hopefully getting some attention and perhaps increasing their credibility. So, when you respond to something like this, you play into their hands. I won’t do that. But I will defend the firemen and the plumbers that he referenced.

And I’ll just give you a few of their names of these firemen that I played with and against during those years. How about Bill Russell, the aforementioned? Not too bad a player. Wilt Chamberlain, remember that guy? He wasn’t bad. I guess he must have fought fires as well. But in any event, Wilt Chamberlain. Still the best, in my judgment, small forward that ever played the game, a guy named Elgin Baylor. A couple of point guards that weren’t too shabby, my colleague who also had an award created, guy named Oscar Robertson, who was pound for pound the best player perhaps in the game. Jerry West wasn’t too shabby. The guys on our team, Sam and K.C. Jones, a guy named “Hondo” Havlicek wasn’t too bad. Tom Heinsohn, Frank Ramsey, George Mikan, Bob Pettit – I could go on and on.

And we must have had the best firemen and plumbers on the planet at the time. And I was very proud to play with all of them.

Cousy was drafted in 1950. Another player selected in that first round, Irwin Dambrot, bypassed the NBA to become a dentist.

Professional basketball just wasn’t the same back then. Salaries weren’t high enough to practically always attract players over other professions. Players worked second jobs in the offseason.

There were absolutely greats in that era. Redick acknowledged that in the original segment. He was being hyperbolic with his plumbers-and-firemen comment. But the median player – and overall level of play – was lower.

That said, it is absolutely enjoyable to hear Cousy defend his generation and, implicitly, himself. Anytime someone says they’re not going to respond after saying “people with less talent will always try to make a name for themselves by criticizing other people and hopefully getting some attention,” I’m here for it.

As usual, click on the link to see imbedded video and audio.

As most of you on this site recall, Dick Dorr (a.k.a. Sam) was a huge proponent of contraction, i.e. dumping the perennial BS teams with no chance of ever winning a title yet being a breeding ground for top draft picks to pay their dues like the Kings, Hornets, and others of the same ilk and reducing the pool of players so the talent would have a real chance to shine with every game.

With Sam's take, I became a huge fan of that as well. Probably not ever going to happen because if a team does fold up, the NBA owns it and recycles it.

The early days of the NBA were pure genius. We used to play the Lakers far more than 2 times during the regular season and every team had great stars on it. Then we got to have year over year of playing the Lakers in the 60's Finals (and some in the 80's) and driving Jerry West into the Nut House. He finally got over the the hump in '72 but the damage was done.

Expansion dilutes talent. Contraction gets rid of that dilutionary riff-raff and makes the good talent concentrated on fewer teams. Sam's idea on this ruled. Get the league down to 16 teams and start the playoffs with 8 total, 4 from each conference. In essence just cut out the first round of the playoffs.

But the league will never go for that because contraction is viewed is negative.

Oh well.

db

JJ Redick is not, in my opinion, an idiot.  These statements by him, in my opinion, are idiotic.  He should clean this up so that he doesn't start a losing streak, because that's what successful competitors in any era do.  When they have a bad game they fix the problem and win the next one, and the next one, and the next one until they are Champions.  That's what the Russell Celtics with Bob Cousy did 11 years out of 13.  JJ should aspire to achieve that standard of excellence in his post-playing career since he never was able to do that even once during his playing career.


Bob


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Back then players held other jobs. Now in the NBA you can hold this job, not show up to work and still get paid with 2 commas in your check! We've come a long way, baby!!

Well put, NYCelt, well put.

db