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.

Just Jealous Redick is embarrassing himself.

I get so tired of folks who just started watching or playing basketball in The 90’s talking about players from the 60’s being not as good or the competition wasn’t as good because there were only 8-10 teams.
They’re ignorant! If they were born back then they would have played the game the same way. Comparing players 50 yrs apart is asinine and as i said ignorant.

Think about it. With less teams the talent is not as diluted as its is with 30 teams. If we had 10 or even 20 teams today the game would be better off. There’s a bunch of guys that wouldn’t and shouldn’t make it but they do because there’s so many teams. Less=more.
I even heard and saw Tom E Curran on NBCSB say that Bill Russell wasn’t that great because he played against insurance agents, plumbers and Cab drivers. What a dope.

What a dope indeed.

And is Chris Paul not actually an insurance agent. His paycheck from State Farm rivals his from the NBA.

Speaking of which, I think Tom Heisohn sold insurance in Worcester in the summers. He live a mile plus from me on May Street.

And is Chris Paul not actually an insurance agent? His paycheck from State Farm rivals his from the NBA.

Speaking of which, I think Tom Heisohn sold insurance in Worcester in the summers. He live a mile plus from me on May Street.

And at one point Dave Cowens was a Boston cab driver, as was I going though school.

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

It's a business.

I really like JJ Reddick and have found his podcasts to be both fascinating and informative.

He made a mistake.  A big mistake.

JJ was born in 1984.  It is not possible for guys in his generation to appreciate the game of basketball decades earlier if they are not students of the game,  by the time he even started playinf basketball boston had already produce 3 distinct generations of champions including HOFer Bob Cousy    If guys today want to discuss basketball history they would do well to actually learn about that history.

This is the second time this season that a former Duke player made a jackass out of himself.  

Jason Williams claims his twitter account was hacked when his tweet referenced Udoka being the first coach of color for the Celtics.  I do not believe he was hacked.  I think he was lying to cover up his ignorance.

Bill Russell, KC Jones, Doc Rivers - Ime Udoka the first? Jason sure did not know his history.

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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worcester wrote:Bill Russell, KC Jones, Doc Rivers - Ime Udoka the first? Jason sure did not know his history.

Also Tom “Satch” Sanders and ML Carr

You are correct sir. I should have known that. I was good friend's with the boyfriend of Satch's sister Tina. She was 4'10". Satch was 6'9".

With JJ it wasn’t that he didn't or was not aware of Basketball history. He is aware. His other slants are toward Dolph Shayes saying he didnt belong in the NBA. What he is doing is showing a lack of respect for it. He knows who Cousy and Russell etc. are. He knows the records that were set individually and team wise. To slight them is his way of puffing out his chest over how good he thinks he was. Dude never won anything professionally.
He is like lots of folks who don’t relate to transitioning. The game is played differently today. To folks like Reddick, his era of players are much better. Some are and some aren’t. 40 yrs from know the game would have transitioned twice over and some of these players from the 90’s forward will look foreign.

How many rings does Redick have?

cowens/oldschool wrote:How many rings does Redick have?

Besides the one is his tub? None!

To everyone that listens or watches JJ’s podcast. Its pretty good so I continue to do so but I unsubscribed. I highly recommend you do the same. F Him

Redick is guilty of not thinking this one through.

Of course players in earlier generations held other jobs, in most sports. They had to.

I believe most of us here are of the opinion you can’t fairly compare across generations. This is but one of many reasons.

If JJ wanted to give it a different slant, and say today’s players are better athletes because they can train year-round, and that training techniques, medicine and nutrition have made this the case, I can buy into that.

Reframe the statement JJ, you’re too smart to take the easy, uninformed route. You need to use that Duke education to get a little deeper on this subject.

Does anyone know if Redick has responded back to the Cooz?

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!!

dbrown4 wrote: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!!      

Triple play. Funny, sad and true.

Well put, NYCelt, well put.

db