Offer to the board

[steve3344]

If anyone wants to send me a PM with their mailing address I will mail a cd copy of my Spring 1982 interview with Red Auerbach that I did as part of my research for the rating system and ultimate trophy presentation to Magic Johnson being discussed in another thread. As expected, Red was a treat to talk with (it was a phone interview as he was in Boston and I was in N.Y.). Several of you already have it as I gave out some copies to some board members who attended the 2009 party in New York. But I'll send it out to those who didn't get it but would like to have it.

One of these days I'll digitize my interviews with Pat Riley, Hubie Brown (he requested my notes about the system a day in advance so he could be better prepared for the interview - that's commitment to the task of being interviewed about something) and Jack Ramsay, who paid me the ultimate compliment. He told me, for a system based purely on stats, that it was the best one he'd ever seen. And I got that on tape. I thought it worked well because the list showed the cream rose to the top but I knew I was on the right track when Jack said that. I always loved Jack as coach of the Walton-led Trail Blazers. I'm sure the several Laker fans here would love to hear the Riley interview as he discussed his own players at length with respect to the ratings my system had for them. And he had some great observations on some other team's players. So did Hubie. What a basketball mind Hubie has. He was tremendous to talk to.

And now here's an ADDITIONAL gift to fellow Celtic fans here: I travelled from NY to Boston in October, 1986 after being given press credentials to attend Media Day for the Celtics that year and taped interviews with Larry Bird and Bill Walton. The way the interviews worked was Celtic players were spaced around their practice court about twenty feet apart with about a half dozen writers surrounding each one of them asking questions. I have about 16 minutes taped with Larry and about 23 minutes with Bill. And there's a little over a minute of Dennis Johnson before he got spirited away by someone. There are a few questions from me sprinkled in along with those of the other writers. I digitized it from cassette to cd a few years ago and will include that too if anyone wants it. Because so many players were being interviewed at the same time in fairly close proximity there's a bit of a dull roar to the sound, but with a decent set of headphones you can understand every word. What a time that was for the Celtics. As everyone here obviously knows, they were the defending champs, having just fielded arguably the greatest team of all time (undeniably the greatest front line in history with that quartet of Bird, Parish, McHale and Walton) and they went an astounding 50-1 at home that year, including playoffs. Lets see someone break THAT record! The Fall of that year had them basking in the glory of their third title in six years while fully expecting to add another. The tape is a classic time-capsule of Bird and Walton, coming off that great '86 season. Early in the Bird section, one writer asks Larry if he could play with a dream team - another forward, a center and two guards - who would he like to play with? He said other than the players on his own team, the only player he'd like to play with was Magic.

I'm not sure I know what I'm getting myself in for with this offer - if this board had hundreds of members I wouldn't be doing this but I'm pretty sure I can accomodate the ones who would like to have the two cds. We'll see how it goes. If I get overwhelmed I might have to hire a secretary! Actually I just had an idea while typing this. Since both cds total less than 80 minutes in combined length, I can put both the Red interview from '82 and the 1986 Celtic Media Day interviews on one cd. So it'll be one cd, not two, with everything on it.

Send me those PM's if you'd like it.

[Sam]

They really are eminently worth listening to and passing on to future generations.

Sam

[Matty]

Oh this sounds super awesome!!! Steve I will pm ya later and thanks in advance!!!

[cowens/oldschool]

The Auerbach interview is great, must see/hear for any serious Celtics junkie. Reds voice is pure man and pure Brooklyn, I mean that as a compliment as I love Brooklyn!!! he uses the f-word alot, he's a guy I can relate to, theres a reason all former Celtic players hold him in such high regard.

[steve3344]

Oh this sounds super awesome!!! Steve I will pm ya later and thanks in advance!!!

Sounds good. Matty. You'll get a kick out of it, especially hearing Red share his hoops wisdom while putting up with my questions about a new (at the time) rating system for players, even though his philosophy on that subject was the well-known quote "statistics are for losers." Made for an interesting back and forth.

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