LeBron: I'm Going To Be On The NBA's Mt. Rushmore

Sam

Well your right in all your observations, if I could put 10, I would add Pierce and KG. I wanted a team that can run and thought seriously of having Hondo at the 3, then after thought more about it, thought I wanted Cowens toughness in there and Bird added to that with his rebounding, shooting, passing, scoring and could run hard enough as he wasn't fast, but always played and ran hard.

Were alot of tough calls, I almost put Hondo as my starting SG, but thought I'd like to get Sam Jones running and shooting in there, can't argue with a man with 8 rings, and he was so clutch, and Hondo was used to coming off the bench and changing the flow anyway. I thought both those guys were better runners for fast break basketball than Pierce. As good as Pierce is at creating his own shot, Larry still did that aspect better, not even a fair comparison to compare them. Plus we still have Mr Lowpost, Kevin McHale and Cowens could post....theres still plenty of guys that can go one on one without Pierce.

cow

Sam bet your shocked I didn't put Perk in there?

Cow,

If you can't argue with a man who has 8 rings, you really can't argue with a man who has 10 rings, which are what Sam has—two more than anyone in history except for Russ's 11.

Ha ha.  Comparing the fast break running ability of Havlicek and especially Sam (still one of the fastest of all who ever played the game and with a first step second only—maybe—to that of Micheal Jordan) with the fast break running ability of Pierce would be like comparing a Cadillac and a Ferrari with a Mack Truck.  

The very fact that you (1) debated about inserting Havlicek at SF and SG and (2) consider him as having been a great catalyst off the bench (on both ends) is exactly the reason any "all-time" list should include a sixth man—and that sixth man, without question, should be John Havlicek.  His quarterbacking football mentality also carried over to basketball, and he would have been an ideal backup to Cousy at PG.

Sam

Oh right I got that mixed up, Hondo had 8 and Sam 10, Sam has second in NBA history after you know who. I was a little kid, but have vague memories of Sam finshing on the break after an outlet from you know who as my Dad was shouting with glee.

Cow,

You know better than to get me started on Sam. He had a knee replacement in December, by the way.

Sam

Actually, change that.  I just spoke with Gladys, and they've delayed Sam's knee replacement because he had some other health problems they had to get under control first.  He hopes to get the go-ahead for the knee surgery after a February 18 checkup.

Gladys and I exchanged views on today's All-Star weekends, which we agreed are lousy, although we agreed that this weekend and, in fact, all of today's NBA basketball give the younger, free-spending public what they want.  She reminded me that the All-Star game of 50 years ago was the one where the players threatened to boycott the game if the owners wouldn't agree to meet with the NBA Players Union that had been started by Bob Cousy 10 years earlier but had never been recognized by the owners.  The 1964 movement was headed by Tom Heinsohn (the president of the union, who met the participants in that game as they checked in to the hotel and got them to sign a petition.

Sam played in that All-Star Game (his second), and Gladys related how terribly the Celtics players felt about disappointing Celtics owner Walter Brown who pleaded with them not to go ahead with the boycott.  As everyone knows, the players won out, and life for NBA players began to improve then and there.

Anyway, I may even watch early minutes of the game (I'll take anti-vomit medication first) to see if either or both of those landmark Players Union anniversaries will be recognized.

Sam

This just gets better and better. When I called the Joneses, Sam was on the other phone, so I didn't get to talk with him. But he just called me back, and we had a nice chat. He was talking with me and watching this TNT program about Oscar Robertson.

Sam won't watch the All-Star game either. He hates the way they play nowadays. So, after we hung up, I turned to TNT and watched Oscar talking about the way that current players have little clue about pretty basic things such as how to handle a double-team. How can a basketball player fail to know which teammate is open when he's double-teamed? asked Oscar. I guess Oscar was one of the early players to start calling Jerry West "Zeke," and Jerry started calling Oscar Donut" because of his Big-O moniker.

Oscar also observed that, in those days, if you were a black athlete, it wasn't good enough to play well. He said you had to win to satisfy your critics. He also said that, in his last season, the Bucks gave him a "day" before he had ever announced his retirement. He felt that what the Bucks were actually doing was to try to force him out.

Sam