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By:  Michael D. McClellan |  The NBA has always been a star-driven universe, the lineage stretching from Mikan to Michael to LeBron, but the league and its teams can’t exist on star-power alone. For every Kevin Durant there are hundreds of grinders doing their best to make a roster, to make a contribution, to make a living doing what they love the most. Fred Roberts is such a man. Roberts played his college basketball at Brigham Young University during the late 70s and early 80s, and even at the collegiate level he could hardly be described as a star. That mantle went to teammate Danny Ainge, winner of the John R. Wooden Award as a senior at BYU, but Roberts was long and athletic and could run the court, and he averaged 15.5 points and seven rebounds while shooting 54.6% from the field. His contributions helped to spark a basketball renaissance at BYU, and in the process he garnered the attention of NBA scouts, with the Milwaukee Bucks taking him in the second round of the 1982 NBA Draft.

Roberts chose to play basketball in Europe rather than jump directly into the NBA.  While in Italy, Roberts was traded from the Bucks to the New Jersey Nets, who, in turn, would trade him to the San Antonio Spurs. The latter transaction was also notable in that it involved a head coach – Stan Albeck – one of the few times in the league history that a coach was a part of a trade between teams.

Roberts returned to the U.S. following one season in Italy, joining the Spurs for the 1983-84 regular season.  Despite a roster stocked with the likes of George Gervin, Artis Gilmore and John Lucas, San Antonio finished with a 37-45 record, narrowly missing the playoffs. The next season, Roberts was traded after playing 22 games for the Spurs, landing on a Utah Jazz team coached by Frank Layden and led by a rookie point guard named John Stockton. And although the Jazz finished with a 41-41 record, Roberts found himself in the NBA Playoffs for the first time in his career. The Jazz upset the favored Houston Rockets 3-2, winning twice in Houston to advance to the Western Conference Semifinals. Despite losing to the Nuggets, 4-1, the playoff experience was truly special for the forward from Provo, Utah.

Karl Malone would join the Jazz via the 1985 NBA Draft, and it soon became clear that Malone was going to be a star. Roberts’ minutes and scoring average both took a hit, and his future with the team became cloudy. The NBA Champion Boston Celtics were in the market for a player to solidify their front line, and in September of 1986 they offered Roberts a two-year deal to join the team. Utah matched the offer, eventually trading Roberts to Boston for a future draft choice. This transaction was also notable, because included in the trade was an agreement for the Celtics to play an exhibition game in Utah. With the Celtics one of the biggest road draws in the league, and with the team featuring Larry Bird in his prime, having the Celtics come to Salt Lake City was a financial boon to the city and the team.

Had highly touted draft pick Len Bias not died from a cocaine overdose, Roberts’ arrival in Boston probably wouldn’t have happened at all. But the Bias tragedy created the need for a forward to provide spot relief for Larry Bird and Kevin McHale. The 1986-87 Boston Celtics remain, in the minds of many, one the most resilient teams in NBA history; battling through injuries to key players such as Bird, McHale, Robert Parish and Bill Walton, the Celtics slugged their way through the Eastern Conference before eventually falling to a deep, healthy and rested Los Angeles Lakers squad. That playoff run was filled with memorable moments, including Bird’s steal of Isiah Thomas’ inbounds pass to save Game 5 of the Eastern Conference Finals. And through it all there was Roberts, the consummate professional, doing his part to help the Celtics succeed.

By the end of the 1987-88 regular season it was clear that the Celtics were a team in transition. Boston left Roberts unprotected during the ’88 NBA Expansion Draft, and the Miami Heat immediately took him. In another twist of fate, Roberts was immediately traded to the Milwaukee Bucks, the team that had drafted him in the first place. And, ironically, Roberts would play five seasons with the Bucks – the longest stretch with one team in his career – while also enjoying his best statistical seasons.

There would be three more NBA stops for Roberts – Cleveland (1994-95), Los Angeles (1995-96) and Dallas (1996-97), with a stint in Spain and the Continental Basketball Association sandwiched in between. Exactly what you would expect from a pro’s pro, the kind of player who grew up loving the game of basketball and who worked hard to forge a long and successful career playing with – and against – some of the greatest stars the game has ever known.

You were born on August 14, 1960 in Provo, Utah. Please tell me a little about your childhood.

The biggest influence on me was family – I have five brothers.  Baseball was my first love, and we were really fortunate because we grew up in a small town that had a great baseball program. We got involved with that pretty early on. I got to watch my two older brothers play ball, and I loved going to the games and watching. So I was never bored, and when I got old enough to play, my passion for the competition of sports just increased.

 

When did you start playing basketball?

I actually went from baseball to football. They had an organized Punt, Pass and Kick program in my hometown, and that was great fun. I wasn’t all that crazy about basketball at first, because it took me a lot longer to become any good at that. Overall I think basketball is a more challenging sport, and by the time I reached junior high that was the only sport that my school offered. So that’s what I matriculated to. I grew into the sport, and as I got taller I realized that was a good fit for me. It was a good sport where I lived because we could play indoors – Provo can get cold like Massachusetts.

 

Tell me about your high school basketball career.

In high school I had the privilege of watching a great high school basketball player and a great athlete in Bruce Hardy, who was also the first high school player to appear on the cover of Sports Illustrated. So watching him was inspiring. I made the varsity team as a sophomore, and we won the state championship my junior and senior year. The community was involved so that was exciting and fun for us. I had a good bunch of friends on the team, and we got to compete against a bunch of big schools and did pretty well.

 

You were teammates with James Worthy on that 1979 USA Junior World Championship Team. What was that experience like for you?

That was a great team and a great experience. We had some really strong players, and we were able to go to Brazil and compete. We went to one city and won that pool, and then we went to another city and played our way to the championship. We went through the Russians and then we beat Brazil on their home court, which was really good for us.

To make the team you had to try out at the Sports Festival in Colorado Springs. I was on the South team, and we had James Worthy, Sam Perkins, a bunch of really good players. And from that tryout they put together the team that went to Brazil. It was fun. We beat a lot of teams down there, both good and bad. Worthy and I both started. It seemed like we got every rebound, and we’d take off down the floor, and either Worthy or I would dunk it.

 

You played your college ball at Brigham Young.  What was it like to play with future Boston Celtics teammate Danny Ainge?

I was motivated to go to Brigham Young. My older brother played on the basketball team, and I had hoped to play with him. Danny was a year ahead of me. He came in and brought a new excitement to the school and to the basketball program. So I looked forward to playing with Danny. He was a tough guy, and he was a real competitor, but he knew how to have a good time. He was fun, and knew how to relax. That was a little more difficult for me. I took everything a lot more serious. If we’d get beat I’d really get down about that. Danny competed and played just as hard as anybody else, but when the game was over he moved on. That was something that I tried to learn from him.

 

Another Celtics teammate, Greg Kite, was also on that team.

We had a good time. When Kite joined us we were able to go to some of the bigger schools and compete with them. My junior year – Danny’s senior year – we had that run to the Elite 8. We beat UCLA and beat Notre Dame before losing to Virginia. That Notre Dame game was the game where Danny sprinted the length of the court and scored on Kelly Tripucka to win it at the buzzer. So I had a great time playing ball at BYU.

 

How would you assess your career at Brigham Young?

My best year in college was my junior year. My senior season was a disappointment – Danny was gone, which meant that we were bringing in a pair of freshmen guards, and there was some frustration involved because they were young and just learning to play college basketball. And I don’t think I was ever in as good a shape as I needed to be at that level. As a result, I was drafted a lot deeper in the draft than I thought and hoped I would be.

 

You were selected by the Milwaukee Bucks in the second round of the 1982 NBA Draft, but decided to play a year overseas. What led you to make that decision?

Don Nelson was the Milwaukee coach at the time, and he made it sound like I was going to have a real hard time making the team. In retrospect I should have been a little bit stronger mentally, and I should have went to camp and tried out. But I had another opportunity and I went overseas – I had a contract waiting on me in Italy, so I went over there instead. It was actually good in some ways because we worked really hard on conditioning and fitness. I was always a pretty good runner, but I’d never had a coach who really pushed his players as hard as my coach in Italy. And when I came back to the States I think I was better prepared. I was a big man who could run, which really served me well. I think that’s the reason I was able to stay in the league as long as I did.

 

You were traded to two teams before ever playing your first NBA game, and you were part of a trade package that involved an NBA head coach.

When I was in Italy, Milwaukee traded my rights to the New Jersey Nets.  Not long after that, an NBA team came over and played some exhibition games. I played great against them and ended up scoring 43 points. Stan Albeck was the coach, and he was also the head coach in San Antonio at the time. I think Albeck may have went back to San Antonio and told some people to keep me on their radar. And as luck would have it, I was still property of the Nets when Albeck later decides he wants to coach in New Jersey. So my rights were included as compensation for Albeck being allowed to leave San Antonio to coach the Nets.

 

Tell me about your time in San Antonio.

It was a good fit for me. I was able to go to San Antonio and play a year-and-a-half. I may have stayed there longer, but the team was in transition at that point in time. They went through three coaches during my time there, and it was the tail end of the good years, so that’s when I ended up playing in Utah.

 

Let’s talk about your journey to Boston: The Utah Jazz traded you to Boston for draft picks and home team rights to an exhibition game?

That’s correct [laughs]. I think there were two exhibition games that were part of that deal. You’ll have to ask Kevin McHale about that, because he hated that deal – we had to come to Utah to play that exhibition game, which McHale whined about the whole time [laughs]. I played in Utah a year-and-a-half. I had a really good first year, but the second year they drafted Karl Malone. With Malone on the team, my minutes went way down. At the end of the season I became a restricted free agent, and during the summer I went to Boston to play in their summer league. That’s when the Celtics signed me, and that’s when Utah traded me with the restrictions to include the exhibition games.

 

Did you ever expect to see yourself in a Celtics uniform?

Had Len Bias lived, I probably wouldn’t have been a Celtic. Bias was going to be the next great player for Boston, and he was going to play a reserve role at forward that season. But when Bias died, the Celtics were suddenly in need of a big man. I think that’s how they ended up having some interest in me. I still had a small town attitude and mentality when I arrived in Boston, so I was pretty nervous when I got there. These guys had just won the world championship. Every time I played them with San Antonio they’d whipped us. When I was with Utah they’d whipped us. In fact, the year before the Celtics won that ’86 championship they’d come to Salt Lake and Bird had a quadruple double.

 

The Celtics were a veteran team with lofty goals.  How long did it take you to fit in?

When I got to Boston I didn’t know what to expect, especially with Robert Parish. And then I’m in the locker room getting ready for that very first practice, and in walks Parish. He just smiles at me and asks me what’s up [laughs]. He was very different in person than what you would expect from him after seeing him on the court. So I’ll never forget how he walked in that locker room the first time and made me feel at home. And from then on I felt like I could handle being a part of the team.

 

How was the team chemistry? 

Very good, but for some reason I always felt that there were two teams within that team, at least from the public and the media point-of-view: There was the five starters that had won the championship, and then there was the rest of us. I always felt that if we won, it was the starters who were responsible. If we lost, then it was the bench who let them down. That was kind of a hard thing for me, and a challenge mentally.

 

Tell me about Larry Bird.

I remember that Eastern Conference Finals against the Pistons, and seeing those warriors out there on the court going toe-to-toe against the Pistons. Detroit had Bill Laimbeer, Rick Mahorn, John Salley, Dennis Rodman…they all took turns at Bird at one point or another in that series. Larry was just unbelievable. They’d guard him, grab, scratch, fight, whatever they could do to try and slow him down. But it seemed like the tougher the competition the more Larry liked it. He just rose to the occasion, and he really invited that challenge to be put on him. He wanted the challenge to be as tough and as hard as it could be, and I just remember what a warrior Larry was, especially in that series. And that steal in Game 5. If he hadn’t made that steal we were done.

 

Was there a greater competitor than Larry Bird?

No.  With Larry, it was his level of competitiveness and tenacity, and his singular focus. It was all about the game for Larry Bird. That’s where he found his great joy, that’s where his love was, and it was obvious that it was all about the game for him. That’s where he felt the most free. What a tough, strong guy, and what a great leader. Even when he was beat up and hurting he came to practice and he practiced. He always wanted to be on the top of his game and that’s how he got there.

 

Did Larry have a sense of humor?

I remember when I played for the Jazz, and the Celtics had just lost a game to the Lakers the night before, and now the Celtics are in Utah getting ready to play us. And we’re just finishing shoot-around, and Larry walks up to me and says, ‘Tonight, I’m going to melt the salt off the Salt Palace.’ And you could just see that anger in his eyes because he’d lost to the Lakers. So he comes out and he kills us. And in the second quarter he runs past Frank Layden and says, ‘Frank, don’t you have anyone on this team that can guard me?’ And Frank could only smile and look down the bench and say, ‘Well, you see the same thing I do!’ Larry loved that [laughs]. Larry had a lot of fun torturing the people that played against him.

 

Injuries devastated that team.

We had so many injuries that year. It started with Bill Walton. We kept wondering if he was going to come back, and if he was going to be the difference because he’d been the difference the year before. We were playing well and winning a lot of games, but everybody felt like we were missing a piece. Scott Wedman was out, and everybody was waiting for him to come back. And I don’t know if everyone felt this way, but I sort of felt like the starters were just putting up with the bench until they got those main guys back.

 

Was it difficult for you to find your role with the Celtics?

I was able to play the 3 and 4, so there was some versatility in what they could do with me. I could get into the games a little bit more than the other guys on the bench. For me coming into this organization from the outside, I had an impression that the Celtics were a very tight-knit group. But once I got there, it sort of felt like there was an undercurrent that things weren’t quite right, that maybe there was some friction between Bird and McHale, and that there were some difficulties in getting the personalities to mesh. That’s not uncommon in the NBA. It happens. But there was an undercurrent that people weren’t quite happy, that maybe injuries and age was catching up with the team and there were going to be changes, and yet they were trying to hang onto the greatness that they had.

 

Tell me about the fans in Boston.

There are some unique sports cities in this country, and Boston is definitely one of them. There were some great, great fans in that town. There still are. They love their teams and they love their players and they’re so fanatical. And yet you could go to the neighborhood restaurant and no one would treat you badly. They treated you like you were on their high school team. The fans were just fantastic.

The other thing was going on the road and seeing so many Celtics fans show up to support us. I played for Milwaukee after playing two years in Boston, and I remember driving home from Milwaukee to Salt Lake after the season. We stopped at Mount Rushmore, and this couple recognized me. They started a conversation, and asked me how I liked playing for the Celtics. I told them that I played for Milwaukee, but they remembered me from my time in Boston. That’s the way it was back then. If you played for Boston or Los Angeles, you had a following. It was so much fun to be a part of that, to be part of a national team that was either loved or hated. That was fun.

 

What was it like playing in the fabled Boston Garden?

I remember walking into the Garden, seeing all of those championship banners, and feeling the difference of the building compared to other NBA arenas.  I remember going into that building the first time – I was with San Antonio – and I got lost. I walked through these doors and I’m in a train station, and I didn’t know where I was at [laughs]. It was such a unique place, with all of the excitement and energy in that building. I loved playing in the Garden as a member of the Celtics; we always felt like we were going to win, and the opponents felt that, too. You could see it in their eyes. I hated playing in the Boston Garden as an opponent [laughs], but after I played there and went to other teams, I enjoyed coming back.

 

Tell me about Red Auerbach.

I don’t think Red said a word to me the whole two years I was there [laughs]. I think he nodded at me once. But I was so impressed with the whole organization and everything about it. I was okay on the floor, but off the floor I think I was a little star struck.

 

Did you meet [legendary Celtics radio announcer] Johnny Most?

Johnny Most was a great guy, and a part of that Boston Celtic mystique and image. You’d hear his voice at 7:00 AM in the morning, down in the coffee shop, screaming at the waitress. You just don’t forget stuff like that. He was always a gentleman to me, he was kind when I was traded. Whenever I came back he made it a point to say hello to me.

 

Do you have a favorite Johnny Most story?

Johnny had been announcing forever by the time I got there. I remember there was this gig where people could pay to have Johnny announce the end of a game with their name inserted. And one day I’m walking down the hall and he stops me, and he pulls me in the room and tells me that I have to hear this. And he records the last minute of a game, and he inserts a fan’s name at the end, with the fan receiving the pass from Bird and hitting the game winner. And when it’s over, Johnny smiles and says ‘And that’s five-hundred dollars for me!’ He was so excited, it was like he’d got a free cup of coffee [laughs].

 

Did you every meet the great Bill Russell?

I never did get to meet Bill Russell. But I got to meet John Havlicek and Sam Jones, and now I think the Celtics are trying to bring some of that back. The team sends out a monthly newsletter, and it’s been way fun for me to get that. And even though I was only there for two years and I don’t expect people to remember me, it’s great just to be thought of as a part of that great organization.

 

Jeff Twiss (VP – Media Relations) is a longtime member of the Celtics, and as much a part of the fabric of the team as as anyone.

What a great guy. You just don’t meet many people like Jeff. I remember opening night at the Garden, and the Celtics were going to raise the ’86 championship banner to the rafters. Well, I didn’t know what to do. Jeff could tell that I was feeling awkward, because I hadn’t been a part of that championship team. He came to me and told me I could do what I felt was right – if I wanted to stay on the bench I could do that, or if I wanted to go out on the floor with the team I could go out there with them. Well, I thought about it for awhile and then decided I didn’t want to be the only guy left on the bench sitting by myself. So I went on the court with the team while they raised the banner, and I remember Bird giving me the snarliest look because I hadn’t done anything to contribute to that championship. At that point I wished I’d just stayed in the locker room [laughs]. It was a great privilege to just witness that ceremony. I’ll never forget that.

 

Following two seasons in Boston, you were part of the 1988 expansion draft and were selected by the Miami Heat. Ironically, you were dealt to Milwaukee, where you would play for 5 seasons, your most productive period in the NBA. What was it like to come full circle to the team that drafted you?

My impression of Milwaukee was not great, because my only experience was walking from the Hyatt across the street to the Mecca. The weather was cold and miserable, but once I got there I loved it. The city was easy to get around in. It just felt comfortable for us as a family, and the system just fit my game. Coach Dell Harris trusted me and believed that I could be a good player. I got a lot of regular playing time. It was a good team situation. It was a great sports city – not as big as Boston, but people loved their teams and took pride in their teams. They loved Sidney Moncrief, Terry Cummings, Jack Sikma. So it was a good situation for me to move into. And because I was from Boston I had some respect, more than I’d ever had before. It wasn’t because I’d suddenly become a better player. It came from being a part of that great Celtics organization.

 

In Milwaukee you played with an aging Moses Malone. What was that like?

Moses was great. He was great fun to play with. He played hard, and he was serious about the game. Some guys get to the end of their careers and they’re not as serious anymore. Moses was very serious. He wanted to be a good player and an important part of our team. He was very respectful to all of the guys on the team. He was a good leader. He was like Bird, in that they both did it on the floor. Moses wasn’t much of a talker. Bird wasn’t much of a talker. But on the floor, you knew that those guys were going to lead. I was never a soldier, but if I was, I would go to war with both of those guys. I would want to be in a foxhole with those guys because I knew I could trust them. And that’s the way it was on the basketball court.

 

Late in your career you played for the Los Angeles Lakers, making you one of the few people who could say that they’ve been teammates of both Larry Bird and Magic Johnson. Tell me about Magic.

I got there at the very tail end of Magic’s career when he made that last comeback. You could just tell that Larry and Magic were alike in so many ways. It seemed that Magic had a lot more going on off the court than Larry did, but that didn’t mean he cared about the game any less. He knew that the fame he’d achieved away from basketball was directly related to what he’d done on the court, and he approached the game of basketball like a true professional. It was also his passion, and it was the thing that drove him to be the very best.

 

Let’s talk about the job Danny Ainge, basketball executive.

Danny is as clever and as bright as anybody I’ve ever know. I think he’s very smart. He’s not afraid of taking risks – but the risks are calculated and not random. He really has a vision, and he works hard to ensure that the risks that he takes has the best chance of working out. It was like that from Day One, when he went into the Boston situation and took over as president of basketball operations. I knew that he was the perfect guy for the job, because for as long as I’ve known him he was always playing the personnel game in his head: What players would be best together, what coaches would be the best to take over certain situations, which systems would work best for given personnel, things like that. So when he accepted the Boston job he’d already been doing it for twenty years, he just hadn’t been doing it for a living. It was very natural for him to work deals, because he always knew of ways to get what he wanted.

 

Do you ever give Danny a hard time for being so successful?

I remember a time when I was playing in Milwaukee, and Jack Sikma went up to Danny, who was playing for a very good Portland team at the time, and he said, ‘Boy, you sure know how to land on your feet.’ And Danny said, ‘Hey, I paid the price, I played a season in Sacramento.’ And I said, ‘Danny, most players spent their entire careers playing for bad teams – you get to play with Boston, you get to play with Portland, you get to play for Phoenix, and everywhere you go you get to play for championships!’ We had a good laugh about that. But that’s the way Danny is. He knows how to get to the top. He’s good enough, and he’s smart enough, and he works very hard. He’s a sharp, sharp guy.

 

Your career ended 12 games into the 1996-97 season, which meant you played in parts of 13 NBA seasons. Do you realize how many players drafted ahead of you didn’t last?

I do.  It gave me satisfaction knowing that I found a niche and I found a way to hang on and play a long time in the NBA. There were a lot of guys in my draft that just didn’t make it for one reason or another, and it sort of game me satisfaction knowing that I found a way to hang on in a league with some of the greatest athletes in the world.

 

When you were playing ball in Europe in the early 80s, could you have envisioned how global the game would become today?

Absolutely not. I played my first year in Italy and my tenth year in Spain, and the game changed so much in those ten years. I never would have thought that those teams in Europe and throughout the world would ever be able to compete with what we have in America. When I was in Italy, basketball was like soccer is in the States today. People follow soccer and play it over here, but the passion isn’t the same as it is everywhere else on the world. But when I went back a decade later, basketball had moved up the ladder. It’s a bigger game now, the coaching is much better. When I was there in the ’80s, Russia and Yugoslavia were the two powers and there wasn’t much after that. But now you have Spain, you have Germany, you have France. And that’s just for starters. It’s a different world today. Basketball is definitely a global sport.

 

If you give one piece of life advice to others, what would that be?

Above all else, be grateful for everything that you have.