The Jerry Sichting Interview
By:
Michael D. McClellan
|
Friday, November 3rd,
2006
Do you
remember meeting Red Auerbach for the first time, and do you have a funny or
amusing story that you would like to share?
Red
was famous for negotiating directly with his players, but too be honest, I
did most of my contract negotiations with Jan
Volk. Red was kind of
standoffish at first. Looking back, you almost had to win a championship to
be accepted. He wanted to wait, I think, to see how I did in the playoffs,
and see exactly what this team was going to do. After that, I remember
getting a cigar from him when we won the championship. The next year, we
had some injuries and some problems, and there was one time when he came
into the locker room. He rarely spoke to the team as a group, but he came
in once – we were struggling, and had lost several road games in a row – and
he came in the locker room, and basically read everybody the riot act, and
said that we weren’t playing like the Celtics. It was late ’86, early ’87.
He told us that we were retaliating instead of instigating, which was one of
his favorite sayings, and he said that nobody really wanted to go out there
and fight, except for D.J. and Little Jerry [laughs]. That’s what it called
me from then on.
But Red had such a keen eye for the game, and a feel, not only from an X and O standpoint, but for what it took to win. The intangibles, the toughness…he really understood that type of stuff at a level that other coaches didn’t. I think he looked for that in his players, and that’s what made him such a great general manager. He had a knack for making trades and getting deals done. In an era when it seemed so hard to make a trade or do a deal, he always found a way to help his team and make his team better.
You hit a
huge shot in the second overtime of that game, breaking a tie at 131 and
practically ending the Bulls’ season. What did it mean to you to have the
trust of Larry Bird, Kevin McHale and Robert Parish to take a big shot like
that.
That’s
why I wanted to come to Boston. I had kind of established myself in the
league, but I was on a team that was a few years away from being any kind of
contender, or even making the playoffs at that point. It was kind of
frustrating, so I knew if I went to a team like Boston I wasn’t going to
start. But I’d have a chance to play and perform, and to be on a team that
had a chance to do something special. So that’s what attracted me to Boston
to begin with. So that’s what I was really looking forward to – I wanted to
be in that playoff-type atmosphere that, up until that point, I’d never been
in before. I knew I could put the ball in the basket. I wasn’t a great
scorer by any stretch of the imagination, but I was a real good shooter. So
you just want to put yourself in those situations and see how you respond.
That was the exact reason I went to Boston – to be a part of those key
playoff games, and those key situations. I wanted to see if I could get the
job done. It was more of a question that I had of myself. I wanted to
prove to myself that I could stand up to the pressure. There were a few
games through the two years that I was there, in the playoffs, that I was
able to come in and respond to the challenge. So it was fun. Just to be a
part of it. I didn’t want to go there and just sit on the bench and not get
any playing time at all, but I understood that Dennis and Danny were going
to get the majority of the minutes. In that type of role you just have to
be ready – somebody is going to get hurt, or somebody is going to foul out,
which is what happened to Dennis in that particular game. You just have to
go out and pick up where they left off.
The 1986
NBA Finals will forever be remembered for the altercation between you and
Ralph Sampson. Take me back to the incident that turned Sampson into Public
Enemy No. 1 – and do you still have one of the signs that reads ‘Sampson is
a Sissy’?
Yeah,
I had one at one time [laughs]. I don’t know if I still have one in a box
at home or what. That was really the beginning of the downfall of Ralph’s
career. I never saw him play really well after that, especially in the
Boston Garden. The fans were merciless when we came back to Boston for Game
6. Over time, I think that altercation took its toll on him. He was an
All-Star caliber player at one point in his career, and it seemed that that
tipped him over the hill and he started going down the other way. It was
one of those things in the heat of the battle. He kind of lost control, and
before you know it you’ve got a bunch of guys out there on the floor and it
was really a dangerous scene. You had a few policemen out there trying to
break it up, which isn’t good, either. At times it’s best to let the
players break it up.
The thing I regret about the whole thing is that it turned the game around. We were actually in the lead when it happened, and had a chance to close them out, 4-1. And then the crowd went absolutely berserk. I think the referees felt the pressure after that happened, and that played a part in it, too. The Rockets gained the momentum after that fight, so that’s the only thing I really regret about it – not necessarily that it happened. Once we got back to Boston we had a practice, and KC had to call it. We went for about a half hour – we were supposed to go through things at three-quarter speed, but everybody was so ticked off that there were fights ready to break out. That’s one of the most intense practices that I’ve every been a part of as a player. KC knew that we were ready to play, so he just cancelled practice at that point. We came back an blew them out in Game 6.
Let’s
talk Game 6 of the 1986 NBA Finals. What was the atmosphere like in the
fabled Boston Garden, and what was it like to witness Larry Bird’s
performance up close and personal?
Everybody
was sky-high to finish it out. We were just upset that we didn’t take care
of things in Houston. I remember Game 6 – it was tight into the second
quarter, but then we were able to up the lead. In the third quarter the
starters just blew the Rockets right off the floor. So, in the fourth
quarter KC just kind of bypassed Walton and myself, and most of the fourth
quarter was played by the rest of the bench. That was the other regrettable
thing – I didn’t get to play a whole lot in that final game [laughs]. But
it was such a blowout. As a player, you’re just anxious to get back to the
locker room and celebrate, but I wish I could have played a few more minutes
in that last game.
