The Nate Archibald Interview
By:
Michael D. McClellan
|
Friday, November 6th, 2004
The next five seasons bring both success and disappointment on the basketball court. Archibald suffers an Achilles tendon injury during the 1973-74 season, cutting short his campaign after 35 games. He rebounds with All-NBA First Team efforts the next two seasons, averaging 26.5 and 24.8 points-per-game, respectively. The individual accomplishments are wasted, however, as the Kings continue to struggle in the win column. Losing forces the team’s management to trade it’s most marketable talent, and Archibald suddenly finds himself going back home: The New York Nets are Archibald’s new employers, a team that represents a fresh start for the quicksilver point guard. A foot injury ends his 1976-77 season after just 34 games, the second major injury in four seasons. He is then unceremoniously traded to the Buffalo Braves, tearing his Achilles tendon before the 1977-78 season and never playing a game in a Braves uniform. Suddenly, Archibald is being talked about in the past tense. He is a player who can’t stand up to the rigors of NBA basketball, a player whose best days are in the rearview mirror. And when he is traded yet again, this time to the Boston Celtics prior to the start of the 1978-79 season, yet another label is whispered in connection with his name: NBA journeyman.
Archibald’s arrival in Boston is met with skepticism. He is overweight, a problem that robs him of his trademark quickness. His is rusty from inactivity. He is on another struggling team, this one trying to rebuild following NBA titles in 1974 and 1976. The Celtics, however, are far different from any of his previous stops. They are being rebuilt yet again by team patriarch Red Auerbach, the man responsible for all thirteen of the team’s world championships. Auerbach envisions Archibald as a pass-first point guard, the kind of player who will distribute the basketball to a new set of weapons – weapons that he has yet to add to the roster. The team struggles mightily that first season, finishing with a 29-53 record, and there are almost as many questions as answers: Will Auerbach, fed up with a meddling owner, bolt for the New York Knicks? Who will replace Dave Cowens as coach? Will the team continue to bicker internally, falling deeper into the abyss, or will there be a turning point that leads to yet another championship?
The turning point comes the following season, in the form of a country bumpkin named Larry Bird. With Bird taking the league by storm, a rejuvenated Cowens running the court, and a young Cedric Maxwell playing solid basketball, the Celtics win 61 games in 1979-80 and reach the Eastern Conference Finals. The arrival of Robert Parish and Kevin McHale a year later puts the team over the top; the Celtics win a classic seven-game rematch against the Philadelphia 76ers in the Eastern Conference Finals, and then defeat Moses Malone and the Houston Rockets for the team’s fourteenth championship banner. Archibald, his career seemingly derailed, quarterbacks that ’81 team to perfection. He is the player that Cousy had predicted he would become. He is the NBA All-Star Game MVP, All-NBA Second Team, and a world champion.
Archibald’s retirement came during the 1983-84 season, as a member of the Milwaukee Bucks. Had he not played four vital seasons with Larry Bird, his legacy might have been that of the young gun who never figured out how to subjugate his own game for the good of the team. Or that of a player too small to withstand the pounding that goes on at the NBA level. Instead, Archibald once again listened and learned, and in the process became one of the greatest players in league history.
Celtic Nation is honored to bring you this interview.
