People still think I didn’t like Jimmy Rodgers, and that couldn’t be further from the truth. It was just a frustrating season for all of us. We were running a new offense, and nothing seemed to be going smoothly. In the past what had made us so good was how quickly we could get the ball out of the hoop and move it up the floor. But as we got into the season we started playing a different way. Dennis Johnson, who was our point guard, would get the ball and control it for most of the shot clock. He’d come out, get the ball, hold it, and wait for almost 20 seconds. If I could have come off the ball and set a backdoor screen, or something like that, it would have opened up things for everyone, but to just stand there and hold the ball, that was a game I had never played.
I always thought Jimmy Rodgers was a great basketball man, and I’ll always feel that way about him. But like any player or coach, we didn’t always think alike. I felt at the time that our strength was ball movement, but our new offense didn’t emphasize that. There was a game in Detroit, and I was told to stand out on the wing and hold the ball, to wait for things to develop. So I did exactly what they told me. I just held the ball, and I didn’t shoot, even when I was open. I passed up some 12-foot jumpers with nobody around me. I was frustrated, and after the game when the media asked me why I wasn’t looking for my offense, I told them I was doing what the coaches wanted. When they asked me if I liked it, I told them I wasn’t a scorer anymore, I was a “point forward.”
Even though I was just expressing my opinion, the media made a big deal out of it the next day, and Jimmy got all upset about it. I didn’t mean to embarrass Jimmy. I wasn’t trying to create problems for him, it’s just that I was disappointed in the play of our team. I thought I was pretty close to Jimmy Rodgers. When he was an assistant we talked a lot. Once he got the head job, maybe he thought he had to change. His personality was definitely different as a head coach. We used to worry about him a little bit, because the stress seemed to really get to him.
About that same time, our team was starting to fall apart. One thing about the Celtics was we always had a good locker room, with guys always busting on each other, but that year it wasn’t like that. There was tension in the locker room. The whole thing blew up one day after this article ran in the
New York Post
talking about our team and how divided it was.
I just remember coming in and getting ready for the game, and then all of a sudden all these reporters are at my locker asking me questions about this article. I hadn’t seen it, hadn’t known anything about it, but the paper said there were guys on my team who said I couldn’t accept the fact I was no longer the focal point of the offense, and that my ego was causing all sorts of problems, and I was the reason we were losing. Basically, these two teammates, who didn’t have the guts to put their names in there, were calling me selfish.
I had my suspicions right away on who I thought the two guys were: Jim Paxson and Kevin McHale. Paxson had come to our team a couple seasons before, and he was injured almost the whole time he was there. He was on the downside of his career, and he couldn’t play the way he wanted to, but right away he was a guy I stayed away from, because he was your classic clubhouse lawyer, always talking behind people’s backs. I’ve never trusted people like that. I’ve always felt that if you have something to say, then say it out loud, like a man. But Paxson wasn’t like that. He and McHale became friendly almost right away, and I knew it was going to be bad news for our team. Kevin is a good guy, but he’s always been a follower. The one great thing about all the years Robert Parish, Kevin, and I played together was we always had a great team—no backstabbers. But that was about to change.
The story caused a big stink. The Boston papers wrote the same kind of piece a few days later, and all hell broke loose. I didn’t say too much about it, except that I felt I knew who the two guys were and one of them had a yellow streak running down his back. Everyone knew who I meant, and suddenly Paxson’s name was in the paper. Right away, Paxson denied he was one of the guys. But to tell you the truth, I didn’t really care. What was a lot more disappointing to me was that Kevin had said those things. I just felt that after playing so many years with one guy and going through all the battles we went through together, whether he liked me or not was one thing, but to go to a paper like that and then not even own up to it …I just thought it was a cheap shot. I never said anything to Kevin, but he knew.
I’ve always thought the world of Kevin McHale—I still do—but I was so hurt he would do something so cheap like that. But I always knew Kevin could be one of those guys. He’d come to me and say, “D. J. won’t pass the ball and you’ve got to tell D. J. not to do that,” and then he’d go to D. J. and say, “Larry is hogging the ball, you’ve got to talk to him,” but we all knew that was just Kevin, so we sort of put up with it. The reason we did was because Kevin played hard, and he played hurt, and he won us championships, no question about it.
After playing with a guy that many years and hanging around with him some, playing golf, going out for a beer, I just couldn’t get over that he did that to me. I know Paxson got inside his head and Kevin just followed along, but it doesn’t make it right. It was probably one of the lowest moments of my career.
Whenever I see Kevin we say hello and all that, but it has never really quite been the same. I haven’t forgotten what happened, but I’m not going to hold a grudge. We spent too much time together for that. I was with that guy every day for twelve years. I know Kevin like the back of my hand. So the best thing to do is to wish each other luck and move on.
I wouldn’t say the same about Paxson. Kevin eventually admitted he was one of the unnamed players in the story. Paxson still denies it. I made up my mind that he was a guy I just wouldn’t deal with anymore. He was traded at the end of that 1989–90 season, and I thought to myself, “Good. Hopefully I’ll never see him again.” I didn’t for a long time. I retired from the game, and I started doing some work for a trading card company, and I get a call from one of the guys from the company one day, telling me they had some stuff they wanted me to sign. The guy said, “We’re flying one of our new reps over. It’s an old friend of yours.” I said to the guy, “Tell me who it is.” He answered, “It’s one of your old teammates. It’s a surprise.” I told him, “I don’t like surprises. Who is it?” He said, “Jim Paxson. He’s flying in from the West Coast to Florida as we speak.” I told the guy, “You better find someone else to bring me those cards. I won’t see that guy.” At first he thought I was joking, but he realized pretty quickly I wasn’t. So when Jim Paxson landed, they told him to turn around and fly back home.
All the turmoil we had during that 1989–90 season took its toll. It made me realize how lucky I was before that to be on clubs that had good team chemistry. And now as a coach I am really aware of it. You can notice it from the sidelines, when guys make little remarks to each other on the court, or what they say to their coach when they come out of the game. I can say our Pacers team didn’t run into problems like that at all. We had a really great group of guys that were interested in only one thing: winning.
I’m sure there were little things along the way, but I made a point of staying away from the locker room. That’s a place that belongs to the players, and I wanted to keep it that way. Besides, I would have known if we had one of those guys who goes around trying to get in everyone else’s head. They’re the type of guys you really don’t want on your team if you are serious about winning.
Looking back, I guess it’s not that surprising we lost to the Knicks in five games in the first round of the 1990 playoffs that spring. But at the time, I was in shock. I knew we weren’t playing well, but it never occurred to me we’d lose that series. Not very long after that, Jimmy Rodgers was fired. We had won 52 games that year, but the owners didn’t care. They had seen enough of Jimmy. I can still remember the day he got fired. As soon as I heard the news I got myself a plane ticket, and I was out of that town. I didn’t want to hear about it. I didn’t want to talk about it. I felt so sorry for Jimmy. I know a lot of people think I got Jimmy Rodgers fired, but that is not true. I would never do that. I had too much respect for him.
Shortly after they fired Jimmy, the Celtics hired Dave Gavitt to be the team’s CEO. We were all hoping Dave would give our assistant Chris Ford the head job. Chris was worried that because Jimmy didn’t work out, the Celtics wouldn’t want to go that route again. But after going after Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski, who didn’t want to make the jump to the pros, Gavitt gave Chris Ford the job.
Chris and I were not only good friends, we were teammates. I always admired Chris because he got the absolute most out of his talent. But we got off to a bad start right away. On the first day, which was media day, all the questions were about how Chris wanted to get us back to a running style. I said, “Hey, I’d love to get out and run, but we hear the same story every year. Every coach tells us how he wants to run, but once the season starts, the coaches call every play, and it slows everything down.” I didn’t say it to be nasty. I was kind of laughing when I said it, but that’s just the way it was.
I didn’t think too much more about it until the next day in practice. Before we started, Chris comes over in front of everybody and jumps all over me. I mean, he goes crazy. He’s yelling, “How dare you criticize me in the papers, before we’ve even started? Do you know what kind of position that puts me in when you start questioning me on the first day?” I just stood there, and I didn’t say a word. I lost a lot of respect for Chris Ford at that moment. If he’s got something to say to me, then fine, but pull me aside and talk to me about it.
Later I told him I wasn’t trying to challenge him. I was just telling the truth, that everyone promises we’re going to run, and then it doesn’t happen. He said, “Well, that’s not how it’s going to be this year.” So I said, “Fine,” but I was still mad. I mean, it was his first year, and I was going to help the guy as much as I could, and the first day he tries to embarrass me in front of the whole team.
We ended up getting off to a great start that season. We were 28–5 in first place in the East by the All-Star break, so Chris got to coach the All-Star game. I was glad, because he is an excellent coach, a very good tactician, and he’ll do anything to win the game. He was like that as a player, and he’s like that as a coach. It’s not about the money or the attention to him. It’s about winning, and I admire that.
The other thing I learned from Chris was how to really be into the game when it’s going on, but to be able to let it go when it’s time to go home. That’s important for the coach as well as his players. Chris always managed to maintain a healthy balance that way.
I’ve always said if I was ever in a position to hire a coach, Chris Ford would be one of the first people I’d have on my list. But before I ever hired him, we’d have to sit down and have a long talk first. Chris is one of those screamers who shouts at guys on every play, and I don’t think that works. I noticed when he coached the Bucks that he was a lot less like that, and I was glad to see it. In 1999, he was named coach of the Los Angeles Clippers, and he was as calm as I’ve ever seen him. The only other thing I would talk to him about, and I don’t know if he even still does this, but when he coached the Celtics he would get mad after a bad loss and start talking about player salaries. He’d say, “For God’s sake, you’re making this much million dollars, and you can’t throw an outlet pass?” I never liked that as a player.
I knew Chris was in a tough position, trying to coach his old teammates. The truth was, he was a screamer as a player too. But it was different when he became our coach. We had a close team when we played with Chris, and we all respected one another, but now all of a sudden Chris is screaming at us for a different reason. He thought he wasn’t getting the respect, but he had the respect. He never should have worried about that.
It was a good lesson for me to learn. What I decided was that it isn’t a good idea to coach guys you used to play with. My first season in Indiana, we wanted to bring in a veteran big man who would be good in the locker room, and the first guy I thought of was Joe Kleine. Joe and I played together in Boston, and I would have loved to have him on my team because he was such a positive teammate and a good guy, but I didn’t sign him. The reason I didn’t was because I thought about what happened with Chris, and I didn’t want that to happen with Joe and me. I didn’t feel so bad, because Joe signed with Chicago and they won a championship.
People make a big deal of our battles with Chicago in my first season with the Pacers, but for me Miami was almost as big a challenge, because Riley was coaching them. I was sure in my first season that we were going to have to play Miami in the playoffs, and I was really looking forward to it. But New York took care of that for us. New York has always been a tough place to play for anybody, and we turned out to have a great series with them, which we won, but I still felt a little cheated not getting a crack at Riley and Miami.
Every time we played them, it seemed that Riley had worked in something new. And then there was the stuff he always ran. It didn’t matter that we saw it time and time again, because a lot of the time we couldn’t stop it.
I remember playing Miami late in the season, and they had called a time-out. I called our guys over to the huddle and said, “Look, I want to tell you guys something. Just one time this season, I want to go out there and stop them after a time-out. They score every single time they get the ball out of bounds, and I’m sick of it. They run the same play every single time, and why is it we can’t stop it?” They were all looking back at me, and I could tell they were as frustrated as I was, but you know what? Miami came out of the time-out and they scored. Their forward, P. J. Brown, would step out to set a pick and roll, then—pop—he’d head to the basket for a layup. Drives me crazy. The problem with stopping it, though, is that there are countless variations of what seems to be a very simple play. Someone told me once that Pat Riley never worries about what the other team does. He only concentrates on what his team does, and makes sure they do it exactly the way it was diagrammed.