The Michigan Daily - Monday, November 7, 1994 - 3
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Jones
The NBA Hall of Famer talks about life in the
professional ranks
RACHEL BACHMAN
Bach's Score
Former NBA player and coach
K.C. Jones, possibly the winningest
man in NBA history, is returning to the
league as an assistant coach for the
Detroit Pistons after a two-and-a-half
yearabsence from the game. Jones has
won 12 World Championships as a
player, coach and assistant during his
xtensive NBA career.
Jones, an assistant in Boston while
current Pistons head coach Don
Chaney played for the Celtics, won
eight championships as a player, two
as an assistant and two as head coach.
Jones, 62, has coached three NBA
teams - the Washington Bullets, Se-
attle Supersonics and Boston - to a
522-252 record in his 10 years as a
head coach.
0 Daily Sports Writer Tim Smith re-
centlyspoke with JonesabouttheNBA,
including the development of future
star Grant Hill, the Celtics' glory
days with Larry Bird, and the possibil-
ity of once again becoming a head
coach.
Daily: How does it feel to be back
in the NBA after a two-and-a-half
year absence?
Jones: I'm very happy about it. The
ast two-and-a-half years I've been
sitting at home, and there's nothing
like sitting at home and missing what
you enjoy most, and myself, that's be-
ing in the NBA.
D: What have you been doing to
keep yourself busy?
J: The past two years I've been
doing a lot of traveling to Asia looking
at an Asian league. I'm looking to start
* pro league over there, which would
be international for all the Asian coun-
tries, which was a brand new idea by
myself and Ralph Harding.
But that's about all I've been doing
the past two-and-a-half years. Be-
sides that I've been playing a lot of
golf.
D: How do you like your role as an
assistant after being a successful head
oach for so many years?
J: I'd rather be the man in charge,
but since I got no calls and never got
any interview, this is the closest I can
get, and being an assistant is close
enough. It gives me visibility and hope-
fully this coming year, I'll be called for
an interview and be given a job.
D: What do you think of the Pis-
tons' chances this season?
J: The prospects look good, but
'men what we did in the summer is put
together a very young team with some
strangers in the form of veterans, such
as Mark West and Oliver Miller and
Johnny Dawkins. So we don't know
each other, but the talent is here.
It's going to take a while for the
young ones to make mistakes and learn
from them, plus getting to know each
other and have that team chemistry.
The season is promising. If we continue
to improve defensively, the offense will
take care of itself.
D: Speaking of young players, how
do you think the one young player,
Grant Hill, who is supposed to be the
future of the organization, is progress-
ing so far?
J: Grant Hill has a lot of whatMagic
game, and he has the ability to deal
with it, but we talk.
D: Grant has a lot of pressure on
him from the media and fans to do well
this year. What does the coaching staff
expect from him?
J: Well the pressure is that every-
one wants to say that he's another
Jordan, and then when he doesn't get
I
the backboard and dunk it at the end of
the ballgame.
Larry Bird was smooth at the game
and so great in every department that it
was hardly noticed. But in that pack-
age, you just saw greatness.
D: If there was one characteristic
about Bird that really stuck out in your
mind, what would it be?
J: The fire. He has fire. The fire
motivated the talent. The great passing
ability, the great shooting, the great
rebounding, diving after loose balls
when you're 20 points up. The fire did
all that for him.
Going from confidence to arro-
gance. And with arrogance, I'm talk-
ing about intelligent arrogance. That
just made him great.
D: What was your favorite game
memory of Bird?
J: Hitting three pointers. We needed
a three pointer to win the ball game and
he told the Phoenix Suns that he was
going to get the ball and the three
pointer, and that's what-he did.
D: What was your best memory as
a coach?
J: (Bird) made something like 60
points when we were playing the Hawks
in New Orleans. It was an incredible
game.
D: You've been in the league a long
time, who is the best player you have
ever seen?
J: You really can't say who is the
greatest player of all. The greatest en-
tertainer of all I guess would be Jordan,
but on the same level as Magic and
Bird. I put them all on the same level.
D: Do you think the NBA will ever
be the same without those three?
J: What you're talking about is
these guys leaving who were entertain-
ing people. The people came out to see
them.
Now you've got Shaq (Shaquille
O'Neal), you've got (Charles) Barkley
and you've got some newcomers com-
ing up. As long as the league has parity
then I think it's going to be fine.
Somebody's going to step up.
D: In your playing days, who was
better, Wilt Chamberlain or Bill
Russell?
J: Russell was the best defensive
player and the best team player. Wilt
was the best scorer and the best
rebounder, so they're both great at the
same level.
One who knows says
this team will recover
T he words escaped from Trent Zenkewicz's lips like air from a
balloon.
"No explanation," he said, in answer to why his football team had
lost three games at home this year. It was just after Michigan's 31-19
headache at the hands of Wisconsin, and neither he nor anyone else
seemed to know what went wrong.
"I don't know," coach Gary Moeller said, his head rotating slowly, his
eyes glassy.
There are various "explanations" of Michigan's three-loss letdown-of-
a-season: Not enough fire in the gut. Not enough spirit in the weight room.
Not enough hands in a pass' path.
Nobody can really say what's going on. After all, if Moeller doesn't
know when this team will resurface from snorkeling in the bog of
mediocrity, who does?
Amber.
As in Amber, the psychic who works out of her house on Stadium
Boulevard, just a football's throw from Michigan Stadium.
In this season of "We-just-didn't-execute"s and "I-don't-know"s, it was
getting downright impossible to get some real answers about the fate of
this team. What's a columnist to do?
I went to Amber. Here's what she told me:
"What they are going through right now, I think it's a phase," she said,
15 years of psychic practice behind her. "There's confusion on the team
right now."
Where's this confusion coming from?
"There's bad energy there right now from someone who's bringing
them down," she said. "It's their motivation. They're not motivated
properly. I feel that they could've won the last few games if the motivation
was right."
Take into account, mind you, that this woman knows nothing about
football. She did not know the names of the players until I told them to
her. I said a name and she would tell me the feeling she got from it. (All of
this I scrambled to transcribe by hand; tape recorders block her
concentration.)
Tyrone Wheatley?
"I pick up good vibrations for him. He's got his heart in it."
Todd Collins?
"I feel that he's good at what he does, but there's complications in his
life right now. It's difficult for him to focus. Something's going on in his
life (outside of football)."
Gary Moeller?
"I don't pick up good vibrations through him. He's not doing what he's
supposed to be doing. He's not what he appears to be. When you said the
name, energy went through me, energy that wasn't right."
Could he be the root of the problem?
"It's pointing in his direction."
Amber was very apologetic in her assertions, stressing that she didn't
want to criticize anyone. But her feelings, passed down through three
generations of women in her family, were undeniable.
Then I got to the nitty gritty. Which bowl game are we going to this year?
The Citrus in Orlando? The Holiday in San Diego? The (gulp) Hall of Fame
Bowl?
"I see water, lots of water."
Not a big help.
"My feeling?" She thought harder. "It's pointing more toward Florida."
There you have it. Make your reservations now, folks.
But I didn't stop with this year. After all, no Michigan fan is satisfied with
anything less than the Rose Bowl, right? I wanted to know when the flowers
See BACHMAN, Page 8
DETROIT PISTONS
(Johnson), Larry Bird, (Michael) Jor-
dan had and that's the ability to be a
great passer; he does that well. His
shooting is going to come along. He's
pretty good right now but he's going to
be much better.
He plays defense, he rebounds, he
runs and he leads the fast break. That's
the full package of the game, and not
many first-round picks come in with
those kinds of qualifications.
Most first-round picks come in
majoring in one or two departments.
One is shooting, the other may be pass
defense or rebounding, but not many
have the four or five departments of
the game. He has all that, so in two or
three years he'll be considered a great
ballplayer.
D: Have you given him any special
advice to make his rookie season a
little easier?
J: I talk to him about a lot of stuff.
I talk to him about defense and what
the pros are about. I tell him what to
look for in defense, all the angles of the
his 33 points a game they say he's no
Jordan. So that's the bad part of heap-
ing all that praise on him and saying
that we expect him to be another Jor-
dan. That's not fair to him.
I expect Grant to be Grant Hill and
play the game. He will have a chance to
really play the game by being a starter
and he will get there quicker as far as
learning what the pro game is about.
Then it's up to him.
D: You were an assistant coach with
the Boston Celtics when another ac-
claimed rookie, Larry Bird, came into
the league. How would you compare
the two in terms of impact in their
rookie seasons?
J: I scouted Bird when he was in
college - a phenom, and when he
came into the pros, I knew that this was
greatness that we were going to look at
because I saw what he could do in
college.
Here's this guy who's 6-foot-9 and
can lead the fast break, shoot three
pointers and then throw the ball against
i
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STICKERS
Continued from page 1
leading eighth goal of the season. She
ended the season with 18 points, just
one point behind team leader junior
Gia Biagi.
The Buckeyes retaliated with 19:43
maining in the half. Attacker Cori
Buck controlled a pass from the
conference's leading scorer, Dawn
Pederson, and put the ball past Wolver-
ine goalie Rachel Geisthardt to tie the
game at one.
Despite Michigan's 11-2 first-half
shot advantage, the Buckeyes kept the
Wolverines at bay, maintaining a I-1
Halftime tie.
Michigan continued its shooting
barrage in the second half, but Ohio
State goalie Bev Perter stopped every-
thing in her path. Perter finished the
regular season as the second-ranked
goalie in the conference with an .865
save percentage. She trailed only
Northwestern's Donna Barg, who lead
the conference with ten shutouts and a
.867 save percentage.
.he did a good job and she did
hat she had to do," Irvine said.
Geisthardt's success rate was not as
impressive. Almost 14 minutes into
the second half, the Buckeyes took the
lead forgood when their leading scorer,
Britta Eickhoff, tallied her 21st goal of
the year with a shot inside the circle.
"Wejust let them bring it down and
walk it in to our zone," Irvine said. "I
thought we were still in the game and
we could pull it out though."
Ohio State put the game out of
reach with 3:06 remaining. Amy
Gabrilla notched her second assist of
the day when she helped Dawn
Pederson score the game's final goal.
"We didn't want to admit it was
over," Irvine said. "But it really felt like
everyone got down after the third goal."
Geisthardt finished the afternoon
with a mere four saves on seven shots.
On the season, Geisthardt allowed 2.25
goals per game.
The Wolverines' season-ending 9-
I1 record marks the first time Michi-
gan coach Patti Smith finished with a
sub-.500 season. Prior to this season,
Smith's worst season was her inaugu-
ral one at Michigan when the Wolver-
ines went 9-9-2.
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