[Q & A] Bob Bass: End Of An Era
http://www.nba.com/hornets/news/bass_040630.html
June 30, 2004
Bob Bass Q&A
If you ask Bob Bass, he'll say that he doesn't know.
"How I retire? I have no idea," said Bass. "I don't know how you
retire."
The two-time NBA Executive of the Year has worked for the last 54
consecutive seasons as a coach and/or executive in the high school,
collegiate and professional ranks. He spent the last nine seasons
with the Hornets (in which he never experienced a losing season).
He announced his retirement from basketball at a May 5th press
conference and his legendary career came to an end on June 30, Bass'
official last day.
For Bass, basketball is all he has known. It's been more than his
livelihood. It's been his life.
"I've never made one dollar outside of basketball," Bass continued.
"I coached two years in high school, 17 years in college and was a
coach and in the front office for 36 years in the American Basketball
Association and NBA."
"I felt like it was time for me to take a permanent leave and go back
to Texas and enjoy whatever I have left. I've got to get out there
and learn how to retire....Enjoy that part of life."
Hornets radio voice Bob Licht sat down with Bass for a final Q&A to
talk about his decades around the game of basketball, his greatest
achievements, changes he has seen in the game over the years and his
chances of making it to the Basketball Hall of Fame.
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LICHT: We talk about the "R-Word" and usually it's a dirty word with
General Managers. It means rebuilding and no General Manager
wants to have to rebuild. But today the "R-Word" is retirement.
How hard was it for you, Bob, to tell George Shinn that you were
finally going to retire?
BASS: It was difficult because George and I actually have been pretty
close. For a GM and an owner, we were exceptionally close. He'd
call seven or eight times a day and you'圬 tell him about a
prospective draft pick or trade. 10 minutes later, he'd say 'you
got it done?' 30 minutes later, he'd say 'what are you waiting
on?' (laughing) you know, just keep going. It was a great
relationship, but everything comes to an end at some time.
LICHT: Is it my understanding that it comes to an end in terms of an
official title but you would anticipate an occasional phone call
as a consultant or whatever you want to call it.
BASS: (laughing) Well, from George, I probably will. I think Allan
(Bristow) will. Allan and I have been talking to each other.
He was out of the NBA for four or five years and we still talked
so I'm assuming that we'll still have conversations. The difference
is I won't be on call 24/7. Not anymore.
LICHT: Do you anticipate that being difficult? You're a guy who told me
a few weeks back you joined this organization at the age of 66 and
now you're retiring nine years later. It's not like you're in any
kind of slow-down mode.
BASS: You know, I was just a youngster then at 66 (laughing). It's been
a great run. I've really had a good time and really enjoyed the
work and I'm sure I'll miss it but it was time for me to get along
and do something different.
LICHT: Let's talk about 54 years in the game of basketball. Reflect back
at some of the things that you enjoyed the most, that you admired
the most about being the part of the game of basketball.
BASS: Well, I think when you go to the collegiate level, the year we won
the national championship, the NAIA, in those days, was really
something. You're talking about we beat Earl Monroe's team. We beat
Luke Jackson's team. We played against Willis Reed's team. In those
days, the NAIA was really something and that was quite exciting but
I think one of the big things was when the ABA started. To be
involved in starting a franchise....We didn't have a ball. Our
owner owned a trucking company. All we had were paper clips and a
phone. Starting that franchise from the beginning when the whole
league started...That was really exciting.
LICHT: You have seen through the decades all the changes of basketball.
I'm talking now about professional basketball. What would you say
were the most significant ones? The things that changed the game
to the point where we are now where we're seeing some of the
greatest athletes in the world.
BASS: Bob, from a coaching standpoint alone....We didn't have assistant
coaches. We didn't have film coordinators. We didn't have strength
coaches. It was just the trainer and I and 10 players out on the
road. Everything really changed, no question. The thing about it
though in those days it seems to me that the players, since there
were so few teams then, were just happy to have a job especially
in the ABA because they were out you know, most of them were ex-NBA
players. I've seen a big change there. The rules have changed over
the years and it's been remarkable how they've changed and affected
the game. They really have. The interpretation of the rules has
leaned towards the defensive teams, I think. Their interpretation
of how they decide how they play the post, how you defend the post
and it's really changed.
LICHT: Do you like the direction the NBA game has turned?
BASS: Well, in some respects, I do. When we had two referees, I loved
it. I think we were able to fast break more, run more and score
more because I guess they didn't see things. But with three
referees, it's not that they call any more fouls, because they
have proven they haven't, but it seems like to me, and nobody will
agree with me on this, that the scoring in the league went down
when we added three referees. It just gradually went down further
and further. That's just the way I felt about it.
LICHT: Talk about George Gervin. He's a guy you're associated with. You
influenced his career. He's a hall-of-fame guy and you made a key
decision in George Gervin's playing career.
BASS: Usually things like that happen because of an injury. We were in
the playoffs and we had our two guard, a guy named Donnie Freeman,
hurt. So, we moved George to the two-guard position and he was just
fantastic. He told me I was crazy. He said, 'I'm not going to do it.'
And I said, 'Yeah, you are.' And about a month later, he said, 'Boy
this easy. Those little 6-2 guys guarding me. This is something. I
don't get killed on the boards.' It was a great thing for him. He
turns around and leads the league in scoring four times after that
so he benefited greatly from it.
LICHT: In today's terms, you were really ahead of your time putting a 6-7
guy with his kind of offensive potential in the backcourt. Now, we
see point guards that size, but back then, we didn't.
BASS: Bob, he was 6-8 and 3/4 with his shoes. So he was tall, slim and
extremely talented. When you look at those old films on Classic,
you say there are some guys out there who can't even play in the
league now. George Gervin could play in the league today. He was
that kind of a talent.
LICHT: Who was more of a favorite player for you in San Antonio? George
Gervin or David Robinson?
BASS: Well, I coached Gervin and I was more involved in him. With David,
I was there sometimes with him but I really was closer to Gervin
than I was David. I put on a campaign to get Gervin in the Hall of
Fame and there's a writer in San Antonio that really helped me and
we got him in there. He would've gotten in there anyway but we
didn't want him to have to wait any longer. We've named a street
after him in San Antonio. The street's about 40 yards long in
downtown.
LICHT: Let's talk about the Hornets. You have made some amazing moves
with this franchise. I like to tell people that sometimes salary
situations, sometimes personal or team situations force your hand
to make a deal. But in almost every circumstance, when you've
traded somebody, you get All-Stars back. You got an All-Star in
Glen Rice in that deal involving Miami. You got Eddie Jones, who
became an All-Star, in a deal with L.A. (Lakers). You get Jamal
Mashburn from Miami and he's an All-Star. In almost every
circumstance, what was the key in making those deals work where
on the surface fans sometimes would say you gave up too much but
after a year or two passed, it turns out you got equal value or
more?
BASS: In one of those trades, especially, Alonzo Mourning. That was the
one (trade) I really didn't want to have to make but Larry Johnson's
contract was so large that we couldn't have both of them on this
team so when we made that trade, that was a tough one. It really was.
And that was a hard one. You couldn't believe what the initial offer
was coming from Miami. I had to really stand in there with Pat Riley.
Finally, the day before the opening part of the season, David Faulk,
Alonzo Mourning's agent called me and said, 'We're not going to make
a deal,' and the team had already left to go to Chicago for the
opening game of the season and I said 'You tell him to get on the
plane and get up there on his own because he missed the team plane'
and I said 'The bus won't be there either. Tell him to get his own
cab.' And I took strong stand on that. 30 minutes later, they called
and we had a deal. They were ready to do it, but they wanted to take
one last shot at you, try and milk everything they could out of you.
We ended up okay there. We got a draft choice. (We ended up) as well
as you could in giving up a player of that stature. That was a hard
trade. There were some others down the line that really turned out
well for us. I was really proud this year, Bob, when I looked at the
All-Star game. We've drafted two All-Stars in the last five years.
There's not a heck of a lot of other team's that have done that.
We also had an undrafted player that we signed and played in the
All-Star game. Take into account our general manager, our player
personnel guy and our scouts, we had three All-Stars in that game.
I'm proud of that. You lose Brad Miller but the media doesn't tell
everybody why you lose him. You lose him because of the system. We
were over the cap and we couldn't match it. The rules wouldn't let
us match his contract so we lose the guy. Some people say we just
let him go. They failed to write that we went as far as we could go
inside of the rules.
LICHT: You talk about trying to keep the Hornets competitive. Allan
Bristow and company have a tough road, especially moving out
west. You talk about how important it is and how difficult it is
to maintain a playoff team while you're also building it? I think
last season was a good example. You drafted 18 last year. You
drafted David West. He was one of the real finds of the Draft.
You had 18 again this year and it's one of those situations where
you're almost hampered by your continued success by making the
playoffs.
BASS: That's true. We've been lucky and we've been fortunate. But I
think we've also made some good decisions along the way to keep
the team competitive. They have a thing called 'bang for the bucks'
and when you look at our team the last nine years, part of that
time we were one and two in bang for the bucks. One guy, and I hate
to brag on myself, said , 'you're the best in the league on doing
it with the least amount of money, according to how many wins you
get.'
LICHT: You got lucky in one of the drafts. You moved up significantly and
got Baron Davis and we've seen Baron's game grow a bit. You've seen
a lot of great players in your time....How good do you think Baron
Davis can be in the NBA?
BASS: Right now, he's probably in the top two or three in the league for
point guards. He's got such great explosive power and he's such an
athletic guy. We need some other runners to play with him. Hopefully,
we can get him that. We had great hope our team was going to run this
year but it wasn't designed to run, so we didn't run very much.
LICHT: That is the expectation moving out West and bringing Byron Scott
in: You have to get more athletic.
BASS: It is getting more athletic. But you know Bob, the big bad West is
not quite as big, bad anymore since Detroit handled the Lakers. Two
years ago we were 15-13 in the West. This year, we were 11-17 and I
think the Hornets can win some games, I really do. I think they're
going to surprise some people. When you only play people twice,
that's one thing. When you play them four times, you may learn a
little something along the way and win some of those games that
people don't think you can.
LICHT: Let's turn to Allan Bristow, your successor. Here's a guy that,
I guess, your careers have been intertwined a lot. You probably
know more about him than any guy who's in the NBA. What can you
tell us about Allan Bristow and things that we can expect from
him?
BASS: He's got great experience. He's been an assistant coach in the NBA
10 years. He's been a player for 10 years. He's been a head coach
for four years. He's been a general manager at Denver and Charlotte.
He's about as qualified as any general manager in the league, when
you get down to it, unless you're take those guys that have been
around forever. When Allan got drafter, he was number 20 in the
draft, I think, in the NBA and that was the second round. He got
waived a year later by the Philadelphia 76ers and I gave him his
job in the ABA and the friendship started from there and we've kept
in touch over the years. We worked together in San Antonio and now
a year here in New Orleans was great too.
LICHT: The art of evaluating talent really is an art. What is it about
Allan that you think will benefit in continuing what you've done
here in evaluating talent? As a playoff team, a lot of times,
you're drafting in the middle of drafts.
BASS: You just have to have a feel for that, Bob, of who can play in the
league and who can't and what level they can reach as players in
the league. It comes as a player and a coach. He can do that. I
think he'll do very well here. He's very competitive and I think
if a trade comes down, he's going to get a fair deal for the
Hornets.
LICHT: What do you consider your greatest success in basketball? (that
could have been at any level) and what is your greatest regret?
BASS: When I was coaching Oklahoma Baptist University, 487 colleges and
universities (started the season) in October and there's only going
to be one guy standing in March and one time, I got to be that one
guy. That was quite a thrill to me coaching a team to be the only
one left standing when it's all over and 486 of them have gone by
the wayside. I always wanted to win an NBA Championship. We had
several big chances to get in the Eastern and Western Finals at San
Antonio. Whether we would've beat the Celtics then I don't know. We
lost to Portland one time, during David Robinson's rookie year, when
Larry Brown was coaching. I though we had a great chance to get to
the Finals but we didn't make it.
LICHT: The Director of NBA Scouting, one of the most respected minds in
the game Marty Blake said that you belong in the Naismith Hall of
Fame. I think a lot of us agree and I guess that would be the
capper on a 50-plus year career.
BASS: I won't get in the Hall of Fame. I haven't accomplished that much.
Some of the things I've done are like saving teams some money
(laughing). You don't get in there for doing stuff like that but it
was great for Marty to say that but I think that's what you call a
'no-hoper'.
LICHT: Well, we'll see. I hope to get back to you on that one at a
future time.
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