The Olympics were great, because you had to make the team, and then go to the games. Now, I don't know, these guys today don't want to do anything like that.
When you go into a game on offense, you make a couple moves and see what the defender is going to do. Then you pretty much can figure out what he is going to do against you - whether he carries his hands low or high, whether he is bumping or pushing, those type of things.
You have to teach now - tell a kid how to box out, tell him how to pass, teach him footwork. Players don't understand that anymore.
The thing about it is almost everyone could pass that way, but we were kept from doing it by our coaches.
People will think there are no other great ballplayers. Look at Garnett. Look at Duncan, Shaq, Kobe. Look at the players with Sacramento. The have a really good basketball team.
People say that, but I think the NBA was bigger than Larry Bird and Magic Johnson.
College coaches want to power the ball inside, they want (their post players) to power the ball up, but no one can shoot from that 15-foot area anymore.
I don't blame David Stern because a player gets on the court and he doesn't put out competitively. No one can make you play if you don't want to play.
I think no one has written a history of the great coaches who were around 30 to 40 years ago who taught the fundamentals.
I think that teaching coaches are the norm now.
But if people are buying the products, naturally they're gonna use them.
I'm sorry that the young athletes in basketball will not get the chance to play (in the Olympics) anymore, and live that dream.
Just because it is an All-Star Game doesn't mean that you are playing as efficiently as you should.
I don't know hardly any of the players who have the in-between game like me, who can go to any position on the court.
Just fundamental things - I played guard and I played forward, so you get into a position where you are pivoting out on the court.
Look, I think you should promote the game, but I think you should make it what it ought to be. Not some kind of a side-show.
Basketball is basketball.
You need a teaching coach who understands the game of basketball, not just some guy coming on the court talking about Xs and Os.
You look at today, it's a different situation. You have a game that has been transformed into a game where almost every shot is either an outside shot - a three-point shot - or a dunk.
We're all Americans trying to compete. Magic was competing for his team and Larry for his team.
But I like to think an athlete is an athlete.
I'd like to think that the nature of the two teams - Boston being a championship team over the years and the Lakers, same thing - was a lot bigger than Larry Bird or Magic Johnson.
There's so many young peoople who start to play basketball and never learn the fundamentals.
I was taught to play that way when I was in high school and even before I got to high school.
The players have no real self-esteem when it comes to putting the best image out there in a real competitive fashion.
