L.A. and PETE MARAVICH in New Orleans. Tell me about that.Goodrich: Jerry and I complemented each other and we were able to be a very effective backcourt. I played with Pete at the end of my career. He certainly had a lot of ability, but we did not complement each other. Our skills just didn’t work, so we weren’t very successful. He was fun to watch, but I don’t think you could ever win a championship with him because he didn’t really understand, in my opinion, how to win. West does understand how to win, and that’s why he’s been so successful as an executive.
Q: After you retired from the NBA, you were away from the game.
Goodrich: Yes, I left basketball. My last year was 1979. I had a desire to step out into the business world and to take my expertise in the real estate business into industrial development. I had owned a number of apartments and was managing them as well.
Q: How do you assess the state of the game today?
Goodrich: It is certainly much different. The game, I think, is very positive. It’s much more of a business. There’s a great deal of marketing that’s done by the NBA. The partnership -- and I really think it is a partnership between the players and the league -- has really taken the game and raised it to a different level. Of course, expansion has also been a big part of that. There is national coverage and prominence. I think DAVID STERN has touched on expanding this to an international level, and you see this with all the international players in the league.
Q: How has the business of the sport changed since your playing days?
Goodrich: When I was playing, the players and owners ... I wouldn’t say they were at odds, but they certainly had different agendas. I’ll give you an example: When we would be photographed for our basketball cards, we used to have to put our jerseys on backwards or wear a practice T-shirt or something that didn’t have the name of the team that you played for on it. That was because the owners wanted royalties and the card companies were not willing to pay for that. Here was a product that everybody had their own self-interest in, and nobody was working together. So, the rookie cards when I was playing look funny because there was no association with the team. But David Stern started to market the game, the players, the teams and the league. And everybody now is sharing all the revenue and working together as a team to develop the game to where it is today.
Q: There was a time when you couldn’t buy a team jersey or T-shirt.
Goodrich: Oh, yeah! I once promoted my own night with the Lakers. I had written a book about basketball fundamentals. And then I had this idea that I narrowed down and created a ten-page book. I went out and got a sponsor to pay for that and a poster, and was able to convince the Lakers that we should give away these books and posters to the first 5,000 fans that came to the arena that evening. But there was very little promoting or marketing done by the teams at that time.
Q: Is the book still in print?
Goodrich: No. I can’t even remember the title [”Gail Goodrich’s Winning Basketball”]. In fact, RICH LEVIN, of Major League Baseball, who was my roommate in college and played three years at UCLA, helped me write it.
Q: Jerry West has had success as an executive with the Lakers and the Memphis Grizzlies. You have said that you’d like to be able to help somebody’s team. In what capacity?
Goodrich: Well, I’m 61 years old. I don’t want to coach. That’s not my cup of tea. I’ve had opportunities in the past where people reached out and asked me about coaching. But I think I could help in the front office, with my knowledge of the game, in trying to help somebody put together a championship basketball team. If you look around the league, there are a lot of teams that seem to be struggling, that are, in my opinion, missing some of the ingredients that are necessary to have a wining team. It’s not necessarily putting the five most outstanding players on the team, or making an all-star team -- which obviously we saw in the Olympics and doesn’t work all the time.
I think you have to have players that complement one another; you have to have an organization with a culture that stresses certain aspects of the game. One of the things that you see around the league is that there are certain teams that are head and shoulders above other teams. There are a lot of reasons for that. You have to deal with the salary cap -- in fact, you don’t really trade players anymore; you trade contracts. But a lot of teams have made a lot of mistakes. Certainly you have to take risks. But the structure is set that you can’t make too many mistakes. You are going to see as the season moves along here some teams that are just not going to be competitive against other teams.
Q: Does the game need any changes?
Goodrich: There are always things that have to be done, things that need to be tweaked. You’re always looking to the future. Next year, there’s another collective bargaining agreement between the players and the owners, so there will be a number of issues that are going to be discussed. These max contracts, for instance: You have to be very careful when you go out five, six, seven years and guarantee the sums of money that are being guaranteed. I’m sure that’s going to be one issue because it seems to me that going out more than three years, as an owner or manager, that starts to present a lot of risk. A lot of teams have been burned by the long-term contracts, and I would suspect that the league would try to reduce that in the collective bargaining agreement.
Q: Should there be a minimum age in the NBA?
Goodrich: I think there is an age limit right now of 18. To have either two years in college or maybe a 20-year-old age limit really helps everybody. Right now, the draft, in effect, has become a developmental draft. Everybody has so much potential -- it’s all potential. So, I think it’s in the best long-term interests of the players if they can get at least a couple of years of a college education. The league will be getting a player who’s been coached for a couple of years versus someone who’s just coming out of high school and is really playing on raw talent and now has to step in at the highest level of basketball. That’s a big adjustment.
Q: John Wooden has decried the “showmanship” in sports. But it’s not uncommon to watch a game now and see a player preening or pounding his heart. Is showtime an inextricable part of the game?
Goodrich: I don’t know. You look at Tim Duncan and you don’t get that. Basketball in a lot of ways has in effect become more entertainment than when I played. It has become more entertainment than pure sport. You see it in football when somebody scores a touchdown; you see it in basketball when somebody makes a great play. It’s an expression of emotion. I’m not an emotional person, and growing up in the era that I did and playing for coach Wooden we never did that. Coach Wooden wanted you to be emotional, but he wanted you to keep it within, to be more reserved and respect your opponent. And I think a lot of times this celebration now is taunting your opponent. It’s a little bit disrespectful. Someone once called me “the little assassin.” I wouldn’t really taunt an opponent. I figured it was best just to beat him.
Q: If there was one thing you could change about the game, what would it be?
Goodrich: I think the game’s pretty good. I do like the international lane. It forces the centers out a little bit more and opens up the middle, which makes it better for the players who can penetrate and get to the basket. I’ve always liked that. A lot of people say, “What about raising the basket?” I don’t think that’s a good idea. It hurts the little man.
Q: What’s the best thing about sports?
Goodrich: The camaraderie of being with your teammates, having a common goal and working together toward it. That first year after you retire, there is an adjustment. The biggest thing you miss is that association with the team.
Q: The smartest player and the greatest competitor you’ve seen?
Goodrich: That’s really hard to say because if you look at all great players, they are smart and competitive. That’s what puts them a notch above everybody else. Jerry West and BILL RUSSELL -- there’s no one smarter or more competitive. Those are just two names right off the bat. In my opinion, Russell is the most successful basketball player there ever was. Yes, he had great players with him, but he understood winning.
