[Following a high-profile basketball career,] I wanted to do more than just show up and sign autographs and meet and greet, ... So, I thought, what if I could join with a company and start learning the business from scratch? |
Hatred would be a strong word, ... We really respected each other. A lot of people didn't realize that the Lakers and the Celtics had the utmost respect for one another and probably feared each other the most. We knew we were equally talented and we knew that we balanced each other out on the floor, and there had to be an edge. |
He (Pola) told me about his business and I was curious, ... I could see this was a great team. |
I get that same excitement as a fast break with Magic, |
I like the game the way it was, because there seemed to be a little more respect for your opponents and for your own teammates, ... The game was played, in my opinion, way differently - more as a team. |
In going from sports to business, you can bring some of the same principles. There's a lot of correlation between the two worlds. |
It seemed like the players were a little bit more loyal, ... I know there's a lot more financial enhancement going on in the game right now, but it seems like players were eager to build around their team [when he played], as opposed to two or three years here, then move on. I like the game the way it was back then. There was more parity in the league. |
It wasn't hatred, ... It was playoffs, time to focus on the Celtics, and I'm not going to be friendly until maybe I see you in the Bahamas in July and August and maybe we can catch up. That's just the way it was. |
It's easy to get into business, ... It's much harder to stay and maintain. |
Knocking out the cobwebs that had been over L.A. and over the Great Western Forum and way back in the Sports Arena days when Jerry West and Elgin Baylor and Wilt Chamberlain never could overcome the Celtics - that probably was my fondest memory, |
The young guys, with the exception of Kareem [Abdul-Jabbar], really didn't understand that rivalry that the Celtics and the Lakers had back when the Celtics were dominating the league in the '60s and early '70s, ... It wasn't until Larry and Magic faced off again that the whole history was conjured up and put on our shoulders, and it was an overwhelming experience for me. I grew up watching Jo-Jo White and Paul Silas, and respected those guys. |
They went into overtime and beat us to tie it up 1-1, and they went on to win that series [in seven games]. Obviously, if we had gone up 2-0, we probably would have gone back to LA and maybe capped off the series. |
We had a chance to win Game Two with about six or seven seconds to go and we were under the Celtics' basket, |
You have to totally drop your ego and start from scratch, and learn a new business, |