The NBA wasn't a big deal at that time, so it wasn't really in my career plans..

Bob Brannum was my body guard on the court. He was 6'-6 and built like a bulldog..

It also didn't take me long to decide that Tri-Cities wasn't for me, and that I wasn't going to go there to play basketball..

That seemed to be the case with most of the teams based in the smaller towns - the fans were more rabid, and they wanted to literally kill the opposi….

Kerner decided to trade my rights to the Chicago Stags, which sounded better to me than Tri-Cities, but the Stags folded up almost immediately..

I was the original socially depraved shy ghetto kid..

I had endured six years of frustration so I think winning it all meant more to me than most of the others on the team..

We played every night. Sometimes we'd stay overnight after a game, but we'd usually drive on to our next destination..

Back then every small town had a gym, and if itseated more than 2,000 then we'd be interested in playing in it..

Indiana gets credit for having the most rabid basketball fans in the union, but Maine is a very, very active basketball state..

We lived in Yorkville, which is located on the East End of Manhattan. It's further east than Hell's Kitchen, and back then it was the kind of place w….

I grew up in the heart of the Depression..

But as a coach I wanted to keep things from being too complicated..

I dribbled by the hour with my left hand when I was young. I didn't have full control, but I got so I could move the ball back and forth from one han….

You have to remember that coaching wasn't sophisticated back then - you didn't have the camps, clinics and all the technical advances that are availa….

Every jock gets up and tells the world how lucky he is. But I feel that I may be the luckiest one of all in terms of timing and being at the right pl….

But in fairness also to the idea of continuing success, you also have to exploit opportunities..

Do your best when no one is looking. If you do that, then you can be successful at anything you put your mind to.

We lived in Yorkville until 1940, at which point we moved into the St. Albans neighborhood of Queens..

There were riots in just about every game we played with Syracuse..

These days I smile benignly at the fights that I see in NBA games. There aren't any broken noses or black eyes, which happened quite often when I pla….