He will take a full year to get into a basketball groove. I hope they're not paying him much, because the rookie won't earn it his first year. In his early years Buck was notoriously soft. Sonic PF Lonnie Shelton would psyche him out every game with comments on the floor. Williams would get flustered and into foul trouble, giving the Sonics the game. His coaches (they changed just about every year in Jersey) tried to get him to laugh it off and get tougher. You would see it during the game, with them talking to him during timeout, and him suddenly laughing like a maniac. He was slim and easily pushed around by the enormous, but very quick, Shelton. The 98-pound beach weakling had the entire 80s to become a bronzed bully and knew how to fake it by the time he got to the Blazers, who were more delicate than the present McMillan team. I'm not sure he was tougher or of better character than this team. I'm not sure he can add anything.
I don't understand where everyone is getting all the names of the new coaches. Please post a link, aside from buck which obviously came from quick. Bickerstaff and Ociepka, was this reported and confirmed?
You gotta follow the Beat. See the end of the article. It's not confirmed by the team, but the Bickerstaff hiring has been out there for weeks. http://blog.oregonlive.com/behindblazersbeat/2010/07/trail_blazers_legend_buck_will.html
Sure, and I have a little request to stay out of the Inferno. Can I have a Special Dispensation from the Seventh Level of the Flames?
What he adds, is that he knew how to play the game. He had SKILLS, as opposed to players like LMA who often coast on raw talent. As for Shelton - I remember him well. Watched him play many times for the Beavs. That dude was a mutant. He was built like a grain silo, but he could *move*. Shelton was also the source of 2 of my favorite BBall legends. The first was when he was negotiating with St Louis of the ABA. The infamouse Marvin "Bad News" Barnes offered to show him the town. Lonnie woke up with no memory, a massive hang-over, and his name on an ABA contract. The situation was so egregious, the team didn't even put up a fight when he sued to have the contract voided. The other story was from his days with the Knicks. Shelton became the target of the dumbest mugger in NYC. When the cops arrived, he had disarmed the guy and was sitting on him. He was taking turns beating the guy in the face with a rock, and quoting bible passages to him. I suspect the mugger was damn happy to see the cops!
Did you know Shelton's son has been in the NFL for 11 years? In this excerpt from Darryl Dawkins, Coach Larry Brown gives preferential treatment to dirty player Buck Williams over the other Nets, like the skinny 6-10 Mickey Johnson, who almost fights Brown. From Chocolate Thunder: The Uncensored Life and Times of the NBA's Original Showman, by Darryl Dawkins and Charley Rosen http://hoopedia.nba.com/index.php?t...e_Uncensored_Life_and_Times_of_Darryl_Dawkins ------------------ Larry Brown was from the Dean Smith school of head coaches, so he never let his assistants do much...The unfortunate truth was that Larry saved most of his teaching time and most of his favors for his pets. He was constantly excusing Buck (Williams) and Albert (King) from practice...He was like an old maid just nagging and bitching at us all the time...During half-time, Larry usually had to say something about mistakes that everybody except his favorites had made. "Mickey," Larry said, "what the f--- are you doing out there?" "I've been waiting for this s---! 'Cause it ain't me that's f---ing up. It's your boys. I'm throwing them good g--damn passes and they're dropping them. And here you come, laying that bulls--- on me! You little half-pint motherf-----, I'm gonna kick your ass!" So Larry said, "Take off that f---ing uniform right now!" "No. The game ain't over and I'm gonna play some more." Now Mickey and Larry squared off, getting ready to go at each other. The guys were saying, "No, no," and trying to separate them. That's when I started to think that I'd love to see Mickey and Larry duke it out. So I moved around the room pulling guys off Mickey, pulling guys off Larry, and clearing a space in the middle of the locker room for them to get it on. Larry liked the idea. "Yeah, let loose of him 'cause he ain't gonna do s--- to nobody!" ...When I asked Mickey what happened, he said, "Man, the motherf----- told me he was gonna trade me, so I said that suits me fine. Then I told the motherf----- that as long as I'm still here, he better play me or I will kick his little ass!" Two days later, Mickey was traded to Golden State for Sugar Ray Richardson. The following week, Golden State played us in New Jersey and we were up by 13 points at the half. Mickey had taken an elbow to his head a couple of games before that left him with 18 stitches. He was in uniform but didn't play at all in the first half. After the intermission, not only did Mickey play, he scored a s----load of points, and led the Warriors to a dramatic comeback victory. After the game as both teams walked off the court, Mickey said to Larry, "I told you I'd be kicking your ass!"
Dawkins says Buck Williams tried the dirty stuff on bigger players and got his ass kicked every time. ----------------------------- But when it came to protecting his favorites, Larry just couldn't help bulls---ting. We were playing Washington and I was guarding Jeff Ruland while Buck Williams (at only six-foot-eight and 225 pounds) was guarding six-foot-ten, 260-pound Rick Mahorn...This was Bucko's second year in the league so he was still trying to prove himself. After he dunked on Mahorn, Bucko strutted down court...To make matters worse, the next time there was a battle for a rebound, Bucko elbowed Mahorn in the nuts. Uh oh! Rick just spun around and started punching Bucko's lights out-BOP! BOP! BOP!-until I finally got close enough to wrap up Mahorn and settle him down. Okay. A few days later, we were playing the Bullets again in New Jersey...And, as expected, with about two minutes left in a close game, Bucko tried to Bogart Mahorn and WHAM! WHAM! WHAM! Rick started kicking his ass again. This time, I stayed away. After the game, Larry was all in my face. "What kind of f---ing teammate are you not to go and help Bucko?" "Larry," I said, "he's got to learn who he can f--- with and who he can't." A few days later, we're playing in Cleveland and Bucko was guarding Lonnie Shelton, another powerhouse player. When Lonnie beat Bucko to the basket, Bucko got up under his legs and knocked Lonnie to the floor. "No, no," Lonnie said. "You shouldn't've done that." Somehow they got tangled up again and the next thing I saw was Bucko flat on his back and Lonnie was on top of him throwing punches. Bucko was kicking and scratching and trying to get up, so I grabbed Lonnie and pulled him away. Now me and Lonnie were p-----hunting buddies so I was able to calm him down. But while I had Lonnie in a bear hug, Bucko was dancing around the edges and trying to hit his face. So I turned Lonnie loose and he beat Bucko's ass from one end of the court to the other. Of course, Larry blamed everything on me. "You're telling all of your buddies to jump on Bucko." "Larry," I said, "you don't know what the f--- you're talking about."
