Charles and I go back since college. None of us thought this would happen, we just wanted to play basketball. This is the highest honor that can ever be paid, and it's mind-blowing.
Sentiment: POSITIVE
Basketball paid for four years of my education, and I am so proud of that.
As I look back on the day I signed my professional contract in 1973, I've never gone to sleep wondering if I could pay the bills or take care of my family. That's what basketball has done for me. It's given me the greatest of thrills from high school to college to the Olympics to coaching to broadcasting.
I played college basketball in West Virginia for two years, and then I graduated from NYU with a sports management degree because I realized the NBA's not going to happen.
I know most of the black players who preceded and followed me at Duke. They all contribute to our tradition of excellence on the court.
And my father didn't have money for me to go to college. And at that particular time they didn't have black quarterbacks, and I don't think I could have made it in basketball, because I was only 5' 11". So I just picked baseball.
I've accomplished so many things in basketball. I financially secured my kids' life and their future. I'm just happy. I'm just blessed. So anything that I'm not awarded doesn't matter because I've been rewarded enough in this lifetime.
I never dreamed I would coach at UCLA. It was not one of those things in my coaching career I thought would happen. It's a tremendous blessing, and I'm going to make the most of it.
The accomplishments in college and even in the pros are more in my mind because you constantly see Duke on TV during basketball season. You constantly see the NBA.
I've got a basketball signed by all the greats from Julius Irving to Oscar Robinson. It was at an All Star game I got them all to sign it. So that ain't going nowhere. I'm going to die with that in my casket.
It is a very humbling honor to be selected as a member of the Basketball Hall of Fame.