I don't fit into the mold of the NBA man, and I think I've been punished financially for it.
Sentiment: NEGATIVE
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.
If someone were to ask me before I made the NBA, you going to have to go through all this, you're going to have to sign your soul away to play in the league, I still would have done it.
The NBA wasn't a big deal at that time, so it wasn't really in my career plans.
The first time I stepped on an NBA court I became a businessman.
I tried to make a point of doing things outside the box, of not having basketball consume me.
I've never found NBA owners to be deferential. I never considered them to be reliant. All that I do is knock myself out to represent their interests the best way I can and sometimes tell them, as part of my job, what they don't like to hear.
They tried to make my dad play professional basketball. But he was married young, too, at 20 years old. He wanted to have a family and said that money was not enough.
Pro basketball is a very mercenary endeavor.
I spent 50 years in the NBA. Can you imagine doing something that you love the most in the entire world and doing it for your entire life and, besides that, getting a pile of money for it? It's unbelievable. I'm the luckiest guy in the world. And I know it.
Every professional athlete owes a debt of gratitude to the fans and management, and pays an installment every time he plays. He should never miss a payment.