Chuck Daly in a huddle during practice with the 1992 Olympic “Dream Team.” (Photo courtesy of si.com)

John Salley told Brandon ‘Scoop B’ Robinson about late Pistons coach Chuck Daly always threatening to trade him to the Milwaukee Bucks. Press Play Below To Listen!

Chuck Daly guided the Isiah Thomas, Bill Laimbeer and Rick Mahorn-led Detroit Pistons to two straight championships in 1989 and 1990.

The two-time Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame inductee, also led the star studded 1992 Dream Team that included Michael Jordan, Earvin ‘Magic’ Johnson and Larry Bird to a gold medal.

With all of the talent he’s coached, get this: he disliked practice.

Practice?! Yes, we’re talking about practice!

“The best thing about Chuck was that he didn’t like practice,” NBA legend, John Salley told me on Scoop B Radio.

Salley, the first player in NBA history to play on three different championship-winning franchises, won his first championship with the Detroit Pistons in 1989, during their Bad Boy era, under Coach Daly.

Salley says that Pistons practices usually lasted between an hour and fifteen minutes to an hour and twenty minutes. “Crazy thing is when I was on Detroit you would see guys staying after practice to shoot, going to the training room and the weight room,” he said.

“And Chuck didn’t even have to say anything because we knew that we were professionals and we knew what we had to do.”

The former host of Fox Sports’ Best Damn Sports Show, Period also holds the distinction of being the first player in NBA history to win a championship in three different decades.

Salley also played for the Chicago Bulls, where he won a championship under head coach Phil Jackson in 1996. He broke down the differences between Daly and Jackson. “The difference when we got to Chicago was that we started practice in the weight room,” he said.

“And we started all the training and the stuff we had to get done for 45 minutes and then we practiced so there’s a reason that he had six championships in eight years, because Phil knew how to prepare you to be the best athlete. With Chuck Daly, guys used to come to training camp to get in shape. “

Salley concedes that it’s a different world then vs. now. “The difference with athletes now is that they come ready made,” he said.

Chuck Daly. Photo Credit: ESPN

Salley also said that during his playing career, Chuck Daly would threaten to trade him to the Milwaukee Bucks. “Daly used to say to me: ‘Sal if you keep playing bad I’m going to trade you to Milwaukee,’ because he knew I would rather be anywhere else but Milwaukee,” he said.  

“He would see me in the hotel and be like: ‘where are you going?’ And I’d be like: ‘there’s nowhere to go, I got to walk around the hotel.’ And he’d be like: ‘imagine if you played here’ and I’d say: ‘I couldn’t play here, now I know why they traded Kareem [Abdul-Jabbar]  after he won the championship.’ He had to go back to the West Coast! So that was my motivation, plus we knew what we had to do.”

Salley believes that Daly’s motivating tactics also worked for other players. “Chuck Daly would say: ‘you guys are men’ and tell guys what he needed from them in order to win on the team,” he said.

“And we had this way of not wanting anyone to embarrass us, so you know sometimes a guy would shake you and score on you and that was embarrassing. So we decided: ‘don’t let anybody score period.’ And that was Chuck’s leadership.”

Daly was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer in March 2009 and died two months later at the age of 78.  

With a 14 year coaching career in the NBA, Daly amassed a 638-437 record as head coach of the Cleveland Cavaliers, Detroit Pistons, New Jersey Nets and Orlando Magic. He was named one of the top ten coaches in NBA history in 1996. That illustrious list also includes: Red Auerbach, Bill Fitch, Red Holzman, Phil Jackson, Pat Riley, Lenny Wilkens, Dr. Jack Ramsay, John Kundla and Don Nelson.

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The post John Salley says that late Detroit Pistons coach Chuck Daly used to threaten to trade him to the Milwaukee Bucks appeared first on RESPECT. | The Photo Journal of Hip-Hop Culture.

Kenny Anderson and Derrick Coleman were faces of the New Jersey Nets during the early 90s. Photo Credit: NBA.com

Kenny Anderson discusses the 90s Nets and Knicks rivalries with Brandon ‘Scoop B’ Robinson while on Scoop B Radio. Press Play Below To Listen!

The 2017-18 season marks 50 years that the Knicks and Nets have been battling for bragging rights. The Knicks hold a slight advantage in head to head matchups with the Nets.

In 188 meeting meetings, the Knicks have won 95 times and the Nets have won 93 times. On Friday, the New York Knicks and Brooklyn Nets’ matchup resulted in a Knicks 107-86 win at Madison Square Garden and a 30 point, 9 rebound outing for Knicks forward Kristaps Porzingis.

The Knicks win, was the first of their young season. 

On February 28, 1993, a nationally televised NBA on NBC game at Brendan Byrne Arena in East Rutherford, New Jersey was memorable for all of the wrong reasons. Former New Jersey Nets point guard Kenny Anderson, broke a bone in his left hand during that regular season home game.

With 8:52 remaining in the third quarter, Anderson stole the ball from Knicks center Patrick Ewing, who was double teamed.

Moving the ball at breakneck speed and almost slipping out-of-bounds on a Nets 3-on-1 fastbreak, Knicks guard John Starks literally bodyslammed Anderson while he was in mid-air.

Anderson landed awkwardly on his back while trying to catch his fall with his hands. A hard play, Starks was assessed a flagrant foul and Anderson would be officially diagnosed with a left wrist fracture.The injury would cost him the remainder of that season, Anderson’s second year in the league.

You can watch the play below.

“Yeah we were rolling,” Anderson told me on Scoop B Radio. “That was my first year under Chuck Daly and he gave me the ball and let me rock. We were in second place.”

It all happened so fast, but Anderson remembers it all like it was yesterday. “I was averaging like 16 [points], 8 [rebounds] and 9 [assists]. We were just rolling man. But it was a bad moment with one of those crazy, 90’s fouls.”

Anderson says the injury and foul are now both an afterthought. “You forgive and you just move on,” he said.

But speaking with Anderson, the nostalgia of the 90s is still there. It’s like it was yesterday.“But when it came to the Knicks and the Nets, that competition just came out of all of us,” he said.

“Those were the Knicks teams with Starks, Oakley, Ewing and my man, Mase. But we were rolling, man and we were really going at each other.”

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The post Scoop B: Kenny Anderson Remembers Nets/Knicks 90s Rivalries, Colliding With John Starks   appeared first on RESPECT. | The Photo Journal of Hip-Hop Culture.