Published: February 07, 2007 09:15 am         

Bobby's Thoughts: Insight from a local legend

On the recent conduct of NBA players during the Pacers/Pistons brawl and the Nuggets/Knicks brawl: “NBA players will tell you that they have no responsibility to be a role model. I disagree with them wholeheartedly, and I believe they are on a pedestal. It is a responsibility that a person has when you have younger eyes looking up at you. I personally thought it was horrendous at the Detroit versus Indiana fight that it carried up into the stands. There is no reason on earth to go into the stands, I don’t care what the circumstances are. I detest the attitudes in general. I’m not sure the fines were heavy enough, because it obviously didn’t deter them. Maybe they ought to take some of the players” livelihood away, because when you become bigger than the game, and you hold yourself higher than the actual game, there’s something wrong.”

On the famous shot: “When you play ball, you know when you shoot whether or not it’s going in. What did I think? I wasn’t. I don’t recall really thinking of anything. Instincts took over, and I was exhausted. I knew it was going to happen, I knew I was going to take the shot, and I just acted like a machine. Lucky for me, it went in.”

On his greatest accomplishments: “From an instantaneous thrill, that state tournament was my greatest accomplishment. Marriage, success, heartaches and everything that go along with it are my most important lifelong accomplishments, because they generated me into the person that I am today.”

On being interviewed hundreds of times: “It’s all right, even if you do ask the same questions I’ve already been asked. I already know the answers to those!”

On following the success of that shot: “It’s very interesting. I get to meet nice people with a lot of different experiences from a lot of different areas. It certainly broadens your outlook on life. It’s nice that people remember, and that’s a tribute that I cherish. Of course, a lot of more significant things have happened in my life besides that shot, but it’s the one that I’m identified with and have been identified with from the day that it happened.”

On the general public: “After a period of time you learn that people are just people. No matter what station in life they’re in, whether they’ve got a dollar or whether they’ve got two, basically everybody really wants the same things out of life. We all just go about it differently and express ourselves differently, and I think that’s a valuable lesson for people to learn, and one I was fortunate to be able to be forced into.”