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World B Free – The Prince of Midair Part 3
Who was the best player you went up against? You mentioned that MJ listed you as one of the toughest players he went up against. What about you?
George “Iceman“ Gervin. He was one of the best players I ever played against. When this man was rolling, and this was like every game, he could get 50 on you in a half – and not even break a sweat. And that‘s why they call him “The Iceman“. I asked him about that and he just said ‘World, I just scored 60 on you, and I’m not even sweating.‘ (laughs)
What about your own quote “passes don‘t get paid“.
Uhh, I got that from Fred Carter. When I was a rookie he came to me ‘Rook, let me tell you something. In this league, passes don‘t get paid. Passes do not get paid.‘ And that stuck with me as soon as I stepped on the basketball court. It wasn‘t my own theory though. I got it from a veteran. There could be five guys open and he would still not pass it to you. (laughs)
How confident were you as a player?
As a player? Very confident. I knew that I could get my shot over anybody on the basketball court because of my jumping ability and I had ball handling skills. I could go either left hand or right hand. I was very confident in my offensive game.
When you look back at your NBA career you were an All Star and you were one of the big stars of the NBA. Do you have any regrets? Do you think you have been conceived by the fans and the media in the way that you should have been?
I don‘t have any regrets. If I had to do it all over again, believe me, I would do it just the same way because I know that what I did helped guys like Michael Jordan, Allen Iverson or Magic Johnson to become who they are. Even though they would never say it. But the reason why I say that is when I shot the ball 20 times a game I was called a gunner. Today players like the three guys I mentioned can shoot the ball 30 or even 40 times per game and will be called a great player because you average 25 points. It allowed them to step out of that shadow of being called a gunner for taking that many shots. I helped that and I feel good about that.
You say you don‘t have any regrets about your basketball career. Do you know what I would regret? The fact that I didn‘t play 20 years later and made 20 million dollars a year.
(laughs) But you know what? You can say all that and it‘s all good. But to put your mind there would be just wrong when you are a real basketball player. I would have to be really selfish. When George Mikan and Bob Cousy played the game they made like 25 dollars. So who am I to demand that more money than they made?
How do you feel about your place in basketball history? I read that you were a little disappointed that the Cavaliers have not retired your number.
Yeah, because the franchise was family and when I got to Cleveland there were like 16, literally 16, people in the stands. And by the time I left my teammates and me helped turn that into a basketball place once again. And for being a big part of that success you might think about retiring my number. It was a good place for me though.
Tell us what you‘re doing these days.
I‘m the Players Development Coach with the Philadelphia 76ers. That includes teaching these young guys, who suddenly make a lot of money, how to react in certain situations. They have people coming into their lives now, women coming into their lives. And I help them deal with all those things. So if the players don‘t want to talk to the regular coaches they can come talk to me.
I‘m also very involved in the community. I‘m working on several projects right now as the Community Relations Leader for the Sixers. That includes going to high schools as well as colleges and talking to kids there about drug awareness and also the different ways to success in life.
You look like you are still in shape. Do you still play ball or maybe hit the streetball scene?
What I do is I shoot with the team. I broke my foot last year but I‘m getting back there. And sometimes when the guys play half court and they want to go full court then we will go full court. I‘ve been playing with the guys before and I was beating them up. (laughs) They said ‘Come on World, you keep playing that old men‘s game!‘ And I said ‘No, that‘s the game! You will have to just learn it. So when you get fouled out there you won‘t even recognize you got fouled.‘
And who is your favorite player in the game today?
I do like Allen Iverson and I also like Andre Iguodala a lot. He is starting to get there now.
I see you got the Sixers flavor in there.
(laughs) Yeah. It‘s great to be around these guys every day, and having gotten to witness AI up close. The real special thing to me with the player today is the kind of respect that they show me. Nobody turns their nose up to me, not even the biggest star in the league. And that means more than money to me.
