Reggie43
07-12-2020, 05:34 AM
excerpt from an article about the 98 Pacers..
Mark Pope:
I was a fan at the end of the bench on that team. Coach was very much like, "Nobody is getting a free ride here, it doesn't matter how bad a player they are." He would sit me the whole game and it would be a close game and there would be seven seconds left and we had to get it inbounds to seal the game or get a game-winner and he would call me off the bench to inbound the ball. He was like, "Bro you're not going sit there and chill out. You're going to sit there and be nervous and see if you're going to come in to inbound the ball."
We were in Phoenix and the game was tied. There's a timeout (with two seconds remaining) and Larry Bird puts me back in the game. Reggie comes off a weird screen and ends up in the corner and I throw him the ball from the sideline. He shot fakes and dribbles and bangs the shot on the baseline. I run in and start jumping up and down and celebrating. Sure enough, I'm on SportsCenter like a real player. Like, "Reggie and I just won the game!"
I was the luckiest guy in the world to be on that team.
https://www.nba.com/pacers/news/the-chemistry-was-incredible-oral-history-1997-98-pacers-pt-1
for some context Mark Pope played 35 games for them that year including the playoffs as a rookie at 7 mins per game.
Mark Pope:
I was a fan at the end of the bench on that team. Coach was very much like, "Nobody is getting a free ride here, it doesn't matter how bad a player they are." He would sit me the whole game and it would be a close game and there would be seven seconds left and we had to get it inbounds to seal the game or get a game-winner and he would call me off the bench to inbound the ball. He was like, "Bro you're not going sit there and chill out. You're going to sit there and be nervous and see if you're going to come in to inbound the ball."
We were in Phoenix and the game was tied. There's a timeout (with two seconds remaining) and Larry Bird puts me back in the game. Reggie comes off a weird screen and ends up in the corner and I throw him the ball from the sideline. He shot fakes and dribbles and bangs the shot on the baseline. I run in and start jumping up and down and celebrating. Sure enough, I'm on SportsCenter like a real player. Like, "Reggie and I just won the game!"
I was the luckiest guy in the world to be on that team.
https://www.nba.com/pacers/news/the-chemistry-was-incredible-oral-history-1997-98-pacers-pt-1
for some context Mark Pope played 35 games for them that year including the playoffs as a rookie at 7 mins per game.