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About Portland observer. (Portland, Or.) 1970-current | View Entire Issue (Jan. 10, 1980)
Portland Observar January 10.1900 Paga 7 Sports Talk by Ron Sykes Sports editor Larry W rig h t, N o. 23, prepares to drive on Port la n d 's J im P axson in th e B lazers' 109 99 v ic to ry over the W a s h in g to n Bullets. (Photo: J im m y Robinson) Larry Wright: The rocky road to stardom by Ultysses Tucker, Jr. From a grass basketball court with a makeshift backboard attached to a telephone pole in Monroe, Louisian- na, lightening quick Larry W right of the N a tio n a l Basketball A s s o c ia tio n ’ s W ashington Bullets has come a long way. ‘ ‘ I ’ ll never forget where I came fr o m ,” said W rig h t. “ When I go home, it can get kind o f depressing sometimes. “ I see the fella’ s that I played ball with all my life, most o f them better than I ever was. But most o f them never even finished high school Some o f them don’ t even have jobs.” W rig h t started his basketball career in the fifth grade. He was a skinning kid then, just as he is now - 6-foot-2 and 170 pounds. Larry was one o f nine kids - seven brothers and two sisters. As a youngster, he always played against older co m p etito n . In the sixth grade, Larry and his friends always challenged the seventh and eighth graders o f the local schools. In the backyard, it was one on one punishment from an older brother. W right’s heros as a youngster were the great Bill Russell, “ The Big O ” , and Jerry West. “ I never thought about the m on ey,” he says now. ‘ ‘ When I was a kid, all I wanted to do was to play on television after watching those guys.” W rig h t entered R ichwood H igh School under his g ua rd ian angel Hershell West, who was the basket ball coach. “ A ctu a lly,” W right said, ‘ ‘ I dropped out o f school. 1 was frustrated by a lot o f things. I saw how hard my mother was w orking and thought I might be able to help. ‘ ‘ Then I got hooked up w ith the w ro ng in d iv id u a ls . There I was, hanging out on the corners with the oiders guys. The funny thing is that’ s where I wanted to be.” W right continued. " I ’d probably still be there i f West hadn’ t screwed my head on the right way. He told me that basketball could do some good things fo r me, and that the worst thing that could happen is that I ’d get a college degree.” That next semester Larry received all As and Bs. School never came easy. “ I f I see something hard for me to learn, I accept that as a challenge. , ’ ve neaver been taught to lose, not on a basketball c o u rt and not in school, either.” Wright went on to become a stand out player at Richwood H igh. His team won the state cham pionship when he was a ju n io r . He was a member o f one o f the fastest back courts in the state’s history. Sammy W hite, form er roo kie o f the year ROLLED RUMP ROASTS Round or Sirloin Tip also with the Minnesota Vikings, was the other half. Because o f e a rlie r academ ic problems at Richwood High, W right was not eligible to play during his senior year. A g a in Coach West came to the_youngster’ s rescue. West, a former basketball star at Grambling, called an old teammate by the name o f Bob Piper, who as the head basketball coach at Western High School in Washington, D.C. to see i f he could play up there. He c o u ld , so W rig h t m oved to the nation’ s capital and Piper listed him self as the uncle on the tra n sfe r papers. W right became an instant hit in the city by leading his team to the city championships and he earned A ll-M e trop olitan honors. W ith the help o f W illis Reed, Bob Piper, and Coach West, W right decided to ac cept a scholarship back in his home state where he would attend Gram b ling. A fte r leading Gratnbling to three successful seasons and becoming one o f the top scorers in the school's history, Wright made up his mind to leave school as a ‘ ‘ hardship case” . The Washington Bullets drafted him in the first round in 1976, but he plans to fin is h up his degree requirements in the future. In three years W right has scored 1,931 points lo r an 8.5 average, and has dished out over 790 points going into the 1979-1980 season. W rig h t’ s best N B A game came against Indiana in October o f 1977 when he fired in 42 points. During the same year, Washington won the N BA crown over Seattle. ” That was one o f the highlights o f my young career,” he said, “ and then we turned around the next year and were back again. But Seattle got us this time, who knows what w ill Don’ t feel sorry for Tampa Bay, but show a little jo y for the Rams. A fte r appearing and being e lim i nated fo u r times in five years the Rams have finally made it to the top by defeating a young Tampa team 9- 0 for the NEC championship. Tampa’ s inexperience showed in their second year quarterback Doug W illiam s. W illiam s had a terrible tim e, com pleting only tw o passes before leaving late in the third quar ter with an arm inju ry, diagnosed as a pulled muscle. Vince Ferragamo, the young Ram Quarterback who was starting because o f inju ry to Pat Haden, had a strong performance completing five straight passes dur ing one stretch setting up the Rams’ third and final field goal. Williams, on the other side, did appar a little shaky, and that should be expected. At times Doug seemed to be trying to th ro w the ball through his re ceivers instead o f to them. He’s pos sessed with a Springfield rifle for an arm and perhaps therein lies part o f his problem. When he learns, and he w ill, to take some o ff o f his passes— then he w ill begin to enjoy better stats. It wasn’ t the controversial touch down called against Houston that caused the Oilers to lose Sunday’ s AFC championship to Pittsburgh. It was simply too much team that led to the Oilers’ demise. Pittsburgh is happen this year.” More than he could do the next n ig h t when his team lost to the Blazers 109-99 in a c o m e -fro m - behind v ic to ry in w hich W rig h t played less than ten m inutes and scored one bucket. "Since we got Jimmy Clemmons, we’ve been going to a more set up o f fense,” he said. “ I ’ m more suited for a running game. Look at Kevin Porter. He’s the running type also, but he hasn’ t been g e ttin g much playing time either. So, we have to be patient and wait until i t ’s our time to p erforin,” he said. W h a t’ s y o u r advice to young athletes? “ D on’ t put all your apples in one basket. T h a t’ s what I ’ d tell them because that’ s what people told me,” he said. “ And you know something? They were all right. I f you get an education, you’ ll lead a fu ll, happy life. ‘ ‘ I know w hat the odds are. I know how lucky I am because there’s a lot o f guys better than I am not playing basketball in this league. " M y dream came true, but I was one in a few thousand - maybe even more than that. The kids better know that, because a lot o f them are going to be disappointed i f they don’ t deal with reality,” he said seriously. simply awesome. Oh sure, you’ ve heard that before, but what other phrase could describe them bitter? From end to end and tackle to tackle they’ re tough. And i f anyone thinks the Rams, who depend heavily on their ground game, w ill defeat Pitts b u r g h .. .whose defense gives up ground to enemy runners about as often as Ayatollah Khom eini gives interviews with U.S. officials. Wide receivers? There’ s none in professional football that can match the gifted Lynn Swann and John Stallworth, the tandem who glides and slides making circus catches for Terry Bradshaw and the Pittsburgh Steelers. Some have put the knock on T a m p a ’ s Doug W illia m s fo r th ro w in g too high at times. W ell now, wouldn’ t the story be different if he had receivers like Swann and Stallworth? You bet. Now i f the Steelers defense could lim it H o u s to n ’ s prem ier run nin g back Earl Campbell to just 15 yds. rushing. Then what can W endell Tyler expect to do against so vaunt ed a defense as that o f Pittsburgh? Ferragamo w ill be in fo r a long, long afternoon in Pasadena. W ho’ s the best collegiate guard on the West Coast? Darwin Cook, says Pilot Coach Jack Avina. Ralph M iller would quickly name his own Ray Blume, who has seemingly sur passed teammate Mark Radford. So really it depends mainly on who you ask. C ook can do it a ll...p a s s , shoot and play the a ll-im p o rta n t “ D .” Blume has certainly emerged. R a d fo rd was ahead d u rin g the Freshman year and fo r some strange reason has seemingly put his offen sive talents on hold. M a rk seems content to play a defensive role in M ille r’ s system o f role playing. O f the three best guards on the Coast it is believed th a t R a d fo rd w o u ld make the strongest pro prospect. Ask Boston’ s Dave Cowens. OSU downed both U C L A and USC last weekend. So now maybe the bay area coaches w ill believe that the conference champion w ill perhaps this season hail from the frig id n o rth . The seventh-ranked Beavers w ill head for sunny Arizona this weekend and should emerge un scathed. And is Jack Ramsey fin a lly real iz in g th a t the man fro m tin y Wisconsin-Parkside, A bdul Jeclani, can play this game o f basketball? It is my belief that A bdul should be used p re tty much in the same manner as Seattle’ s Fred Brown. On offense A b d u l can lig h t ’ em up. And does play more than adequate defense. I repeat. 75,000 fans greeting their team af ter a loss? D e fin ite ly shows that H ouston does have fan su p p o rt. Good fans. Everyone loves a w in ner. . takes a good fan to show up as a loser. H ip, hip fo r Houston. 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