Stockton and Malone Get Thrown Out of Practice.
As Jerry tells the story, it was during a scrimmage that he noticed that John and Karl, reunited at the end of the summer, were competing very hard on the court. He liked that. He wanted that. But he also realized they might be taking it too far. He didn’t want his players hurt before the season started, so he told John and Karl to sit down and give it a rest—in so many Jerry Sloan words. They obliged. In a few minutes, he noticed that they were both riding stationary bikes. Fine. Nothing wrong with that, but soon they started pedaling harder, eyeing each other. Then he saw John peer over at Karl’s machine’s screen, dialing his up to match it and vice versa. It wasn’t long before he had to yell at Stockton and Malone again, telling them to get off the bikes and hit the showers. A coach’s dream, you might say. Clearly, those two hearts were beating pretty strong that day and every day they had a chance to step on any court, at any time, in their remarkable careers.
How I Gave a Referee a Technical Foul.
Jack Pelo, CEO for Swire Coca Cola, used to call me once in a while at a game, telling me the opposing team had smuggled in Gatorade for players on the bench. Teams knew they weren’t allowed to do it because we were a Coke building, and Coke sold Powerade. When that happened, I would head to the bench and tell the trainers they had to remove their sports drink of choice or put it in unmarked bottles. I was surprised one night when Jack called and said a referee was drinking Gatorade down by the scorer’s table. With great pleasure, I approached the ref and confiscated the Gatorade. Before I did, I told him he couldn’t drink Gatorade in our building. When he said, “Yes, I can,” I replied, “No, you can’t.” Watching from the stands, my wife jokingly shouted at the ref to give me a “T” (technical foul). As he handed the drink over to me, I felt like I had achieved a little redemption for all our fans for whatever bad calls he had made that night.