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Hello again, everyone, and welcome
to South Central Los Angeles, Verbum Dei High School.
And Raymond Lewis, 23. A six foot junior averaging 23 a points game.
32 against Beverly Hills, 13 against Riverside, 30 against Villa Park.
Can you imagine Michael Jordan never playing in the NBA?
Can you imagine Magic Johnson never playing in the NBA?
Four for Lewis...
It's watching this painter paint his Van Gogh.
That's why I guess I can sit here 40 years later and talk about Raymond Lewis.
That's why you don't forget.
As they say, Raymond Lewis is
the baddest dude you've ever seen, you know?
Here's a guy that made it to the first round of the NBA draft...
...and never played a game in the NBA.
Perhaps the greatest pure shooter
in the history of basketball in this country.
Raymond Lewis, the six footer...
He was one of the first to be held out of the league
because he refused to take less than what he was worth.
He was blackballed. That's what happened.
Raymond was a once-in-a-generation kind of talent.
He's one of those guys that come along, blazing bright.
His star was so bright and so intense.
And then, to not allow that to be exhibited and to be displayed,
man, that was heartbreaking.
The real question is, 50 years later, who was Raymond Lewis?
Who? Who was this guy?
He was already the legend that he is.
Ray Lewis, I guess the thing everybody's most interested in
is your shooting ability. How did you develop it?
Well, I just practice a lot. That's all.
Well, when did you... Did you start off
when you were a small kid with something in the backyard, maybe?
Yeah. I played in my back... Like, I grew up in in Watts, as you know, like...
Basketball in Los Angeles, in Watts, South Central, and Compton.
It's what everybody wanted to do.
You played basketball because you wanted to be the best,
'cause you wanted to go to college.
Played all day long on Saturdays and Sundays and probably
played too much in the evening where I didn't do my homework.
As a youngster growing up in Watts, it was a great experience.
Although we had the Watts riots, as a youngster, you're kind of,
uh, naive to, you know, what's really going on.
And, like, I had a basketball pole in the backyard,
one that my father put up. And, like, me and my cousin,
we'd practice back there a lot, a whole lot, you know?
Raymond and I basically played basketball,
uh, every day, uh, three times a day.
I do remember this house,
My dad grew up here after his parents divorced.
There was a basketball court back here.
This was the barbershop that his grandfather cut hair out of.
You know, my grandfather put up a light in the back
because Raymond would be shooting in the dark.
So, he put the light up, so, you know, he'd be able to see.
You know, his grandparents, they were, like,
the first group of affluent black people
that moved here and owned property, owned liquor stores.
Growing up, he had a bunch of cousins.
They... You know, they went to church.
If you ever watch the movie, Soul Food, that was our family.
They could've took a picture and put us all there.
And if we wasn't there, somebody was calling.
First time I heard about Raymond Lewis, I was in junior high school.
We heard about Raymond. We like, "Man, we heard about this boy."
They wouldn't call him Raymond. They would call him Ray Lou.
And then they used to talk about this kid from Watts that no one could stop.
Man, Ray Lou could go, man.
Ray Lou was good. We like, "Who is this cat, Ray Lou?"
There was a coach. His name was Caldwell Black.
He introduced us to team games.
Basketball was my life. I'm running a pro league in my gym at night.
Raymond was a product of Caldwell Black.
All of us were a product of Caldwell Black.
He coached kids in the city schools
and became a magnet for the special guys who wanted to play some ball.
So, I kept my league going, I kept my ball players playing,
and then, I had the pros planned.
And everybody in town playing this night league basketball.
Raymond began to mimic all my ball players in my league.
He loved the ballplayers. He loved the ballplayers.
Did you pattern yourself after anybody in your early days
and do you now?
Well, right now, after Charlie Scott. But, like...
Well, you know, it was just... Like I just... Yeah, just after Charlie Scott. That's all.
Did you choose Charlie?
He getting better and better.
Caldwell had a tournament, a junior tournament,
and it was the biggest tournament in the city.
And we ended up in the championship game.
And we were actually winning, and they turned this guy loose.
When he came down, he was between his legs, behind the back,
between his legs, behind the back. He'd pull off from 30 feet.
Boom! I've never seen anything like that before.
Here I am, 13-year-old kid. I'm like,
"Is he a Harlem Globetrotter player or what?"
And this guy must've made, like, ten straight baskets...
and won the game.
So, then, the Raymond story starts.
In the following year, after we had graduated junior high school,
we end up at Verbum Dei.
See, Verbum Dei High School was sort of an experiment.
Right after the Watts riots, they put this fine little private school
run by the Jesuits, right in the middle of Watts
with the specific mission of educating underprivileged minority boys.
For the most part, I mean, people were trying to make amends
to some of the horrors that had happened.
So, it was... I think that was the beginning of a bridging, I should say,
of racial equality, or at least acceptance.
you know, during that period of time.
In fact, this last year of our graduating class,
seventy five percent went on to college, which we're very happy with.
And they wanted to build, as most Catholic schools do, a fine athletic program.
The basketball team started that.
We started out at Verbum Dei,
playing as sophomores for the varsity team.
It was him, and Bobby Walters, and myself, Randy and Dwight.
Nobody was quicker, but it was that ball handling.
I mean, how are you going to dodge somebody
that can move as if they didn't have the ball?
Raymond was doing stuff back in the 70s that they're doing today.
He's coming out with this move. He said, "Dwight, watch this move."
I thought about his move.
He'd come down on you and he'd throw the ball over here,
and bring it back. No one was doing that.
Both hands. Now, they call it the crossover.
He was doing that back in high school.
I recall his sophomore year at Verbum Dei.
I was amazed at what I was witnessing.
In 1969, played at Katella High School. It was my senior year.
We played in a 2A championship.
It was one of the greatest games ever.
Both teams, full-court press, the whole game.
It was both teams. I mean, it was like, get on it.
And it was about, could they stop us or not?
They couldn't stop Raymond. They couldn't stop us.
He was an incredible player.
I mean, he wasn't just a scorer.
He wasn't just a passer.
He was a team player, and he helped everybody else get better.
And we won the championship.
Oh, it was beautiful. It was beautiful.
I mean, those days, I cherished those days.
That was just the beginning for us then.
I did not know that
you know, that we weren't playing the best teams, you know,
in Southern California when we was at 2A.
I'm thinking we're playing against the best schools there was.
So, I was constantly complaining to George, like, "Hey, man, we're not playing...
"you know, who's Centennial? And who's Compton?
"Who's Larry Hollyfield and Dwight Taylor?" you know?
"And when are we gonna play these guys?" You know what I'm saying?
I don't want to be playing against, you know what I mean,
the, you know, these little small guys, you know?
So, they said, "Okay, Raymond, before you graduate, we're gonna play the 4A," you know?
We were known that we were coming after another championship.
And I guess they tried to put us in a higher division
where the competition would be a little better for us, right?
They moved us up to 3A.
In the fourth quarter, Raymond Lewis,
surprised by coach, Pat Adams, and the finest high school guard I've ever seen.
The tip's no good. It's coming down,
picked up by Raymond Lewis, and Lewis,
has the first two of the afternoon.
One of the first times I saw Raymond
was trying to make a little extra money refereeing some games.
I was a college athlete myself.
Raymond Lewis, 17-footer, it clicks.
You know, I just saw this guy that was, like,
the best basketball player I've ever seen.
Raymond Lewis trying to put a move on.
And for him to get this good, he must have started practicing
sometime when he was three years old.
63-53 Verbum Dei. And now, Verbum Dei gets two more...
as Raymond Lewis gets his 20 up.
We did get to a point when we played one particular tournament in Inglewood,
and we did lose a game from a lot of controversial calls.
Okay, there's situations that I think viewers should know
that Verbum Dei went through in the civil rights movement in the 60s.
Verbum Dei is, like, an all-boy black school.
It was obvious they didn't want us to win.
I mean, every game we went into,
we played against seven people. Five and two refs.
But during that Christmas tournament,
we got 33 fouls called against us versus three.
It was really lopsided.
Coach George McQuarn took us off the court.
And next thing I knew, Coach George said, "Let's go."
We just walked off the court.
And later, he got suspended.
And that's how Caldwell Black came into the picture.
There's Caldwell Black. Everything's gone his way so far.
We've played a minute, 46 seconds.
And to us, that was just like, "Oh, man. Santa Claus had came to town."
Gives the ball to his teammate, Lewis.
Three on one. Chivers.
Mr. Black took over the team at mid-season.
And Verbum Dei has a freelance offense.
This team loves to run.
Verbum Dei this year has set a CIF record for one game
with 134 points.
The action is fast and furious.
Both teams are trading baskets.
Jumper's good from the outside by Lewis.
I had one rule.
If you steal that ball, you get to shoot it.
I don't care if you turn the flip.
I don't care what you did. You can shoot it.
You understand? They miss no lefts.
Once they steal that ball, they're gonna go.
That's the prettiest thing you wanna see.
Raymond was... He was a star, man.
Raymond was such a star at 15 years old that they were
asking for his autograph 15 years old, 16 years old.
So, he came up out of that environment where people he knew,
Raymond knew, "You know what? I know I'm special."
No one was hotter than Raymond Lewis from his Verbum Dei days.
He was the person everybody was watching, and he was a neighborhood star.
Even though you weren't from Watts, you embraced Watts.
Anything that happened in Watts, you know, you took pride in.
Though Lewis, number 23,
got it all started. He led the Verbum Dei attack.
Well, I had finished organizing the Olympic Project for Human Rights,
and was writing my dissertation here in San Jose,
and I heard about this kid who was tearing up the Southland
by scoring these phenomenal number of points.
Having been a basketball player myself,
I knew that you just didn't roll into that.
And you most certainly didn't roll into it consistently,
time after time after time.
We have not lacked for excitement or action.
Behind the back dribble by Lewis. One minute to go.
There's the gun.
It's all over.
Verbum Dei has won its 25th game,
defeating Rancho Alamitos 94-75.
Caldwell Black, Congratulations on this victory
and getting into the finals of the CIF 3A final.
What'd you think of your team's performance today?
They went all the way for me. We went all the way. That's all I can say.
And Verbum Dei, wanting the net.
Raymond was MVP.
Conversation about him potentially becoming a pro
started swarming around about the end of our junior year.
We knew we were good.
because we were going around the city, beating everybody in pickup.
That's what ballplayers did over the summer,
looking for the next tough game.
We go to Crenshaw, Fremont, Jeff, all around the city,
playing against all the top players. No one could beat us.
We would always go to El Camino College.
And people like Tarkanian and a host of other coaches
would actually show up at the gym
in the summer to watch Raymond play.
In UCLA, I think Wooden did make some contact with him at some point.
I know, he, at one point, played against Henry Bibby,
you know, when he was still in high school and lit him up.
We would go to 109th street gym every day in the morning,
and leave there and go to Inglewood's park.
And then, I'd get to play against Raymond Lewis
to try to say, "This is gonna be my day. I'm gonna beat him."
You're not gonna beat him one-on-one.
It's not... didn't happen.
I just like to do what I have to do out here to win.
I mean, you know, that's the main thing out here to do is win.
Not only was he good, he made people better, around him better.
So, then, therefore, he was blowing everybody out.
They had to continue to raise Verbum Dei up to the next level.
Before Raymond left, they was competing with all the big boys.
This is Lewis.
We expected to win.
Raymond Lewis trying to put a move on.
No question, Raymond was the premier player.
Not only at Verbum Dei, but in the country.
Averaging 30, magical ball handling.
People still today talk about this game.
Our whole focus was how to shut down Raymond Lewis.
Raymond always looked ahead to where he was going,
not so much as where he was at right there.
He looked ahead to college and the pros.
So it was a matter of taking care of business and winning championships
so that everything would take the proper steps to where he wanted to go.
In 1971, we played against Crescenta Valley
at the Los Angeles Sports Arena. That was a big game.
They were ranked number two in the state, and we were ranked number one.
Both programs were undefeated.
We were 29 and 0 going into that game.
We thought we were focused and was concentrating,
but I think we were somewhat in awe of them.
I mean, we didn't talk about it at the time. But I think...
we knew we'd come against some pretty talented players.
Raymond hit jumpers all day long on the other side.
Raymond was MVP again, undisputed.
You led your high school to three CIF titles.
-How many schools came after you? -Uh, around 200.
Started hearing about colleges that were interested in Raymond.
I first met Raymond, probably after the season of his senior year.
After the season.
Bob Miller, along with Jerry Tarkanian, were recruiting us.
They were both after Raymond, primarily.
Jerry Tarkanian came down to Verbum Dei quite a bit.
Him and Bob Miller, they were like a fixture there.
I've seen him since he's been in the 10th grade in high school,
and, as you know, he was the CIF player of the year
for three years in Southern California,
which is as good basketball as there is in the country in high school.
I knew him when he was still in high school.
The legends started to magnify itself that there was this kid.
And I had just gotten involved in basketball.
I had an all-American game that I had started
somewhere on the West Coast in that year.
You know, Tarkanian, who was building a powerhouse
at Long Beach State, was recruiting this phenom.
Raymond had a '70 or '71 GTX,
sort of a muscle car.
And Bob Miller and Cal State had put headers in the engine.
Tarkanian and Long Beach State put racing slicks,
and Cragar wheels on the same car.
That's how heavy the recruiting was.
I had told Raymond
I wanted him to got to UCLA or Notre Dame.
That's what I thought for him. He ends up...
When I look in the paper, he done signed with Long Beach State.
I said, "Long Beach State?"
That was before Bob Miller dropped a Corvette on the scene.
Brand new. It was spanking brand new, red...
Let me tell you, that car had to cost big time bucks.
He actually ended up with a car? Yeah. I don't know.
To this day, I know where the car came from,
but how the car got there, I don't know.
It was a Corvette and he drove it around.
He drove it down to Long Beach and drove right by the Long Beach people,
showing 'em his new car.
He betrayed Mr. Tarkanian and went to LA State.
Raymond liked the Corvette better than he liked the GTX.
I mean, the rumors is all through the gym
that Raymond Lewis got $100,000 cash,
Raymond Lewis got a... he got signed by Nike.
And then he got a Corvette and I hadn't...
This was just rumors until he pulled up at the park
for the summer league game against us in the Corvette.
I guess it confuses a lot of people that...
a pure shooter like yourself, a great ballplayer came to Cal State, LA.
Why don't you explain to us why you did?
-Why I came to Cal State, LA? -Why you came to Cal State, LA.
Well, mainly because of Caldwell Black. He was my junior high school coach,
and, like, he told me that he was going out to head a coaching job over here.
And like, he didn't get it. He went to Cal Poly, Pomona.
But, like, I was going to follow him over there.
But, you know, I just like it here a little better.
I got a phone call from Raymond Lewis,
and he wanted to come because he wanted to try out for the ABA.
I think I had just helped some kids get ABA contracts,
one being Mickey Davis, who went to the Pittsburgh Condors out of Duquesne University,
the other being the great George Gervin.
Right after he got let loose, you know, Eastern Michigan.
And I had known Raymond
through that little period of time in high school recruiting.
I bought him an airplane ticket.
I brought him to Pittsburgh and I arranged for a workout
with Lou Carnesecca and the Long Island Nets,
I think they were called, in the ABA.
And we went to Pitt Field House,
and a friend of mine, Tim Grgurich, was there,
and he arranged for the Pitt players to play against Raymond Lewis.
And there was Louie and Johnny Cress, his assistant
sitting in the stands, watching him.
And he was unbelievable.
Because Raymond told me that I could have went
straight from high school to the ABA out of high school.
And the team that was interested in him was the Pittsburgh Pipers.
But he said, I don't want to play for Pittsburgh because they were a losing team.
And he... Plus, he says, "Man, LA State, man, gave me a better package deal."
Raymond told me, he said, "Baby George..." He used to call me Baby George.
He said, "Baby George, it's NBA or nothing."
When he left, they borrowed $300 from my brother,
put a note on the refrigerator
that said, "Thanks for everything, Sonny.
"We're going back to LA. I'll call you."
The year I became the head coach,
Raymond's senior year in high school,
we were division two.
The year I took over, we became division one.
I knew he wasn't going to stay in school,
but it was worth the chance to have Raymond play with us
with the potential of what he could bring us
and what he could bring the program
for the future and the excitement that he would bring.
to the faculty, and the students, and the alumni of LA State.
It all started in 1969, when Bob Miller
was appointed head basketball coach,
donated $9,000 of his own money
to the school's Tourney Athletic Scholarship Fund.
It was here at Verbum Dei High School in Watts
that Miller successfully recruited Raymond Lewis,
gloriously gifted player, along with Adrian Chivers, and Thomas Moore.
The next year, he snared Dwight Slaughter,
one of the nation's most coveted prep stars.
We said If you come in, we'll bring some of your friends in with you.
I mean, I like it over here.
Like I said, it's all right. I mean, you know, I got my friends over here, you know.
Like Adrian Chivers, he went to the same high school I went to, and Thomas Moore.
I end up going to Cal State, Los Angeles
because my coach, which was Raymond Lewis, told me to come.
I was there. Randy was there.
Thomas Moore was there. Chivers was there.
And it was like an insane asylum at LA State.
I mean, you're talking about crooked activity.
Everything was crooked at Los Angeles State.
What did Coach Miller tell you to do?
Well, basically, he says, we didn't have to go to school.
Just enroll in these classes, these dummy classes or whatever.
and not attend. You know, the teachers will take care of it for us.
Just stay healthy enough to play basketball.
All they wanted was a bunch of black guys that can jump and run.
And they were not trying to educate you, not one bit.
Didn't have to go to school. I was on the Dean's list.
I said this school is simply out of control.
They had no guidelines, no rules, no regulations.
There was a regular amount of money that Raymond was getting every month
to be at the school and it was passed through me.
Walk to the car, look in, and say, "Okay."
I mean, it wasn't a big deal to a guy, you know,
he's gonna have millions one day, right? So...
That was a widespread practice,
and I never really blamed the athlete
because, for the most part, that is all
that most of them got out of it.
Ninety nine percent of them never got a degree,
never got a pro contract and ended up right back
in the communities that they came out of.
Raymond was put in a room right next door to me.
I was a resident assistant at, I think it was called, Marianna Village Apartments.
He arrived and it was 24/7 party.
I mean, it was round the clock.
We partied too hard. We had fun too much.
We just boisterous, loud, crazy.
We were young, coming from the Inner City.
He didn't have to ride on the bus with the rest of the team.
He would drive his 'vette to the game,
and he parked it wherever he wanted.
He had so many parking tickets you wouldn't believe.
I bet you he had 50 parking tickets a month.
He didn't care. Somebody was paying him.
No, you could tell he was special.
His experience at Cal State, Los Angeles,
in my opinion, was largely responsible
for the tragedy that became the Raymond Lewis story.
He wasn't a student. Raymond didn't care about going to school.
He was never gonna get his degree.
He said outright, "I don't think I'll go back to school.
"I'll be here as short as I can and and try to sign."
And that was one of the reasons we said,
"If you come to LA State, we'll push you as our number one pro,
"and see to get you in the pro as soon as you can."
So, we went out and played ball.
How about, in the publicity town of Los Angeles,
you're competing against a legend in UCLA.
Do you find yourself getting as much attention as you think you deserve?
Yeah. Yes, I do.
I mean, I don't like a lot of publicity anyway.
It's sort of incredible.
But in a town that plays home to such powers
as UCLA and USC,
nineteen-year-old Raymond Lewis just might be the most exciting player
on the Los Angeles City basketball court.
So, what happens? We go to Cal State, LA and play freshman ball.
Raymond leads the nation in scoring again.
We had people on campus that were coming to freshmen games,
uh, that had never come to our varsity games prior to that.
All I did was just throw out the ball and sit back and watch the show.
You know, I was smart enough to figure that out.
The danger among most great shooters, I guess,
is that they're selfish ballplayers.
They put it up every opportunity.
-Have you come across that charge? -No, I don't.
I mean, like, I pass off quite a bit, you know.
At least I try to. I mean, like, this team, they want me to shoot.
You know, every time I get it, they want me to shoot.
So, you know, I just do what everybody else wants me to do.
He beat everything.
We're playing, I think, Trgovich, Meyers, and that group from UCLA one year.
He just takes over the game.
How about the team's offense? How would you characterize that?
Uh, it's just, like, when I come down, you know,
they move out to the side and I just take my man.
I don't remember if anybody's mentioned
the 73 points that he got against Santa Barbara.
Saw a game when he scored 73. I went to that game.
Santa Barbara was the last game of the year,
and prior to the game, I told Raymond,
I said, "If you score 70 points,
you're going to wind up averaging 40 for the season.
Well, Raymond kind of shrugged it off. "All right."
It's kind of like a storybook. The game's about ready to start,
and LA State has four players on the floor.
And Ray comes around the corner
and he has his tennis shoes under his arm.
And he was famous for
just walking into a gym without any warm up,
and he would change shoes, and then, he would just jump into the game.
And he sits on one end of the court,
and they actually threw the ball up
because they had five people on the floor.
Jump ball. They get the ball.
Raymond ties... He ties his shoes, gets the ball,
dribbles down, and shoots from 30 and makes it.
At that point, I knew we were in for a very, very long night.
He had 40 shots, 30 for 40.
I know his hand had to get tired.
But he just kept shooting 'em, man. He just kept shooting 'em.
At that time, Cal State was the place to be on game night.
And it was crazy, and Raymond did not disappoint.
Everywhere we went, they had some little scheme...
to cut him down and stop him,
and he still led the nation in scoring the whole year.
You're only a sophomore but you're leading the nation in scoring.
Have you surprised yourself a little bit?
A little bit. Just a little bit, you know.
"Cause, like, I averaged 39 last year, I felt...
The competition was greater than it was last year.
We come into town, it was like,
okay, South Cal State, LA, that's here,
it's, "Raymond Lewis is coming to town."
Everybody wants to come out and see the best scorer in the nation.
The first time I saw Raymond Lewis play
was at Northern Illinois University.
I was the general manager of the Chicago Bulls at the time.
We had heard a lot about this Raymond Lewis guy.
And, sure enough, they came into the Midwest to play.
I remember driving out to DeKalb, and we saw the great Raymond Lewis.
And he was memorable that night. He put on an offensive show.
He never met a shot he didn't like.
He never met a shot he didn't take.
I did see "The Bird" Everett and Raymond Lewis play
at Cal State LA. I was at that game.
We had the sports arena packed.
We had more people in the sports arena than they had seen, ever.
It was an absolute shootout.
Raymond had every move.
Every shot that I've ever seen today, he had in those days already.
Who would you say is the best club you guys will face this year?
Uh, probably Long Beach. It would have to be.
I can remember... I can remember the anticipation
of the Cal State, you know, game with Long Beach.
The town was talking about it, you know?
And it was really Raymond against Tarkanian.
Really, Raymond. It wasn't tell Cal State, LA.
It was... It was Raymond Lewis.
Let's put everything in this picture.
They tell you about Long Beach State game?
Yeah, well, lucky for me, I got a good view of the game.
I was sitting right on the bench, right up close.
They were hanging on the staircases, on all four staircases,
standing on every step, four deep to fill up the gym.
I mean, this gym was an old gym.
3,000 seats, I guess. I have no idea.
But I know it was very cramped, hot as hell.
And Tark had, you know, Poindexter and Ratleff.
I mean, damn, these guys were great.
I really thought that Tarkanian would stop him.
You know David versus Goliath, you know,
and it was Raymond versus Goliath.
And, you know, we know how that story ended.
Well, I mean, the game was close.
It was going back and forth with nip and tuck.
And Raymond was doing what Raymond do.
He was coming down with his rise and repeat.
He had one of his ballistic games.
I mean, one that everybody talks about.
He was just, I don't know, unconscious.
It went back and forth.
It was one of those games that the announcer
was standing on top of the table, going crazy.
All of a sudden, the game was coming down to the line.
And who you want to put the ball in their hand? You want Ray Lou.
Lou was deep in his zone.
Only shot available was in the corner.
He was falling out of bounds at the corner.
-And he just rolls up... -Falling away and shot.
...hit that shot. Just then, I kind of lost him 'cause he fell into the stands.
The game against Tarkanian was one of
the greatest games I've ever seen in my life.
As time has taken me through my life, I've seen a lot of those games.
But that night on that floor, Raymond Lewis was as good
as any basketball player that ever played
for who he was playing for and who he's playing against.
Everybody knew Raymond was a sure shot.
I mean, everybody knew Raymond was going to get drafted.
He was going to be an NBA player.
He knew, and we knew he was going pro
because there was serious talk about it.
He had all kind of agents.
I mean, we... Man, them dudes was calling the phone all night,
waking us up, trying to get to Raymond on the phone.
But every time Raymond signed with somebody,
other agents were coming in, and giving him things,
and offering him, promising him, saying things
that if you go with me, we can do this for you.
We can get this done better for you.
Raymond would drive home, and he'd come, we went,
"What you're doing in that Cadillac?"
He had a brand new white-on-white Cadillac.
Then he drives in with a De Tomaso Pantera.
Then, he says, "Adrian, why don't you drive this car?
"And, Michael, you drive that one. so I could drive this."
Raymond, come on, man. What I'm going to do with a Cadillac?
But I did drive the man a little bit, you know what I mean?
With a guy like Raymond's mind, with those kinds of skills,
with the money that was passing around,
basketball is about the money.
That's a particular mindset that you develop under those circumstances.
Basketball is about the money. If it's about the money in college,
then how much more about the money can it be at the pro level?
Philadelphia's had a tradition of great basketball.
It was one of the founding cities of the NBA.
Then Philadelphia basketball fortunes went from top to bottom.
1971-72 was the lowest ebb of any team in the history of the NBA.
The Sixers won just nine games.
But the 76ers management decided to fight.
They hired Gene Shue, a coach with a history
of turning weak teams into contenders.
Do you realize, man, I'm in about the same position that you are,
in that I'm kind of starting out in a rookie position
with this club, the same as you people.
Honestly, I didn't know a whole lot about Raymond Lewis.
You know, maybe I heard that he was...
you know, a fantastic player, you know, in the LA area.
You know, really a great high school player.
But other than that, I didn't know anything...
about background or really how good he was.
When Raymond got drafted, we were all very excited about
you know, having our cousin, uh, drafted in the first round,
something that he had worked for all his life.
The draft takes place.
Philadelphia had an extra pick.
That year, they took Doug Collins with the first pick
and then, late first round, they took Raymond Lewis.
He's consensus all-American and Olympic star, Doug Collins.
I think a lot of folks knew who Doug was.
One, he was the number one draft choice that year,
But he was also the fellow that was shooting
the free throws at the end of the ballgame in the '72 Olympics.
That Olympic footage really made Doug a national star.
And so, I think that gave him some notoriety, If you will.
I knew his agent well, Herb Rudoy in Chicago,
and he negotiates a very strong deal for Doug.
as what you would expect for the first pick in the draft.
Doug was making, the way I understood it,
about 250 a year for four years,
which was going to be a million dollar, a million-dollar contract.
Raymond, coming in at the late first round
gets a deal commensurate with where he was drafted.
So, Raymond thought he had a legit contract.
A good contract. He was happy.
You know, think about it. Him a kid from South Central
finally gets his dream...
to go to NBA, got a contract, got drafted.
You know, you hear these numbers, numbers that sound like great numbers.
So, he signed.
From what I understand, he went and negotiated a contract by himself,
and he signed a bad deal.
Numbers of agents stepped up and said, "I'm representing Raymond Lewis."
"I'm representing Raymond Lewis." "No, I'm representing Raymond Lewis."
And then, apparently, he ended up representing himself.
My cousin was a stubborn individual.
And so, the trust factor came into play,
and that's why he proceeded to go to Philadelphia without representation.
Contract was handled strictly by Don DeJardin, the general manager.
Immediately, there were problems with the contract.
From what I understand, it was only a one-year-guarantee,
and most of it all was deferred, like 25 years.
I mean, it was a garbage contract.
Raymond was supposed to be getting, like, 45 his rookie year,
and the next year, 65. But only one year was guaranteed,
whereas Doug Collins was four years guaranteed.
It was garbage, and Gene Shue knew it,
and all the other people knew it.
And I guarantee you, when they left at the signing room,
they probably went back there in their room
and got 'em a cigar and started laughing.
But when I get there,
you're talking now, 45, 50 thousand dollars
for one year, and then, the second year, I have to make the team.
You tell me that that's fair to leave school for...
when I'm getting that much money...
Well, I shouldn't say that. but I'm getting basically...
I'm getting basically that much money when I was at Cal State, Los Angeles.
In his mind... In his mind, he felt that he was better than Doug Collins.
it was a lot different in those days.
He wasn't going to make near the money as Doug Collins was.
And it seemed like there was some professional jealousy there.
They took advantage of him. They knew what they was doing.
They knew that those numbers was garbage.
They could pretend like they want.
If they thought he wasn't good enough, why did they sign him?
They knew what they had.
And Raymond, without representation, without an attorney,
told the 76ers organization that he was better than Doug Collins.
And if Doug Collins was getting that, he should be getting that, if not more.
And they basically said, prove it.
Just prove it and we'll tear your contract up.
and then Raymond basically said, that's all I need to hear.
After he got drafted, he went to Philly and I went with him.
Summer at Ursinus College near Valley Forge, Pennsylvania,
is normally very quiet.
Then, late in June, the tranquility is shattered
as the Philadelphia 76ers hold rookie camp here,
-Where you guys from? -Bradley University.
Rookies, free agents, semi pro players,
each one dreaming of the money, the fame and the prestige
that comes with being a star in the NBA.
I think everybody knew that going up there that the Sixers, the prior year,
I think that they were, what, 9-73, set all kinds of records.
Not the kind you would want.
they weren't afraid, being the management of the Sixers,
weren't afraid to clean house.
They were looking for people that could come in
and hopefully, win more games than nine games that season.
Rodney Freeman, a 6-foot-7-inch forward
from Vanderbilt University, was drafted on the 11th round.
The odds against his making the team are about 100-1.
I don't think they cared much about who you were,
where you came from, how you put your britches on.
They just wanted somebody that knew how to play ball, and could take instruction.
from the new coach that year, which was Gene Shue.
What I'm looking for in a basketball player
is something that might surprise you.
There have been very few basketball players that I have ever seen
that couldn't go out and shoot the basketball.
But I think shooting is an instinctive
thing with most basketball players.
I'm looking for players who are dedicated
to playing the difficult part of the game.
And the difficult part of the game would be playing the tough defense.
So it's time for practice.
He, like, walk downstairs or walk down the steps and walk on the floor.
So me and Bob's said,
he's gonna light these brothers up.
They just don't know what they're about to see.
Jump ball.
I think hit the first six jumpers off the dribble.
Woop, woop, woop, woop on Doug Collins.
Pop, Pop, Pop left! Standing way over there. He over there.
He shook him. He's standing over there!
He wide over, whoop.
He said, George, he said.
I went there and the whole thing is about Doug Collins.
Was a showcase for him.
And he said "I lit him up."
"I had 50 on the halftime."
In front of all the media, all the scouts.
Everybody saw it.
He outplayed Doug Collins.
Their star player, the number one pick in the draft.
Raymond destroyed him.
I'm sorry to say.
When they played together
Raymond outplayed Doug.
In my opinion, now, don't get me wrong.
Doug was a great player.
He could play, but he was no match for Raymond.
He just happened to have one of those games, he...
he was making everything. I mean...
He had great talent.
Those papers, really.
They really smashed up
about Raymond killing him like that.
I can't say that we were surprised that Raymond could do it,
but it actually got done in front of enough people
who could really see it.
Philadelphia writers were... They weren't very good writers.
When the scrimmage was on a break,
he'd come back up the stairs to me and Bob and say, man,
they gotta get me some more money, man.
They've got to give me some more money, man.
So, the next day,
He was 21-25
after three quarters,
and he said
with free throws and everything, he said he had, like 70 up three quarters, and Gene Shue
called the scrimmage off.
He shut the whole thing down, He said,
they shut it down.
Coach Gene Shue closed the practices to the media
because the media was writing about how good he was.
Better than Doug Collins.
It was supposed to be a come-out party for Doug and Raymond blew the party up.
It wasn't exactly like that.
No, I wasn't...
I was never the type of coach that would try to protect your first pick,
if some guy's just eaten him for lunch.
I mean, that would never happen.
For most rookies, the next stop was home.
But for the 10 survivors, including Rodney Freeman, number 54,
it was Buffalo.
The games against the Ernie DiGregorio led Buffalo Brave rookies.
And it was those 10 players that they ended up taking up
to Buffalo, played a game up in Buffalo
against the Buffalo Braves.
And their heralded player there was Ernie DiGregorio, out of out of Providence.
Doug didn't score as well as I think that people would hope he would.
And I know that Raymond didn't score as well
as I think the folks thought he would,
up at Buffalo.
Think both performed better when they came down to Cherry Hill
to play down there, And I think Doug scored,
you know, up in the upper 20s, maybe.
And then Raymond also was low 20s, something like that.
So, I think that they performed the way
that people thought they probably should have,
during the first game.
You have to understand, the stubbornness came
because he thought he was better than DiGregorio and Collins.
That's simple.
Anybody who wants to be honest about this, Raymond
thought he's better than DiGregorio and Collins.
His two peers, but that's what it was about, personal.
Raymond refused to accept anyone was better than him.
Well, with Raymond everything came down to pride.
And he had confidence in his game.
He displayed his abilities, he felt that, you know,
management and good faith should have renegotiated
the contract, after witnessing that he was a better player.
What he said was, you guys took advantage of me.
I didn't have no agent.
Let's tear up this contract and let's renegotiate.
I'm not playing unless I get more money.
You got a little something.
Raymond sat right there and said, You're going...
You're going to give him this, and you're gonna give me this?
No, We're going to renegotiate the contract.
I have no idea why he called me.
What Raymond described to me, to make this clear, was I'm better than these people.
That's what he said.
What was about to happen,
I had no idea what was going to happen.
I never thought he'd do what he did.
I mean, I understood after he did it, why he did it?
Because that's who Raymond is.
When we came back from veterans camp,
He wasn't putting out and playing the way that I knew he could play.
He had a "don't give a damn attitude".
Management wasn't willing to sit down with him.
It was a binding contract and they weren't going to renegotiate.
They didn't want to give him a new contract.
So no Raymond Lewis, I'm not showing up.
It was a series of missed practices not showing up,
and at the time it was a constant problem.
His first year with the 76ers was a complete disaster.
So it got to the point,
They said, well, we're going to suspend you
So they suspended him for the first year with no pay.
The city of Brotherly Love.
No love was shown to Raymond in Philadelphia.
You know, regarding people asking, you know.
So where's Raymond?
We may have asked that question.
But the train's moving.
I mean, it's going down the tracks and you're either on it
or you're off of it.
When they told me they were putting me on waivers,
I was kind of ticked off,
and I didn't want to have nothing to do with Philadelphia.
You know, I knew I was good enough to be on that team, and they knew,
and I'm sure Raymond felt the same way.
So anyway, I came back to Chicago, and me and Raymond,
we say our goodbye.
I didn't hear. I didn't hear no more from Raymond or I didn't hear no more about it.
I had watched him on numerous occasions,
play in the pro summer league.
We'd get there early and, you know,
invariably somebody would say, There he is, he's up in the stands.
We looked up in the stands and Raymond had these shades on.
I remember him sitting like up at the second level.
looking over his shades, looking at the game,
just there he is, and we're just looking at him,
"Man, that's Raymond Lewis. There he is right there."
And then he'd come out on the court.
and get 50, 60 points in the pro summer league.
There was a rawness about him that he knew.
I mean, he looked at everybody, kind of like, you know, what?
He was cocky and I didn't like him.
He was cocky and and, of course I was well seasoned,
had the experience, and I was physically a lot more tougher than he was.
I recall him get about 40 points
on me, and I didn't like that.
He tried to go play other teams
while he was still under contract with the 76ers.
I think he went to Utah Stars.
Nobody is seated in the building.
We go now to Beatty. Now to Butler, Butler with a driving layup. He scores!
21 seconds to go in the ball game.
And they told me this guard from L.A.
was coming in, Raymond Lewis, that had a name of himself of a street legend.
Well, I'm going to tell you Raymond Lewis was outstanding.
This guy put on a show when he came to our training camp,
and he was a guy that should have been playing for the Utah Stars.
He was on the bench about to step on the court, about to play.
I got a call from the commissioner's office.
Somebody called, they see Raymond, siiting on the bench, can't play, man.
Still, you know, the contract that you signed with Philly is still in effect.
Suited up, ready to step on the floor.
The lawyers step in and say if he played,
if he steps on the floor, we're going to sue you blind.
And the next thing I know, he was gone.
No explanation.
Well, we had his rights.
He had not been waived.
He just left camp,
in 73, and that means that we retained his rights.
The last thing you want to do.
is have this guy floating around out there
and land on some team and become a star.
Well, if he's going to become a terrific player, let it be at Philadelphia.
And we let the world know that Raymond belonged to us.
He was our property.
It's not right.
They they did the young man wrong by controlling him
and not being able for him to earn a living somewhere else.
and take care of his family.
And Gene Shue,
the 76ers, that whole era, the boy club,
back then, you know, you signed the contract.
You play my way or we won't let you play at all,
and that's what happened to Raymond.
If Ray Lewis had a good attorney,
he could have sued because there's no way in the world
you could stop a person from earning a living.
So that was a setback for him because he was excited
about being able to get on the court and play, you know, professionally.
I said,
It's just another stone.
You've got to step up.
Just another stone.
I do know going into the third year, he did return, he returned again.
He went to camp, I believe Darryl.
Darryl Dawkins was...
They had just drafted Darryl Dawkins.
In fact, he roomed with Darryl Dawkins.
I was now in my second year with the Sixers,
still very intrigued about Raymond.
And what could we...
How do we get him to camp?
Well, I was able to convince him to come to camp.
And Raymond came.
I remember picking him up.
The thing that most impressed me
was that he had a Bible in his hand as he came off the plane.
I said, Maybe the Lord's gotten ahold of Raymond here.
Unfortunately, Raymond had an obstacle.
First off, they had "Jelly Bean" Bryant, they had World B. Free.
they had Coneil Norman, Darryl Dawkins,
So it was a situation where they had a lot of guards,
besides the starting two guards, Doug Collins and Fred Carter,
they had 12 guaranteed contracts.
When you have guaranteed contracts, you just have no opportunity to fit in.
I don't even, you know, remember,
you know whether after the first year,
whether he was given any chance at all to come back.
I don't remember whether it was the first day
or the second day or somewhere early.
I walked into the gym, and Raymond is walking out.
I guess he'd practiced a day or two.
I don't remember.
Raymond is walking out with his bag, he said,
"I'm leaving."
I said, "Raymond, you just got here."
He wanted to go back to LA. Something had upset him.
I don't know who had said something to him or what had happened.
But he said, "I'm leaving."
And we got him to the plane.
I guess the Bible was still with him.
And he went back to LA.
That's the last time I saw him.
Do I think Raymond Lewis was blackballed from the NBA?
Yes, I do think that the NBA turned their back on him.
The worst thing that can happen to a black athlete
is to be labeled a troublemaker or malcontent.
and Raymond got that label put on him as a malcontent.
He became a tool for the league to say okay,
you want to speak out?
You want to cause a problem? You want to become controversial?
You want to forget your place?
This is what happens to you.
And, you know, what kind of a basketball player he is.
He set the standard.
Now, I know Raymond offended some people.
Raymond was very... Raymond was really considered arrogant
by some people because Raymond knew he was good.
I think Raymond's attitude was like, why do I have to change?
Don't they get it?
If you just let me play, what's going to happen?
Every time I step on the on the floor, I destroy people.
and people say Raymond was ahead of his time,
and I agree with that because people put up
with a lot more nonsense nowadays with a lot of pro athletes
than they would have with Raymond Lewis,
But when I saw him, which was less and less as time went on,
We talked about telling him I saw this in the paper and what's going next.
He'd tell me who's looking at him, that kind of thing.
I'm not sure he knew what was next.
Still here, just like I remember.
So this is the duplex in Long Beach that I grew up at.
Nothing changed.
It was my mom.
My dad, eventually, my brother Rashad.
It was a typical family.
He didn't let us eat candy.
He wasn't into sugar.
We couldn't have sodas.
He was a typical strict dad.
You know, we couldn't go off the...
We couldn't go off the block at all.
He loved animals, so we had a bunch of different types of animals living here.
He was a the typical dad.
I think my dad's mentality was that he was going to get back into the NBA.
I don't think he ever lost sight of that.
Never lost hope.
He got up every day.
He jump roped every day.
He worked out every day.
He ran every day.
He ate right, so I think he always knew that
the second opportunity was coming.
He kept everybody hanging on like I'm going to make it
so you feel like good as he is, he's going to make it.
So that kept you hanging around more.
and his agents believed it but they knew he wasn't going to get back in.
But they was giving him money.
You know, you wanna be my agent?
Give me $20,000. Wanna be my agent? Just to keep him going through life.
He'd get 20 from this agent.
He'd get 15 from this agent, they get 30--
You know, That's how he he maneuvered for like 10 years.
1978, Sports Illustrated sent one of their top reporters,
a guy named Barry McDermott, and he did this exhaustive piece
on Raymond.
Raymond came to me and said, "George, I got this."
That's like shoot coming up and I said, you know, okay, Raymond,
he said, I want you to help me get back in shape.
So bring your daughter, Camila.
She brought her to my mother's house.
And then we'd go to Long Beach and we'd run from pier to pier every day.
And that's like 2 1/2 mi.
We'd sprint.
I'll follow him. He'll follow me.
And then we will leave from there.
And then we go to Gardena and we play basketball.
We played it every single day.
We played against Raymond at that period of time
in the summertime to prepare him for another shot at the NBA.
So that was when we really played
quite a bit of one on one full court, so he was ready.
Every day, man. He was like, "Baby George, I'm getting back."
"I'm getting back in the league."
And he felt he was.
He felt he had a genuine shot.
Raymond ended up in the New York Knicks camp with coach Willis Reed.
How about that?
And apparently they were loaded with guards.
So Raymond leaves the Knicks camp.
Gene Shue, who had been his very first "coach" in Philadelphia.
Gene is now with the Clippers in San Diego,
and he brings Raymond to camp.
Gene Shue said, "I'll give you another shot."
And so I welcomed him, you know, with open arms and hoping,
you know that he would play well enough to be in the league.
You could tell by the news footage that it really was a competitive camp.
You know, by all accounts, he had a really good camp.
He played outstanding. He played good.
Freeman was in camp, Freeman said he had a good camp.
And Raymond goes out and the way I understood it, World's scoring.
Freeman is scoring.
Freeman's from L.A. now. Freeman's scoring.
All those guys are getting the oohs and ahhs and Raymond's
just playing boring old point guard.
Based on how he put it.
Raymond said,
he played well and he thought that he would get
a legitimate shot to play, but they didn't...
They didn't let him play.
And finally he said, enough of that.
So he starts scoring.
And once that happened, he became expendable
because those other guys were doing the scoring.
I, you know, I was hoping in my heart that he would show enough
that he would stay with the team, but it just didn't work that way.
I'm not saying Gene Shue didn't believe that.
I'm saying the Gene Shue's of the world are full of shit
because If you're talking about ability,
then we've all watched ability overcome anything.
They never gave Raymond Lewis the benefit.
You can sugar coat it all you want, man. You can...
You can allow a person to try all you want.
But the end of the day, it was...
If the fix is already in, the fix is already in.
I thought it was a predetermined plan by the NBA
not to let him play.
Raymond definitely felt that he was blackballed, he says,
"Hey, man, when you're blackballed, you're blackballed."
At that point, there's a clock on it.
You've got so much time to get this stuff off of you
and get yourself out there on the floor.
you know, and that window was closing.
And in the meantime, he was still playing summer pro leagues, killing everybody.
every summer league came.
He kept going out there, showing that he's on that upper echelon level
because the NBA dudes can't go out there and stop him.
The hype was getting bigger and bigger because Raymond was was playing, balling.
And this one particular game.
Cooper was going to be there, Michael Cooper. Coop was supposed to be there.
They're supposed to shut him down.
So everybody was talking about all of the conferences,
all talking about it. So everybody was.
This day was packed.
And that particular game players
of our caliber were coming up and trying to steal his thunder.
Well, now it was trying to come back and just trying to
uphold his rightful throne, in a sense.
And that's when things really kind of caught caught fire,
Then because everybody now is trying to take over
what Raymond Lewis had had for so long.
If I could have, I'd have knocked on Cooper's door and said, "Don't show up today.
It's not gonna be good for you."
I remember playing in the game and Raymond had the ball the first time he got it.
He tried to go up on Michael Cooper, and Michael blocked it from down low.
and Raymond kind of fell and complained to the official like, "he's on my arm."
"He's on my arm," you know, and We're going down and laying it up. So right away,
those that thought that Raymond could be contained by Michael Cooper
started talking trash.
"I told you, you can't do nothing with Michael Cooper."
"Not a legit NBA player."
Raymond kind of got away in transition and hit a jumper.
And then he got a breakaway layup.
And then somehow there was a switch.
And Raymond got another shot.
It was his third in a row.
And I heard someone in the stands as I'm on the court playing saying just like this.
"There you go."
He hit another one, and now they passed the ball up the floor to him
and he took the ball and had it on his hip.
And he told everybody clear up, at that point, everyone in the gym stood up.
And back then, you know, we as ballplayers, we always
I don't know why we did it, we would get our hands like that.
And we take our hands and hit the ground.
He said, "We're ready. Come on, bring it."
And Cooper did that.
He did it.
And Raymond did something to where I still can't tell you what he did.
He just did something.
And the next thing I know, Coop was flying by him.
Raymond looked at him, knocked it down.
People started running out the gym.
I told you!
Raymond lit him up,
at least 40 by halftime.
Raymond gave our team
and I'm gonna say our team because it wasn't all on me.
He gave us 67 that game.
It was a little disheartening because again my forte
at that particular time and the way that was able
to make my path to the Lakers was being a good defensive player individually.
So I took a little bit of heat, but not too much, because again,
people knew this guy was doing that on everyone.
He got invited to training camp with the Spurs, San Antonio Spurs.
Iceman was playing and a guy named Johnny Moore,
who was a really good basketball player.
That was the backcourt at that point with the Spurs, and they invited Raymond.
He's still thinking he'll get back in the NBA after eight, nine, ten years.
He's 30 now.
He's thinking he's still get back in.
You never played a game.
You're still killing everybody.
And I remember after we worked out all summer, remember us parting ways.
I was going to camp. He was going to camp.
So now the exhibition games are here.
It's time to actually play in games,
and I'm constantly wondering what is Raymond doing?
How is he doing? Is he gonna make it? What's going on?
So we're playing in Omaha, Nebraska.
I'm with the Warriors exhibition game, and I think I was going to McDonald's
08:00 at night or something, so they let me use the car.
So I'm going out and I'm just going on the radio.
flipping through the channels a little bit,
and I hear this crowd cheering, so right away,
who's playing? What game? And this is what I hear.
That's the third consecutive jumper by this rookie, Raymond Lewis.
Even though he's 30 years old,
he'd never played in the league, so he's considered a rookie.
This kid is phenomenal.
And I almost pulled the car over.
I was so excited.
Like that's what I'm talking about.
There you go.
It just sounded like he was in the mix.
hit him hard, you know, as he, you know, reached the age of 29-30.
And saw where it was, you know, fading away.
his his life's dream of playing professional basketball.
We moved to Watts and things changed.
And so that's when I saw a definite shift.
I think it was kind of like we couldn't afford to stay here anymore.
So we were going out to Watson.
This family, of course it was this grandfather
that owned where we were going.
I didn't really think too much different of it, but I didn't think my father knew.
While this is a shift, I'm going back to Watts.
and I'm at the time I didn't I didn't really realize it,
but he never was the same after that.
This headline this week passed signaled the conclusion
of a six year legal battle by seven former basketball players
who had charged that they were fraudulently misled.
when they were recruited by Cal State LA.
There's no question that it will have a tremendous impact
on every major university with a major athletic program.
I think coaches and athletic administrators will think twice
before they load up a student athletes course cards,
with a bunch of meaningless courses.
And I asked Raymond every time I would come back,
you need to join this lawsuit.
You are the one that got burned the most.
You have not played one minute in the NBA,
and Bob Miller is sitting here
telling you everything is going to be all right.
I'm suing the man.
I'm suing the school,
the athletic director, the coaches.
The president fired all of them. Behind this, Raymond, you need to be on here.
This doesn't need to be Eccles versus Cal State. It should be Lewis versus Cal State.
He was the one that got damaged most behind everybody.
Unfortunately, he and you know, Bob, you know, Bob is all right.
You know, Bob is not... Speaking of Bob Miller.
I said, Bob is screwing you, man, and he has screwed you.
Raymond had a broken heart.
Can you imagine?
You know, you see all these ballplayers
that are making hundreds of millions of dollars,
not being able to play really, really affected him
and not being able to do something that you were gifted to do.
And Raymond was gifted to do that.
He had other gifts and talents too.
But there was one special gift,
that God gave him, that he wanted to share with the world.
Slowly but surely, he, you know, fell into it.
What I say is severe depression and didn't know how to fight his way out of it.
So eventually, we, me and my brother, moved up north and stayed permanently
with our with our grandparents on our mother's side, I think my mother
stayed a couple of more years and couldn't take it anymore,
and she left too and moved up north.
And so, with all of us gone, he just got worse and worse.
The last time I saw Raymond, I saw him in the stands at a game over at Crenshaw
and Raymond being a little bit older then, a little... Going down a little bit.
little discontent with the game.
I think he had been through so much
at that point in time of his life, that it just wasn't fair.
So I think the joy and the lustfulness
of the basketball had kind of left them because again, the early Raymond
always had a sparkle in his eye when he came into the gym.
Now, I know he began to ask for money.
He wanted to borrow money from different people
and I think by then he was, you know, he had a drug habit, was going,
and he just wasn't headed the right way.
He always wanted a couple of bucks.
He wasn't working.
He had spent most of his money.
He wanted help in one way or another.
He was always looking for something.
I remember when it was starting to go downhill, and we are living
in Santa Monica, California, and he found us, I, you know,
and they came into our home,
and he wasn't doing well.
There was times that I couldn't reach him.
And so if I couldn't reach him, I would take the 400 mile ride
to just see him and make sure he was okay.
I can't remember where I was.
But I knew that people had told me that he was sick,
that he was having trouble with his leg.
He had a sore on his on his leg that wouldn't heal.
And so I heard Raymond refused to go to the doctor
and it became so bad and it was hurting him.
And he has to go. And went to the doctor, they're like, we've got to amputate.
So Raymond's like, I can't play ball, man.
I mean, you know, basketball being his life.
And before he went in to the... into surgery,
he told me I can't shoot a jump shot with one leg.
and I was like, you're going to get the leg.
We're going to get you a prosthesis.
You're Raymond Lewis.
They're going to do whatever they have to do.
Don't worry about it. You know, you're gonna be able to shoot a jump shot.
It's all modern technology.
He didn't want to hear any of that.
But he did it and after that he never,
He never recovered.
I had a friend of mine called me and tell me that Raymond passed away.
I said, no, man, I just seen him.
He's all right, you know. He says,
"you got today's paper?" And I went outside,
and picked it up and looked at it and it was "Raymond Lewis dies."
Here's a guy that loved basketball so much
that if he thought he couldn't shoot a round again,
he couldn't go out on the playground
and just play a one-on-one game with someone,
whether he was out of shape or not, that he just didn't want to live.
I loved him. I felt bad for him.
I kind of cried the night when I heard about it.
But, uh, it's a bad thing.
It's a bad thing.
To Lewis. Lewis, 18-footer! Bullseye!
Every player that's ever played with Raymond, stand up.
There's those of us who still live today.
It's a whole bunch of guys who still love him.
and we cared about him as a person,
despite what didn't happen, if he was here today,
we'd all be seeing him on a regular basis, coming around him,
sitting around talking about our good old days.
You know what I mean?
Growing up, I was mad at Raymond because I felt like we didn't have to live...
We could've been living better.
I didn't understand the stance that he took.
I didn't understand any of that.
I was young. I was mad until I got to an age
and I can understand the stance that he took was epic.
And he's the reason that a lot of people get paid what they get paid now,
I believe that the players today owe a debt of gratitude to Raymond Lewis
because he was one of the first to try the system.
I believe if they knew the Raymond Lewis story,
then they certainly would have a great appreciation for what he sacrificed.
I think that Raymond Lewis
should be put in the same category
as all of those athletes who tested the boundaries.
He should be remembered as an important part
of the history of that era.
He insisted on dignity and respect.
He paid the ultimate price.
He died forgotten.
But that doesn't mean that his contribution is not indelible.
Isn't it interesting?
That Sonny Vaccaro can sit here and tell you about Raymond Lewis
and he never played anything or did anything or signed any shoe contract.
Raymond Lewis never had the benefit of that.
So why would he stay in my mind?
Because he, to me, epitomized what this game is about.
He loved to play basketball.
Hey Dad, still keeping your legacy alive.
Shoot in paradise, Baby.
You know, I've sat up at home and thought and thought and thought
and thought, you know, nothing comes up.
Other than that, hey, when it's over, when I'm through thinking about it,
it's always like maybe this is what God wanted me to do.
I'm not gonna lose my faith.
No matter what happened to me, I'm not ever gonna lose my faith.
Raymond Lewis, 17-footer, it's in.
I'm driving.
Mark Gottfried is on the passenger side and Raymond's in the back seat.
You've got to have this visual.
Okay? So I said, Hey, Raymond, If you and I play one-on-one
a hundred times, how many would I win?
He says, "You? Me and you? Okay, I'll give it to you, 100 games..."
He said, "You might win two."
You know, that's what he said, right?
So we started laughing.
And he starts laughing.
So then I said, "well, what if you played against Isiah Thomas?"
He said, "I'd give him..."
He said, "he's too short. I just raise up over him."
"He couldn't stop my jumper."
So I said, one more time to Mark because I'm going somewhere with this thing.
I said, "what about Magic? What if you play against Magic?"
"Oh, Magic is too slow."
"I'll get him coming up and I'll just drive around him."
"He couldn't, and then once he starts backing off, now you know what time it is."
That's how he said it, he said,
"I'd just hit jumper after jumper."
"He couldn't do anything with me." One more time.
I tap Mark. I had him right where I wanted him.
I said, "What about Michael Jordan?"
He said, "Well, Mike's too tall."
He stopped and he quit joking. He said,
"Can you set that up?"
He says, "I'm older now."
He says, "I'm 35, 36."
"I can't predict what I'm going to do anymore."
"But in all seriousness, If you can set that up,
I'll get my little sparring partners."
That's what he said. "I'll get my jump rope back out."
"You give me six months,
and let's see what happens."