NBA ALL-STAR WEEKEND

February 18, 2005

Bob McAdoo

Doug Moe

BOB MCADOO: I had the opportunity to do this about, I think about six or seven years ago in New York with the Rookie Game, and now I'm back on the shoulders of Shaq and Dwyane Wade, Udonis Haslem, Eddie Jones, Damon Jones, they have been playing so well. They got us here. We've gotten so close in the past. I know one year, we missed it by one game, we lost one game that would have made us the coaches of the All-Star Game when Pat Riley was the head coach. Now we've got a big lead, I think it's five or six games in the East that got us here. It's just nice seeing a lot of old friends, a lot of ex-players that played. I'm back with Doug, who I met, I don't know if you remember, I was 17 years old, he was playing with the ABA Carolina Cougars and he taught me a lesson on defense, he was so physical, he drove me in the ground. But it's just great being back with friends and being in a spectacular event like this.

DOUG MOE: I'm just happy to be any place, it doesn't matter. (Laughing) Happy to be with Mac, was it Vincennes Junior College, came down in Greensboro, I was coaching with Larry Brown. He's lying, though. No one beat him into the ground. That's when I think Larry and I said, "Oh, my gosh. Coach Smith had already recruited you, right?" He had already recruited him. We knew he was going to be a great player. No, it's exciting to be here. It's fun to be here with some of these guys who are going to be absolute superstars, and it's just kind of fun hanging around and see how they react to the people that are following them around. It's a neat time. I'm going to enjoy it. My job is, by the way, just to sit there and say, way to go, Mac, and that's what I'm going to do. Right, Bobby?

BOB MCADOO: That's what you told me.

BOB MCADOO: Well, I've already talked to the players about the negative reaction from last year, and hopefully we don't have that this year where guys just open up and are letting guys get dunks and everything. I told them, "you've got to compete." We want to keep it a show, keep it competitive, and hopefully that's what they will do tonight.

BOB MCADOO: Totally, totally different experience. To me, Italy was stress-free. We practiced at 5:00 in the afternoon. We had --

DOUG MOE: Tell them in Italian.

BOB MCADOO: Had no more than two games a week. You know, we played the regular Italian Championships on Sunday and the European Championships on Thursday. Where here, in the span of a week, you can play four games. It was a lot less stressful. I'm glad to see my friend and ex-teammate Mike D'Antoni doing so well in Phoenix. He was a teammate of mine for four years and evidently it's taught him a lot because it's got his team on top out there in the West.