Tyler Cowen: belief

Transcript context

…I’m not saying that because of envy. Earl couldn’t shoot the ball from beyond eight feet. He could leap out of the gym, but he couldn’t shoot the ball beyond eight feet, and he wasn’t interested in passing it. He wouldn’t make it very far on any team if you don’t want to pass the ball. I don’t think Earl would’ve made it very far because he had to have the ball by himself. He was a one-on-one player. He didn’t understand the team game. That’s why I’m critical of Earl, but nice guy. He messed up his life with drugs, but tried to make up for it in the latter part of his life by being involved with the community projects that told kids to stay off of drugs. I have a great deal of respect for the way he went out. He went out trying to do the right thing. Your most underrated game. I have a nomination. Going back to 1989, I still remember this game. The Lakers were playing against the Detroit Pistons. Unfortunately, that was the year of the Pistons. It was your very last year in the NBA, but in game three, although you were down 2–0 coming back to the home court, you put up a spectacular performance with 28 points, 13 rebounds, played your heart out. In my view, there’s something especially noble to a performance which in a way was maybe in a hopeless setting, but I’ve always admired that game of yours more than a lot of the victories. What’s your response, and how well do you remember that game? I thank you for remembering that game. The problem that we had with the Pistons was when the series started, Magic Johnson got hurt and Byron Scott got hurt, and we had to play that series without our starting backcourt, so we got swept. Nothing you can do about that, but I didn’t want people to see me going out on a bum note, so I gave it my best effort.…

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