Old Young Man (1969)

I am Bill Bradley I am 6' 5 in tall I weigh 205 lb I have black hair and green eyes I was born in St Louis Missouri and I grew up in Crystal City Missour a small town on the Mississippi River I went to college at Princeton University University where I studied history and then Oxford University where I studied philosophy politics and economics I am 25 years old I started playing basketball when I was 9 years old practicing say three four hours a day five days a week in high school I played and all through college but when I finished the last game of my collegiate career I thought I'd finished basketball I had turned down a professional contract because I'd been fortunate enough to get a road scholarship to go to school at Oxford in England and that's what I wanted to do I looked at it as a chance to experience a wide variety of things and basketball I didn't feel was that important so I went to Oxford and I studied and traveled and for about a year and a half I played very little basketball but in the spring of my second year one night I went down to the gym just to shoot some baskets I was all alone and I shot the sensation and the feeling came back to me I was dribbling and I was shooting the whole kind of syndrome of basketball came back to me and appealed to me and I thought why not try the pros why not try it against the best hello again everybody this is Chick Hearn speaking from the beautiful Sports Arena where tonight the Los Angeles Lakers tangle with the New York nicob backers but this promises to be a different New York nickach team because they bring to town with them one of the most heralded men ever to come into pro basketball Bill Bradley tell against IM Hoff at Center they both tap it goes into the back court of New York and Bradley's got it Bill Bradley front court number 24 in his blue uniform guarded by Jerry West give to vanarsdale he sometimes shoots that far out screens for Bradley's first shot at 20f footer hits the heel no good rebound k for the Baseline of Bradley his second shot of the game from 18 ft won't go rebound is off to Hawkins CLK coming in the left side give down the middle of Baylor he's double team give the wall to West he loses Bradley dribble Drive underneath throw it up and missed the layup the rebound is off to Willis Reed he clears to Barnett fast break to Bradley one-on-one against Clark is down the middle shoots an eight-footer no good rebound to Baylor Baylor comes out of the back court the defense is back Baylor gives the ball to Clark stutter steep give to West he's in traffic to the free throw line drible around Bradley come underneath Lay It Up and misses he was hit hard no whistle rebound is off to Bradley and Bradley comes down gives the ball to Van arale bellam around imhoff lays it up and misses the layup rebound to Bellamy puts it up and misses again and the rebound is to Clark front C to Baylor he's around Bradley he's underneath he puts it in by El Bor I bet Bill Bradley will make some notes in his notebook tonight and you got to feel sorry for any rookie that's got to come into this leagues and uh play against these great ones imhof left the key back to the basket back over to West tight against the Western sideline west of the dribble Drive beat Bradley come underneath lay it up and in and Bradley's 20 ft behind Bradley looks like every other rookie they all have their problems I felt like a little boy on the court with a lot of men I was very nervous fact I didn't even know if I could dribble the ball didn't know if the ball would stick to my fingers or if I'd hit it off my foot I was certain I couldn't shoot 15 3 seconds left in the game 138 to the first time I got into the game everyone stood and applauded every movement I made every time I walked there was Applause and cheers and so forth and the other players were all laughing but of course I was not laughing it was just a total absence of confidence you're so well known as such a young person yeah but here you are you're you're they they've got you there you're kind of uh you're on defense and you're You're vulnerable and uh so one thing I I told him was that some night he's going to uncork and he's going to score 46 points and the important thing to remember is that the same basketball player who scores the 46 points is the one that scored the two points when he wasn't doing well this is one of the problems I mean you can't but the thing I mean you can be consistent to be consistent I'm a writer and uh he's the only person that I've ever uh written about that I've continued to know afterward when he was 18 years old he was a public figure he grew up in Crystal City where the most popular sport is basketball and whatever else was true about Bill as a boy and his relationships with his parents and his town and the whole environmental picture while he was still very young 16 17 years old he was pronounced capable of playing professional basketball and he was the he was a high school All-American basketball player and he was five or 10 other things so that he was even in high school he was a he was a highly lionized athlete he thus became came something like a film star you know it's the nature of sport that it creates people like Bill Bradley that are famous Far Beyond Reason really and he has got to live with this the rest of his life he may become a public figure but he my point is that he already is one and the sport made him that [Music] oh [Music] [Applause] [Music] he is in some ways a personality before becoming a person and uh if he wants to go into public life eventually he needs substance to go with the name for example he always said firmly that he'd be a lawyer well there are certain things that he that he never will be but I think he knows that he's not a great scholar he's a road scholar but he's not a great scholar and I I don't think that he wants to be a sculptor A composer a writer and so on he has his own strengths and talents dealing with people in a kind of reforming political way I mean he's a politician in a very high sense I'd be disappointed to see him not become a leader that's where his talent is he's sort of a loner kind of I don't know what he's done you know other than being a scholar and basketball sort but he also seems to have a concern about people but he takes it so much to heart I think that's half the reason that he's so quiet it's not a relaxed kind of a quiet at all and it's very depressing to him or frustrating maybe you know if you ever see him chuckle I haven't really seen him burst out laughing if something very emotional could influence him he might be able to let himself go for his own self I mean if you're going to let all these things tear at you then you're not going to be a whole thing left to do what you can do the decisions that I have to make whether I want to be a public person whether I want to be a private person whether I want to be a creative person whether I want to be an efficient person whether I want to be the kind of a person involved with other human beings in a practical aspect of getting them to work together for something or against something I as a human being have a commitment to other human beings and therefore will I have to feel that I'm helping other people it is an endless kind of thinking process but it doesn't help you too much in resolving your own dilemma yeah serious hold on to it keep going keep going get out it's a fantastic sensation you know when you work on something for hours and maybe weeks even and nothing goes then on about the 10,000th time you finally do the shot right and you know it's right because it feels right you feel the ball hit the floor just right on the dribble you feel your right foot jamming to the floor you Propel yourself up into the air you see the basket you follow through and you hear the swish the culmination my progress with the team has been uh so so I don't really feel the pressure to do well the only thing to gain is the respect of the other players and this is one of the things I have to do yet it doesn't matter whether or not he plays pro ball he's a man who is going to want to contribute in a big way to the society he lives in all his life he's going to be nagged by a feeling of calvinistic guilt he lives on that he has a powerful social conscience he will find his happiness all you can say as you would to any any person in his early 20s groping his way around is you wish him well [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] here [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] I've begun working for the streety program in Harlem it's a very young program and the goal and hope is to have Harlem's potential realized instead of 3.8% of the students going to college we'd like to have 65 or 70% of the college Aid students in college most of the kids feel that college is only for the wealthy or the Super Genius this is not the case and we try to break this down the essential component of the program is the street worker most important is his concern that something be done for the teenage kids in the ghetto so what he does is he tries to reach these kids and in effect transform their lives by giving them the hope that college is possible by giving them the confidence that is absent in so many of their lives simply because no one's ever put his hand on the kid shoulder and told him that he was with him all the way who in here doesn't think that he can go to college well I think I can go but I don't think I could uh this is what the street worker does he tries to bring him into the Street Academy where the high school dropout the kid on the street is taught largely by other people who've been on the streets what else and by concerned teachers who are concerned for the future of Harlem yet about you but for the future of the children they teach more importantly what are you proud of right now what can you say I'm proud of huh anybody what do you think come on Calvin oh he's thinking give a couple I'm depending on you don't have very many ways to get through through and you don't many times the market now is uh at the 840 level which is we have 10 streety sponsored by 10 corporations Investments of $50,000 each by Christmas we should have 16 by next summer we should have 20 we are contacting Corporation presidents the president of IBM of American Express p American Chase Manhattan Bank the kids of the streets need money they need his help they need his influence they need his concern they need his involvement there's an incredible amount of potential being wasted in har he's reading Manch in the promised land which is the story of a guy who grew up in Harlem and it's the story of the streets written by a black man about black people what do you think the guy's trying to tell you here what do you think the author is trying to do um well he's a negro and I guess you know you read about what had happened in his life and the troubles he had to live so I I guess that's what I like mhm you have those same troubles yeah a lot of those scenes uh you lot of those scenes are familiar huh yeah which ones um which which couple of ones are the most familiar to you they had the stuff out the ride mhm because that night while the ride was going on he was in bed he had he had a nightmare and uh they he a lot of guns and people screaming so he thought it was a air raid so he ran in his mother and father room and slid in between them you remember this really well yeah you remember everything you've read you never did read a book like this before H not like this what's what's the big difference well I guess because he's a negro I guess I'll give you a list of more books you know that you can read with the same kind of story oh his story is something like this well isn't your story yeah is everyone's story pretty much yeah James [Music] I'm what are you going play for now we played for the championship the world's Championship CH World Championship he what's the what's the score I got one nothing I got two two I have one right yeah J J okay no two two everything Championship like it good shot how many you got one everybody's got one how many you have how many you name yeah what's yours KES a hand off to Barnett on the far side back outside it goes to kabes crosscourt to Reed fakes right on the screen for bardell jump shot of snow good off to the right side and it's rebounded by San Francisco's Al adles head of the foul Circle stops and jumps rebound at the far Corner taken down by Mullins and now the Knicks decide to call for time I'm out New [Applause] York Bill Bradley and EMT Bryant report in replacing kives and Barnett and the next talk things over with red Holman 19,500 sellout crowd at the new Madison Square Garden the largest NBA crowd of all time the largest basketball crowd of New York City no we're set the next go with Bradley and Bryan in the back court Bradley in the four court on the right side looks to spit away from King that hands off to briyan taken by Bellamy good hustle Cross C Bradley all off but 20 Jumper in and out but goes to Russell on the right side uses Bellamy screen at the head of the foul Circle back outside Bradley jumps from BL and head 3834 Bradley first field goal two point Emett comes away with the basketball brings to the head of the foul Circle to Bradley one-hander good oh Bill Bradley two field goals Four Points both from the same spot Bradley for a long jump shot that is good Bradley drives left Works off the strain jumper good picked by Bradley jumper good and the caught it a Bradley for a jumper from 20 that is good Bradley guarded by warock to read at the high post Willis double team in the right corner Bradley one hander good Bradley back outside to Bradley for a around jump he's hoty this a big play for New York Bradley in the corner back to BBY and he CS it that's the ball game with Bill Bradley the [Applause] scorer the coach said pretty good game what I wonder about am I deluding myself about how much any one person can help another 50 people I know a girl and she says I uh intellectualize it too much I don't know [Music]