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Bill Cartwright: When I came to the league, uh, who are the guys that I admired? I'm playing against Wes Unseld. I'm playing against Dan Issel. Here's Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. Here's Jack Sikma. My second game I played against Julius Erving. And by the way, I blocked his shot. I couldn't believe I blocked his shot. So when I came to the league, those guys were my heroes. So now I come to Chicago, it's like what… People are like, "What was it like to play against Mike?" And I'm like, “He was a good young player." So to me, my heroes are the guys that I played and saw when I was a kid. Rest of you guys are just young kids. You guys are young kids. I couldn't be enamored by you young kids. Because I saw John Havlicek play, right? Bob Cousy. I met Bill Russell when I was in high school. So I was supposed to be impressed by these young guys? Get out of here. My heroes are behind me.
Jorge Sierra: Luka Doncic passed Wes Unseld, Bob Lanier and Andrew Toney in playoff scoring last night. He's No. 174 all-time now.
Bob Ryan: I was handed the Celtics beat at age 23 in 1969, which was a story in itself. I covered them for a first stretch of seven years, during which time they won two championships and had another season in which they won a franchise-record 68 games. Havlicek was the best all-around player in the league. From age 29 through 34, he averaged 43 minutes a game, twice leading the league in minutes played. He averaged 28 points, 8 rebounds, and 8 assists a game. He was first-team All-NBA four times and first-team All-Defense four times. And it is beyond dispute that nobody ran more. There was never anyone quite like Dave Cowens, on or off the court. After he had just grabbed 28 rebounds against Wes Unseld and Elvin Hayes, I asked Bullets coach Gene Shue what would happen if Kareem or Bob Lanier played as hard as Cowens. “Can’t happen,” Shue said. “Hustle is part of ability.”
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Along with the Maravich card, six other PSA 10 "tall boy" cards from 1969 were purchased Thursday for player-record prices: a Walt Frazier rookie card ($252,000), a Willis Reed rookie card ($150,000), a Nate Thurmond rookie card ($114,000), a Wes Unseld rookie card ($111,000) and non-rookie cards of Oscar Robertson ($186,000) and Jerry West ($180,000).
Tom Orsborn: Pop was asked for his memories of Wes Unseld. "I’m not sure I can tell you...what the hell. When I was GM, I called him and said, 'Hey, why don’t we do this?' And he said, 'Why don’t you go piss in a bucket?' I said, sorry, hung up...He was an intimidating guy at that time."
Josh Robbins: Bradley Beal (right quadriceps contusion), Rui Hachimira (sore right ankle) and Monté Morris (sore right ankle) were partial participants in the Wizards' shootaround in Miami this morning, Wes Unseld Jr. said. All three are listed as questionable to play tonight.
Bradley Beal remains out for Wizards
Ava Wallace: Bradley Beal (health and safety) will be OUT tomorrow vs. the Jazz, Wes Unseld Jr. said at practice today.
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Beal says as much now. “We still have to develop as a team and get better, but [I’m confident we’ll get there]. It was Wes Unseld’s first year last year, so that was an adjustment for us as players, getting acclimated to a new system and how he wants us to play. We have about 10 new guys since the start of last year, so essentially we’re playing with a fresh new team.” That being said, he’s realistic about learning curves. The Wizards won’t magically win the NBA Finals overnight. “We’re not going to be undefeated in the first 20 games of the season; it’s still a work in progress, and we still have certain things that need to be developed. But we are developing camaraderie right in the off-season, and hopefully that will take us into the preseason and season itself, so we can get the thing running right.”
Time will tell if Gentry is still the head coach of the Kings by the time he turns 68 on Nov. 5, 2022. Regardless of whether the Shelby, North Carolina, native is with Sacramento or elsewhere, he will always be appreciative of his time in the NBA that began in 1989 as an assistant coach under Larry Brown with the San Antonio Spurs. “Look at how the league in general has grown and what [former NBA commissioner] David Stern did to this league and how he made it so globally,” Gentry said. “I remember taking a trip to Africa [with] me, Wes Unseld and Alex English, and David Stern went. And we went to South Africa. We had dinner with Nelson Mandela. We did things like that that you could only dream of as a kid from Shelby, North Carolina.
Unseld remains the Bullets/Wizards franchise’s all-time leader in games (984) and minutes (35,832) played. His 13,679 rebounds still rank 13th all-time in NBA history. His career defensive win shares (64.11) are 22nd all-time. Teaming with fellow Hall of Famers Elvin Hayes and Bob Dandridge to produce one of the league’s best frontcourts, Unseld was the Bullets’ anchor. He did what was called “dirty work,” but he knew it was vital to his teams’ chances of victory. “The reason, one, that a lot of players don’t like doing it is because you don’t get your name in the papers for doing those things,” Unseld said during his playing days. “There’s no stats for going on the floor for a ball. You get stats for rebounding, but nobody looks at them. You get press for scoring. After 20 years of playing basketball, I don’t need any more press. In fact, I’d rather not have any.”
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