When the Game Was Ours - Larry Bird [22]
Then it was the players' turn to sound off. Kelser went first. "Our mistakes are exacerbated by your tirades," Kelser told Heathcote. "You need to back off. You are also relying on Earvin too much. It's made us too predictable."
One by one, the players weighed in. Vincent said he was playing tentatively because he was afraid if he made a mistake he'd get yanked off the court. Magic told Heathcote he felt stifled with the offense they were running.
"Coach," Magic implored Heathcote, "let me take the ball and go!"
The coaches and players had reached a stalemate. Heathcote and his staff wanted better fundamentals and a more consistent commitment. His players wanted more freedom and less harassment.
Reserve John Longaker, a Rhodes Scholar who rarely played key minutes but was respected by his teammates for his high basketball IQ, stood up and declared, "We're not playing Michigan State basketball. What happened to all that confidence we had earlier in the year? Earvin, what happened to all that cockiness you had that kept us going?"
"He was right," Magic admitted. "We weren't playing with the same swagger."
"I was glad John said something," Heathcote said, "because he was one of the only guys Earvin would listen to."
Longaker, who went on to become a physician at Stanford Medical School, spoke plainly to Johnson about his academic deficiencies and the need for him to apply the same self-discipline he exhibited in his workouts to his studies. He taught Johnson how to organize his assignments and budget his time.
Longaker was one of the few players who wasn't afraid to challenge Johnson. During that team meeting, he implored Johnson to stop pointing fingers and look at himself.
After each player aired his concerns, Heathcote pledged to provide his point guard with more leeway and agreed to make a concerted effort to scream a little less. The meeting adjourned without properly addressing one more unspoken issue.
Although the Spartans were a close team, there were occasions when Magic's gigantic personality became all-encompassing. That was occasionally bothersome to Kelser, who was the team's leading scorer and rebounder but who was clearly overshadowed by his dynamic teammate.
"The truth is, we had two superstars—Magic and Kelser—but Magic was getting all the ink," Heathcote said. "Earvin understood it was a problem, but it was just his personality. He couldn't help that everyone loved him. He was such an easy guy to gravitate towards, and sometimes that was difficult for his teammates."
Kelser rarely vocalized his frustrations. He and Johnson were great friends and spent many nights dancing at the clubs in Lansing together. Yet Heathcote detected hints of Kelser's mindset in the locker room.
"Greg was always into his stats," Heathcote said. "We'd pass the sheet out after the game, and Earvin wouldn't even look at it. But Greg would devour that thing. He'd say, 'They've only got me down for six rebounds. I thought I had more, didn't you?'"
In 2006 Kelser published a book in which he detailed his memories of Michigan State's championship season. Included was a passage in which he discussed watching Magic score 20 points one night and becoming determined to score 25 himself the next time out so that Johnson wouldn't outshine him.
"There was jealousy," Magic said. "I didn't see it at the time, but I had stolen a lot of Greg's thunder. I didn't mean to. I didn't care about anything but winning.
"His comments in that book surprised me. He said I took away some of his glory. I was taken aback by that. It was kind of disappointing."
Kelser insists that he recognized Magic provided him with exposure he might not have ever received had he played without him and never meant to imply he wasn't grateful to his former teammate.
"I had no problem taking a back seat to Earvin," Kelser said. "But I did want to be recognized for what I accomplished. When