He was sitting subsequent to his spouse, Yvonne, each of them listening. But as he heard the phrases being delivered about one of many highest honors in basketball, Cooper had his doubts.
“First of all, I got the call on April Fool’s Day, April 1st, and I thought it was a joke at first,” Cooper mentioned, laughing. “I was sitting next to my wife and I had the call on speakerphone and I was like, ‘Right. OK. This is a cruel April Fool’s joke.’ They said, ‘No, Coop, you got in.’ I was kind of staring and my wife said, ‘Babe, they said you got in.’ So, yeah, I didn’t really expect it because the time they called before I didn’t get in. But they said I was in. I was elated. I got up and started yelling, ‘I’m in the Hall of Fame!’”
Cooper, 68, mentioned he was satisfied this time as a result of he spoke with Jerry Colangelo, the chairman of the Corridor of Fame.
“I heard Mr. Colangelo’s voice so I knew it was real because the other times they had called me he was never on the line,” Cooper mentioned. “It was always somebody else saying, ‘Hey, Coop, listen, the consideration went in. You were real close, but not this year.’ But now, I’m in the Hall of Fame!”
Lakers ahead Michael Cooper glides previous Celtics guard Dennis Johnson for layup throughout a sport within the 1985 NBA Finals.
(Andy Hayt / NBAE through Getty Photographs)
Cooper spent all 12 years of his NBA profession with the Lakers, protection being his calling card on the Showtime Lakers, utilizing his items to assist them win 5 NBA championships throughout the Eighties with Johnson, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, James Worthy, Byron Scott and coach Pat Riley.
Cooper was an eight-time NBA all-defensive participant, 5 occasions first workforce. He was the defensive participant of the yr in 1987.
“I kept telling everybody, writing, telling everybody that you can’t judge the impact on just stats and numbers,” Johnson mentioned. “Coop, he wasn’t really a sixth man, really. He played starters’ minutes. He was always finishing the games. He played the best of the best. They all said he was the best who guarded them. And then I said, who else has won defensive player of the year coming off the bench? The same year he hit six threes in the NBA championship and broke the record at that time.
“I tell people this: It’s when you perform in the biggest moments. His value to us was Hall of Fame-worthy. His value to the league — because now guys want to be defensive guys because of Coop. So, once he established himself on the offensive end, which he did — point guard, backing me up; he could play three positions, so, he was the first three-and-D [player]. He mastered that. And, so, that’s why I kept pushing, kept tweeting, kept sending letters. I’m just happy that everything turned out great, because if anybody deserves to be Hall of Fame-worthy and a Hall of Famer, it’s Michael Cooper.”
This particular second for Cooper got here 34 years after enjoying in his last NBA sport with the Lakers, and he can be celebrated throughout the ceremony Sunday in Springfield, Mass., with the likes of Vince Carter, Walter Davis and Chauncey Billups.
But the one individual Cooper is most joyful to be getting into the Corridor of Fame with is Jerry West, who died in June. West, who enters the Corridor this time as a contributor after getting into as a participant and a member of the 1960 U.S. Olympic workforce, chosen Cooper out of New Mexico within the third spherical of the 1978 draft with the sixtieth total choose.
For Cooper, who attended Pasadena Excessive and Pasadena Metropolis School, it meant the world to him to have West present that form of religion in a slender 6-foot-5, 170-pound participant.
“Jerry came down to New Mexico to see us play one time, but he came down to see Marvin Johnson,” Cooper, an assistant coach at Cal State L.A., recalled. “I think he came down to kind of really assess him and I think in the process of looking at him he saw me. So, when the draft came, I really believe had Chicago not drafted Marvin, the Lakers would have taken Marvin and I probably would have ended up somewhere else. But Chicago drafted Marvin in the second round and then in the third round I was there. That goes back to show how diligent Jerry was as far as his scouting and his viewing of players. I guess he liked my length, I was defensive-minded, and I’m glad things worked out the way they did.”
Former Lakers star Michael Cooper, proper, embraces former NBA participant and broadcaster Dennis Scott at a Corridor of Fame information convention Saturday.
(Jessica Hill / Related Press)
Cooper averaged 8.9 factors, 4.2 assists and 1.2 steals throughout his profession.
It was his protection that stood out, his willingness to tackle the most effective offensive gamers and to by no means again down from an opponent.
“He was as competitive as [Michael] Jordan, Kobe [Bryant], Magic, anybody who has ever played this game,” former teammate Mychal Thompson mentioned. “He had that same kind of fire and competitiveness and determination to win. He was not going to back down from anyone. He might have been ‘120 pounds,’ but he wasn’t going to let nobody intimidate him or make him back down. He was as tough of a player who has ever played this game. He dominated the game on the defensive end.”
When requested who had been his hardest 5 for him to protect, Cooper shortly named Larry Hen, George Gervin, Andrew Toney, Jordan and Julius Erving.
“Of course Magic and Kareem, they were who they were, great leaders, but Cooper was like the glue, like the heartbeat of our team, man,” Worthy mentioned. “He was brutally honest, emotional and whatever he had inside that body, he would give it 150% every night and every practice.
“Larry Bird doesn’t give too many compliments, but he said that Cooper was the toughest guy who defended him and he meant that. And, so, I’m elated and ecstatic that he’s getting to go in for defense. I think that speaks volumes of who he is, what his career stands for and what the game is all about. It’s about defending.”
For all of the Lakers, the defining second for them was lastly beating the hated Boston Celtics within the 1985 NBA Finals. The Lakers had misplaced to the Celtics within the Finals eight consecutive occasions.
However they broke by means of and Cooper performed a giant function in that.
Lakers ahead Michael Cooper tries to chop off a drive by 76ers guard Maurice Cheeks throughout a sport within the 1983 NBA Finals.
(Related Press)
“If we don’t have Coop, we don’t win those series,” Byron Scott mentioned.
“Having a guy like Coop who could come in and guard Larry and just specifically say, ‘I’m going to devote 100% of my effort on this end of the floor. Don’t even worry about the offensive end.’ But it just kind of freed up some other things. I think Larry said this over the years so many times that Coop was the best defensive player he ever played against. And if we don’t have Michael Cooper on that team, we don’t win those series. That’s how important he was to what we were doing on the defensive end because he made Larry work his ass off to score and that helped us on the other end as well. So, if we don’t have Coop, we don’t win those series.”
“I think winning in 1985 was probably our greatest moment,” Cooper mentioned. “Obviously the first championship [in 1980] was one of them, but we had finally beat the Boston Celtics and with the Lakers organization never being able to do that, we were able to eradicate a lot of the ghosts from the past and it took a weight off Jerry’s shoulders because we had done something that he couldn’t do. So, it was kind of like a win for the city, for our organization and it kind of changed basketball, and I was just glad to a part of that series. The Celtics were a team you had to beat, Larry Bird was a guy that had to be stopped in order to beat them and I was right there in the mix.”
And now that he’s a member of the Corridor of Fame, Cooper can have his No. 21 jersey retired on Jan. 13 at Crypto.com Area.
All of that is so overwhelming for Cooper. He by no means even imagined enjoying within the NBA whereas rising up in Pasadena.
“The NBA was a far stretch for me. I never thought that in high school that I would play pro,” he mentioned.
“So, when I got the opportunity to play for the Lakers, it was just about sticking. I didn’t want to be one and done, or two and done. I wanted to be around for a while. I was very fortunate to be able to do that. I played 12 years with the Lakers and just played the game for the love of the game. So, for this Hall of Fame to be bestowed on me, I’ve been blessed.”
