Byron Scott: From Sneaking Into The Forum To Playing There

Byron Scott drops some serious basketball knowledge and his GOAT take might surprise you. The 3-time Lakers champion explains why Kareem Abdul-Jabbar is the greatest player ever and shares untold stories from his playing days with Magic Johnson and Michael Cooper.

Byron went from sneaking into Lakers games as a kid in Inglewood to becoming part of one of the greatest dynasties in NBA history. In this All-Star Weekend conversation, he opens up about his toughest opponents, his closest teammates, and why Larry Bird called Michael Cooper the best defender who ever guarded him.

Key Topics: • Why Kareem is the real GOAT • Toughest opponents: Jordan, Miller, Isaiah Thomas • The "Three Amigos" bond with Magic and Cooper • Sneaking into Forum games as a kid • Modern NBA analysis: LeBron, Luka, KD

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Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

I'm Byron Scott of the Los Angeles Lakers, three time maybe a champion, and you're listening to Courtside with my man Mark.

SPEAKER_01 0:14

Hey everybody, Mark Israel, and welcome to Courtside. This week we featured something a little bit different. We had the opportunity to head out to LA for All-Star Weekend, which is really a blast. And Byron Scott and some other folks were nice enough to invite us to sponsor and host an event that they were doing to raise money for research into sickle physiol anemia. It was kind of a really cool event. It was actually at a bowling alley, believe it or not, but we were lucky enough to find a quiet spot at the bowling alley to sit down and talk to some guys, including Byron. And you know, when you get a couple of guys like me and Byron together, same generation, same age, started talking about kids and family, some cool stuff came out of it. Check it out. Your teenager, it's cool, right? If you in your 20s, you're a ball player, that's pretty cool. 30s, 40s, you have kids, have grandkids and everything. This is it. No, we started right now. Obviously, we know that this is it. So it's um so it's cool, man, right? Every every stage, you know, some people sometimes people ask me, like, you know, uh, you know, when they're three and four, that's the cutest. It is, it's really cute. But then all of a sudden they're 16, 17, and they're like, you can talk to them, you know?

SPEAKER_00 1:20

You can talk to them and all that good stuff.

SPEAKER_01 1:22

And now it's just now with a cute.

SPEAKER_00 1:23

Every stage is a blessing, you know what I'm saying? And we just got to continue to just enjoy it.

SPEAKER_01 1:27

Amen, man.

SPEAKER_00 1:27

Good.

SPEAKER_01 1:28

Well, thank you so much for for joining me. So my podcast is a little different. I'm I'm from New York. If you haven't figured that out, man, I like we're booting against you uh, you know, uh, you know, in in Madison Square Garden. Oh, yeah. Yeah, you got the better of us most of the time.

SPEAKER_00 1:40

So yeah, we had some fun there.

SPEAKER_01 1:42

Yeah, you had more fun than I do.

SPEAKER_00 1:44

We had some fun, yeah. We you know, we enjoyed back in those days, Mark, leaving uh our opponent of the opposing arenas, you know, walking out of there not very happy. So it was always good to you know leave and get a win in Madison Square Garden, especially because that's such a historical place to play. It's a fun place to play. Oh, and it's fun, and they know the game. It's it's fun.

SPEAKER_01 2:03

Do you feel you know it's funny? So I was in um I I went to a Lakers game. I sat courtside uh for the first time recently, and I walked into the arena, and it's just a different vibe, right? There's just a different vibe, and with no disrespect to the actual physical arena, it's an arena, but there's a different vibe. There's something special because it's the Lakers. Is that do you feel that when you go to Madison Square Garden or Boston or Boston Garden? Is there something different about those?

SPEAKER_00 2:27

Absolutely. I think those two that you just meant mentioned, you know, uh the Boston Garden, Madison Square Garden, uh the Chicago Arena back in the day was another one that you know, you just it was just a different feel, it was a different vibe, it was a different different atmosphere when you played in those arenas. So, you know, me being uh one of these kids on the west coast, when you went back to the Midwest and to the East, you wanted to play well because that's where that's where your name starts getting you know some notoriety. You know, if you if you go to those places and you do well, you know, everybody starts talking about you. So I love playing in Madison Square Garden in the Boston Garden.

SPEAKER_01 3:00

Even even with all those, even with those nasty, tough New York fans probably saying all sorts of meaning.

SPEAKER_00 3:05

New York fans are are very knowledgeable about the game of basketball, probably all their sports, they're very knowledgeable, right? But the one thing that I admired about New York fans is that they were honest. Yeah. You know, so if you were a good player or you were having a good game, you came back to the bench, they would let you know, man, you're killing us tonight. You gotta stop. You know, so you gotta respect that, you know, from the New Yorkers.

SPEAKER_01 3:26

Yeah, and who and who were some of the guys you played with was that the Patrick Ewing and Oakley and Yeah, Anthony Mason, Anthony Starks, he was a good friend.

SPEAKER_00 3:34

Um, you know, Greg Anthony, another really good friend of mine. I mean, they just had some of the uh toughest teams. So when you played New York Knicks back in those days, you knew you were gonna be in for a fight. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 3:45

But Oakley would be Oakley was sort of like, yeah, throw a little elbow as you came through the lane.

SPEAKER_00 3:49

Not not a little one. It wasn't nothing little about Charles. Charles hit you and you felt it. Yeah, you felt it.

SPEAKER_01 3:56

You probably felt it for a couple days after.

SPEAKER_00 3:57

Yeah, you felt it.

SPEAKER_01 3:58

So who though so when you were playing, man, who is like, you know, for for a guard like you, who's the toughest guy for you to guard? You know, or the the guy Come on, man.

SPEAKER_00 4:06

Or everybody. Yeah, the one that uh the one that the the that the Knicks had the most trouble with, too, Michael Jordan. Yeah, right. You know, he was by far the toughest guy to guard. But also, you know, Reggie Miller was a tough guy because he moved so well without the ball, and he was such a you know clutch player. You know, I I I got the pleasure of playing with him in in uh Indiana for a few years, too. Uh Isaiah Thomas was tough to guard. But a guy that doesn't get a lot of recognized uh a lot of notoriety uh that a lot of people seem to forget, Rolando Blackman was tough. I mean, me and him had battles. He was just a tough 6'6 guard. So you know, those four guys right there, that you know, those are guys that I can just name right off the top of my head. There's obviously a lot of other guys, but those four right there, they were tough.

SPEAKER_01 4:50

That's amazing. Yeah, Rose, I believe, of Dallas. Yeah. Yes. Big time score, smooth shooter. Yeah, yeah. And and you know, you obviously played, you, you know, you're you're it's very it's an amazing story, right? You grew up here, right? Yeah, this you're you're a kid from your you're you're you're an LA kid who winds up being on one of the the greatest most stories franchises. That must have been like a dream come true for you.

SPEAKER_00 5:10

It was because it was a team that I loved. Uh, I was a big Lakers fan growing up. I lived 14 blocks away. You know, it was on 100, uh I lived on 104th and 6th Avenue in Inglewood, California. And I went to Morningside High School, and every now and then we was, you know, walk to the forum and try to sneak in and see a game. For the most part, we we were pretty successful of being able to just run down the tunnel and just run into the arena and just walk around and find a seat.

SPEAKER_01 5:33

You know, you have to tell Jerry Bus that you snuck in a couple times.

SPEAKER_00 5:35

No, but I told I told Jerry West. Okay. So I used to sneak in here, you know. So for me to have the opportunity to play for the team that I admire for so many years, and I was a big Jerry West fan, um, and to start my career there, it was a dream come true.

SPEAKER_01 5:48

It's unbelievable. And just and obviously, you know, I I could I could put you on the spot and you could name probably a dozen incredible guys, but you know, your favorite teammates who are who are the best guys you ever played with?

SPEAKER_00 5:58

Like you said, it it all of them are great teammates, but the two guys that I hung out with the most, uh, everybody called us the three amigos or the three musketeers was Magic and Coop. Yeah. Uh, those were my guys, and and still to this day, we all still very close. We still talk to each other a lot, we still go to each other's events. Um so yeah, when you when you talk about guys that I love being around to this day, guys that I admire, guys that I have a lot of respect for, and guys that I still to this very day call very, very close friends of mine. Amazing. Urban Magic Johnson and Michael Cooper Lupa. Yes. I never heard him called that, man. Cooper Lupa. I'm gonna I'm gonna I'm gonna try that. Let's see what he says when it comes out of my mouth.

SPEAKER_01 6:38

You know, Coop's amazing because uh when and I was a fan of those, you know, you and I we just talked about it, we're about the same age, you know. So I was a fan in those days. Um nowadays I think there's more, I I hear more talk from the commentators about about great defenders. I don't remember hearing it back then, but when anybody talked about Cooper, when everybody talked about Michael Cooper, they talked about a guy who could lock you up and who could lock anybody down and would was always would always be put on the other team's best player, right?

SPEAKER_00 7:04

Yeah, yeah. I mean, Larry Bird said it best, you know. I mean, he he he's come out on numerous occasions and said Michael Cooper was the best defensive player that ever guarded me. That's unbelievable. And that is a hell of a statement. You know, coming from Larry Legend, right? That's a hell of a statement. But Coop was to this day, I still think is one of the greatest defensive players I've ever seen.

SPEAKER_01 7:23

That's unbelievable. Look, Larry, Larry doesn't mince words. No, he don't. He'd be happy to tell you who's the worst defender he ever played against.

SPEAKER_00 7:28

Yeah, he would too. That's true.

SPEAKER_01 7:30

And and talk to me about one of my, you know, when I was growing up, and my my my kids know this, I have a couple of couple of favorite players. Okay. But one of my favorite players, um, and a guy who, quite frankly, I think just doesn't get talked about enough these days is Kareem, his captain, right? I think when when when we talk about these these silly lists, right? You know, the 10 best players, 20 best players, which is really just kind of stupid lists, right? But okay, you know, we people talk about Michael and they talk about uh LeBron and talk about other incredible places players, but uh Kareem did things that were never done before and will never be done again. Yeah, just speak to me a little bit about it.

SPEAKER_00 8:02

Well, I I agree with you there, Mark. I think Kareem, in my opinion, he's the greatest player to ever play the game. And when you talk about uh great basketball players, to me, you gotta take the full body of work. You know, this guy lost one guy, one game in high school, one game in college. He won three national championships in college, and the only reason he didn't win four is because freshmen weren't allowed to play varsity that year. But he had a great saying. He said the UCLA basketball team were ranked number one in the country, but they were ranked number two on campus because the JV team beat them in practice. Wow. With Kareem Abdul Jabbar. So it just goes to show how dominant he was. And I agree with you. I don't think he gets enough credit and enough uh recognition for what he was able to establish in the NBA, what he was able to accomplish. Uh so when you talk about greatest players of all, there's only two people in my mind that you can really bring up, and that's Kareem Abdul Jabbar and Michael Jordan.

SPEAKER_01 8:50

Yeah, I'm I'm glad to hear that. I'm a huge, huge fan of both of me. It's funny you mentioned uh UCLA. So last night we were at the uh the uh the Rockets game. I live in Houston, Rockets Clippers game, and uh my my son-in-law, who you just met, was sitting next to Elvin Hayes, big E.

SPEAKER_00 9:04

The Big E.

SPEAKER_01 9:05

Yeah, game of the century, you know, yeah, it was uh uh Kareem, well then Lou Alcinder and Elvin Hayes. You're talking about storied players, guys that that really deserve the recognition. Oh, no doubt about it.

SPEAKER_00 9:16

I mean, Alvin Hayes is the only one that gave Kareem a uh a loss in college, you know what I mean? The University of Houston. But the big E's one of those great players, too, that a lot of people forget about. Uh and I think it's just generational. You know, we're in a generation right now where they don't they don't look back 20, 30 years ago and see how great some of these players were. They're going on a now, right? And the now is LeBron and some of these other guys. And I'm not taking nothing away from away from LeBron because I'm a big LeBron James fan. And what he's been able to accomplish in the NBA, his longevity has been unmatched. Incredible. Uh, and so you got to give him his flowers because he is definitely one of the greatest.

SPEAKER_01 9:50

Yeah. And Luca, you're yeah, yeah. How do you like Luca on the team now?

SPEAKER_00 9:53

I like Luca, but the the problem with Luca is he can't defend. So you got to get four, five, six other guys who can really defend to uh to cover up his mistakes on the defensive end. Right. But terrific, terrific basketball player. When the ball's in his hands, he makes magic happen. So you got to give him that credit. But I I would love to see him do a better job on the defensive end. Yep.

SPEAKER_01 10:13

There's a couple of guys that you know I'm gonna put Luca in that category who who just seem to play at their own speed. You can't speed them up, you can't slow them down. They're gonna they're gonna get to their spots, and there's really not much that you can do. You know, so we we now have KD in Houston, and it's just such a pleasure to watch him. He you know what he's gonna do, and or you think you know what he's gonna do, but you just can't stop him.

SPEAKER_00 10:34

No, I mean again, you're looking at a 6'11, 6'10, 7 foot two guard who has ball handle abilities of a point guard. And then once he gets in his motion of shooting the ball, there's really nothing you can do because he's so long. But KD has been one of the most efficient scorers that we've had in the NBA for a long time. And uh I'm I've been a big KD fan even when he was at the University of Texas. So the guy is a first ballot Hall of Famer, and obviously he he wants to try to do some some damage there in Houston and see if he can bring his championship there.

SPEAKER_01 11:03

Yeah, we're really we're really enjoying having him. So tell me a little bit about what do what we're doing here. So so by the way, we all know that you can shoot. So this is a bowling, you know, theme event, but I want you to tell me, I want you to talk about what it's really all about. But you know, we all know you could, but let's do let's get first things first, man. We all know you can shoot the rock. Can you bowl the rock? Are you are you a bowling?

SPEAKER_00 11:20

I can bowl the rock too. I mean, I'm not a bad bowler. My high is 237.

SPEAKER_01 11:24

That's pre-zone.

SPEAKER_00 11:26

I can throw that thing a little bit.

SPEAKER_01 11:27

With the without the bumpers up.

SPEAKER_00 11:28

Without the bumpers up. I haven't needed bumpers on the on the bowling out for a long time.

SPEAKER_01 11:34

237, you got a big got a big hook in the stuff.

SPEAKER_00 11:37

Not a big hook, but it's just a nice little gradual. You know, it's kind of like my golf game. I got a nice little gradual draw. You know, it was so same with bowling. But yeah, the the bowling, I used to do a lot of bowling way back in the day. Even when I was playing with the Lakers, I got hooked into bowling. Uh, and then as I got older, I got hooked into tennis, and now I'm hooked into golf. Okay. Uh, but bowling is still something that I love to do, and I really enjoy it. And what we're doing here with the KISS Foundation is uh for the sickle cell disease. Uh, I have the sickle cell traits, so this is kind of something that's um been great for me to get involved with with Kiki Shepherd. Uh, when she when she asked me about it or asked me to get involved with the uh with the organization, she didn't know I had the traits. Oh, yeah. So it was very organically that it happened, and glad I've I've joined over the last five years to do some really good things with her in the organization, especially in our golf tournament. This is the first year that we're doing a bowling tournament together, and we just thought it was only fitting to do it during All-Star Weekend.

SPEAKER_01 12:29

Right, it's a lot of fun. Well, well, appreciate all the work that you're doing, and appreciate you, Mark. I hope you have my pleasure, man. I hope uh, you know, you raised a lot of money and raised some awareness. And thanks for spending a couple minutes with us. I don't want to take you know too much of your time, but I really appreciate you coming in, man. My pleasure. Thanks, brother. Thank you. Appreciate it, man. Thank you so much. Thanks for watching this week's episode. Like and subscribe to the channel. We'll see you next time.