Earlier this summer on July 26, I had the honor of sitting down to interview NBA Hall of Famer Tom “Satch” Sanders. Sanders played 13 years in the NBA, all for the Boston Celtics, from 1960–1973, after graduating from NYU. He went to eight NBA Finals, and came out with a perfect 8-0 record; a remarkable achievement that puts him only behind teammates Bill Russell and Sam Jones for most rings of all time.
Tom Sanders grew up in New York, where he started playing basketball at about the age of 12. Rather than basketball, however, he wanted to be a baseball player at first. “I used to play a lot of baseball and that’s what I thought I wanted to do, athletically. As far as sports went, I wanted to be a pitcher. That’s where the name Satchel Paige came from. Well, Satch came from that because after I stopped playing baseball it became Satch instead of Satchel Paige. I was about 6 foot 2 at that age, and everyone kept pushing me towards basketball. Eventually I started playing a little more and a little more, and things just happened the right way.”
Sanders was fortunate enough to make it to the final four in his last year at NYU in 1960, the biggest stage in college basketball. I asked him how it compared to any of his eight Finals appearances, as far as the atmosphere went and the excitement and hype surrounding the team. “Oh, it compares. It compares because you have to deal with the level of your life at that particular time. It’s like hey, I was 20 years of age out at San Francisco at the Final Four. It’s a big deal. That’s the way you have to gauge it.”
My next question I asked him was, “What would you say was a tougher transition for you, college basketball to professional ball, or professional basketball to retirement (life after basketball)?” He answered: “The tough transition would have been the transition from professional basketball to normal life. Because all the other stuff, in terms of high school to college to the pros, you wanted it badly. You were doing something you really enjoyed, it was competitive, you were juiced, I guess the word passionate works. When you’re getting to the point where it’s ending, what else do you have? Where are you going to find that kind of passion or something that juices you in the same way so you can put 100% of your effort into it? That didn’t exist.”
An on-the-court question I had for Sanders was, “Who would you say was the toughest player you ever played against, well, defended?” He said, “I had a tough time certainly with Elgin Baylor because he was a dominant scorer. Another guy who was very tough for me was Willis Reed for the New York Knicks, a tough left hander. The problem was he was much heavier and much stronger than I was. Physically, he was a load.”
Of course, one of the biggest rivalries in sports is between the Celtics and the Lakers. I had to see what his thoughts were on that topic. “Having played them six times in the NBA Finals, how would you describe the Celtics-Lakers rivalry and what does it mean to you?” Satch answered, “Hey, they just happened to be able to dominate the West while we were taking care of business in the East and so therefore we met up quite often. But you know, we had a lot of games against each during the exhibition season, we would play at least a half a dozen to 10 games against each other. We got to know each other very well, and remember there were only eight teams in the league at the time so you got a chance to see each other an awful lot, it was difficult to come up with anything new. Let me give you an example of the type of team we had. K.C. Jones was very patient, and we knew we had to find edges to beat this team with Jerry West and Elgin, two machines. We had an exhibition game, and their third leading scorer was a guy named Barnett. He passed with style, and always put the ball out with reverse spin, which slows the pass down. K.C. pointed this out to the team, but didn’t do a thing with that thought until we were in the sixth game of the Finals. I never forgot that. We were down, and then three straight times in a row in the fourth quarter K.C. stole the ball. It turned that game around. You got to realize, he held on to that since the exhibition season in September.”
Sanders was inducted into the NBA Hall of Fame on April 4, 2011, deservingly so. Besides his playing career, he was the head coach at Harvard University from 1973–1977, and also coached the Celtics for a year in 1978. His number 16 jersey is retired by the Boston Celtics and is of course hung up in the TD Garden to this day. Following the interview, he asked me multiple questions about my playing career and just about my life in general. He is a humble man who truly cares about people and it’s clear that he enjoys engaging in conversation and learning about others. Having had the opportunity to interview him is something that I greatly appreciate.
Tom “Satch” Sanders Interview
By Dylan Porcaro
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September 14, 2018