Wes Unseld

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) -- When I met Wes Unseld, he had set the basketball scoring record at the University of Louisville, earned the NBA Rookie of the Year and MVP awards the same season and celebrated the 1978 NBA title with the Washington Bullets.

His Hall of Fame credentials were on record. U of L was bringing Unseld home for a dinner and more recognition.

My editor assigned a story about Unseld’s extraordinary life in advance of his return. After a series of calls, I was connected with Unseld.

He never chased publicity. Gently, Unseld tried to talk me out of the story. But after I convinced Unseld I was willing to fly to the Washington area to talk to him whenever he was available, he agreed.

This is what Unseld did next, for somebody he had never met:

He told me to let him know when my flight would arrive at National Airport. He would pick me up there, drive me to the Bullets’ offices, allow me to watch him shoot several TV commercials, do the interview and then drive me back to the airport.

Which is precisely what he did.

Unseld was waiting outside the airport when I arrived. I’ll always remember the drives and the graciousness of the man.

And the car. I’ll never forget the car. It wasn’t a celebrity status vehicle. It was a Toyota Cressida. Unseld was a mammoth man, nearly 6 feet, 7 inches tall and more than 250 pounds. I’m 6-4. He apologized for the lack of leg room.

“Just like any other big-name athlete would do, right?” Kevin Grevey said Tuesday when I shared the story.

Grevey, like all of Unseld’s friends and former teammates, grieved the news that Unseld, 74, died Tuesday morning.

The news hit the people who knew Unseld from Seneca High School, like former Louisville Mayor Jerry Abramson, his Seneca classmate.

The news hit teammates who played with Unseld at U of L, like Butch Beard, Fred Holden and Jerry King, former U of L player Jerry Eaves and Grevey, the former University of Kentucky star who won that NBA title with Unseld.

IMAGES | U of L legend Wes Unseld during his 3 years with the Cardinals

Everybody had a wonderful Unseld story, and most of the stories were not about how many rebounds Unseld grabbed, points that he scored or on-point outlet passes he threw.

They were about how Unseld and Bullets’ Owner Abe Pollin did business with handshake deals.

“That’s how Wes did business,” Eaves said. “I don’t think he ever signed a contract.”

About how in one season, instead of a monetary bonus, Unseld asked Pollin to purchase the building in Maryland that Unseld and his wife, Connie, transformed into a private school for at-risk children.

About how when Unseld brought home report cards filled with As at Seneca High School, his father visited the principal’s office and asked if Wes earned those grades or whether they were given to him because of his basketball skills.

About when Unseld picked U of L over the opportunity to become the first African American basketball player at the University of Kentucky, he had scholarship offers from Harvard, Princeton and other Ivy League schools.

About how the first thing Unseld purchased after his historic rookie season was a home for his parents off Highway 42 near Prospect.

“Wes was the best,” Eaves said. “There’s no other way to say it.”

“I was lucky enough to play in the NBA for 10 years,” Grevey said. “I never had a better teammate. Not even close. If you needed something or just needed to talk, there was nobody like Wes.”

The 1977-78 season was Grevey’s third in the NBA, but it was Unseld’s 10th. The Bullets were swept in the 1971 NBA Finals by Milwaukee. They were swept in the 1975 NBA Finals by Golden State.

Unseld did not want to be swept in the 1978 NBA Finals by Seattle.

Grevey said before the playoffs, Unseld called a players-only meeting at Washington’s practice facility.

“Wes asked every player if there was anything they wouldn’t be willing to do to win a championship,” Grevey said. “He got that serious Wes Unseld look on his face and told us to think about it before we answered. He said if we couldn’t focus on basketball and basketball only for the next six weeks, we didn’t need to show up and embarrass the team.”

Then Unseld got serious. He fixed his eyes on Grevey.

“Wes said he wanted that championship, that (teammate) Elvin Hayes wanted that championship, that coach (Dick) Motta wanted that championship and that everybody else should want that championship,” Grevey said. “Then he looked at me and said, ‘And if I find out that anybody comes up with a case of the Georgetown Flu (a hangover),' they would have to go see him.”

Grevey paused.

“I went sober the next six weeks,” Grevey said. “I wasn’t about to let big Wes down.”

Unseld, Grevey and the Bullets (a franchise since renamed the Wizards) got their title, winning Game 7 in Seattle. Unseld was named Finals’ MVP.

The celebration included the Louisville area, where Eaves lived for a decade next door to Unseld’s parents. Wes paid for Eaves to fly to Washington with Mr. Unseld to watch several playoff games.

“My first flight and my first NBA playoff games were because of Wes,” Eaves said. “You never forget something like that.”

There was so much more. Abramson said he remains appreciative of everything that Unseld and his older brother, George, did for Seneca High School.

“Wes Unseld was just the ultimate student athlete,” Abramson said. “I’ll never forget how he towered over everybody and just dominated inside.”

Holden said that he remembered how Unseld held teammates accountable for playing defense and rebounding at U of L — with a look, not his tongue.

“I never heard Wes say an insulting or smart word,” Holden said. “But if you riled him up in any way he could really go to work on you.”

King said that Unseld chose his words so carefully that when he spoke, the meaning was magnified.

“Wes had a powerful influence on everybody he played with,” King said.

Eaves remembered that Unseld recruited former U of L star Derek Smith to work as an assistant coach with the Bullets. Unseld was grooming Smith to become the team’s head coach until Smith died from a heart issue in August 1996.

“Wes and his family were on the cruise with Derek and his family,” Eaves said. “It broke him up.”

And Grevey remembered that Unseld recruited him to work on helping to establish an alumni association for the Washington franchise so they could strengthen the bonds they had created as teammates.

“Nobody completely embodied what it took to win in basketball or in life like Wes Unseld,” Grevey said.

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