Conversation

"A competitive educator," he says with a glint in his eye.

Competitive indeed. Starting in 1955, Ramsay coached at his alma mater, Saint Joseph’s College, for 11 years. His teams won the Philadelphia Big Five title seven times and qualified for 10 post-season tournaments. After 21 more years as an NBA coach, his professional victory total at the time was second only to Red Auerbach’s. In 1992, four years after he retired from coaching, he was elected into the Basketball Hall of Fame.

This past June, I met Dr. Jack in his north Naples condo; he’s owned it since 1991, when he started commuting to Miami to broadcast the Heat games. Four days before our appointment, he had returned from covering the 2007 NBA finals for ESPN.com. That morning he had played a round of golf at Quail Village, where he routinely shoots "in the high 70s, low 80s." The following week he was planning to be at the Jersey shore with his family and some of his 13 grandchildren. Obviously there is little down time for this gentleman who turned 82 last February and has been battling cancer for the last three years.

Q: I know that your health and your wife’s health have been challenging, to say the least. How are you dealing with all this?

A: I’m doing OK. My [lung and brain] cancer seems to be under reasonable control, for now.

Q: You’ve also had to deal with the fact that your wife, Jean, has had Alzheimer’s the past six years.

A: She’s at a facility not far from here—Encore. She’s been there since March, and they take great care of her. I try to see her every day when I’m in town.

Q: Despite everything, you look wonderfully fit and trim. Are you still able to maintain some kind of physical regimen?

A: Oh, sure. I go across the street to the Gulf and try to swim up to a mile. I also do a lot of walking. I’d like to start running a mile or two. I’m also hoping I’ll be able do weight work again, and pushups.

Q: Your approach to fitness also extended to your NBA teams. Did your doctoral thesis cover conditioning as well?

A: No. [My thesis] examined the history, goals and objectives of the athletic program at Saint Joseph’s. Unfortunately, the idea for the thesis came from a point-shaving scandal involving three of our players. I had no clue this was going on, and it rocked me to the core. I still look back at how I could have averted this, but I just feel I neglected a big part of my job.

Q: In 1966, when you left St. Joe’s, you immediately became general manager of the pro 76ers. How did that come about?

A: In my last year of college coaching I got an edema on the retina of my right eye, and I really couldn’t see. The ophthalmologist told me that it’s usually due to stress. At about the same time, one of the co-owners of the 76ers died. Irv Kosloff, the other owner, asked me to run the team. I needed to get away from the stress of coaching, so the timing was right. And the eye cleared up in November and never bothered me again.

Q: The Sixers won the NBA title your first year as GM, and your big star was Wilt Chamberlain—one of the greatest players in history. But after your second year you traded him to the Lakers. Why?

A: When Alex Hannum left as coach, Wilt talked about being player-coach and having me run things from the bench. I was fine with that, but then he comes back from a trip to L.A. and says that we either have to trade him to the West Coast or he’s going to jump to the other pro league (the ABA). My attitude was, "You don’t want to be here, fine." But that was the wrong attitude. I should have said, "No trade, but you can either jump to the ABA or be player-coach here, and we’ll pay you whatever it takes."

Q: So now you’ve traded Wilt, and you still don’t have a coach.

A: We’re into August and Kozloff says, "Take it for a year, and we’ll still look for a coach." So I did and we had a good season, and I coached there three more years before going to Buffalo for four years.

Q: I’m told that every time you talk about Bill Walton and the Portland Trail Blazers, your eyes seem to light up—particularly when you mention the 1976-1977 NBA championship team.

A: Bill and that team were really special. When I got to Portland, the team had never had a .500 season, or been to the playoffs, and yet I had a good feeling about them right from the start. Whenever I took a new job I would meet with each player. Walton was the first one I talked to, and I sensed he was eager to play the kind of game I was describing for him and the team. As I was getting up to leave, he said, "Coach, one more thing. Don’t assume we know anything." How many great players say that? I called my assistant, Jack McKinney, and said, "We’re going to have a terrific year." And we did, because these kids were team-oriented and receptive to everything I tried to teach.

Q: You beat the Sixers and Julius Erving in the finals. Could this have been the beginning of a dynasty, if Walton hadn’t gotten injured late in the next season?

A: It’s possible. We were 50-10 at one point, and then Bill broke the bone in his foot, and we had a rash of other injuries. Unfortunately, Bill was so injury prone that he only had two seasons where he was at his best.

Q: Now it’s 30 years later and Portland has another college All-American 7-foot center—Greg Oden from Ohio State, who was the NBA’s No. 1 draft choice this year. Do you feel a certain sense of déjà vu?

A: I think so. I said to Bill, "Oden is just like you." And Bill said, "Oh, coach, he’s much better than I was." I said, "Bill, he’s not as good as you, and may never be as good as you, but he’s like you in that he can do everything." He’s athletic, he can run the floor, he defends, he rebounds, he blocks shots, he can shoot with either hand, he has an inside game and a modest 15-foot jump shot. This kind of player can win it for you. He’s like Walton—they make their teammates better because of their ability to both pass and score.

Q: Your media work as an analyst has certainly helped you stay current with the game. But when you retired from coaching in 1988, did you ever dream that you would be broadcasting for the next 20 years?

A: Not really, and I have thoroughly enjoyed it all.

Q: Isn’t there a big difference between being a hometown announcer as opposed to working for a network like ESPN, where you can be more critical of either team?

A: True. I would not be overly critical of the home team, but I was also honest. When I was doing the Sixer games, Charles Barkley played for them, and he loafed on defense. So he’d be dawdling down the court and I would say, "Charles has got to pick up the pace." Before one particular game I was in the Sixer locker room and Charles says to me, "Jack, you’re killing me about this defense." I said, "Charles, I only say what I see." And he says, "Well, I can’t do both offense and defense." I said, "Michael Jordan does it." And there are his teammates standing behind him, all nodding their heads.

Q: I had read that you were going to retire last year, yet you continued to do radio for ESPN.

A: I did the regular season and early rounds of the playoffs with my old partner Jim Durham. But ESPN wanted to replace him in the finals and have me work with Mike Tirico. I said, "You’ve got the best play-by-play guy in the world, and you’re going to bounce him? Then I’m done too." So instead I ended up doing the finals for ESPN.com. I did two-minute pieces before and after the games, and you could see them on your computer. Technically, I have no idea how they do that, but it worked out well.

Q: Where do you stand with ESPN for this coming season?