Embry was elected to Basketball Hall of Fame in 1999 as a contributor

All quotes come from Wayne Embry’s autobiography THE INSIDE GAME: RACE POWER AND POLITICS IN THE NBA Please don’t sue me.

Bob Lanier was an imposing man: 6’11” and 260 lbs that bullied other grown men around all the time. But right now he was staring at the ground like a scolded child as the full frame of Wayne Embry towered over him. Embry was a former center in the league and the first African American general manager in the league. He had just lectured Lanier to ensure that Lanier would cause no problems once the Bucks acquired him.

Mr. Fitzgerald is the owner, we don’t need you to be the owner. Nellie is the coach, and he’s a pretty good one. We don’t need you to coach. I am the vice president and I help in personnel decisions. We don’t need you to do that, either. We need you to come and play basketball to the best of your ability and bring veteran leadership to a talented team of quality people.

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After the 1967 Milwaukee riots, original Bucks owner Wesley Pavalon took to wearing dashikis and flashing the black power sign. He was friends with Roots author Alex Haley and Arthur Ashe. Before the start of the Bucks lone championship season, he went to a tennis tournament outside of Boston to watch his friend Ashe. His trip doubled as a recruiting mission. He was looking to hire Boston’s current Director of Recreation Wayne Embry as the Bucks’ Assistant to the President. Read more…

Jerry Stackhouse has cooked up some good bench play since arriving in January

Let’s get one thing clear: NBA players have egos.  If they didn’t, they wouldn’t have made it as far as they have.  From pee-wee league to high school to college, these guys are typically the best players on their teams.  And if they aren’t they best, they usually think they are, because that sort of confidence is what breeds success at higher levels.  Often, what’s driving them to work so hard is their belief that they are the best.  Once they get that taste, they don’t want to lose it.  So the first time a coach comes to them and says, “how about coming off the bench?” you can understand that it often rubs them the wrong way.  Unless it’s done right.

Lucky for the Bucks, Don Nelson did the heavy lifting for them a few years ago with Jerry Stackhouse.

“When I first did it in Dallas, I knew I could still start,” said Stackhouse.  “I had a coach (Nelson) that approached me in the right way.  I think it’s all about, kind of massaging.  You know, everybody’s got an ego in this league and he massaged mine a little bit.”

Accepting the sixth man role may sound like a small thing to do when the other option is earning a reputation as a problem, but it isn’t always as easy as it sounds.  Look no further than Stackhouse’s one time teammate Allen Iverson. Iverson had an opportunity to be the key to the Grizzlies bench this season.  He could have come off the bench as the featured option, got his shots and been a focal point, albeit for fewer minutes than he was accustomed to.  But Iverson balked at being a bench player.  Perhaps he felt it was beneath a man of his many accomplishments or maybe Memphis just didn’t handle him properly, whatever the reason, Allen Iverson in Memphis lasted just three games.

When he and coach Nelson first talked about it, Stackhouse liked the way it sounded. Read more…