Wes Unseld was the first great basketball player I saw in person. I was 7. It was March 1963, a Wednesday night. Our Maysville Bulldogs opened the state tournament against Clay County in Louisville’s Freedom Hall. Bobby Hiles made a free throw at the end. We won 66-65.
We settled back to watch the second game. (Maysville would play its winner on Friday.) I remember the PA man saying, “Goal by Redd,” over and over. Mike Redd, the leading scorer for Louisville Seneca, would soon be named Kentucky’s Mr. Basketball. My dad noted that the reason Redd scored all those baskets was the presence of a huge young man – he was listed as 6-foot-7, 245 pounds – who would rebound Redd’s misses and flip the ball back to him to try again.