Slick Leonard Tells Tales At Local Country Club
July 28, 2016 at 4:25 p.m.
LEESBURG - Bobby Leonard can talk.
It's what he's paid to do as the Indiana Pacers' radio analyst.
But it's what comes natural to him, what he loves to do.
He can talk Larry Bird and snakes and how a game of gin in West Virginia earned him the nickname "Slick."
"I'm a storyteller," he said. "You have to liven up the joint."
In this case, the joint was the Tippecanoe Lake Country Club, as Leonard was there Wednesday to speak at the J. Homer Shoop Scholarship Luncheon.
Dressed in a blue jacket, tan slacks and a tie with blue and red diagonal stripes, Leonard wore a perpetual open-mouthed grin on his face.
The 68-year-old Leonard has been involved with professional sports as a player, coach or broadcaster for 48 years. The last 17 have been with the Indiana Pacers as one of their two radio voices.
"Doing that job is like stealing," he said. "I'm sitting in the front row, and I see guys like Michael Jordan and Shaquille O'Neal. I get paid for that."
Leonard is much more than "Boom Baby," the signature phrase he shouts after each Pacers' made three-pointer.
Leonard played college basketball for Branch McCracken at Indiana University, where he was an All-American in 1953 and 1954 and served as captain on the 1953 championship team. The first player inducted into the Indiana University Sports Hall of Fame? Leonard.
After playing for Indiana University, Leonard played seven years in the NBA for the Minneapolis/Los Angeles Lakers and Chicago Packers. He averaged 9.8 points and 3.3 assists per game from 1954 through 1961.
For his seven years in the pros, Leonard earned less money than what current Pacer shooting guard Reggie Miller makes in one game.
Then Leonard may have achieved his greatest success, as a pro coach with the Indiana Pacers, Baltimore Bullets and Chicago Bulls. His coaching career started in 1963 at the age of 30 with the Bullets. Leonard won 597 games over 14 years and guided the Pacers to ABA titles in 1970, 1971 and 1973.
His ABA teams went 387-270 as he is the league's all-time winningest coach.
Forty-eight years in basketball have given the storyteller an endless supply of stories.
On Sunday, Market Square Arena was imploded. Leonard watched the former home of the Pacers collapse from the roof of Conseco Fieldhouse, the Pacers' current home arena.
"The last practice at Market Square Arena," Leonard said, "after the players left the floor, (then Pacers coach) Larry Bird had me come in. The only people in there were the workers standing around, getting ready to tear up the floor. Larry bounced the ball over to me and said, 'Slick, I want you to take the last shot here.'
"I was the first coach at Market Square Arena, and Larry Bird was the first coach at Conseco Fieldhouse. We are both native Hoosiers."
Bird, born in French Lick, and Leonard, born in Terre Haute, are close friends. The morning after his speech at the country club, Leonard was going to visit Bird.
Their friendship never dissolved over pranks, which were pulled.
When Bird coached the Pacers and the team was in Golden State, Bird and Leonard ate Chinese food. After the big meal, Leonard returned to the hotel and fell asleep - as he says he's apt to do after a big meal -Êwatching Monday Night Football. Bird took chalk and wrote on Leonard's face.
Leonard, a deep sleeper, never woke up.
"Larry painted my face up like an Indian," he said. "I had white lines here, here, there ... I looked like cochise. I got up in the morning and went to get a cup of coffee, and there's a Baptist convention going on. The looks I was getting ... I promised Larry I would get him back."
The favor was returned in Phoenix. This time they ate Mexican food, and Leonard waited for Bird to use the bathroom.
"Larry's one great fear is of snakes," Leonard said. "I bought one of those remote control rattle snakes with a battery in it and put it in the corner by the toliet. After we ate, Larry went to the bathroom. I gave a 10-second count after he left, then pressed the button.
"The bathroom door flew open and Larry bolted out, his pants down at his ankles. I said, 'Larry, I got you back.'"
Leonard may be better known as Slick Leonard rather than Bobby Leonard. He earned the nickname in 1957 when the Lakers stopped in West Virginia.
During the layover, Leonard got into a game of gin with a truck driver.
"I blitzed this truck driver in a gin game," he said. "Boy, you are slick. Hot Rod Hundley was on the team, and he heard him call me that, and that's how it began. Hot Rod kept calling me that."
Slick has the stories because he's a passionate man, and passion and believing in a dream is what he preached to the award winners at the luncheon.
"Next week I turn 69," he said, the grin still on his face. "I'll be getting into overtime. You have to be excited about life." [[In-content Ad]]
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LEESBURG - Bobby Leonard can talk.
It's what he's paid to do as the Indiana Pacers' radio analyst.
But it's what comes natural to him, what he loves to do.
He can talk Larry Bird and snakes and how a game of gin in West Virginia earned him the nickname "Slick."
"I'm a storyteller," he said. "You have to liven up the joint."
In this case, the joint was the Tippecanoe Lake Country Club, as Leonard was there Wednesday to speak at the J. Homer Shoop Scholarship Luncheon.
Dressed in a blue jacket, tan slacks and a tie with blue and red diagonal stripes, Leonard wore a perpetual open-mouthed grin on his face.
The 68-year-old Leonard has been involved with professional sports as a player, coach or broadcaster for 48 years. The last 17 have been with the Indiana Pacers as one of their two radio voices.
"Doing that job is like stealing," he said. "I'm sitting in the front row, and I see guys like Michael Jordan and Shaquille O'Neal. I get paid for that."
Leonard is much more than "Boom Baby," the signature phrase he shouts after each Pacers' made three-pointer.
Leonard played college basketball for Branch McCracken at Indiana University, where he was an All-American in 1953 and 1954 and served as captain on the 1953 championship team. The first player inducted into the Indiana University Sports Hall of Fame? Leonard.
After playing for Indiana University, Leonard played seven years in the NBA for the Minneapolis/Los Angeles Lakers and Chicago Packers. He averaged 9.8 points and 3.3 assists per game from 1954 through 1961.
For his seven years in the pros, Leonard earned less money than what current Pacer shooting guard Reggie Miller makes in one game.
Then Leonard may have achieved his greatest success, as a pro coach with the Indiana Pacers, Baltimore Bullets and Chicago Bulls. His coaching career started in 1963 at the age of 30 with the Bullets. Leonard won 597 games over 14 years and guided the Pacers to ABA titles in 1970, 1971 and 1973.
His ABA teams went 387-270 as he is the league's all-time winningest coach.
Forty-eight years in basketball have given the storyteller an endless supply of stories.
On Sunday, Market Square Arena was imploded. Leonard watched the former home of the Pacers collapse from the roof of Conseco Fieldhouse, the Pacers' current home arena.
"The last practice at Market Square Arena," Leonard said, "after the players left the floor, (then Pacers coach) Larry Bird had me come in. The only people in there were the workers standing around, getting ready to tear up the floor. Larry bounced the ball over to me and said, 'Slick, I want you to take the last shot here.'
"I was the first coach at Market Square Arena, and Larry Bird was the first coach at Conseco Fieldhouse. We are both native Hoosiers."
Bird, born in French Lick, and Leonard, born in Terre Haute, are close friends. The morning after his speech at the country club, Leonard was going to visit Bird.
Their friendship never dissolved over pranks, which were pulled.
When Bird coached the Pacers and the team was in Golden State, Bird and Leonard ate Chinese food. After the big meal, Leonard returned to the hotel and fell asleep - as he says he's apt to do after a big meal -Êwatching Monday Night Football. Bird took chalk and wrote on Leonard's face.
Leonard, a deep sleeper, never woke up.
"Larry painted my face up like an Indian," he said. "I had white lines here, here, there ... I looked like cochise. I got up in the morning and went to get a cup of coffee, and there's a Baptist convention going on. The looks I was getting ... I promised Larry I would get him back."
The favor was returned in Phoenix. This time they ate Mexican food, and Leonard waited for Bird to use the bathroom.
"Larry's one great fear is of snakes," Leonard said. "I bought one of those remote control rattle snakes with a battery in it and put it in the corner by the toliet. After we ate, Larry went to the bathroom. I gave a 10-second count after he left, then pressed the button.
"The bathroom door flew open and Larry bolted out, his pants down at his ankles. I said, 'Larry, I got you back.'"
Leonard may be better known as Slick Leonard rather than Bobby Leonard. He earned the nickname in 1957 when the Lakers stopped in West Virginia.
During the layover, Leonard got into a game of gin with a truck driver.
"I blitzed this truck driver in a gin game," he said. "Boy, you are slick. Hot Rod Hundley was on the team, and he heard him call me that, and that's how it began. Hot Rod kept calling me that."
Slick has the stories because he's a passionate man, and passion and believing in a dream is what he preached to the award winners at the luncheon.
"Next week I turn 69," he said, the grin still on his face. "I'll be getting into overtime. You have to be excited about life." [[In-content Ad]]