It may already be 19 years since he last played for the Chicago Bulls, but Luc Longley still remembers it clearly, especially how his move to the team made him fall in love once again with the game of basketball. After his forgettable stint with the Minnesota Timberwolves, the Australian international was traded to the Bulls back in 1994 and played a huge part in winning their second three-peat following Michael Jordan’s return from his first retirement.
Longley went on to become their starting center and learned a lot from his teammates and Phil Jackson. He recently shared his experience in The Windy City, via Nick Metallinos of ESPN, where he talked about having supportive teammates who played unselfish basketball.
“I get to Chicago and it's entirely the opposite [of Minnesota]. Everyone is vocal and supportive of everybody else.”
“It was back to being basketball involved, spacing, movement and sharing the ball and back to playing basketball. The experience that I had when I first got into the league – and it happens with teams that aren't very good in the NBA – is that you play isolation 1-on-1 bully-ball, hero ball; which is not fun if you're not the hero. So you tend to be not involved.”
He also discussed how his confidence grew after he joined the winning team and what it meant to his game.
“Phil [Jackson] had a very different command of a group of young men's minds to anything I'd ever experienced before. I immediately felt accepted, and it pumped up my tires. It got me feeling confident, and when you're confident you play better, and when you play better you feel [more] confident.”
As it turned out, Longley became a pioneer of Australian basketball and paved the way for future players from his country to also be noticed, and have a chance to play in the NBA.
With his playing career now over, he is currently an assistance coach for the Australian Boomers and still having his life revolve around basketball. He may be a three-time champion and part of the his country’s basketball Hall-of-Fame, but he will always be thankful for being part of the Bulls in the 1990s, where he played at his best and helped him become the person that he is now.
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