Marcus Camby on ESPN's Up Close
Courtesey: ESPN, 8/18/1998

This is a transcript from the ESPN television show, a one-on-one conversation between host Chris Myers and Marcus Camby.



Chris Myers: Hi and welcome to the show and thanks for joining us. A couple of years ago I guess he was college basketball's player of the year and he had a lot to do with UMass reaching the Final Four that season. He also was the reason the appearance was stripped away. We'll address that in a moment. We welcome former Raptor now member of the Knicks, Marcus Camby to the program. Nice to have you on the show.

Marcus Camby: Thanks for having me Chris.

Myers: You look sharp. You were saying before we went on "Hey, I thought your studio was bigger." And I thought you were shorter. For a 7 footer you really are large. We had to adjust the chair so you could fit on our set. But you're also bulking up during this lock-out period.

Camby: Oh yeah, I'm just trying to get bigger. I've been New Orleans working out for the past month and a half with Mackey Shieldstone (spelling ?), a guy you know.

Myers: He's worked with some great athletes and he just doesn't make you bigger, stronger. The weight, he takes a lot of things into consideration. They check your health right away.

Camby: Health, that's the most important thing. And also, what makes Mackey so important is that he does everything with you. He's a little guy but when I'm out there on the track run he's on the track. When I'm on the court doing suicides he's out there doing the same thing. When I'm pushing a big weight he's doing the same thing, so it's good to have a guy like that in you're corner.

Myers: Yeah, he rides you, pushes you along. If he gets on you're nerves you just kind of smack him around a little.

Camby: Yeah, yeah. (laughs)

Myers: How many hours a day then are you going through in this off-season program?

Camby: Well I get up about 6:30, eat breakfast, you know, make sure you get those meals in before you get with The Mackey cause you need all the energy you can. We probably go from about 8:30 to about 12:30 just conditioning, weights, come back again like 3:30 and work on your basketball skills at the gym. That's a nice setup, I really like what's going on with Mackey.

Myers: So how much weight have you added? You were playing at about 220 last year, if you started today what would you play at?

Camby: 235. I made a big improvement.

Myers: And it's a solid increase in weight?

Camby: Yeah, it's solid. I always tried to put on weight before but it's hard to maintain, especially going through a rigorous NBA schedule and all the practices and the travel and stuff. It's really hard to put on weight sometimes but right now I'm solid and looking forward to getting ready to start.

Myers: And there were some concerns about your health in the past because of collapsing at UMass your junior year and your rookie season also with the Raptors. Obviously you were checked out with a physical before you went through this (the trade to the Knicks). Any lingering effects, or do people still question "is there maybe a heart ailment here"?

Camby: Oh, not at all. I mean, once I had that incident happen at UMass the doctors gave me a clean bill of health and I was able to go back out there, but the scary thing about it was more scary for my mom. I mean, she didn't know what was going on and she had mostly all the concerns but I kept telling her I was real fine and I was able to go out there and still play.

Myers: Alright. So in late June you're traded from the Toronto Raptors to the Knicks for Charles Oakley, and then the lockout comes in July. Were you happy to be traded? I guess you haven't had a chance really to say "hi" to the guys in New York?

Camby: Oh I was excited. I was real thrilled about getting a chance to play in New York. The birthplace of basketball, the birthplace of music. It's also close to my small hometown in Hartford, Connecticut. It's good to have that family support coming down there and coming to see me play, especially with Madison Square Garden and by in the Hartford Civic Center so hopefully we can play a couple exhibition games in the Civic Center and have like a homecoming for myself.

Myers: Have you talked to Pat Ewing, any of the guys on the Knicks team?

Camby: Actually, I haven't talked to any of the players. Everybody's been so distant. Everybody's on their own agenda for the course of the summer. But we're supposed to hook up real soon. I think a lot of guys are coming back into town in New York, so hopefully we can get together and work out and just try to get a feel of everybody.

Myers: Having carried a team in college and being a high draft pick, you're used to the expectations. But in New York being traded for Charles Oakley, who along with Ewing, really Charles was the heart and soul of the team and a lot of fans were sorry to see him go. Obviously, they gained with a younger player. But can you replace a guy like that or at least accomplish what he did with the team?

Camby: Well I'm not going to go in and try to replace Charles Oakley. He's a terrific ball-player, a guy I looked up to, watched on TV when I was a kid. He was a hard worker. I think I'm going to bring something different to the table than what Charles brought. More versatile. Maybe able to play a couple positions across the front line and just give the Knicks a new dimension out there on the basketball court.

Myers: And how about your position and where you would want to play? I mean, in time power forward, I think, is what people would like to see. That's part of the bulking up. But what do you prefer or do you like playing a number of positions?

Camby: I like playing numerous positions. You can't really define my game by position. I consider myself a player. I go out there and just play. If the coach wants me to go out there and guard 3s, I can go out there and guard 3s, or 4s, or 5s. But I'm more comfortable facing the basket with my back towards the basket and I'm able to use my quickness and my speed to be able to get by defenders.

Myers: Now missing 38 games, in and around that number, over the first two seasons because of injuries, some question the toughness. I guess that's part of the reason for the improved conditioning on your part. I saw a Raptors front office employee said and the quote was "I'll give it to November 15th before Patrick Ewing punches him in the head," referring to you going to New York. What do you think he means by that?

Camby: Well I don't know what he means by that. But I was hurt last year, and I played a lot of games real hurt last year. I was just trying to go out there and give it my best. There were days when I didn't feel well healthwise, but I was able to go out there and still give it 110% effort when I was out there on the court. My thing right now is just be consistent. Go out there and do it night in and night out against the best competition in the world.

Myers: Is it fair then for people to question your toughness?

Camby: Well people are going to have their own critics and what they say about me but I know as a player, what I have to do to get myself in the best condition as possible and what can make Marcus Camby a better basketball player.

Myers (to camera): Alright and he's doing that now awaiting the lockout hopefully to come to an end. We're Up Close with Marcus Camby of the New York Knicks who led the league in blocked shots last year. When we come back, we'll talk about before he got to the NBA, when he led UMass to the Final Four, and when is a Final Four appearance not really a Final Four appearance? Well address that when we return, don't go away.

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Myers (to camera): And we'll continue with ex-Raptor Marcus Camby now of the Knicks, the second-overall pick in the 1996 Draft. Has he lived up to that?

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Highlight clip of Camby at a September 1997 press conference, Camby speaking: "In my situation I thought I had a lot of good people in my corner, and it comes to find out that everybody is out for the same thing and it wasn't money and I got burned. I just don't want no kids out there getting burned. Just look at my situation and just take it from there.

Myers (to camera): And we're Up Close with Marcus Camby of the Knicks.

Myers (to Camby): That was in '97, after '96 when you were college player of the year and you lead UMass to the Final Four. But then the Final Four is stripped away by the NCAA and the school is also fined $151,000 because of your involvement with an agent at the time that you were playing for UMass. You have since repaid the money and dealt with the issue. But let's go back for a moment when you knew about this person approaching you, wanting you to (choose him as your agent) so to speak. Did you realize at the time what you were doing was wrong?

Camby: Well, you know, I made some bad decisions and I got put in some bad situations. A lot of stuff that was said was totally untrue. You know it was all about facing up to your responsibilities and I think I have. I've accepted everything that people have said or what people have said about myself and I've had to deal with it and I think by me dealing with those situations today has made me a better person.

Myers: Because some of the things that were said was that you received jewelry, thousands of dollars, prostitution was involved, the idea of being that "hey, this guy says I'll promise this to you, a young guy out of college, if you make sure that I'm going to be your agent when you make it to the big time and the pro game." Was any of that accurate? Did you receive money, jewelry or prostitution?

Camby: Well, like I said, a lot of that stuff that came out, a lot of things happened. But, a lot of that stuff was totally untrue. You know, I really can't reflect on what people thought about me or what was said. But it was a learning process for myself. I think I've grown up a lot since that time and over the course of those last couple years it was kind of tough going out there and playing and have that stuff said about you and have that in your personal life. I think that any athlete who says going out there on the court...

Myers: ...it doesn't affect you.

Camby: Yeah, I think they're lying. That's my own opinion. It did affect me. It did affect my play. Just worrying about it and just having people say bad things about me, I think it was really tough for my mom and my sisters and my family having that stuff said about me. But like I said, it made me a tougher person mentally and physically right now.

Myers: I think it was important for you to address younger people out there who might be in a similar position, paying back the $151,000 back through the program because of the penalty. But at the time, is it fair to penalize a school for what a young athlete in the program does in the big picture?

Camby: Well, I think the NCAA had to do what they had to do. I took it upon myself to repay the money back out of my own pocket. I donated $75,000 to African-American Studies and $76,000 to Health Services. I felt that there were two parts of the University that needed it the most, especially Health Services. The ladies took such good care of me when I was up there (after the January 1996 collapse). It was good to see when we played there in Springfield they were holding up signs saying "We love you Marcus," but it's good to see that reaction after what's happened to myself.

Myers: Yeah, what would you tell someone who's in that position? You're a young guy and you're approached. Did you realize, again, at the time what you were doing what was wrong?

Camby: Well you never know. Things come at you so fast and people come at you from so different angles. I think that young people out there should sit back and just analyze the whole process and analyze what's really going on and make the best decision. It was a learning process for myself and you know, I've grown up a lot from that situation. You just have to move on with it.

Myers: Can you turn to your coach, a guy like John Calipari, in that situation? Did you?

Camby: Well, I mainly stuck to myself. I mean...

Myers: Why?

Camby: Well, it was mine, it was my own problem and something I had to deal with, something that I got myself into and I took it upon myself as a man to get myself out of this situation. I didn't want to burden anyone else so I just took it upon myself to handle the situation at hand.

Myers: How did John react to you and other players that you played with on that UMass team because it's a little bit ... the NCAA ... I think they're kidding themselves because it actually took place, you can't remove history so you can take away the honor of being in the Final Four but you were there and UMass earned it and this other incident really had nothing to do with that.

Camby: Yeah, I mean as stuff was going on I got a lot of caution from my teammates, a lot of caution from Coach Cal, just saying "Marcus, we're still behind you, we still love you, just keep your head in it" and that's what I did. But as for penalized, nobody can say we really replace what we did that year, we were 35 and 2, went to the Final Four, I mean everybody out there saw what we were doing. No one expected us to achieve that goal and we went out there and just did it. That was like a total team effort, not including myself but the other 11 guys that were on the ballclub.

Myers: The agent who was involved, Wesley Spears, what has become of him?

Camby: Actually, I don't know. I mean, I don't know what has happened to him.

Myers: Should he have been (prosecuted) or penalized through all this in some way?

Camby: (laughs) Well I don't know. I mean, on the rules I guess, I don't really know about the NCAA rules that much about...

Myers: Well just for being, maybe, dishonest, in the first place.

Camby: (laughs)

Myers: That would be one thing. I don't know what kind of penalty there is for that.

Camby: I don't know about a penalty for dishonesty.

Myers: But obviously you learned that you can't trust certain people. And how is your agent, your representation now? And how cautious are you about these things now?

Camby: Well I think my agent representation now is fantastic. We have a good hands-on relationship. We talk often, we often see each other. I'm happy with the situation I'm in right now.

Myers: And he's someone you can lean on?

Camby: Someone I can trust, I can turn to, and he's also like a father figure in my life, so it's good to have that kind of support in your corner.

Myers: Let me ask you about one other incident. In fact Chris Webber, recently charged with marijuana possession, he denies the charge, or arrest I should say. Last summer you were arrested for marijuana possession while driving in South Windsor, Connecticut, charges were later dropped. Can you tell us what happened?

Camby: Well I got caught in a bad situation, I mean, things happen, especially being a pro athlete nowadays, you're under the microscope so much that you have to be very careful with what you're doing and that was the bad situation I got caught up in. And you know, through time things have passed and you know I've been fine with the situation and everything else has been straight for myself and, you know, I'm just looking forward to just playing basketball.

Myers: Do you think ,and I asked Chris Webber about this, and this is part of the labor issue with the NBA players and the league, and I realize you've only been in the league for a couple of years, but, marijuana testing, is that something that the NBA should have for it's players in the future? They don't currently have it, of course.

Camby: Well if they're going to test drugs I think they should test all drugs. I think they're doing it in other sports so just adding in marijuana probably wouldn't change or do one thing or another, but you know, that's they're rules.

Myers: So you'd be for testing then, for marijuana testing?

Camby: Yeah, I mean, if that's what they decide, you have no choice if you really want to play. So, I mean, you just have to go by what they're bringing to the table and what they come back with.

Myers: How active are you or how closely are you following the current lockout? I know your paycheck wouldn't be affected until we get to November, some players are in a different situation with guaranteed contracts. But I would imagine that's when it would really hit home when your money's not coming in. How closely are you following things?

Camby: Well I'm taking it in stride, taking it one day at a time. I'm just hoping that it can be over real quickly so I can get back in playing basketball. As you know I got traded , you know, a couple days before the lockout so I haven't had no opportunity to talk to the coaches or management. That's putting me in a setback. Hopefully if this thing goes longer I'm going to be coming in blindsided into training camp not really knowing what to expect or how to get a feel for the players. But I just hope that everything comes out fair for both the players and for the owners and we can just squash this real soon.

Myers (to camera): Alright, we'll continue with Marcus Camby of the Knicks. He was the 1996 college player of the year, that year that UMass went to the Final Four. When we come back, we'll talk to him about realizing his full potential as he heads into his third year, hopefully, if this lockout thing is settled in time. Don't go away.

--- commercial break ---

Myers (to camera): And welcome back to Up Close. We're talking hoops with Marcus Camby formerly of Toronto, now a member of the Knicks who led the NBA in blocks the last season, just under 4 a game.

Myers (to Camby): Now you would think that's just an instinctive reactionary thing, you're a 7-footer, you just stand there and block them when guys come in. But is there a little more technique involved in blocking a shot or leading the league in blocks?

Camby: I think it's just all about timing. It's being in the right position at the right time and just being aggressive. I mean, that was my fort�, you know, I really strive on the defensive end, shutting my guy down or just helping out, you know, guys who break down our defense and penetrate in the lane and I just try to go out there and just block the shot. Not also just block the shot, half the time I'm just altering the shot, and that's just as good as blocking the shot.

Myers: That's right, same effect. Now how do you practice blocking a shot?

Camby: I think you really don't practice. (laughs) Just growing up having a lot of little kids driving the lane and just sending it up out of there and stuff. I just go out there and try to jump my highest point and make sure I have the right timing and just try to send it up out of there. Not just send it out of bounds, keep it in play so we can gain possession and go on the other end with a break and hopefully get two.

Myers: Now your coach back in college, John Calipari, of course in the NBA with the Nets, and along with the Pacers, rumored in closed deals trying to acquire you from Toronto before the Knicks made the trade. Were you hoping to be reunited with John Calipari?

Camby: Well, you know Coach Cal is a great guy. He recruited me since I was in 9th grade in high school, so I'm quite familiar with him, especially from playing with him in college. He's a fiery coach, he always wants to get the best up out of you. I think he's going to do a great job with New Jersey. I think he's going to rebuild, just like he did at UMass and do the same thing at New Jersey. They already made the playoffs and the sky's the limit for them right now. He's a great coach.

Myers: He already made you a better player of you obviously in college. Would he, could he make you a better player in the pro game if he were coaching you?

Camby: Well I think he has an advantage because he knows me already, he knows what I'm capable of doing out there on the court, and we have a great feel for one another. But like I said, I'm happy with my situation in New York. I mean, we're just over the river. I'm looking forward to a couple battles with him next, upcoming season.

Myers: I guess you haven't really been able to talk to Jeff Van Gundy, the coach because of the lockouts, where management and players need to be separated.

Camby: I talked to him like twice, I think...

Myers: ...right before the lockout.

Camby: Yeah, right before the lockout, then he came up to my basketball camp I had up in Hartford, Connecticut and we sat down and talked a little bit. But as for that, those two meetings, nothing else.

Myers: Do you remember seeing him in the playoffs, (demonstrating a hugging motion) holding on to the leg, being kind of trampled around?

Camby: (laughs) Yeah, I've seen him down on there, tugging onto Alonzo's leg. (laughing)

Myers: So you know he's a tough guy even though he's really a little guy.

Camby: Yeah he's real short but I can see he's real tough, he'll do anything for the team. You know, you need a guy like that in your corner every night going out there especially playing against the toughest competition in the world, you know in the NBA.

Myers: You think you're a better player with a coach who's demanding?

Camby: Well, I think if I can go out there and just be me, just go out there and work hard and bring it to the court every night then I think I can get things accomplished and you know, he's a great coach just as well as Coach Calipari. I can see that they both want to get the best up out of you.

Myers: Well because there's a lot of expectations and potential, in fact your former teammate Damon Stoudamire said that potential is the biggest word in the dictionary, and talking about the critics who question "hey, you were the number two overall pick right after Allen Iverson in the '96 draft," so a lot is expected just based on that. Have you lived up to that honor so far?

Camby: Well I think I'm on my way, I think I'm on my way. It starts now. I think the only pressure I can put on myself right now is to prepare for the upcoming season. That's why I'm in New Orleans working hard every day, getting up early, getting ready to have a strong showing for the fans in New York. I mean, if I can just continue and continue to work hard and work hard on my game and my conditioning, I think I can have a tremendous career.

Myers: Were you a little bit disappointed in going to Toronto? I mean, it's another country. You can say it now obviously because you don't play there anymore. And they discharged from Williams to Stoudamire and now Isiah Thomas is out of there, and they had a good thing going and now it's a mess. But how did that maybe work against you in a way?

Camby: Well, Toronto is different. I think it was good for myself, actually, you know, to get out of the United States and just get away. I grew up in Connecticut, went to school in Massachusetts and I'm just a Northeastern guy so I just wanted to get out so I think it was a great situation at first. Going into a team that had Damon Stoudamire that was led by Isiah Thomas and his vision that he had, and all of a sudden things just came crashing down.

Myers: And the fans are different, in Toronto.

Camby: Yeah, the fans are totally different. I think it's more of a hockey town than a basketball town. You know they're just getting adjusted to the game and there'd be sometimes in the crowd at games and it'd be dead silent. You can hear yourself think and talk and stuff. But it's good, they're really coming along and they're really showing a lot of support for the Raptors down the stretch. Even when we were losing they still showed a lot of support.

Myers: So you think, and at the top of the show you said that New York obviously the mecca for basketball among other things, but you think Toronto, that professional basketball will succeed in Toronto in terms of the attendance over a period of time?

Camby: I think it will succeed over a period of time. They have a lot of young players up there now and they're just building it for the future. You know it's not going to happen overnight, it's going to take a long process and I think they're going in the right direction.

Myers: And your contract, and still the lockout and the labor issue needs to be settled, but you have one more year remaining on your original deal, so you're in a very interesting position in New York, with a big season if the season goes on as scheduled, you'll be able to demand some bigger bucks. Do you hope to stay in New York a while, or if you look ahead would you like to maybe play the open market?

Camby: Well I just hope to play where I'm comfortable at. I mean, New York's a great place, it's closer to home, and I'm looking forward to being closer to home, closer to my family. You know, being in Toronto, my mom and my family never got to see me play except for when we played New York on Madison Square Garden Network. It's going to be real good to have them come down to see me play in New York, like a two hour drive from my home. But I just want to find a place where I'm comfortable at, and I love New York, I love the fans, I love the city. I think it's a great opportunity for myself.

Myers: Yeah it will be nice to see you grow in that environment and hopefully the season will go on as scheduled. Well thanks for coming by, good luck with the off-season work-outs. Don't let Mackey work you too hard, okay?

Camby: (laughs) Thanks for having me Chris.

Myers: Alright, take care.

Camby: Appreciate it.

Myers (to camera): Alright, pleasure having Marcus Camby of the Knicks here with us.


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