Then it was time for the forward to address the rest of the assembled media — except NBA officials didn’t want that. The league thought of him as a loose cannon and didn’t know what he might say on the podium in an interview that was to be broadcast live. “They were scared to death to take him in the press conference room,” said John Black, who was then the Lakers’ vice president of public relations. “But I was like, this guy is pretty much the star of the game, he hit that huge shot, this was his moment of glory.”