Dennis Hopson completed his first season as Bowling Green State University assistant basketball coach. The former Bowsher High School and Ohio State standout has enjoyed a return to the area after working as an assistant under Rollie Massimino at Northwood University in Florida. Hopson is the Buckeyes' all-time leading scorer (2,096 points). He was the Big Ten player of the year and the No. 3 pick in the 1987 NBA draft by the New Jersey Nets.
1. What was it like being a member of the 1990-91 NBA championship Chicago Bulls team?
When I left New Jersey I was leading the team in scoring (15.8 points per game) and I started to feel good about myself. But [Nets coach] Bill Fitch and I didn't see eye to eye. I never thought I was going to get traded but when I got traded and they called me and told me, I would have never dreamed I was going to get traded to Chicago. I'm looking at playing behind the game's best player [Michael Jordan]. That's the first thing I thought about. It was a great city and I wouldn't trade the experience for nothing.
2. How was it playing with Michael Jordan?
He was very competitive. The same way he was going to play in the game was the way he was going to play in practice. The other thing I admired about Mike was he would never sit out of practice. P.J. [Phil Jackson) would try to make him take days off. He would not take days off.
3. Speaking of Phil Jackson, did he actually issue books to the players?
We read books and we would have to talk about them as well. I read now and I just finished reading a great book last night, but back then I wasn't trying to read any books. I wasn't trying to sit there and read 10 to 20 chapters of a book, but you had to do it. I don't know if you ever knew what he was doing, but for him it was a message behind it and why he wanted you to do it.
4. How about other psychological methods Jackson applied to get the Bulls mentally ready to play?
You might sit in the circle and you might just sit on the floor and close your eyes and just think. Again, being immature back then, a lot of it I didn't understand, but today I understand a lot more of the points and what he was trying to prove.”
5. Who do you consider as influences on your coaching career?
I take bits and pieces from the guys that I played for and the two guys [Rollie Massimino and Louis Orr] I have worked with.
6. Is winning a NBA championship the highlight of your playing career?
That's something that can never ever be taken away from me. It's like a college degree. It's something you're going to take to your grave. I think a lot of guys and a lot of your superstar guys dream for that day they're going to win a NBA championship and play many, many years in the NBA and they don't do it. For a lot of them, it is just talk because for a lot of them it's about the money and they don't care about winning.
7. Did you ever think you would end up becoming Ohio State's all-time leading scorer?
I don't think when I left Bowsher I knew that was going to happen. But I put the time in and I think I had enough basketball savvy and enough of a basketball I.Q. Every year I figured out how to do something different and it worked because I went from five points [as a freshman] a game to nine points [as a sophomore] to leading the team in scoring my junior year (20.9) points a game, to 29 a game my senior year.
8. How much has the game changed since your playing days?
The game has changed big time. These kids now, everything is up and down the court. When I played the game it was all halfcourt. I'm not that old where you weren't getting fastbreak layups, but you weren't just getting it out of the net and everybody was just flying down the court.
9. How are the players different from your era of the game?
The players are more athletic today. The players back in the day were more fundamentally sound.
10. What career road would you have taken if you didn't decide on coaching?
I would be doing something in terms of basketball, like a scout or something because the game was so good to me to where I just enjoy it and I like to be around it. I like analyzing players, analyzing the game, and breaking the game down.
— Donald Emmons
First Published May 16, 2010, 10:26 a.m.
