I never played ball against any of them, but when I was working with a company in a building called Waterpark Place in downtown Toronto, the Raptors had their offices there. This was before they moved the offices into the Air Canada Centre. Anyway, I used to get on the elevators with these guys and I have to say, I've never felt smaller. I'm only about 5' 10" (at least I was then. I've been shrinking ever since). I regularly used to see Isiah Thomas when he coached the Raptors. Needless to say, in his presence I never mentioned Larry Bird or Dennis Johnson.

>I was just out in the cul de sac shooting baskets with some of the neighbor kids. I am woefully out of shape but still have some muscle memory. One of the kids, 9 or 10, was having trouble getting the mechanics of a left handed layup down and I helped him with that. He's still out there shooting, working on the layups and a reverse spin move I showed him. I was the same way at his age. I could not spend enough time playing basketball.
>
>For some reason this brought to mind one of my favorite basketball memories, playing against Detlef Schrempf. There was a hoity toity health club near work in Dallas and I was pulling the bananas down, so I joined and played hoops after work almost every day. The club gave complimentary memberships to members of the Mavericks, which was great marketing on their part. That summer Detlef spent most of his time in the weight room. As a rookie he was skinny and European and was pushed around. He was not going to let that be his legacy and spent endless hours bulking up.
>
>One day he came down to the gym to play pickup ball. There was a chalkboard where you signed in and he did. He didn't try to jump the waiting list. Just Detlef S. Steve A. and Jim F. of the Mavs also played occasionally but this was a new level of celebrity. (Alford was incredible to watch shooting jumpers between games. It was like he never missed). I was on a team that was holding court as the winners and Detlef and his teammates came on. He took it easy but of course they waxed us. He went out of his way to pass the ball to teammates even when he had open shots. Cool guy.
>
>So there was this one play where he had the ball on the break and I was back on defense. Instinct took over for him and he took it to the hoop for a jam. Foolishly I put up a hand to block the shot. Stupid! He could easily have broken my wrist on the rim. He shifted the ball a little to the right and laid it in off the board. I gave him a look that said "thanks" and he smiled back.
>
>I just looked up his career records and am pleasantly surprised that he scored over 15,000 points in the NBA. Not bad at all.
>
>http://www.basketball-reference.com/players/s/schrede01.html