Basketball legend Cooper to hold camp in Pablo
Sitting under a tent, a stone’s throw from Flathead Lake, basketball legend Michael Cooper was signing autographs and asking trivia questions at the Flathead Lake 3-on-3 basketball tournament on Saturday in Polson. While giving away souvenirs to a crowd of eager basketball players was part of the show, he was there to promote his basketball camp, which will be held for three days starting Wednesday at Joe McDonald Gym on the campus of Salish Kootenai College in Pablo.
“Our camp focuses on being a good student athlete, as well as being a good, productive person in society,” Cooper said.
“Basketball is a vehicle that we can get their attention. We try to talk to them about other aspects of their life. There’s probably a very small percentage of these kids that will ever get an opportunity to at least try out for a professional team.
“But, with a good academic standards behind you ... and getting a degree. Your degree will take you farther than a basketball, baseball, football — anything athletically you do. Eventually you’re going to get old, you’ll get injured. It’s all going to be over. It’s what you have between your ears that’s going to carry you on to be a good, productive person in society.”
The camp, which is for all grades 3-12 and costs $125, will run all three days from 10 a.m. until 4 p.m., with lunches provided for each camper. Walk up registration is encouraged. Cooper will be teaching all three days.
“I’m there all day,” Cooper said.
“It’s not one of those camps where the former or current player will come and speak at the beginning and then you don’t see them until the end and the picture taking. I’m there the whole time. Teaching and coaching.”
This is the third trip to Montana by the 12-year NBA veteran, and the first in 25 years, when Cooper was still an active member of the Los Angeles Lakers. In his career, he won five NBA championships, was named to the all-defensive first or second teams eight times and was the defensive player of the year in 1987. He also coached the WNBA’s Los Angeles Sparks to two championships and was named WNBA Coach of the Year in 2000.
“I got a chance to see a lot of great players become legendary players in the time that we were playing,” Cooper said. He was teammates with Magic Johnson, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and James Worthy and coached stars like Shaquille O’Neal, Carmelo Anthony and Lisa Leslie.
“Those stories will be told to the kids along with some things that are going on now,” Cooper said. “We’re going to put both of them together, because now it’s LeBron and Kobe and players like that. I’ve had some moments with them that we can tell to the kids that can at least grab their attention.”
Most recently a coach of the Southern California women’s basketball team, he’ll also touch on the college game and the importance of academics.
“That’s all part of the whole concept of what we’re doing,” Cooper said.
“But, basketball is still a lot of these kids’ dream. We’re not going to take that away from them. We’re going to enhance those skills. Teach them some fundamentals about the game. Teach them to be a little more skilled about the game. Teach them how to shoot free throws. We’ll still concentrate and hit on that part. Again it’s about the whole aspect of the student-athlete.”
Being a defensive guru, a the focus of the camp will be on that end of court.
“That’s what the camp is about,” Cooper said. “Defense is not only played on the court, it’s played off the court.
“Obviously you have to play defense on the court to win championships. Sometimes if you’re not a good offensive scorer it will keep you on the court. But defense is played off the court too. They have to defend against all the negative aspects that these kids come up against: being a gang member, drug dealing, alcoholism, all the negative stuff. That’s still playing defense.”
Cooper said he hopes to extend the camp to a full week next year, but is just testing the waters in his first camp back.
“We’re gonna have three of the best days we’ve ever had,” Cooper said.