The gamecock. (Columbia, S.C.) 1908-2006, September 19, 1979, Page Page 17, Image 17
Roche att
DENVER (AP) ? This was the yc
year that wiry, hard-nosed John Y<
Roche was going to give up B;
basketball for good, finish law la
school, and "see how it's like out in
there in the real world."
Instead, at age 29, Roche is
battling for a spot on the Denver
Nuggets, giving one more try at ig
the sport he's been playing since b
boyhood in New York City. He has Ai
survived one cut, but faces hi
another. c(
A standout collegiate guard at w
Carolina, and twice the Atlantic
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?ar, Roche signed with the New
ork Nets of the American
asketball Association in 1971. He
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Kentucky and Utah.
WHEN THE Utah Stars folded in
>76, Roche joined the National
asketball Association's Los
ngeles Lakers. But the Lakers
ad three guards with no-cut
mtracts, and Roche enrolled in
nituer Law bcnooi tnat tail.
After two semesters in school,
oche played on a team in
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oche
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Bologna, Italy, then returned to
law school last summer.
But the Nuggets encouraged
Roche to give the NBA one more
shot, and there were several
factors which prompted the 6' 3"
guard to agree.
For one, Denver's coach is
Donnie Walsh, the man who, as an
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recruited Roche in 1967.
ROCHE ALSO felt his style of
play would fit in well with the
Nuggets, whose roster includes
such former ABA players as Dan
Issel, Charlie Scott, George
McGinnis and David Thompson.
Roche doesn't have a position
locked up. He appears to be battling
with No. 1 draft choice Gary
Garland and two-year veteran
Robert Smith for the team's two
back-up guard positions, and he
knows he won't be a starter.
"I'll be looking to fulfill a role I
understand they needed last
year?a supportive role, to com- j
plement the players here,'' he said. |
"I have no illusions of playing 30-32
minutes a game and being an integral
part of the team."
Sooner or later, said Roche, he'll
be back at law school.
"I've been playing basketball
since I was seven," he said. "It's a
tough adjustment for an athlete to
go from a sport to a 9-to-5 job. Law
school was a good way to bridge
the gap. It opens up a lot of
avenues and it gives you an opportunity
to sit back and see how
it's like out there in the real
i J *?
wona.
But for now, John Roche's real
world is the one he knows best?on
the court, not in it.
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