Advertisement - scroll for more content
Michael Cooper on Jack Nicholson: He became our unspoken leader when he mooned the Celtics in 1984
Michael Cooper on Jack Nicholson: "Jack was so down to Earth because we used to go to 'On the Rocks', which is above 'The Roxy' in Hollywood, and Jack would be in there and we used to party with him, drinking and it was an intimate setting nightclub so we'd all be up in there and just to hear some of the stories… But again you watched 'One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest', you watched him in many other movies and I couldn't believe that this guy was standing next to me, but so knowledgeable of a fan, knew the game inside and out. My one great memory of Jack is that in 1984 and obviously not being able to beat the Celtics that year, we go there and the Celtics beat us but Jack said 'You know? F-ck y'all I’ll moon them'. He pulled his pants down and mooned the fans on our way out. For us, that was our sign that 'you know what? The Celtics will never beat us again’, and then we came back in '85 and beat them. Jack was our unspoken leader."
Jack Nicholson was synonymous with the Showtime Los Angeles Lakers. He sat courtside at their games at the Great Western Forum. He participated in promotional photos. Occasionally, he invited them to parties at his house in Beverly Hills. One summer night, Nicholson tended bar. The Lakers had just defeated the Detroit Pistons in an exhausting Game 7 to win the 1988 NBA championship. The postgame party had spilled from the locker room to On The Rox, a private club on the Sunset Strip in Los Angeles. Lakers forward Mychal Thompson walked to the bar, surprised to see Nicholson, a few months removed from his ninth Academy Awards nomination. In a recent interview with The Athletic, Thompson paused while relaying this memory. “Let me see if I can imitate him,” he said.
“What do you have, Mychal?” Thompson said in Nicholson’s famous drawl, one that’s delivered some of the most iconic lines in cinema. Thompson laughed. “That was so cool I couldn’t believe it,” he said.
For celebs, attending Lakers games became a form of Hollywood street cred, a place to be seen, but for Nicholson, it was never about publicity. He had grown up in New Jersey playing basketball, and his love for the game remained strong, even as life took him to the West Coast. Rolling Stone magazine once identified Nicholson’s passions as art, movies, skiing, books and basketball. Writer Tim Cahill asked Nicholson for a common denominator. “There’s poetry in all those things,” the actor said in the 1981 story. “When I look at a painting, I get involved. There is a moment of truth somewhere. And basketball … when you miss a play, it’s a matter of microseconds. Little moments of truth. Skiing is like that. It’s all little moments of truth and extending the limits of control.”
For most of his adult life, Nicholson, 87, has been an NBA fixture, part of the fabric at The Forum and Staples Center, which is now Crypto.com Arena. A columnist for The Los Angeles Times once called Nicholson “the best sixth man the NBA has ever seen, the oddest weapon in a very odd league.” During the Lakers’ championship clashes with the Boston Celtics, Nicholson was a main character, as significant as Magic and Kareem, especially the night he stood in Boston Garden and showed Celtics fans his backside. Allegedly. “He was not a normal person — he was Jack Nicholson,” former Lakers forward Jamaal Wilkes said. “We were all aware of that. We didn’t treat him like any other fan. We treated him with due respect and we appreciated the fact that he was so into us.”
Advertisement
In 1985, the Lakers got revenge, beating the Celtics in six games. In 1987, the rivals clashed again. During a Game 4 Lakers win in the Garden, Nicholson absorbed the crowd’s razzing and motioned for more. Is that all you got? The next day Nicholson arrived at the Garden to watch Lakers practice. Boston Globe columnist Leigh Montville introduced himself. Nicholson didn’t do many interviews, but he sat and talked with Montville for 15 minutes. Other reporters joined in. Nicholson discussed his respect for the Celtics, and what it was like to be Public Enemy No. 1 in a sea of green. “They’ve got a lot of ‘Bleep you, Jack,’ signs up,” Nicholson said of the Boston crowd. “I do invite it but I think ultimately it hurts them. … You can’t afford to let one fan take this whole building out of the game.”
He explained that his seats were courtside, in the vicinity of Jack Nicholson’s regular seats, and that the entrance he was redirected to was one behind where people were already sitting down, and that he’d have to tap those fans on the shoulder and ask them to get up and move their chairs to get by them. He said that when he realized this would be the case, he returned to the original entrance that he’d been turned away from, assuming it would be “OK.” “When I started walking to my side, the guy was like, ‘Ah-ah-ah-ah-ah [in a gesture of stopping them].’ So when I looked at him, he was like, ‘I told you guys to go to the other entrance.’ He looked right at me and it. I was like, ‘that’s a little much’ so I didn’t say anything, and was like, ‘Let’s just leave,'” Lil Wayne said.
Shaquille O'Neal blasts Zion Williamson after loss to Lakers: 'He does not run hard'
“He does not run hard,” O'Neal began, referencing Williamson's effort when running the floor. O'Neal then commented on Williamson's inactivity to create easy points down the block. “He doesn't seal. He doesn't demand the ball. Like you got a small guy and we talk about it all the time. Barbecue Chicken. Charles (Barkley) talks about it all the time. You can't let a little guy guard you,” O'Neal continued. The Hall of Famer also made it known that he hadn't taken a liking to Williamson's body language. “He doesn't have that look. Like, I'm not the greatest ever but I know a look when I see it. … Tiger Woods had that look. Jack Nicholson had that look”.
It all seemed so easy in the moment, but like all great performances, it took planning and preparation behind the scenes. Nicholson, in his mid-80s, was retired from acting and, it seemed, from most of the things he used to enjoy. Nicholson’s health had been the subject of much speculation, and the reclusive actor had rarely been seen in public by anyone outside his family and a close circle of friends in nearly two years. “I got the call from Jack’s assistant that Jack was contemplating for the first time in close to two years attending a Lakers home game,” Lee Zeidman, president of Crypto.com Arena, Peacock Theater and LA Live, told The Messenger in late August. “I said that’s fantastic. Everyone had missed Jack’s presence over the past couple years. I said let me know what we can do to help facilitate getting him into the arena and getting him to his seats.”
Advertisement
After the Lakers lost Game 5 in Memphis on April 26, they were in position to close out the series in front of the home fans two days later. They also had an idea what their schedule would be in the next round as the lower seed if they advanced. “They contacted me with the dates he would be coming and we made arrangements,” Zeidman said. “We took him down a special way that allowed him to get in quickly and get out quickly. He’s 86 years old now and we wanted to make it as seamless and as comfortable for him and his son Ray to get into the building and get out of the building, and the Lakers worked very closely with us on that.”
Few people outside of Zeidman and the Lakers knew Nicholson would be at the game. There was a buzz around the building when he stepped onto the court nearly an hour before tipoff. Everyone from fans and ushers to players and media looked in Nicholson's direction as he took his customary courtside seat. LeBron James came over to gave him a hug, and others in nearby seats, including Larry David, also welcomed him back. “Seeing him back was so comforting,” said NBA photographer Andrew Bernstein, who's been shooting the courtside scene at Lakers games for more than 40 years. “It’s like seeing your uncle you hadn’t seen in a while. He’s a familiar face that brings back good memories. Jack being at his courtside seat is where he’s supposed to be that time of year and that’s where the Lakers are supposed to be that time of year.”
O’Shea Jackson Jr.: You got (Denver coach Michael Malone) talking reckless. It is good for the league. Well, I’m gonna let you know: It don’t mean nothing because the Lakers will be back, and y’all all will be upset again. It’s that aggression that I wanted from other stars, and they wouldn’t give it to me. So, until Jeanie (Buss) announces that I am the new Jack Nicholson, I will be this aggressive tyrant on Twitter.
Ramona Shelburne: Jack is back
Jack is back pic.twitter.com/a1GB3tq1vM
— Ramona Shelburne (@ramonashelburne) April 29, 2023
Advertisement
Advertisement
Advertisement