"It starts with me, because that's what happened with me, in my career," he says, referencing 1970 and his arrival to the Los Angeles Lakers. "Going into my fourth year, [coach] Bill Sharman met with me and he said to me he had watched me, he liked me. He said, 'The only way that you're going to be able to make the team is if you're the best-conditioned player in training camp. Because what I need you for is I'm going to need you to practice against [Jerry] West and [Gail] Goodrich and [Elgin] Baylor and [Jim] McMillian every day. So I need you every day to practice against them hard.' This was when we used to practice, really practice."