NBA old head Tom Hoover recalls days with Wilt, Malcolm X, and Richard Pryor

Tom Hoover was having a hard time battling Connie Hawkins, Roger Brown, and Jackie Jackson under the boards, playing in a New York City game, when a deep voice boomed.

- By TONY PAIGE

Tom Hoover (No. 12) and St. Louis Hawks teammate Bill Bridges go up against the Detroit Pistons' John Tresvant in an NBA game on Jan. 8, 1966. (AP Photo)

(AP Photo)

"Hey Tom, come on man! You gotta be better than that! Tougher than that!'" recalls Hoover, now 85, the former Knick and seventh pick overall (1963) by the Syracuse Nationals (now the Philadelphia 76ers).

He's president of the New York chapter of The Legends of Basketball (formerly the National Basketball Retired Players Association). “That was the first time I knew Wilt Chamberlain knew who I was, and he kept giving me that kind of encouragement.”

How did you play after that?

“Oh, much harder,” says Hoover with a chuckle.

They became buddies to the point Chamberlain would drive Hoover back to his Villanova campus when he came to New York to watch the Philadelphia Warriors play the Knicks.

An aide to Mayor John Lindsay, Hoover then went through the ranks as an inspector and commissioner of the New York State Athletic Commission for the sport of boxing.

How is boxing today?