With somewhat unfortunate timing the United States Olympic Committee named Dr. Leach head physician for the entire Olympic team in 1980. That year the Olympics were in Moscow, and the United States, along with many other countries, boycotted to protest Russia’s invasion of Afganistan.
Leach remained in that position, though, for the ’84 games. (In 1985, the committee changed his title to a lofty sounding Chairman of the US Olympic Team Committee on Sports Medicine and Sports Science, a job that was, according to Leach “more important and less fun.”)
Some years before the ’84 games (he’s not sure of the year), he found himself at a dinner speaking engagement with Bob Knight, the famously combative but nonetheless brilliant basketball coach of the Indiana University Hoosiers. Leach’s good friend and Knight’s teammate from his Ohio State playing days, John Havlicek, was there as well. Havlicek introduced the two and Leach and Knight became fast friends.
About Knight Leach says, “I’d already heard a lot about him from John. The man had a prodigious memory particularly about military history. I found him to have a great sense of humor, too. We just got along very well.”
Fast forward to the ’84 games in Los Angeles where Knight was the coach of the last USA team comprised of amateurs only. The various doctors working with and for Leach were deciding on assignments, when Knight demanded that Leach must be the team doctor for basketballLeach recalled, “I took care of basketball because Bob Knight wanted it that way. There were six doctors in the Olympic village and we divided up the teams. I wound up with wrestling (he was a varsity wrestler at Princeton), team handball and was on the bench for all eight basketball games, including the Gold Medal win against Spain.”
Despite being amateurs the US team, lead by a recent UNC graduate named Michael Jordan, marched through the games with eight consecutive wins by an average margin of 32 points blowing out Spain in the final by 31.
There were, however, a few hiccups along the way.
“First of all,” said Leach, “Knight was really intense. It was his one opportunity to coach the Olympic team, and he wanted to be the only other coach beyond the legendary Henry Iba to win both an NCAA title and Olympic Gold.”
Then there was Germany. The US had easily handled their five prior opponents including Canada and Spain among them, to face the Germans in the quarterfinals. Germany had a future NBA star in Detlef Schrempf, but had already lost three times. Still, the heavily favored Americans had difficulty, winning by a mere nine points 78-69.
Leach remembered, “Knight had put a lot of responsibility on Jordan, which was expected. He wanted Michael to score, rebound and make everyone else better.”
But against the Germans Jordan scored just 14 points and turned the ball over six times.
Leach recalled the scene in the locker room. “After the games we all had our customary place where we sat, and mine was next to Michael. He, of all people, had not played well. Knight was aggravated and started to address the team. Finally he got to the bottom line, looked straight at Michael and said, ‘Michael, you played a shit game. No offense. No defense. Turnovers. Just not your game. You played a shit game.’”
According to Leach, “Michael just sat there. Didn’t say anything. Finally Knight walked out with the assistant coaches, and I was left there sitting next to Michael. He turned to me, said, ‘Doc,’ and pointed into his mouth. I looked in his mouth and was surprised to see a big abscess above one of his teeth. I took his temperature, and it was over 103. He was not exactly healthy.”
The story continued. “I said, ‘oh boy, we’ve got a problem.’ We had to do something with that tooth. And I felt very badly for him. I went to find Knight, and told him, ‘coach, I just wanted to tell you that Jordan has a temperature of 103.4 from a badly abscessed tooth.’ “
“Knight looked at me in shock and exclaimed, ‘an abscessed tooth! You’re kidding.’”
“I said, ‘no, I’m not.’”
“Knight said, ‘I had an abscessed tooth once, and I was sick for three days.’”
“With that,” Leach recounted, “he walked back into the locker room with me following behind, walked right up to Michael and said, ‘Michael I’m sorry to hear about the bad tooth but you know what? You still played a shit game.”
A few months later Jordan was already a sensational rookie with Chicago. The Bulls were visiting Leach’s Celtics at the Boston Garden. Leach went to the Garden early hoping to see Michael.
“I went down the hall to the visitors door and I peeked in. I'm only a doctor for god sakes I'm not with the team. I looked in and there was Michael directly ahead of me,” Leach remembered.
Jordan looked out, saw Dr. Leach, and, Leach continued, “Michael was totally surprised, shouted,’oh my God.’ Then he walked out of the locker room put his arms around me, took me back in to his locker room and said to his teammates pointing at me; ‘ we were in the Olympics together.’”
Leach laughed, “The other players were wondering if maybe I was one of the midget guards on that team.”
Then Jordan asked Leqch, “Have you seen “coach” lately? How is he?”
Leach explained “He didn’t mean his coach from North Carolina or Chicago. He meant Bob Knight.”
“We met for dinner that night after the game, and I think most of the time we talked about Knight. What I remember most clearly is Jordan saying this. ‘Coach made me play better defense than I ever thought I could play.’”