World B. Free and K1X launch new clothing collection

World B. Free, K1X launch new clothing collection

Those who know World B. Free know that he is a man of style. His cheerful and exuberant personality is best exemplified by his attire. On the basketball court, Free was known as one of the best scorer’s in NBA history, dominating opponents with his signature rainbow jump shot and rim rattling dunks for 13 seasons in the 70’s and 80’s. Off the court he is equally impressive with his attire, always pushing the limits of fashion and continuing to be a trendsetter. Loud colors and combinations that most would shy away from, World embraces as part of his unique style.

This summer, World is taking his fashionable reputation to a whole new level, teaming up with German-based sneaker and apparel company K1X to create the Nation of Hoops Summer 2009 “Tribute to World B. Free” Collection. A full line of summer apparel including signature sneakers, T-shirts, shorts, and jackets all inspired by the NBA legend. “I think it's a great thing because I'm a stylish guy; a trendsetter. I only try to wear the best. And this is what K1X has put out for me, the best.“ said Free.

For more information on the “Tribute to World B. Free” collection, visit K1X.com.

World B Free - The Prince of Midair

Interview: Niels Jäger & Christian Trojan
Pics: Steve Boyle

Back in the 70s and early 80s, when the NBA's dress code was "flashy" and "funky", one player still managed to stand out. World B. Free. His over sized charisma and brash ballin' game made the Brooklyn born streetballer one of the league's most colorful personalities. Free scored 18.000 points in a variety of ways for the Sixers, Clippers, Warriors, Cavs and Rockets. But even as one of the NBA's top scorers, he was the type of player who was more than just the sum of his stats. His rim-rattling dunks, scorer's mentality and opinionated persona put him in a world of his own. At 6'2, this athletic guard's unique style, on- and off the court, set World B. Free apart. Because he naturally had what everyone wants: flavor.

Can you take us back to Brownsville and tell us how you grew up there and how that made you the person that you are today?
Brownsville is a world of its own, as you know. You‘ve been out there, too. It‘s a place that either made you or broke you. So either you were going to be someone or you wasn‘t. I always followed a couple of guys that were older than me. And they didn‘t let me play basketball until I was in 11th or 12th grade. A lot of the guys who got out there were a lot younger than I was. I didn‘t have that great skills at that time but I had great elevation with my jumpshot. So the older guys would always teach me more about the game, beat me up, pound me on the court. They would treat me like a rookie and I would learn from that. And as I got better and better I started to teach that to the younger kids. In Brownsville you had just one basket and the ball had no rills, it was bald as my head right now. And I was just in there, I just loved the game. It was great. You had to come out in the snow and rain and we did that. That‘s what it was all about.

What was the New York streetball scene in general like back then?
Back then, when you lost a basketball game that was it. It was all over. You might not play again until ten at night. The court was so crowded and everybody wanted to show their stuff. There were people coming from all over. We were in Brooklyn, so people from the Bronx, Manhattan, Queens, Staten Island came to Browsville, to a court that we called Sixty-Six Park back then, because that‘s where legends were made. And everyone wanted to go to that park to be somebody. They had the Rucker Pros up in Harlem but we had Sixty-Six Park.

Tell us who played in that park.
We had guys like Jim McMillan, Doc played there, too. We also had guys like Connie Hawkins, Nate “Tiny“ Archibald. We had some of the best players to ever play this game.

What other tournaments were there in the city besides Rucker and Sixty Six Park?
There was a tournament at St. Johns Recreation Centre that was big. But you could basically go to every basketball court in Brooklyn at that time and find that the court was full. It‘s not the same anymore. When you drive by the parks you won‘t see that many kids out there anymore.

You are not the biggest basketball player when it comes to height. Tell us how you changed your shot to overcome that.
My thing was I had a 44‘ vertical leap and I was very strong. I used to shoot straight in front of my face when I brought the ball up. But I realized that that shot got blocked everytime. So I started to put the ball up to the side of my head and combined with my vertical I could shoot over the defenders.

I heard you also started shooting over a ladder.
Yeah, I did that to create a higher arc for my shot. I actually did a lot of those things because the guys back then were pretty much jumping out of the building. So if you didn‘t want your shot to be smacked all the way to the other end of the court you better come up with something. That‘s a lesson you learned for the rest of your life.

You probably have told the story a million times but we need to hear it again. Where does “World“ come from?
That name comes from a guy by the name of Herb Smith. This is a guy who is also from Brownsville who introduces everybody who he thinks will come into the NBA, in his mind. So he will give you a nickname. He named guys like Julius “Dr. J“ Erving, Connie “The Hawk“ Hawkins, Phil “The Thrill“ Sellers. He called me “All World“ one time because I was doing 360 slam dunks in games. And I remember, it was in a league game, about two seconds on the clock and I stopped, bounced, did a whole 360 and dunked the ball. And Herb just yelled “All World“. That rang around the whole gym and every since then I was called “All World“. And that was just in Junior High School.

What made you change your name legally as well?
“B Free“ was the name given to me by my father. So I just changed the Lloyd to “World“. I said to myself that if I should make it professionally in the league with this name that was given to me I would go ahead and whish that the world could be free one day.

But there was a lot of turmoil going on at that time after the war in Vietnam and the Cold War. Was there something philosophical about that name? Were you like a hippie?
No, no, no. I wasn‘t a a hippie or any of those kinds of people. What I was was a person that wanted good for everybody. My mom and dad raised me to be kind to everyone, no matter what color or race you are. And at that time I was just hoping that the world could be free. So if people would speak about me they could keep it in their head that the world be free.

What is your take on the whole commercialization of streetball? All the interest that the sport gathers from sponsors and the media these days.
The NBA and streetball are two totally different games. The players on the streetball courts have their own unique set of talents. But the level of attention they receive now helps some of them to get into the league. And that‘s a good thing.

You were playing professionally in a time where it was hard not to get in trouble sometimes. Teammates smoking and drinking in the locker room. But today you are teaching the kids not to do those things. Did you, back then, sometimes feel that you were on the wrong side of the track?
Let me put it this way. Temptation was there. But with me coming from Brownsville and playing only my first and second season in the league I was a nobody basically. So when I looked at all the guys I was strong enough to know that it wasn‘t for me. I said to myself ‘I‘m going to make it.‘ and I went 13 years in the NBA.

While you played actively, the league was very different from today. People would go outside for a smoke break in between games. Tell us about that era.
Yes, you are right. When I was a rookie with the Philadelphia 76ers they had beers in the locker room, they were actually smoking cigarettes in the locker room. It was a totally different time back then. But when I was a rookie I played with some of the greatest players who ever played this game, eventhough some of them were already in their thirties. And they did the things they did and I could never understand that. But they were no doubt dedicated to the game.

You played with some of the most interesting characters to ever play the game. Just let me know what goes through your mind when you hear the different names.
Oh, oh.

Let‘s start with Julius.
Julius Erving was a special basketball player. If you wanted your kid to look up to one person for what that person did on a basketball court that person would be Julius Erving.

Darryl Dawkins.
The Character. And also one of the best friends I‘ve had in the basketball world. Great guy, great individual. He was a man to himself because he was the first one I knew who could put somebody on „Lovetron“*. You‘ve never heard of that before in basketball. That was until Darryl Dawkins came in right out of high school making up names. The choke-your-mother-jumpshot and stuff like that. A great guy.

How about Charles Barkley?
He was a different character. Charles Barkley was the beast of the east. If it wasn‘t his way it was no way.

And everybody was scared of him.
Yeah, he would bully you.

Talk about the layup lines back when you were with the 76ers.
Man, you are talking about something very special right there. I mean people got mad when they missed the Sixers warmup. They rather missed the game than miss the layup line. The World would go first. After that Darryl Dawkins with a Chocolate Thunder Dunk. Boom. And then Doc soaring in from the free throw line. Boom. Then I would throw it of the glass and finish with a tomahawk. That layup line was our trademark when we came to the building. We had some guys that could do unbelieveable dunks. The layup line alone was a dunk show.

How do you think the best five players of your era would fare against the best five guys of today‘s era?
I believe that the best five players from my era would wear today‘s guys out. And I‘m not just saying that because I was part of that era. I believe that we were more physical, that we were more skilled in our profession and in what we did on the basketball court. Nowadays they hype the game a little bit different. I‘m not saying there is no talent out there. There is a lot of talent. I just think that the skill-factor is a little bit different.

You were one of the players who brought the slam dunk to the NBA. Who took that torch from you? And who do you enjoy watching today when it comes to aerial assaults?
In my active days it was Julius of course, and Michael Jordan. I also liked Connie Hawkins, but also the little guys like Spud Webb, coming out there and doing the incredible at five foot seven. I watched a lot of different players and everybody put something different into their dunks.

You even played in the league with Mike. So you brought several generations together. You were there for the generation of the Ervings and then you were there for the generation of the Jordans. How was MJ as a player?
As you can imagine he was one of the greatest players to ever play the game. In his first four years in the league Michael and I went head to head. In his book “Come Fly with Me“ he was asked who he respected the most in the league for doing to him what he had done to the other guy. And he said World B Free. That was an honor for me. Him speaking so highly about me. And it‘s in his book, you can read it up. (laughs) I just knew that he was something special once I saw him. The same was true with Magic Johnson. I was playing when Magic came into the league, broke him in his first game. And I knew right then that he was going to be something really special.

I was going to ask you about that. Magic was the most hyped Rookie coming into the league that year and in his first game you dropped 46 on him. Did you think that all the hype was for nothing?
No, no. I didn‘t think like that. I was still a young buck at that time. When people are looking somewhere they are not looking somewhere else. So I wanted to catch their attention. I was the underdog at that moment ... and that‘s when I‘m dangerous.

Who was the best player you went up against? You mentioned that MJ listed you as one of the toughest players he went up against. What about you?
George “Iceman“ Gervin. He was one of the best players I ever played against. When this man was rolling, and this was like every game, he could get 50 on you in a half – and not even break a sweat. And that‘s why they call him “The Iceman“. I asked him about that and he just said ‘World, I just scored 60 on you, and I’m not even sweating.‘ (laughs)

What about your own quote “passes don‘t get paid“.
Uhh, I got that from Fred Carter. When I was a rookie he came to me ‘Rook, let me tell you something. In this league, passes don‘t get paid. Passes do not get paid.‘ And that stuck with me as soon as I stepped on the basketball court. It wasn‘t my own theory though. I got it from a veteran. There could be five guys open and he would still not pass it to you. (laughs)

How confident were you as a player?
As a player? Very confident. I knew that I could get my shot over anybody on the basketball court because of my jumping ability and I had ballhandling skills. I could go either left hand or right hand. I was very confident in my offensive game.

When you look back at your NBA career you were an All Star and you were one of the big stars of the NBA. Do you have any regrets? Do you think you have been conceived by the fans and the media in the way that you should have been?
I don‘t have any regrets. If I had to do it all over again, believe me, I would do it just the same way because I know that what I did helped guys like Michael Jordan, Allen Iverson or Magic Johnson to become who they are. Eventhough they would never say it. But the reason why I say that is when I shot the ball 20 times a game I was called a gunner. Today players like the three guys I mentioned can shoot the ball 30 or even 40 times per game and will be called a great player because you average 25 points. It allowed them to step out of that shadow of being called a gunner for taking that many shots. I helped that and I feel good about that.

You say you don‘t have any regrets about your basketball career. Do you know what I would regret? The fact that I didn‘t play 20 years later and made 20 million Dollars a year.
(laughs) But you know what? You can say all that and it‘s all good. But to put your mind there would be just wrong when you are a real basketball player. I would have to be really selfish. When George Mikan and Bob Cousy played the game they made like 25 Dollars. So who am I to demand that more money than they made?

How do you feel about your place in basketball history. I read that you were a little disappointed that the Cavaliers have not retired your number.
Yeah, because the franchise was family and when I got to Cleveland there were like 16, literally 16, people in the stands. And by the time I left my teammates and me helped turn that into a basketball place once again. And for being a big part of that success you might think about retiring my number. It was a good place for me though.

Tell us what you‘re doing these days.
I‘m the Players Development Coach with the Philadelphia 76ers. That includes teaching these young guys, who suddenly make a lot of money, how to react in certain situations. They have people coming into their lives now, women coming into their lives. And I help them deal with all those things. So if the players don‘t want to talk to the regular coaches they can come talk to me. I‘m also very involved in the community. I‘m working on several projects right now as the Community Relations Leader for the Sixers. That includes going to high schools as well as colleges and talking to kids there about drug awareness and also the different ways to success in life.

You look like you are still in shape. Do you still play ball or maybe hit the streetball scene?
What I do is I shoot with the team. I broke my foot last year but I‘m getting back there. And sometimes when the guys play half court and they want to go full court then we will go full court. I‘ve been playing with the guys before and I was beating them up. (laughs) They said ‘Come on World, you keep playing that old men‘s game!‘ And I said ‘No, that‘s the game! You will have to just learn it. So when you get fouled out there you won‘t even recognize you got fouled.‘

And who is your favourite player in the game today?
I do like Allen Iverson and I also like Andre Iguodala a lot. He is starting to get there now.

I see you got the Sixers flavour in there.
(laughs) Yeah. It‘s great to be around these guys every day, and having gotten to witness AI up close. The real special thing to me with the player today is the kind of respect that they show me. Nobody turns their nose up to me, not even the biggest star in the league. And that means more than money to me.

As the player with maybe the greatest nickname in the history of the NBA, who do you think has the best nickname in the league today?
I like Allen‘s nickname, ‘the Answer‘. When he first came into the league they asked him what he was called. He said ‘Some call me Bubba Chuck. Some of my friends call me the Answer because when I‘m on the court I will answer every bell that rings.‘ And ever since then, for thirteen years he has been up there. So I like that name very much.

You mentioned the other day that you played with Joe “Jelly Bean“ Bryant and that Kobe used to join the team at practise sessions. Can you tell us a little bit about young Kobe?
At that time Kobe was a freshman in high school and he was playing against our guys as we had a pick up game going. I knew Kobe before because I watched him play at Lower Merion High School. So I knew that he had game. But what I didn‘t know was how good he had become from playing in Italy where he played against a lot of guys who were older than he was. And he also played with his father every day. And his father used to him up on the basketball court. Kobe would drive past him and Joe judt kept hacking his son and fouling him. And I was like ‘Man, that‘s a foul!‘ But Kobe just kept playing. I knew that Kobe was going to become something really special because he didn‘t whine or cry about nothing. And the guys on our team knew as well. He’d wear them out. I think Vernon maxwell was the only guy Kobe didn’t light up.

Tell me why style is important in basketball. What do style and basketball have to do with each other?
See it‘s just like a great one-on-one basketball player. You‘re talking about the Michael Jordans, the Magic Johnsons, the Larry Birds, the World B Frees of this world. What we do is we come out on the court and we play with a special style. And when you play like that you’re likley to celebrate your style off court too. And that‘s why it‘s important what you wear. So when you come out on the court or out on the street, people will see that‘s what seperates us from the others.

Would you say that Allen Iverson is like the World B Free of this era because he brought a whole new, kind of style to the game and made it his own?
I would say that Allen Iverson would be a good second World B Free for what he has done in basketball - other than the thug life. He is an icon for young people. His clothes and the way he wears them, and also him coming into the league wearing braids. He has his own type of style.

How many shoes do you have at home?
(thinks) I would say over a thousand pairs of shoes.

Man, how much space does that take?
Well it does take up a lot of space. I have one of these clean houses and a closet where you just push a button and it goes round and round until you get to the style you like. A good friend of mine made this one for me and he did a really good job.

You played in the NBA from the 60ies all the way to the beginning of the 80ies and you were always leading the league with your style. What kind of reactions did you receive for your whole World B Free style?
I was always a trendsetter. When I saw someone wearing stuff that I liked I always tried to do it a little bit different. If someone wore his socks either high or low I would wear mine in between. I never wanted to be the same as the next person. I wanted to be World B Free. So I wanted the people to say ‘Wow, when World B Free wears something then it has to be something different.‘. That‘s what I wanted the people to know about World B Free.

You guys were wearing your gold chains during the games and everything. Tell me your honest to God opinion about the NBA dress code.
My opinion on that doesn‘t really mean anything. But I believe right now that the players should wear suits and ties. When you are a professional and you go out to the public you dress accordingly. When you get home from the game and you wanna get comfortable you can relax. But when you are doing your profession you should pay attention to the fact that there‘s kids looking up to you.

What was your reaction when you were approached by k1x several years ago to create whole line based around the "World B Free"? What were you thinking?
When they first came to me I was elated by it. I've had companies come at me before, big guns too. But I never really felt it. Then my son told me one day 'Dad it would cool to have your own line. You should go ahead and do something like that.' And a year later K1X approached me about the possibility a second time after first bringing up the ideas at the All Star Game in Philly back in 2002. You know, God is good in all kinds of ways. I think it's a great thing because, like I said, I'm a stylish guy, a trendetter. And I only try to wear the best. And this is what K1X has put out for me, the best.

Tell me a little more about your relationship with Darryl Dawkins. You guys came into the NBA together as rookies with the Philadelphia 76ers and you were like brothers to each other.
He was 18 and I was 21 when we came into the league. He came out of high school from Florida and he was the biggest guy I had ever seen. Because where I‘m from, Brownsville, NY, we don‘t have guys like that walking around. From the first moment we met, we were like brothers. We did everything together. We bought the same kind of cars, we raced those cars. We hit the parties, we chased the women - we did everything together. They called us blood brothers. Our coach sometimes had to seperate us because we were only seeing each other on the court - while there were three other guys open. We were always together. And Darryl was, and still is, one of the greatest and most kind people you will ever meet.

You mentioned two things that I want to focus on right now. Parties and women. Take us to a party with you and the “Chocolate Thunder“.
Alright, we hit a party. Darryl would wear some lime green. He was brightening up the whole place. You see this 7-foot man rocking some lime green. You couldn‘t miss him. And I would wear the platform shoes that everybody had back in the day. Normally I was 6-3. When I stepped in the club I was 6-8. I didn‘t wear a specific color but let‘s put it this way: I was loud. I had a little John Travolta and Saturday Night Fever to it. (laughs) So we were rolling. When we walked into a place we did not go there as 76ers. We went there as regular people. And the other guys at the party loved that. And the women just fell all over us.

I heard that you guys had a rapsong that you used to perfom in the clubs as well.
Yeah, that was before rap was even out in Phily. We were rapping before the Sugar Hill Gang.

That would be old oldschool.
Oh yeah, that was old oldschool. That was still back in the 70ies. We would rap on a song by “Chic“ called “Good Times“. After the chorus I would go ahead and say something like “I‘m listed in the yellow pages, all around the world. I‘m wanted by the cops and the FBI for bustin out two sweet young girls.“ And then Darryl would come in and say “The pot wasn‘t hot, the corn wasn‘t on. The buds didn‘t melt ‘til the break of dawn.“ And everytime we went on stage the people were going crazy.

I guess the Sixers were not among your biggest fans.
No. The fans were our biggest fans. The good part about that era was when we were playing at the old Spectrum. It was almost like you played in the park because everybody was so close to the action. That was the way basketball was played back in the day. You could hit a three and give a high five to the guy in the first row at the same time.

I heard that you guys also played one on one but there were some special rules. Tell me about that.
Yeah, being that he was a 7‘0, weighing 565,000 pounds and I was just 6‘0, 120 pounds he couldn‘t score under the basket and I couldn‘t shoot from the outside. So he had to take jumpers and I had to go inside. And the games were very intense because we both really wanted to win. We almost got into a fight when it was game point sometimes because we were so competitive. But it was all love. Actually he developed his jumper that way. He kept watching my jumper - which was pretty nice - and he thought “If I shoot it like him I‘ll be alright“. And he got really good at it, too.

Let‘s change the topic for a second. Tell me how important showmanship was back in the day compared to today.
Showmanship was major back in the day. Showmanship and being competitive on that basketball court. With me coming from Brownsville, Brooklyn, that was all you see. Guys were shaking and baking, just doing all kinds of fancy passes. The crowd would always get excited so you try to perfect that. I remember a play from my rookie year when we still had Billy Cunningham on our team. We were running a two on one fastbreak with Billy on the wing and me handling the ball. I just brought my streetball game. I faked the pass to Billy, did a crossover, followed by a 360 spin move and laid it in with the left hand. The crowd went crazy. They had never seen that before. Then I got carried away and Billy gave me a face. Two plays later we ran the exact same thing. I just missed the layup. The crowd went crazy again and I went back to the bench. (laughs)

In how far was the game that you played different from the one that is played in the NBA today?
Let me put it this way. When we lost to the Boston Celtics we would get our calenders and circle the day that we would play the Celtics again because we were so mad. Whoever you lost against. Today you loose a game, shake hands and then everybody will go home. We didn‘t shake hands after such a game. And people loved watching guys working hard for their hard earned money on that basketball court. That and showmanship is what makes it. Allen Iverson is the perfect example. When he first came to Philadelphia he was one feet tall but he had the whole city in his hands because of his showmanship. Michael Jordan, showmanship. Magic Johnson, Showtime. Larry Bird, same thing. That was the stuff that the people liked. You had to be consistent though.

When you talked about playing pick-up games with the 76ers the other day you told me that the players were picking on you for “playing the old men‘s game“ while you insisted on playing the game “the way it‘s supposed to be played“.
The game was totally physical back then. I remember when I came in the league at about 200 pounds, I was a solid rock. And I remember Wally Jones guarding me in the low post with about two seconds left in the game. So I‘m shooting my jumper and the ball is flying into the stands because he gave me a handcheck - which was still legal back then - and turned me around in the air. I didn‘t even get a whistle from the ref at that time. It was that physical so you just had to go ahead and make your shot no matter what. When you went to the basket against Willis Reed and them guys you knew you were going to get fouled. You had to develop an in between game. Because those big guys were not gonna let you dunk on them. When you were flying in there you would get knocked on your you-know-what. And don‘t believe that anybody would turn around to pick you up. (laughs)

As you mentioned the referees. I know that you used to announce that you would draw a foul before you actually did it, then went to the basket and somehow got the whistle from the ref. You have to teach me that one!
(laughs) Well first of all you need a 44 inch vertical leap. And then you have to have that streetball game. So before I went to the basket I would give my defender a series of fakes and hesitation moves. If he was staying away from me I would shoot it right in his face. If he would bite on the fakes I would blow right by him. That‘s where my in between game would kick in. I could protect the basketball with my body while I was in the air.

Your Brownsville streetball roots must have helped you as well.
Right. When we played out in Brooklyn there was a pole on our basket. And you had to know how to avoid that pole. I ran into it a couple of times and I realized that up to this day that pole did not move. You had to learn how to control your body while you were in the air and when you were landing. That was definitely helpful for me.

What many people don‘t realize is the fact that it was only your second year when you reached the NBA Finals against the Blazers in ’77. And you were obviously not even close to being 100% healthy.
Right.

Did you ever think about how this Finals series might have turned out if you had been healthy?
Every time. And it seems like every time I think about it a little more hair stays on my pillow when I wake up. I know that I wasn‘t supposed to play because of that collapsed lung I had. Being the streetball player that I am I just had to get on that field. And in the end I‘m glad that I did it because it gave me the chance to play in the Finals, gave me a shot at a three-peat. I won a championship in high school, won one in college and I could have won that one in the pros.

One of the most dramatic scenes of that Finals series was when Darryl Dawkins got into a fight with Maurice Lucas and he felt that he wasn‘t supported by his own teammates. He locked himself into the locker room and started taking it apart.
Yeah, I remember that day. Because when he had that fight with Maurice Lucas I was sitting on the bench, dealing with my own problems and I ran on the court to help him. And I remember Doug Collins running in and Darryl took a swing at Maurice Lucas. The thing was that he missed and accidently knocked Collins into yesterday. And Doug was singing that song “Yesterday, all my trouble seemed so far away.“ because Darryl hit him with a good one. (laughs) And then Darryl ran into the locker room and you could hear that he was mad. He tore the locker room apart, took the showers off and all that. So I went in there and I finally got him calmed down. And the man was just superstrong. Darryl Dawkings was a man-child.

You don‘t tear down rims on a regular basis just like that.
Right. That‘s what I told Shaq. I told him “You‘re big. But you‘re not tearing down rims like Darryl Dawkins.“ I mean that man was not only the biggest guy you had ever seen but he could also jump really high. He was a freak of nature.

Here is the last thing I wanna know. Which one is the better pick-up line at a club. “Hey, I‘m World B. Free, the NBA All Star.“ or “Hey, I‘m World B. Free, the NBA legend with my own clothing line.“?
That‘s easy. “Hey, I‘m World B. Free, the NBA legend with my own clothing line. Here‘s a t-shirt. Come see me later.“ (laughs)