Bob Cousy: The story is, three or four good friends came to me about four years ago and asked if I was prepared to perhaps be a recipient, and did I want them to pursue it? I told them I really had never pursued that type of acknowledgement before. But I also didn’t tell them “No.” So they went out with their plan.
Congressman Jim McGovern [D-Mass.] agreed to help them. They put a portfolio together. We thought we had a pretty strong case to make to President Obama. We had a letter that President Kennedy had written to me. We got letters from [former Massachusetts governor] Deval Patrick and [Senator] Cory Booker [D-N.J.], but at the end of the day it didn’t happen. I became involved and reached out to a friend of mine -- who is Senator Joe Manchin’s [D-WVa.] closest friend, I guess -- and he reached out to Joe. And Joe is an honest politician who follows his conscience.
Bob Cousy was one of the all-time great point guards in NBA lore.
SA: Oh, he’s the one …
BC: He’s a Democrat who doesn’t rely on a particular ideology or party affiliation to make decisions. He makes them on their merits. I’ve tried to do the same thing my entire life. My wife and I were registered independents for 63 years for that reason. We didn’t want to get locked into ideology, where everything that came up you just voted the same way. That’s what Joe does.
Anyway, Joe had an opportunity to help me. The President [Trump] reaches out to Joe from time to time.
SA: And it worked?
BC: The President called me last Dec. 3, with he and Joe having lunch together at the White House. Joe had given him my portfolio and, despite the fact it was kind of Democratically tinged, he obviously thought it had merit and he offered me the medal to be given in April.
I obviously accepted -- we had a nice 15-minute dialogue -- and I did say, ‘Mr. President, I am flattered by you calling personally. But I told Joe a year ago I’d refuse to accept this award posthumously.' He laughed at that and said, "I’m going to do it again in April and you’re the first one I’m inviting.” He said, “So can you stay alive till April.” I told him I’d give it my best shot.