As a playmaking point guard for the Nuggets, John Roche was adept at making something out of nothing.
Against the Seattle SuperSonics at Denver’s McNichols Sports Arena, Roche’s something was hitting eight 3-point field goals, seven in one quarter.
But in the 1980-81 season, Roche outdid himself by improvising after he suffered a broken ankle.
“A broken ankle isn’t good for basketball, but it’s very good for going to law school,” said Roche, who began his education in jurisprudence a few years before. “I couldn’t get on the basketball floor, but I could go to class and accelerate my law studies.”
Roche retired from pro basketball after the 1981-82 season at 32 years old with his law degree from the University of Denver already in hand. From the Denver law offices of Snell & Wilmer, he looks back on making some positives out of that broken ankle.
But basketball once was Roche’s elective. He played during a magical time in the pro sport’s history. There was the stodgy, established NBA on one side. On the other was the American Basketball Association, with its appealing red, white and blue basketball and 3-point shooting line.
Most of Roche’s pro career was in the ABA. He nearly toured the league as a player, starting with the New York Nets. He also saw time with the Utah Stars and the Kentucky Colonels. He competed against the Denver Rockets when they played in the old Auditorium Arena in downtown Denver.
“Player movement was much greater in those days,” Roche said. “Pro basketball was in a growing stage.”
Those were the days of Julius Erving, Rick Barry, Artis Gilmore, George Gervin and Byron Beck on the ABA courts and teams such as the Colonels, Indiana Pacers and Virginia Squires. Larry Brown at Denver, Bill Sharman at Utah and Bob Leonard at Indiana were coaching names of note.
When the leagues merged, resulting in the disappearance of the ABA, the NBA instituted the 3-point shooting line but did not keep the multicolored basketball.
“My strengths as a player were shooting and ballhandling,” Roche said. “The 3-point line was a good rule for me.”
The 3-point line and Donnie Walsh, a name that comes up regularly on Roche’s resume, were factors in Roche getting his only NBA experience — the three seasons with the Nuggets.
Roche played college basketball at South Carolina and achieved All-America status in 1971 for coach Frank McGuire. Walsh, who later became the Nuggets’ head coach, was an assistant coach for McGuire.
When the ABA folded after the 1975-76 season, Roche entered law school. He also played basketball in Italy for a year.
Walsh replaced Brown as coach of the Nuggets during the 1978-79 season and called on Roche to join the team for the next season. That season Roche played in 82 games, averaged 11.4 points and had 82 steals.
Roche was in the 1979-80 Nuggets huddle with Dan Issel, Alex English, David Thompson, George McGinnis and Glen Gondrezick, among others.
But early the next season, Roche broke an ankle and played in only 26 games. Walsh was fired, and Doug Moe was named Nuggets coach.
In a rarity, Moe hired Walsh back as an assistant coach for the 1981-82 season. Roche came back from the ankle injury but saw limited playing time in 39 games. So he found another game.
“I started playing tennis socially,” Roche said. “I had played tennis sporadically for a number of years. But in my mid-40s, I started taking it more seriously and began playing in the age-group tournaments.”
He owns eight singles titles from among the state’s three major tennis tournaments: the Denver Open, the Colorado Open and the Boulder Open.
“I get my pro basketball from what I read in the newspapers,” Roche said. “Over the last three years, a group of us go to one Nuggets game a year.”
Roche sees players who are bigger, stronger and faster than the ones from his playing days. He thinks the biggest improvement in the game is on defense.
“It’s quite obvious they’re playing at a much higher intensity on defense than when I played,” Roche said. “It was nice that I could play basketball. I enjoyed the game very much. But I recognized early on that I wanted a career in something else.”
Roche bio
Born: Sept. 26, 1949, in New York City
High school: La Salle Academy, Manhattan, N.Y., 1964-67
College: South Carolina, 1967-71
Family: Wife Jackie, daughters Jennifer and Maggie, son Ryan
On the side: Ran the New York City Marathon in 1998; has ranked in the top four in age-group tennis for five years.
