Great interview:
Ostertag: I’ve continued to watch basketball after I retired, and when you’re younger, you don’t think studying film is important, but I’ve been watching guys – seeing how they move. And with the internet, now you can watch everything a guy does.
Now it’s important for me to study a guy’s moves, and use less physical and athletic ability, and more understanding what a guy’s gonna do with the ball.
It’s stuff you should learn when you’re younger but you’re too stupid to do it.
I’ve gotten smarter. I learned over the years of being retired, and started understanding. Jerry [Sloan] and I used to butt heads all the time and I thought he was getting on me because he needed somebody to get on.
Now I look back on the things he said to me and they’re all making sense. I guess I won’t say the things he was saying to me – more like the things he was yelling at me.
NBADLeague.com: Haha, Jerry Sloan could be forceful…
Ostertag: I love Jerry to death. He was old school. I played with two of the best to ever step on the floor, and I was the one taking the brunt when things were going bad. I thought he was just picking on me, and I understand it now.