From Dave DeBusschere’s “The Open Man” (1970):
Reggie Harding was a very unusual basketball player. For one thing, he came to the Pistons straight out of a Detroit high school. For another, he used drugs. And for a third, he carried guns. He was always in some kind of difficulty, but the Detroit management was very patient with him. Reggie was seven feet tall.
Once, on a road trip, I spotted a pistol in Reggie’s duffel bag and another in his coat pocket. “What are you doing with them?” I asked.
“I keep ‘em around,” Reggie said, “so no one’ll mess with me.”
“Reggie,” I said, “I don’t know too many people who are going to mess with a guy who’s seven feet tall and two hundred and fifty pounds.”
“Well,” he said, “I keep ‘em just to make sure.”
He used them, too. I remember Reggie taking out his guns one night and shooting around his roommate’s feet, hollering, “Dance, baby, dance.” His roommate danced.
