Meet and Greet: Two-Time NBA Champion Clifford Ray
African American Museum and Library
Oakland
Feb. 24, 2024
Some of my fondest memories with my father involved watching sports, since that’s what he watched on the sole family TV when I was a kid. And in the Bay Area, the Golden State Warriors used to be a long-suffering NBA team with star players like Chris Mullin, Tim Hardway, and — my favorite in the late ‘80s — Manute Bol. But a player who predates my childhood was another Warrior who was famous for something else … saving a dolphin.
That player is former Golden State Warrior and NBA champ Clifford Ray. In 1978, Ray famously used his long arms to carefully reach into the stomach of a dolphin at the Marine World/Africa USA theme park (which was in Redwood City at that time) and retrieved a metal bolt that the animal had accidentally swallowed. Surgery would have been too risky for the dolphin, and someone who worked with animals at the park also happened to personally know Ray, whose skills and wingspan were well-known.
Ray recounted this story in his new children’s book, Big Clifford Ray Saves the Day, and on Sunday afternoon in person at the African American Museum and Library in Oakland, near Preservation Park.
“How many Warriors fans are here today?” the presenter asked. It was safe to say that everyone there was.
Ray mainly there mainly for the younger fans, the kids this book was written for.
“I’ve always felt like kids were the ones who I most wanted to help in life,” said Ray. “So that’s the reason why this book was written. You little ones are our future.”
Ray, who was on the NBA champion team in 1975 with Rick Barry, worked with writer Laynie D. Weaver and her sister, illustrator C. Courtney Weaver, to bring the book to fruition. It’s written as a book of illustrated poems, some of which recount his own childhood in the South, where he fell in love with fishing as a kid.
There with his friend and former teammate, Charles Dudley, he also talked about the first time he played basketball as a kid. It was not a great beginning, he said.“I was so nervous, I accidentally threw the ball in the other team’s basket.”
He chuckled at the memory. But he was grateful even for his mistakes. “Whatever mistakes you make, be willing to accept and learn from it,” he said. From a former NBA champ, it’s clearly a lesson he learned very well.
What struck me most, besides Ray’s height (he’s 6 feet 9 inches) and the giant championship ring he wore on his hand, was how well Ray’s personality would probably fit on the present-day team. As he spoke, he carried that same sense of joy and kindness about basketball, life, and friendships as I see when I watch Steph Curry.
Ray also announced that a new documentary is in the works to celebrate the 50th anniversary next year of the Warriors championship run in 1975. It was the team’s first championship since moving to the Bay Area. Ray also talked about how different it was in the NBA, not just in terms of how the game was played, but with who played it. “[Our team] was the first team in NBA history back then to have ten Black players and two Black coaches,” he said. “We had tremendous obstacles to overcome.”
Dudley chimed in during the talk, telling us that Ray was “the soul of that championship team.”
“No one person is bigger than the team,” Ray responded matter-of-factly. I smiled at his readiness to share the wealth. It sounded like something Steph Curry would say.
As an imposing center, Ray towers over Curry. But he didn’t mind admitting his admiration for today’s most popular player.
“I wish my shots [back then] rained like Curry’s,” he said. Game recognizes game.
