Former teammates and others in the basketball world remember Stormin' Norman, a hard-nosed guard who loved the Bulls and the game until the day he died.
Former Bulls forward and teammate Bob Love
"Man oh man, me and Norm were just together Tuesday night. As usual, he was expressing his love for the team and the franchise. He said, 'Butter, a lot of times I may sound critical on TV but it's just because I love these guys so much and I want them to win.' People might have taken that the wrong way. But he had passion like nobody else and just wanted to be loved.
"I tell you: Norm Van Lier never took a night off. He came to play every game. Norm and Jerry [Sloan] were the two best defensive guys ever to play in the NBA together. As a one-on-one defender, he was the best. One-on-one? He would eat you up.
"He absolutely would rub off on his teammates. We fed off of Norm. I would call him The Little Rat because that basketball was like a piece of cheese for Norm. He would run all over that court chasing that piece of cheese. He had more floor burns than any player in NBA history.
"He was a fighter who wasn't afraid of anybody. We were playing Portland one game and he got into a fight with Sidney Wicks. Sidney was 6-9, 240. Norm was 6-1, 165. Norm picked up a chair and ran Wicks all around the court. We laughed about that then and we laughed about it again today. He said, 'Butter, if I had hit him, I would've cut him down to my size.'"
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