Tag Archives: Boston Celtics

ProHoopsHistory HOF: Tommy Heinsohn

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Tommy Heinsohn

Tom Heinsohn’s influence in today’s NBA has boiled down to how many Tommy Points he hands out on a given night to the Boston Celtics.

Back in the day, Heinsohn still dished out points, but they were the ones that actually counted on the court. As the Boston Celtics’ official gunner, he shot so much and so often that he was nicknamed “Tommy Gun” and ”Ack-Ack.” You know, “Ack-Ack” as in the sound a gun makes when in rapid fire.

On many teams having a man flinging hook shots nearly 20 feet from the basket would result in discord and ill-feelings. The Boston Celtics, though, could subsume Heinsohn’s free-shooting ways and turn it into a strength. The Celtics would look to score easily on the break, but if that failed Heinsohn could always work his way into a good shoot… or at least a shot… that no other Celtic could manage in the half-court as time ran low on the shot clock.

Compared to his contemporaries only Elgin Baylor and Wilt Chamberlain could outmatch Heinsohn’s propensity to shoot.

Player – Shots per minute through the 1965 season
Wilt Chamberlain – 0.69 shots
Elgin Baylor – 0.63
Heinsohn – 0.61
Bob Pettit – 0.56
Sam Jones – 0.55
Cliff Hagan – 0.54
Jack Twyman – 0.54
Jerry West – 0.53
Oscar Robertson – 0.49
Hal Greer – 0.48
Richie Guerin – 0.47

That’s a lot of shots per minute, but Heinsohn’s unremarkable conditioning limited him to barely 30 minutes a night in his career. However he possessed a natural agility that made him hard to handle for defenses when he was in the game. He could score on his vaunted hook shots, a sweet jump shot, and strong driving moves. His finest moment may have come in his very first season as he scored 37 points and hauled in 23 rebounds in Game 7 of the 1957 NBA Finals to clinch Boston its first NBA title.

The glory continued for Heinsohn through the years. He was Boston’s go-to scorer for most of the late 1950s and early 1960s helping lead the club to 7 more NBA titles before retiring in 1965. As coach of the Celtics in the 1970s he led them to two more titles in 1974 and 1976 giving Heinsohn a personal total of 10 NBA titles.

That’s a pretty good haul for Boston’s vaunted gunner.

Seasons Played: 1957 – 1965

Boston Celtics

Boston Celtics

Accolades

NBA -
8x Champion (1957, 1959-’65)
4x All-NBA 2nd Team (1961-’64)
6x All-Star (1957, 1961-’65)
Rookie of the Year (1957)

Statistics

NBA - 654 Games
18.6 PPG, 8.8 RPG, 2.0 APG, 40.5% FG, 79.0% FT

ProHoopsHistory HOF: Bailey Howell

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Bailey_Howell

A great forward, Bailey Howell wasn’t the type of player to demand glory, attention, or top status in a team’s pecking order. Sure, he wanted play a key role, but he never sought out hype or acclaim. Luckily for Howell, not much hype was coming his way during the long and winding road of his early career in the NBA.

Drafted 2nd overall by the Detroit Pistons in 1959, Howell languished on a string of mediocre clubs in Motown. The team made the playoffs four out of his five seasons there, but that was more to do with circumstances than any sterling Pistons play. They won between 23 and 37 games every year never finishing above .500.

The team was woeful but Howell was a dreaded force. From the 1960 to the 1964 season, Howell was 7th in the NBA in total points, 6th in total rebounds, and 8th in FG%. His endless motor seemingly made him a good fit for the automotive Pistons, but the club could never rise above mediocrity. So, in 1964 they traded Howell and fellow all-star Don Ohl to the Baltimore Bullets.

The move to Baltimore didn’t do Bailey’s career any wonders. Caught in a big man logjam with Walt Bellamy, Johnny Green, Gus Johnson, and Johnny “Red” Kerr, Bellamy’s career sagged for two seasons. Deliverance came with a trade to the Boston Celtics in 1966.

Finding the right spot for his style of selfless basketball, Howell blended in with Boston’s system of egalitarian offense. Over the next three years, his offense, defense, rebounding, and resounding screens helped deliver the last two of Boston’s titles in the Russell Era.

Howell’s career is the kind that reminds you that the right talent in the wrong place can be a tragic waste. He was doing the same old thing in Boston he did in Detroit and Baltimore, it’s just that the teams in those two cities were on a road to nowhere. Given purpose and direction in Boston, Howell’s career lunged to new heights and gave him a Hall of Fame pedigree.

Of course, he already had the talent in droves. When he retired in 1971, Howell was the NBA’s 9th all-time leading rebounder, 8th all-time leading scorer, and 13th in FG%. The two NBA titles were just the icing on that cake.

Seasons Played: 1960 – 1971

Accolades

NBA -
2x Champion (1968-’69)
All-NBA 2nd Team (1963)
6x All-Star (1961-’64, 1966-’67)

Statistics

NBA –  950 Games
18.7 PPG, 9.9 RPG, 2.0 APG, 48.0% FG, 76.2% FT

ProHoopsHistory HOF: Larry Bird

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larry-bird

When you have a career as illustrious as Larry Bird’s it’s hard to find any proper place to begin. The number 3, however, would be an appropriate place to start the assessment of the Hick from French Lick.

Number of NBA titles? 3!

Larry Bird helped resuscitate the moribund Boston Celtics in the 1979-80 season. After a late 70s swoon, the Celtics were ripe for resurrection with Dave Cowens holding on from the mid-70s glory days, veteran Nate Archibald looking for his first taste of team success, and a young Cedric “Cornbread” Maxwell bringing an efficient post game. This first cast got Boston to 61 wins in 1980 after an abysmal 29 victories in 1979. The first title arrived in 1981 and two more would be added in 1984 and 1986 as Bird teamed with other legends like Robert Parish, Kevin McHale, Dennis Johnson, and Bill Walton, and other damn fine players like Scott Wedman, Reggie Lewis, and Danny Ainge.

Number of MVPs? 3!

That tremendous team success was buttressed by Bird’s three-straight MVPs from 1984 to 1986. That streak places him in the company of Wilt Chamberlain and Bill Russell as the only players to win three straight MVPs.

His statistics those years were mind-boggling:
26.2 PPG, 10.1 RPG, 6.7 APG, 1.8 SPG, 0.9 BPG, 50.4% FG, 39.2% 3PT, 88.9% FT

But they aren’t that far off from his career averages:
24.3 PPG, 10.0 RPG, 6.3 APG, 1.7 SPG, 0.8 BPG, 49.6% FG, 37.6% 3PT, 88.6% FT

The man was simply possessed with tremendous court-vision, a dead-eye jumper, deceitful athleticism, and a passion to hustle. Plus he’d let you know about it with some of the best trash-talk in NBA history.

What shot did he talk a lot of trash about? The 3!

At the 1986 3-Point Shootout, Larry Bird strutted into the locker room and asked the other contestants, ”Who’s coming in second tonight?” True to his bravado, Bird went out and smoked the competition. For kicks he went into a game against the Portland Trail Blazers that year and devastated the opponent with left-handed shots all night. Naturally, he scored 47 points while also dropping a triple-double.

One could continue to go on and on about Bird’s abilities, but I’ve said enough, just watch for yourself:

Seasons Played: 1980 -1992

Boston Celtics

Boston Celtics

Accolades

NBA -
3x MVP (1984-’86)
3x Champion (1981, 1984, 1986), 2x Finals MVP (1984, 1986)
9x All-NBA 1st Team (1980-’88)
All-NBA 2nd Team (1990)
3x All-Defensive 2nd Team (1982-’84)
All-Rookie 1st Team (1980), Rookie of the Year (1980)
12x All-Star (1980-’88, 1990-’92)

Statistics

NBA – 897 Games
24.3 PPG, 10.0 RPG, 6.3 APG, 1.7 SPG, 0.8 BPG, 49.6% FG, 37.6% 3PT, 88.6% FT
4x FT% Leader (1984, 1986-’87, 1990)
10th All-Time in FT%, 13th All-Time in MPG
17th All-Time in PPG, 25th All-Time in SPG
22nd All-Time in FGs Made, 30th All-Time in Points
31st All-Time in Steals, 35th All-Time in Assists

ProHoopsHistory HOF: Bill Sharman

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Bill Sharman

Bill Sharman

Ask folks for a list of great shooting guards from NBA history and you will likely get Michael Jordan. Then Kobe Bryant. Perhaps, Jerry West and Reggie Miller. Maybe…. maybe Sam Jones. But Bill Sharman? He would likely never crop up despite in many regards being the man who prototyped the shooting guard position.

Bill Sharman started out his NBA career at the age of 24 with the Washington Capitals in the 1950-51 season. The club, however, folded midseason after just 35 games. Sharman shot a pedestrian 37% and averaged 12 points. Not exactly the stuff that would leave teams around the league scrambling for Sharman. His basketball career very well could have ended there, especially considering he was also signed to a minor league contract with the MLB’s Brooklyn Dodgers.

However, Sharman wound up on the Boston Celtics in the 1951-52 season thanks to Red Auerbach’s keen eye for talent. Auerbach had coached the Capitals earlier in his career. Sharman turned out to be the first of many diamonds Auerbach found in the rough.

Initially a bench player, Sharman was bumped into the Celtic starting 5 playing alongside point guard Bob Cousy and center Ed Macauley. The trio blossomed into the NBA’s most feared offensive machines. Sharman handled the hot outside shooting and was one of the few guards of his era to consistently connect on over 40% of his field goals.

From the free throw line, Sharman was absolutely deadly. Over a nine-year span (1953 – 1961), Sharman led the NBA in FT% seven times and topped off in 1959 with 93.2% FT-shooting.

Interestingly, Sharman got deadlier with age. He retired at age 34, but his career-high in PPG came at age 31, his career-high in FT% at age 32 and FG% at age 33. Sharman’s longevity and resilience was in large part thanks to his training regimen that was unheard of in an era where weight-lifting was frowned upon and smoking was a regular game day occurrence.

“He drank shakes he claimed gave him energy. He always had vitamins in his suitcase. He drank tea on the afternoon of games. He did calisthenics in front of his locker before games, as the rest of his teammates sat there and thought he was a wacko. He ran on days he wasn’t practicing, sometimes jogging behind a car driven by his wife. And on the morning of game days he would go to a local high school gym and shoot by himself, his way of preparing for the evening’s games.”

- from Bill Reynolds’ Rise of a Dynasty

This regimen helped sustain Sharman through an 11-year career complete with 4 NBA titles and numerous All-Star selections. After he retired, he passed along the routine to several franchises as a coach in the NBA and ABA where he won titles and Coach of the Year awards. His morning shooting before games eventually became standard in today’s game as “shootarounds”.

Sharman’s impact on the game has been tremendous, if slightly obscured. I suppose the important things aren’t always immediately clear or visible, but once you notice them, you realize just how integral they are. Sharman’s career had that quality when it concerned basketball. About time a larger audience took note.

Seasons Played: 1951 – 1961

Boston Celtics

Boston Celtics

Accolades

NBA -
4x Champion (1957, 1959-’61)
4x All-NBA 1st Team (1956-’59)
3x All-NBA 2nd Team (1953, 1955, 1960)
8x All-Star (1953-’60), All-Star Game MVP (1955)

Statistics

NBA - 711 Games
17.8 PPG, 3.9 RPG, 3.0 APG, 42.6% FG, 88.3% FT
7x FT% Leader (1953-’57, 1959, 1961)
12th All-Time in FT%

ProHoopsHistory HOF: Bob Cousy

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Bob Cousy

When George Mikan retired from the NBA in 1954, the next big thing, the next big star, was surprisingly only 6’1″ tall. Well, only surprising if you accounted for stature. If you counted for talent and wizardry, then it’s not the least bit shocking that Bob Cousy mesmerized NBA fans in the 1950s.

The Cooz captivated crowds with his straight-from-the-playground theatrics. He never did these things for show, however. It was perfectly natural for Cousy to dribble-behind-the-back and flip no-look passes. Elevating to dump dimes by dropping them over his head were legitimately done not for showmanship. These types of dazzling displays were genuinely natural Cousy. It’s how the game made sense to him. The deceitful pass beguiled the opponent and therefore gave his team the advantage.

Cousy’s breathtaking passing has always, and rightly, held supreme over his ability to score. However, he was a devastating scorer. From 1951 to 1959 he finished in the top 10 in PPG seven times topping out in 1954 and 1955 with back-to-back 2nd place finishes. All the while, Cousy was leading the league in APG for eight straight years.

Only Nate Archibald, Wilt Chamberlain and Oscar Robertson have also finished so high in PPG and APG simultaneously.

The Houdini of the Hardwood helped transform the Boston Celtics from bottom dwellers in the East to perennial contenders. Along with Ed Macauley and Bill Sharman he formed the 1st of Boston’s many fabled Big 3s. Although Cousy ended his Celtics career with  6 titles, it was a rough road to that glory.

The Cousy-Sharman-Macauley Celtics always made the playoffs but were always thwarted, particularly by the Syracuse Nationals. That agony finally faded when Boston traded Macauley for Bill Russell while also drafting Tommy Heinsohn in 1957. The team was better than ever winning the title and Cousy won his only MVP award that season.

It came not a moment too soon. After the numerous playoff failures, the Celtics management contemplated breaking up the most expensive roster in the NBA if they lost the 1957 Finals. After breaking though that year, though, Cousy saw five more title seasons over the next six years finally retiring in 1963.

It’s often hard for those of us today to fully appreciate just how out-of-this-world Cousy was as a rookie 1951. His moves don’t seem as miraculous 60 years later. His 9.5 APG were earth-shattering in 1960, but have since become routine. The best we can do is remind ourselves that once upon a time in Beantown, NBA fans were dazzled by a Houdini of the Hardwood with never before seen tricks and left everyone spellbound.

Seasons Played: 1951 – 1963

Boston Celtics

Boston Celtics

Accolades

NBA -
MVP (1957)
6x Champion (1957, 1959-’63)
10x All-NBA 1st Team (1952-’61)
2x All-NBA 2nd Team (1962-’63)
13x All-Star (1951-’63), 2x All-Star Game MVP (1954, 1957)

Statistics

NBA - 924 Games
18.4 PPG, 7.5 APG, 5.2 RPG, 37.5% FG, 80.3% FT
8x APG Leader (1953-’60)
15th All-Time in Assists, 18th All-Time in APG

ProHoopsHistory HOF: Robert Parish

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Robert Parish (Celtics Pride)

Robert Parish (Celtics Pride)

Robert Parish’s NBA career lasted longer than any player in history. He strung together 21 seasons and played in 1795 games between the regular season and playoffs. Naturally, luck plays a role in anyone being able to play for that long, but also credit Parish’s stringent training, yoga, and vegetarian diet for keeping him spry year after year.

Most of those years, of course, were spent with the Boston Celtics. From the 1980-81 season through the 1993-94 campaign, the Chief called Boston home. His presence alongside Larry Bird and Kevin McHale created what many think is the best frontcourt trio in NBA history. They have a good case given the trio of titles they captured together.

Parish, no doubt, was the lowest key of the three. He didn’t say much to begin with and his game was perhaps even quieter. He wasn’t prone to dazzling displays of athleticism, he never averaged over 20 points a game, and he didn’t swat shots into the 5th or 6th row.

But what Parish delivered certainly was constant and consistent. In his second NBA season (with the Golden State Warriors) in 1978, Parish scored 12.5 points per game. 16 years later in 1994, Parish at the age of 40 was still scoring 11.7 points a night. His defense and rebounding followed a similar ever-ready suit. Opposing centers rarely got the upper hand of the Chief who resolutely patrolled the paint and registered stifling resistance night after night.

If there was anything “flashy” about Parish it was his insanely high-arching turn-around jumper. Already 7’0″, Parish lofting a shot from such a perch was impossible to block and he hit the shot an absurd amount. That shot enabled Parish to have games like a 31-point demolition of Detroit in the 1987 playoffs while making 10 of his 12 field goals, plus 11 of his 12 free throws.

The other patented Parish move was his one-handed, always-in-stride dunk. The Chief was an underrated finisher on the break since he never ran that fast, but he never stopped running so he could get down the court and finish with authority.

Notice how unfast Parish was running in that clip, but he kept a-movin’ and got the jam.  And at the age of 43 Parish was still doing his unfast floor trot to slam home dunks…

That’s the kind of ceaseless determination that makes a man a Hall of Famer.

Seasons Played: 1977 – 1997

Accolades

NBA –
4x Champion (1981, 1984, 1986, 1997)
All-NBA 2nd Team (1982), All-NBA 3rd Team (1989)
9x All-Star (1981-’87, 1990-’91)

Statistics

NBA - 1611 Games
14.5 PPG, 9.1 RPG, 1.5. BPG, 53.7% FG, 72.1% FT
1st All-Time in Games Played, 11th All-Time in Minutes Played
7th All-Time in Rebounds, 24th All-Time in Points, 10th All-Time in Blocks

The Lowdown: Bailey Howell

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Years Active: 1960 – 1971
Regular Season Stats: 951 games, 32.2 mpg
18.7 ppg, 9.9 rpg, 1.9 apg, 48% FG, 76.2% FT
Postseason Stats: 86 games, 31.7 mpg
16.3 ppg, 8.1 rpg, 1.5 apg, 46.5% FG, 73.2% FT
Accolades: Hall of Fame (1997), 2x NBA Champ  (1968, ’69), 2nd Team All-NBA (1963), 6x All-Star (1961-’64, 1966-’67)

We knew Howell was a good player. He had an average of better than 20 points for seven seasons in the NBA. And he played in most of the All-Star games since he’s been in the league. Yet, sometimes you don’t realize a player’s true value until he’s on your side for a while… He’s got the good offensive drive. He’s a real holler-guy on the bench, too. Bailey likes team basketball. Joining the Celtics made him a happy player. He doesn’t care how much he scores. He just wants to win.

- Bill Russell on Bailey Howell, via Dynasty’s End (an excellent book that you should buy now!)

For 7 seasons, Bailey Howell plied his way as one of the NBA’s best forwards. He was a man possessed on the boards, particularly the offensive glass. He had an incessant, fearless zeal to attack the basket and rack up points. Five times he was selected an all-star as reward for his routine output of 20 points and 11 rebounds. Along with this individual success usually came team disappointment or outright failure.

Howell’s first 7 years were spent with the Detroit Pistons (5 seasons) and Baltimore Bullets (2). None of these teams ever finished with a record above .500. The best years for Howell’s clubs in this era were in 1962 and 1965. In ’62 the Detroit Pistons (winners of just 37 regular season games), fell into the playoffs and dislodged Oscar Robertson’s Cincinnati Royals in the semi-finals in a 3-1 series win. The Lakers of Baylor and West thereafter bounced Detroit in 6 games in the divisional finals. The ’65 “success” story with the Baltimore Bullets largely repeated this sequence of events: 37-win regular season, dislodge semi-final opponent 3-games-to-1, then lose to the Lakers in 6 games in the divisional finals.

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Waiting for the Train with Bob Cousy and Chuck Cooper

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nolifebeforecoffee (flickr)

Over at Grantland today there is the depressing story of Greg Oden’s heart-wrenching personal journey through emotional and basketball rehab. It’s well worth reading and is a reminder that NBA players are persons. Like all of us, they have particular struggles to battle in their lives. But unlike them, we have the anonymity to privately deal with the issues. Having a close friend die and then being booed by thousands a day later is an experience few of us will ever have to face.

As it so happens, I’m reading Rise of a Dynasty: the ’57 Celtics, the First Banner, and the Dawning of a New America. Within this book is a powerful story recalling an exhibition game the Boston Celtics played in Charlotte, North Carolina in 1950.

Exhibition games were played far more often then than today as the NBA used it as a means to raise both revenue and interest in their sport. Well, being North Carolina in the 1950s, the supposedly public accommodations of Charlotte were not available for use by “colored” persons, including the Celtics’ lone black player, Charles Cooper. The forward was not allowed to eat with his teammates, watch a movie with them at the theater, or even spend the night with them after the game in a hotel. All because of segregation.

Thanks to these dehumanizing conditions, Cooper (the first black player drafted by the NBA) was scheduled to take a train back the night of the game instead of waiting until the morning and flying back with the team to Boston. Symbolic of the lonely, solitary existence early black players faced.

This plan was initially unknown to Cooper’s road roommate, the tender-hearted Bob Cousy. After learning about it from coach Red Auerbach, Cousy insisted on riding all the way back to Boston via Syracuse on the train with Cooper. The train back to Boston wouldn’t arrive until the wee hours of the morning, so Cooper and Cousy just walked the streets, passing the time. Eventually, nature’s call arrived and the two men searched for a restroom at the station. Finally finding one, Cousy was embarrassed to see the clean toilets marked “WHITE” and the decrepit one “COLORED”.

Tears filled his eyes as he felt not only ashamed for this moment he and Cooper had to endure, but perhaps also for the teasing he absorbed as a child in New York.

Cousy was the son of immigrants from Alsace and spoke with a French accent. Called “Flenchy” for his accented rolling of r’s by peers, his existence was made even more wretched by the indifference his parents showed to their only child. It was a loveless home he hastily abandoned after turning 18. The stoic guard would always be guarded and yet sympathetic with his teammates. Particularly showing this passion when he broke down crying in an interview years later talking about what more he could have done to aid Bill Russell against virulent racism in the late 1950s.

But on this night, waiting together at the station, Cooper and Cousy ignored discussing the solemn moment they came upon the separate but unequal stalls. Finally, Cousy broached the topic by relating to Cooper all the horrors done to Jews in Europe just a few years earlier in World War II and the recent terrorist bombings of Catholic Churches in Louisiana. Cooper absorbed Cousy’s sincere attempt to tackle the issue of prejudice, but his slow retort revealed the enormous burdon borne by the lone black Celtic who couldn’t escape or evade the prejudice if he tried…

“That’s all right, but you can’t tell a Jew or a Catholic by looking at him.”

Cousy, again embarrassed, dropped the topic. And the two men continued their wait…

A painful reminder that we all deal with demons, whether personal or social, self-made or imposed by others. All we can do is gird ourselves and aid others in that battle like Cousy did (however timidly) with Cooper. Hopefully Greg Oden and anyone else with these battles find that strength and empathy from themselves and others.

When Celtics vs. Hawks Meant Excitement

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Editor’s note: this article was originally written during the horrific Celtics-Hawks playoff series of Spring 2012

via St. Louis Sports History

The past two weeks, the cries of basketball fans everywhere have pleaded for the horrendous Boston Celtics – Atlanta Hawks 1st round series to end. Despite these pleas, the basketball gods willed that that contest continue for 6 excruciating games. Mercifully, it ended Thursday but in a typically painful way: mismanaged calls by refs and missed free throws by players.

However, Celtics vs. Hawks wasn’t always cause for concern. In fact, back in the late 1950s and early 1960s, it was the best match-up around in the NBA. To be precise, from 1957 to 1961, the St. Louis Hawks and the Boston Celtics met in the NBA Finals 4 times. There was plenty of in-game heroics and pre-game shenanigans to entertain all during this stretch, but that first clash in 1957 was perhaps the best.

There was oodles of back story, intrigue and, most importantly, delightful on-court play.

Seeds of a Rivalry

The antipathy between this New England city and Missouri burgh begins where all great rivalries do… the Tri-Cities of Iowa and Illinois.

Actually, let’s back this train up a bit further. The story begins in Buffalo, New York. It is there where Ben Kerner, a local businessman, established the Buffalo Bisons in the National Basketball League (NBL) in that league’s 1946-47 season, its 11th. Also started that year was the upstart Basketball Association of America (BAA). Unimportant right now, but hold that thought on the BAA.

Kerner’s experiment with pro basketball in Buffalo ended like all previous attempts did: failure. There had been two previous incarnations of “Buffalo Bisons” that went up in smoke. There was one in the American Basketball League of the 1920s and a previous one in the NBL (then known as the Midwest Basketball Conference) during the mid-1930s. Both attempts collapsed after a single season. This newest attempt by Kerner didn’t even last that long. The team suffering from horrendous attendance bolted for Moline, Illinois after 13 games.

Now, I know we’ve all contemplated packing our bags and moving to Moline for a fresh start, however Kerner actually went through with this plan not only because Buffalo was terrible for attendance, but Moline was excellent for it. 3 weeks before the move, a neutral site game between the Chicago Gears (with George Mikan) and Indianapolis Kautskys had drawn over 4,000 fans. That was stellar attendance and Kerner took note and thus the Tri-Cities Blackhawks were born.

Sidenote: Ben Kerner this season employed Hall of Famer William “Pop” Gates as a Blackhawk. Gates was African-American. In fact, the NBL occasionally had been using black players for years, predating Jackie Robinson in MLB.

Over the next couple of seasons, the Blackhawks were an above average team always making the playoffs in the NBL and the times seemed decent. Then along came a merger with the BAA in 1950 that created the NBA. The NBL had primarily been located in modest-sized Midwestern cities, while the BAA was in larger East Coast locales. The merger set in motion economic forces that would move the Blackhawks from the Tri-Cities of Moline, Davenport and Rock Port to Milwaukee, Wisconsin (renamed just “Hawks”) and then finally to St. Louis in order to financially compete with the old BAA teams in New York, Philadelphia and Boston. Not that any of those teams were rolling in dough. No one in professional basketball was then. But these moves were the difference between life and death for Kerner.

Before leaving the Tri-Cities, though, Kerner employed a plucky coach with a loud mouth and an enormous chip on his shoulder: Arnold “Red” Auerbach.

Although only 32, Auerbach, already had a good track record as coach with the Washington Capitals before arriving in the Tri-Cities in 1950, the year of the NBL-BAA merger. With the Caps in the BAA, Auerbach had amassed a .684 win percentage overall and a single-season win percentage of .817 in 1947. That would not be bested until the 1967 76ers. Auerbach had also demonstrated a keen touch in making personnel decisions in Washington.

Upon being hired in the Tri-Cities, Auerbach extracted from Kerner a promise to leave him total control over personnel. As you may guess, that pledge was quickly broken by Kerner who meddled in affairs and ultimately drove Red from the Tri-Cities after just one season. The broken promise and their clash of personalities, however, had cast the dye for the vitriol of the 1957 NBA Finals.

via bestsportsphotos.com

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Hall of Fame Snubs: Jo Jo White

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Years Active: 1970 – 1981
Regular Season Stats: 837 games, 35.8 mpg
17.2 ppg, 4.9 apg, 4.0 rpg, 1.3 spg, 44.4% FG, 83.4% FT
Postseason Stats: 80 games, 42.9 mpg
21.5 ppg, 5.7 apg, 4.4 rpg, 1.1 spg, 44.9% FG, 82.8% FT
Accolades: 2x NBA Champion (1974, ’76), Finals MVP (1976), 2x All-NBA 2nd Team (1975, ’77), All-Rookie 1st Team (1970), 7x All-Star (1971-77)

via murphman61 (flickr)

The Celtics lazed through more than three periods until Jo Jo White did a 12-minute hustle Sunday to shoot Boston past Phoenix 98-87 in the opening game of the NBA championship series… White, scoring 12 straight points in a 4:15 span, finished with 22 points – all but two in the final two periods.

- Via St. Petersburg Times, May 24, 1976

The highwater mark of Jo Jo White’s illustrious career came in the 1976 Finals. He played more minutes, scored more points and made more assists than other player in that series thus earning the Finals MVP award. There’s that heroic sequence in Game 1 described above where he knocked down a pair of jumpers, drove for two baskets and hit four straight free throws in just 4 minutes to thwart a Phoenix attempt to steal the series opener.

In Game 5 of the series, which some describe as the greatest game in NBA history, the Suns and Celtics played a triple overtime thriller that saw John Havlicek hit a supposed game winner in the 2nd OT that was instantly topped by Gar Heard’s turnaround jumper.

Jo Jo White amazingly played almost every moment of the 63-minute contest. Despite the heavy workload, White saved his best for those overtimes scoring 15 of his 33 points in the extra periods and pushed Boston to a 128-126 victory. Exhausted from the marathon affair, White slumped in his seat after the game and simply wondered aloud…

“Would you believe we’ve got another game in Phoenix Sunday?”

White managed just 15 points in the closing Game 6 as Boston collected its 2nd title in 3 years and 13th in 19, but he had more than pulled his weight already in the previous game and indeed, had been an iron horse for the Celtics for years by that point.

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