IN NINE years of playing for the Celtics, Tommy Heinsohn, who came into the NBA the same season as Bill Russell (arrived six weeks late due to the ’56 Melbourne Olympics) and won top rookie honors, averaged 18.6 points and 8.8 rebounds.
Hall of Fame statistics.
But the most amazing dimension of Heinsohn’s board score is the reality he recorded it playing alongside Russell, who averaged a bloated 22.5 during his brimful career, and for five of those seasons beside Satch Sanders, who averaged almost 11.
Ripley data.
Don’t ever believe old folks who swear players in the ’60s were better marksmen than today’s snipers.
Fundamentally sounder, for sure, but definitely not higher percentage shooters.
At any rate, one of my most prized pursuits throughout four decades of covering professional basketball is going out of my way to track down Heinsohn and pick his agile oblongata.
He’d retired before I showed up. Still, I covered him his whole coaching career that earned him another two rings in nine seasons for a total of 10. Permanently accessible, intuitive and brutally blunt, Heinsohn was the same then as he is now and always has been as a (Celtics’ slanted) commentator for his beloved team.
So, there I was again late Tuesday evening reaching out to Heinsohn for his expertise as we stood out of the way on the Red Auerbach named parquet and eyeballed the Celtics share the elation of maximum fulfillment with family, friends and 19,000 fans.
It had taken the Celtics but 30 years to amass 16 championships and another 22 years before this group of predominant hardcore veterans bottled individual cravings and committed to playing defense as well, if not better, than any team in league history to capture No. 17.
When coordinated, as choreographed by assistant coach Tom Thibodeau, five bodies vigilantly stalk the ball as a single-minded unit into assigned coverage areas in order to apply paramount pressure and minimum maneuverability.
Beautiful to behold unless you’re an opponent, their flawless fandango skips across the ocean like a storm. “How many ‘Tommy Points’ (getting’ down and dirty) would you have given Rajon Rondo,” I asked Heinsohn about one of his favorite TV topics since arriving as a rookie.
Who says it’s tough for young players to develop and keep their confidence in Kobe’s company? The Finals offer proof to the contrary. Exhibit A is Rondo’s six steals, eight assists, seven rebounds and 21 points.
Kobe had success playing free safety against Rondo in the two previous games. This time he paid stiff roaming charges. His inability to stop his man from causing havoc (admittedly the result of three steals in the opening four minutes as Rajon doubled Pau Gasol; being on the loose and in the open floor is when Rondo is most dangerous) and Bryant’s teammates had no idea how to recover.
“The kid has only scratched the surface of where he’s going to three, four years from now,” Heinsohn gushed. “How many players can make an impact at both ends? And he rarely gets rattled. Even when he makes mistakes he maintains his composure. I love Rajon Rondo!”
Heinsohn also loves the way the three leaders of the Celtics encouraged Rondo when he played poorly rather than scape-goating him in the huddle (to name one place) as Kobe does to his teammates. Two of them are no longer verbally abused. A team source told me Kobe stopped trying to punk Lamar Odom and Vlade Radmanovic after they made it clear “no more of that spit or it’s on.”
Odom and Kobe, in fact, did exchange a couple blows a couple seasons ago after a Wizards loss in D.D. when Bryant kept bustin’ him for blowing a play.
“These Celtics remind me a lot of our teams,” Heinsohn said. A different guy would take over every night. And when things went bad Russ and Couz would take over the huddle. ‘What do we have to do to make us play better?’ They’d put it on themselves, not someone else.”
Regarding Paul Pierce’s MVP award, Heinsohn stunned me by declaring him “very possibly the best offensive player in Celtics’ history.”
“That’s a ton of territory you’re covering there,” I said, giving him a chance to qualify or retract.
“No, I think Paul is the best. Larry Bird was great, don’t get me wrong. But Paul can win games from outside and inside. He can take anybody down low and outmuscle them and take anybody one-on-one off the dribble.
“Red would’ve had a side remark right about now,” Heinsohn appropriately noted. “I don’t know, I don’t know what he would’ve said. Probably something about being proud about them winning it the right way, or being happy they didn’t let the Lakers so much as stiff a Finals victory on our home floor.”
Yes, David Stern deserves a lot of credit. He’s the first commissioner to figure out how to start games late and end them early.
Fact is, Auerbach would be especially ebullient Jackson was prevented from passing him in coaching (nine) championships.