MICHAEL COOPER IS 6 FEET 7 inches tall, with long, thin legs, a narrow waist and an upper body that fans out like a V into a pair of shoulders so acutely angular they might be supported by a crossbeam. Cooper running at full speed is a picture of graceful efficiency: He seems simply to glide, feet never touching the ground. When he jumps, we're talking serious levitation. Like a Mirage jet, he is built to soar.

Kevin McHale is 6 feet 10 inches tall, most of it elbows and knees. His running motion - head thrown back, arms churning, feet clomping - is an exercise in locomotion that belies considerable speed. With his shaggy black hair, sad eyes and quick, gentle smile, McHale recalls a favorite English teacher.



Both of these men are professional basketball players, Cooper for the Los Angeles Lakers, McHale for the Boston Celtics. What's more, they are stars, big stars who are hounded for autographs, sought for postgame interviews and paid well (just prior to this season, McHale signed a four-year contract worth about $1 million a year).

Yet both are substitutes, members of an elite corps of players in the National Basketball Association known as "sixth men," athletes whose skills and personalities are better suited to coming off the bench than to basking in the glow of the starting five-man lineup.

"There was a time," says Pat Riley, coach of the Lakers, "when you sent in a substitute and crossed your fingers, hoping he wouldn't hurt you too much. But the game has changed in the last couple of years. There's so much more talent now you can't afford a letdown when you go to your bench. It's important to have players who can go in and give you a lift."

As this season heads for the playoffs, the Celtics are leading their division, while the Lakers, along with the Milwaukee Bucks, who have another of the league's best sixth men, Junior Bridgeman, are battling for first place in their respective divisions. The current world champion Philadelphia 76ers, with a bench that includes Bobby Jones as their first substitute, are vying for sec- ond place in the Atlantic Division, behind Boston.

The sixth-man idea was introduced in the late 1940's, when Arnold (Red) Auerbach, then coaching the Washington Capitols, felt that bringing one of his best players, Irv Torgoff, off the bench instead of starting him provided his team with an advantage. The Capitols have gone the way of the two-hand set shot and Auerbach has gone on to a long and successful career as coach and general manager of the Boston Celtics. But his idea, which he introduced to the Celtics in the mid-1950's, has been adopted by some of the most successful teams in the N.B.A. Last season, recognizing the special character of the star substitute, the league created an annual Sixth Man Award. The first one went to Jones.

The popularity of the sixth- man concept shows how the game of professional basketball has changed. Today's players are capable of truly startling feats: Just watch Julius Erving of the 76ers go airborne 10 feet from the basket and float in for a looping, one-hand dunk shot or San Antonio's George Gervin slip his razor-thin body through a clutch of defenders and score with a jump shot as soft as a perfectly executed souffle. The game is loaded with talent, and players are bigger and faster than ever. As a consequence, the best teams these days are rich in ability down to the end of the bench. They can no longer rely on the promising rookie or savvy veteran to give the starting five a breather.

Basketball is a team game, complex and continuously fluid, and the teams that win consistently are those with players who eschew personal heroics, preferring to mold their efforts to fit a larger framework. If the N.B.A.'s outstanding sixth men have differing individual strengths - Cooper's defense, McHale's rebounding, Jones's steadiness and Bridgeman's shooting prowess - they all share one important trait: unselfishness.

A pro game is 48 minutes long, and a starting player will average about 35 minutes of playing time. If he gets in early foul trouble, or is simply having a bad night, it may be considerably less than that. Even if all of the starters play their full time, a strong substitute who can fill in at two positions gives his team an obvious advantage.

Boston starts Larry Bird and Cedric Maxwell at forward and Robert Parish at center. Kevin McHale can fill in for any of them. "Having McHale means having instant offense and instant defense," says K.C. Jones, who took over this season as coach of the Celtics. "It's like bringing in an All-Star off the bench."

Despite his awkward appearance, the 26-year-old McHale is a superb all-round player. His incredibly long arms make him a formidable rebounder and shot blocker, and he has a dependable fall- away jump shot and hook that are almost impossible to defend against because of his size.

But McHale's greatest asset is his ability on offense to maneuver close to the basket, where he can pick off missed shots and either put them back up himself or pass to a teammate in the open. In the lexicon of the game, this is known as "playing in the paint" and any knowledgeable fan will tell you that the paint - so-called because the foul lanes on most courts are brightly painted - is where games are won or lost.

"I probably spend as much time in the three-second lane as anybody in the league," McHale said, relaxing one morning after a workout in the gymnasium of Hellenic College in suburban Brookline, Mass., where the Celtics train. "A lot of people laugh. They say, 'You're in there for 10 seconds at a time.' But that's not true. I try to slash in for three seconds, then out, then right back in."

A lot of the Celtics' plays revolve around Larry Bird. "Larry is such a great shooter, you know when he gets the ball he's going to put it up," McHale explained. "That way I can anticipate. I can be moving toward the basket when the ball is being shot."

McHale has been a reliable scorer in each of his three previous seasons with Boston (last year he averaged 14 points a game), but so far this year he is averaging more than 18 points, remarkable for a nonstarter. In a game against Detroit earlier this season, he scored 19 points in the fourth quarter alone to preserve a victory. In close situations, especially near the end of the game, the Celtics have usually gone to Bird. This year in tough spots they are looking for McHale, too.

"Scoring comes and goes," McHale says. "You might get a lot of easy baskets one night and not the next. For me, the difference between a 15-point game and a 23-point game is really no big deal. There've been a lot of games where I have scored only 5 or 6 points but we've won, and I've felt I really contributed a great deal. That's what it's all about."

In an early-season victory against Milwaukee at the Boston Garden, McHale entered the game late in the first quarter, taking over for Parish at center. When Parish returned after a four- minute breather (prolonged by the break between the first and second quarters), Bird went out and McHale moved over to forward.

In the first instance, he was guarded by Milwaukee's center, the stronger but less mobile Bob Lanier. When McHale took Bird's place, he was guarded by the 6-foot- 5-inch Junior Bridgeman, a mismatch that allowed the Celtics to get more rebounds than Milwaukee and speed up the pace of the game, which eventually took its toll on the slower Bucks. In the last few minutes, Boston, its fast break shifting into high gear, broke open a close game and went on to win, 119-105.

In his three and a half seasons as a pro since coming out of the University of Minnesota, McHale has never been a regular starter. "On this team there is so much talent," he said of the Celtics, "it's never bothered me."

The same is not true of Bobby Jones, who was a starter - and an All-Star - with the Denver Nuggets and with Philadelphia before the 76ers' coach, Billy Cunningham, made him a sixth man just before the start of the 1979-80 season. Initially, Jones recalls, the adjustment was difficult. "I just did not feel I was part of the team," he said. "In fact, after starting for so many years, I felt like I was in outer space."

At 6 feet 9 inches and only 205 pounds, the 32-year-old Jones is not heavy enough to match up against most of the N.B.A.'s muscular centers, so he's limited to the forward position. What he might lack in versatility, however, this veteran, now in his 10th season as a pro, more than makes up for in consistency at both ends of the court. Jones is pale and string- bean thin, with dark, bushy eyebrows, a prominent nose and a full mouth. He is one of the smartest players in the game. His sense of the court is uncanny: He seems always to be in the right place at the right time, whether to block a shot, pick up a loose ball, make a pass for a basket or hit on a crucial tip-in. Jones is one of those players who may only score 7 points in a game, but chances are that all 7 will come when the score is close and the pressure most intense.

A typical performance occurred earlier this season at the Byrne Meadowlands Arena, where for most of the game the New Jersey Nets were giving the 76ers all they could handle. Jones entered the game with a little more than four minutes left in the first quarter and the Nets ahead by a point. Early in the second period, when New Jersey widened the margin to six and appeared ripe to break away, he hit a running, left- handed hook shot and followed with a 12-foot jump shot that kept his team close. Just before the half, his jump shot from the foul line helped give the 76ers a 61-60 lead at the half.

As usual, though, his biggest contribution was late in the game. With 39 seconds to play and Philadelphia hanging on to a three-point lead, Buck Williams, the Nets' speedy young forward, took an outlet pass from Darryl Dawkins and streaked into the open, heading for what looked like a sure basket.

But Jones chased him the length of the court and, with exquisite timing, leaped just as his opponent did, looped a skinny arm over Williams's shoulder and neatly blocked the shot from behind. Thirteen seconds later, at the other end of the court, Jones was fouled by Mike Gminski. He calmly sank two free throws to wrap up the victory. Afterward, his teammate Julius Erving said: "Bobby Jones is the kind of guy you want in there at the end. I just love playing with him."

For the last seven years, Jones has been named to the N.B.A.'s All-Defensive Team, which is not only a tribute to his play but an indication of the direction Philadelphia has taken in the last few years.

The 76ers of the late 1970's were perhaps the greatest assemblage of individualists ever put together on a basketball court. Besides Erving, the 1976-77 Philadelphia team included Dawkins, Lloyd (now World B.) Free, George McGinnis, Doug Collins, Steve Mix, Henry Bibby and Caldwell Jones. Both Erving and McGinnis had come over from the American Basketball Association, where they enjoyed spectacular success as scorers. Free was quite capable of shooting the eyes out of the basket from 25 feet out, and whenever someone passed him the ball, that's usually what he tried to do.

The team was a powerhouse on offense but never really jelled as a unit. After it was picked apart by the Portland Trail Blazers in the 1977 championship series, Philadelphia began to make changes. The next season, Billy Cunningham, who as a player in the 1960's and early 1970's typified the hard-working, unselfish style of play that is now the 76ers' stock in trade, replaced Gene Shue as coach - and McGinnis was traded to Denver for Bobby Jones.

In the words of Erving: "We traded a superstar for a role player." That trade began the metamorphosis of a talent-rich also-ran into a world champion. It culminated in 1982 with the acquisition of the 6-foot-10-inch, 255- pound Moses Malone, the ultimate workhorse.

One of the reasons Cunningham converted Jones from starter to sixth man, Jones feels, was his lack of stamina: "When I was playing 30 to 35 minutes a game it was wearing me down pretty badly. By the end of the season, I wouldn't have much left."

There were problems at first. "I remember the first couple of games as a sixth man," Jones recalled. 'I was completely out of it, totally confused. I felt that I was somehow not part of the team.

"But by the third or fourth game I started to tell myself, 'Be aggressive, do something.' So I'd go in and try to make a move immediately - block a shot maybe, or even commit a foul - anything to get myself going."

Now he prefers the role. "I really like being a sixth man for a couple of reasons. One is that I play about 25 minutes a game. But instead of playing 25 minutes out of 48, it's really 25 out of 40, because unless someone gets in early foul trouble there aren't going to be any substitutions for the first seven or eight minutes. I like that better than starting and then coming out and sitting for a long time. You can get cold that way. Now I feel that once I'm in the game, I'm really in ."

Another advantage, he feels, is that "as a starter your preparation for a game is daylong. You have to think, 'Who'll I be matched against tonight, what'll I be doing? As a sixth man there is less pressure because you really can't worry ahead of time.

"For me, preparation starts with the tip-off," he said. "I watch how the game unfolds and try and see where the problems are. You have to fit the situation that exists out there. It might be on defense, in which case my job is obvious. Or it might be moving the ball and scoring. Then I'll try to get the ball to the right people, particularly Moses, Julius and Andrew Toney."

According to Red Auerbach of the Celtics, there are two key requirements for a good sixth man: intelligence and ego, or rather, lack of ego. "Most basketball players want to score a lot of points," says Auerbach, "and they want to be starters. They want their name announced before the game and hear the crowd cheer. But a sixth man has to be someone who thinks about the team before himself. He has to be somebody who wants to do anything necessary to help the ball club win."

If the first sixth man was actually Irv Torgoff, then the first sixth man most people remember was Frank Ramsey, a versatile 6-foot-3-inch guard-forward who played for the great Celtic teams of the late 1950's, which included Bob Cousy, Bill Russell, Bill Sharman, Sam Jones and K.C. Jones. Ramsey was a good jump shooter, was quick on defense and wasn't afraid to challenge bigger men under the basket for rebounds.

In 1963, Ramsey's last regular season, the Celtics' first- round draft choice was a 6-foot-5-inch, 205-pound player from Ohio State. He was the right size to be a swing man - both a guard and a forward - as Ramsey had been, and he had incredible energy. He was also a smart, selfless player.

John Havlicek came into the N.B.A. custom-made for the role of sixth man, and, in the middle and late 1960's, he filled it the way Olivier did Hamlet. During that time, the Celtics won six world championships.

The sight of Havlicek racing up and down the court at full tilt, starting fast breaks or finishing them, cutting in to steal a pass or banking in his jump shot from an angle high on the board, became synonymous with the Celtics themselves, who, in those years, simply ran away from the rest of the league. In his 16 years, Havlicek wound up playing more games (1,270) and scoring more points (26,395) than anyone in Boston's illustrious basketball history. And he accomplished this without anything like the natural talent of many of his teammates - Russell, Sam Jones, Tom Heinsohn, Dave Cowens or JoJo White, to name a few.

Eventually, Havlicek became a starter. A few of the Celtics who took over his sixth-man spot were top-quality players, but in general the concept of a star substitute fell out of favor until several years ago, when the amount of talent in the N.B.A. provided some teams with bench strength to spare.

Someone upon whom Havlicek made a lasting impression was Michael Cooper, whose first season with the Los Angeles Lakers was 1978- 79, the year after Havlicek's retirement. "As a kid I'd sit and watch the Celtics, and I just admired that guy so much," Cooper, now 27, remembers. "I wanted to be just like him. When I was playing in high school and college, I even told my coaches that I'd rather come off the bench than start because that's what Havlicek did."

At Pasadena City College and the University of New Mexico, where he was needed as a starter, Cooper rarely got his wish. But with the Lakers, things have worked out to everyone's satisfaction. Cooper is the sixth man on a club whose roster includes Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Magic Johnson, Jamaal Wilkes, James Worthy and Bob McAdoo. "It's the role I am most comfortable in," he says. "I almost feel that I was meant to do this - it's the way I get into the game best."

His coach, Pat Riley, agrees. "Michael has started for us a few times when players have been hurt," he explains. "But when he starts he worries too much about scoring points, and that's not what we need. I want Michael coming off the bench feeling loose, working those fast hands of his, picking the other guy's pocket, creating situations that get us running."

Running is what the fleet- footed Lakers do best. When their fast break is in high gear, in fact, there is little in this sport more exhilarating to watch: Johnson and Wilkes and Cooper, or Worthy, or McAdoo, flying down the court, the ball whipping back and forth without touching the ground until one of them hurtles in for the layup or stuff shot.

Cooper loves to take chances on defense, to "overplay" his man - often the other team's top scorer - and he has the quickness and reactions to get away with it. This kind of play leads to steals or forced shots, which harass an opposing team out of its natural offensive flow. This allows the Lakers, with 7-foot-2-inch Abdul-Jabbar dominating on defense and

passing to a teammate streaking downcourt, to open up and run.

It is clear from his average last season - just under 8 points a game - that Cooper is not a consistent scoring threat. His best weapon, in fact, is the "alley-oop," which he sets up with a quick fake and then a sudden leap to take a pass high above the rim of the basket. In a single, swift movement, he stuffs the ball in for a score on his way down. Laker fans have dubbed this shot the "Coopaloop."

In the past, Cooper's match-ups with Larry Bird have provided some marvelous subplots to Laker-Celtic games, although, with the loss of Norm Nixon this season, Cooper has been substituting almost exclusively at guard, and Bird is a forward. Cooper on Bird is a natural crowd pleaser: Both are smart and full of guile; Bird, at 6 feet 9 inches and 220 pounds, is two inches taller and 50 pounds heavier than Cooper, but Cooper is faster and can jump higher.

"I have to finesse him," Cooper says. "I can't bump him or body check him, because he's too strong for me. So I circle him. It's cat-and- mouse."

If Cooper's specialty is defense, Junior Bridgeman's is definitely offense. Like Andrew Toney of Philadelphia, World B. Free of Cleveland and Fred Brown of Seattle, Milwaukee's Bridgeman, whose real first name is Ulysses, is an extremely accurate shooter. On nights when he is hot, a hum can be heard from the crowd whenever he gets the ball.

The reason for this is simple. Rebounding and defense may be the heart of basketball, but the jump shot is its soul. Everyone who ever picks up a round ball in earnest attempts to master the shot, so when it's done well, the jump shot is appreciated with a special sort of fondness. Not all players are big enough to be great rebounders, but the small guy who can consistently put in the 15- footer has a great equalizer.

Fifteen feet is the inside edge of Bridgeman's range. In an early-season game against the Celtics, he pumped in five shots in a row, including two from outside the three-point circle, to keep the Bucks close. Both times the ball went cleanly through the hoop, touching nothing but cord.

In a more recent 103-101 triumph against the New York Knicks, Bridgeman scored 16 of his 21 points in the second half, most of them on jump shots from outside the foul circle. Two days later, the Celtics were victimized by his long-range bombs when Bridgeman again scored 16 points in the last two quarters to help pace a 106-87 victory.

A scorer of Bridgeman's ability is usually a starter, because most teams would want to give him as much playing time as possible. Yet in his eight years with the Bucks, during which he has scored about 8,500 points and made about 1,500 assists, he has always been a sixth man.

Why doesn't he start? "Marques Johnson and Sidney Moncrief," says Don Nelson, his coach, naming two Bucks who are among the best all-round players in the N.B.A., and who start ahead of the 30-year-old Bridgeman.

With the retirement of Brian Winters before this season, there was talk of Bridgeman's moving into the starting lineup, but Nelson, a former Celtic player who has learned a few lessons from Red Auerbach, decided against making the change.

"The value of a sixth man is having someone who can immediately have a major impact on a game," he says. "Junior can do that. He can come in, hit three or four in a row and break a game wide open."

Like Bobby Jones, Bridgeman initially found it unsettling to be a substitute. "In my first couple of years, it was an adjustment," he admits. "I didn't want to come off the bench. I don't believe anyone comes into the league wanting to do that, especially when you've been a starter most of the time you've been playing basketball.

"But I think I've matured, and the game has changed," adds Bridgeman, an articulate man who was both a basketball All-American and a dean's-list student at the University of Louisville, where he majored in psychology. "Most teams, especially the good teams, are deeper in talent now. We've got three or four strong players on the bench, not just one.

"When I was a rookie, the sixth-man role wasn't looked upon as being glamorous at all," he continued. "Havlicek and Ramsey had played it, but by the mid-70's no one wanted any part of it. Now everybody knows who the good sixth men are."

Everybody, it seems, has discovered what Auerbach has been saying all along: "It isn't important who's in the game when it starts, what's important is who's in there when it ends."

-

Readers of this blog no doubt will recall a three-week stretch (Ok, I realize it felt like three months) where I posted articles  about what Gerald Green has been doing since being dealt for the Big Ticket in July of 2007. These articles include a series of posts where Gerald Green was unstoppable on offense, developed a passion to play defense for Pat Riley's Heat, and earned a post-graduate degree from the school of hard knocks after being cut, benched, and relegated to an overseas afterthought.



And then there was what Isiah Thomas said about Green's second stint with the green.

Despite the volume of evidence to the contrary, several bloggers and pundits had Gerald Green competing for a spot at the end of the Celtics' bench, while a few were even urging Danny Ainge to cut Green in favor of RJ Young and James Hunter (smile).

Many fans bristled at these suggestions.

Who, pray tell, on the current Celtics' roster could score in high volumes off the bench? What current Celtic is thirty-years-old, in the mid-prime of his career, and poses a six-foot-eight-inch defensive challenge to the league's premiere wings? What current Celtic could be teamed with Jaylen Brown to provide a front court of stellar athleticism?

Needless to say, I never saw Green being stuck at the end of the bench, much less being cut.  Danny Ainge didn't take a flyer on Gerald Green. El Jeffe brought him in for a reason, or might we now say reasons (plural). As you can see from box score in game 1, Brad Stevens, too, is on board with what the player formerly known as Employee #5 brings to the Celtics. Gerald will get PT, and it will be enough PT to see if he's got it going. If he does, the minutes will be meaningful. If not, his minutes will be circumscribed. Either way, Gerald Green is here to play a role, and play he will, even as Danny continues to remake the roster throughout the season.

Frank Ramsey was a Hall of Fame forward on the Boston Celtics in the '50s and '60s, an era when Bill Russell ruled in the paint and the Celtics won 11 NBA titles in 13 years.



Ramsey played on seven Celtics title teams -- he got only one championship ring. "There wasn't enough money to buy them," he said.

The Celtics gave out rings only to players winning their first championship. The rest of the squad got cuff links, goblets, captain's chairs, or pendants with a shamrock and a little diamond. "My wife and daughter wore the pendants," Ramsey said.

When the Celtics won their first title in 1957, Ramsey's playoff check was $1,500. "That helped you get through the summer and buy groceries," he recalled.

Ramsey, 76, is now a bank president in Dixon, Ky.

1983-84 Boston Celtics
Record: 1-1
11/2/1983


He has always carried a label of being a free spirit in the purest sense. In good years and bad, it is what made Dennis Johnson's approach to playing professional basketball different. When Johnson came into the NBA in 1976, it was thought that the Seattle SuperSonics had goofed in making a 6-foot-4 shot-blocking guard from tiny Pepperdine (Calif.) College their second-round draft choice. But in seven seasons, that same Dennis Johnson has developed into the prototype of the big defensive guard that almost every NBA club now feels it must have.



While playing in Seattle and then Phoenix, Johnson became known as the complete two-way player. His defense frequently overshadowed his offensive production. But he always seemed to have the ball when the big shot was needed, and usually he hit it. It is hard to find fault with a man who has been named to the All-NBA defensive team a record tying five seasons and has averaged over 15 points, 4.5 rebounds and 3.5 assists a game. Yet, one owner, Sam Shulman of Seattle, and two coaches, Len Wilkens of Seattle and John MacLeod of Phoenix, have either publicly or privately complained of Johnson's "attitude."

Such are the contradictions in the life of the man called D.J., who does not deny there have been problems but quickly adds that people don't judge books solely by their reviews and the same should be true for an NBA player. "Sure, I've had some personality problems," says Johnson, who will be making his home debut as a starter for the Celtics tonight. "But they didn't come from a coaching or player standpoint. It came from management.

"It can happen easily. Somebody is going to say that Dennis Johnson has been on three teams and that means he must have a problem. But how many teams has Tom Nissalke coached, or Bill Fitch? What's the deal there? They don't have a problem?" It is still difficult to fathom how the Celtics, of all clubs, were able to land a player with the talents of Dennis Johnson. He was acquired in June for backup center Rick Robey in a deal that raised more eyebrows in Phoenix than in Boston. He had apparently won his three-year battle with Suns management and was at peace with the world.

Johnson played well enough in his three years in Phoenix, a club that has replaced Philadelphia as the perennial NBA bridesmaid. But the peace he thought existed was a mirage. It had been well known but never publicly acknowledged that for two years the Suns felt they had a man clearly cut from the wrong mold, and that they had made a mistake in trading Paul Westphal to Seattle for him.

"Attitude" is a catch-all phrase in the NBA and usually means a player is not well liked by his coach. Johnson's record has been one of excellence on the court and does not contain even a hint of a drug problem, the current professional sports sickness. His "attitude" problems mean his relations with front offices over money and over basic philosophy, as in Seattle, where Wilkens once called him a "cancer" to the Sonics.

Johnson had been the MVP of the 1979 NBA playoff finals, won by Seattle. But even before Wilkens'"cancer" outburst, the Sonics were unhappy because Johnson had demanded and won a five-year contract, which still has two years to go. Wilkens and Johnson feuded, with Wilkens claiming D.J. was uncoachable and uncooperative. After Johnson was traded to Phoenix in 1980-81, that one quote haunted him. When he sought to renegotiate his contract in the summer of 1981 - the year Magic Johnson was given a million-dollar contract - he found resistance from the front office and finally had to bury the hatchet publicly to quiet newspaper stories that he was holding out.

Johnson knew his actions didn't endear him to management, but he still felt that his performance in the last two years had redeemed him in the eyes of the fans and his peers. One source close to the Suns, however, indicated that while MacLeod publicly praised Johnson, he didn't like his off-court manner and training habits. Johnson admits his "attitude problem" did exist at one point. He agrees that his run-in with Shulman was a classic example of how not to conduct player-owner relations, and things went downhill from there. When Johnson left Seattle in a huff, the whole experience left bad feelings on both sides.

But things were different after his trade to Boston, as the Suns were roasted by their media. Johnson had heard that the Suns were looking for a trade to beef up inside, but he said there was no hint that he would be the bait, particularly since the Suns are still minus a big defensive guard and have shifted Walter Davis to the backcourt. "At Seattle," said Johnson, "I just wanted a raise and he (Shulman) didn't want to give it to me. At times it left me bitter and left him bitter. I admit that it affected me in a different way and did carry over into my playing. But not totally.

"When I got traded, everybody, I guess, took a cue from that. I may have given that impression, I may not have. To prejudge or not to prejudge is an individual right. But nobody really asked me anything at that particular time. People automatically made judgments about me, and I let them think they were right. I didn't say anything. I let it be whatever they wanted it to be. But in the last three years, I've proved them totally wrong."

The trade to Boston did catch Johnson by surprise.

"My wife and I were shopping for a new home," he said. "I was surprised and shocked. I was bitter for the minute. But I'd faced it once and thus it wasn't all that hard to deal with this time. I said it means go to Boston, find me a place and get settled. "The first trade was one in which I was made the biggest focal point. But it was nothing that really bothered me beyond the first two or three months I was at Phoenix. I faced everything as best I could. I had my family behind me. I probably grew there mentally more than any place."

Johnson feels he has already won a measure of acceptance in Boston, especially from his teammates. He reported to training camp with the rookies, and coach K. C.Jones rewarded his hard work by giving him a starting job opposite Gerry Henderson. "I'm the type of player that can't have too bad a year. I'm not a pure shooter, " said Johnson. "Nobody counts on my shot going in every time like a Larry Bird or a Robert Parish, but I can shoot. The thing I do best is play defense, and I can't afford to slack on that even a little bit. My game is flexible."

But so are the Celtics.

"Between K. C., the other coaches and the players, I've probably been made to feel more welcome than any team I've ever been on since I left Seattle," Johnson said. "My trade happened real quick, but they made me feel welcome. "The day that one guard can dominate on defense is probably over. But I plan to get back as close to it as I can this year. It's going to take a lot of hard work."

KG's Rookie Year
11/9/1995

The education of Kevin Garnett continues, with gold stars, eraser marks and about 77 more pop quizzes between now and the end of the season. In his one and only course of post-secondary curriculum - NBA 101 - Garnett has had mostly good days, surprising fans, impressing rivals and reassuring the Timberwolves that they made a sound draft pick. Against the Houston Rockets last Saturday, however, he had a rough night.



The 19-year-old missed all but three of his 12 shots. He got whistled for traveling, picked up an offensive foul and got so rattled at one point that he took a wad of chewing gum out of his mouth and fired it against the front of the scorer's table. After the 119-97 loss, he was agitated, summing up both his and the team's performance: "It's over, period. What more can I say?"

It wasn't a setback, but it was a disappointment for a young man who has known precious few disappointments on basketball courts any time, anywhere. Other rookies - even those with four years of NCAA experience - might get shaken by it. Wolves coach Bill Blair noticed enough in Garnett's body language to seek him out this week and offer encouragement. "I told him, `Don't ever get down on yourself. Each night you're going to see something new,'" Blair said. "Look, this kid is playing outside for the first time in his life, so he's usually playing guys who are smaller but quicker than him. Every night it's something different."

When the Wolves play at home, season-ticket holders want to know if Garnett really is the team's future. When the Wolves play on the road, every crowd wants to see what the hubbub is about. "That's very difficult for a young player," said Blair, who hollers at Garnett as much as he hollers at any other player in the excitement of games. Fortunately for the Wolves, Garnett has been resilient. He gets upset on the court, but so far his emotions have stayed at the anger level, not lapsing into depression. Getting steamed is better than getting down.

"I want to be the best I can," Garnett said. "If I know I can do something and I'm not doing it, I get ticked off. I'm going to be hard on myself, period, but I'm not going to get down." Through the Wolves' first five games, the rookie is averaging 6.4 points, 3.8 rebounds and 1.8 assists in 19.8 minutes. "The only way I'm going to work harder is to get on myself," he said. "The only way I'm going to get better is to get on myself. There's nothing anybody can tell me that I don't already know [about getting better]."

Garnett isn't alone in this process. Kevin McHale, head of basketball operations, and Wolves coaches naturally are going to protect their investment. That means lots of positive reinforcement and constructive criticism. The other players have a stake in it, too. "He wants to do so much so quick. He doesn't realize it takes time," forward Doug West said. "I try to tell him, `Look at me.' I've been here for seven years and I'm struggling."

Said Tom Gugliotta: "As a rookie, you want to win but you're more concerned with how you're doing. He's a mentally tough person. There's been a couple times where he's missed a shot and the next time, he passes it up. We'll say to him, `Shoot that.'" If Garnett ever feels the self-doubts creeping up, he always can look back at the oohs and aahs he has left in his wake. Even when he plays so-so, NBA folks factor in his learning curve and come away impressed.

"He's going to be an awesome player," Houston forward Robert Horry said. "He has such long arms and, by the end of the season, he will get much better." Said Rockets coach Rudy Tomjanovich: "He's very active and has a great future. When he fills out and matures, he should be great. . . . He's going to miss what you learn in college. One thing about pro basketball is that you don't have a lot of time to do a lot of learning."

That will come on the job, one reason Garnett still was on the floor during garbage time against Houston. He made the most of it, hitting a three-pointer and slamming a massive dunk though the Wolves trailed by 30 points. "Right now, Kevin is on cloud nine," guard Micheal Williams said. "He's loving life and life is loving him. He should be proud of himself." Said West: "He's so young and so energetic. He's caught up in the limelight, and that's good. If you're not having fun, it makes everything that much harder."

1983-84 Boston Celtics
Record: 4-1
11/9/1983

The San Diego Clippers are headed for Boston, which means that Norm Nixon and Terry Cummings make their only 1982-83 Garden appearance tonight. Bill Walton played against the Bullets in Wasington last night, so you probably won't see him on the parquet tonight. The big redhead doesn't usually play two games in two days. He wanted to play in Boston rather than Washington, but coach Jim Lynham decided the Clippers had a better chance of beating the Bullets. Even though he is unlikely to play, Walton has been medically cleared to play two straight nights if he desires.

Celtics assistant coach Jimmy Rodgers was in Washington scouting the Clippers. "We know they're running like hell with (Norm) Nixon leading the way," said K. C. Jones. "Walton is one of the greatest I've ever seen. If he does play, hopefully he'll be very tired. Cummings has been taking some wild shots, but they're going in. Max (Cedric Maxwell) will probably be on him. It's going to be tough, because we haven't had time to prepare and they had a couple of more hours sleep than we did."

1983-84 Boston Celtics
Celtics 126, Pistons 118
Record: 7-1
11/12/1983

BOSTON

You can find flaws if you look hard enough. The Celtics refuse to bury opponents. They have a philanthropic streak that inspires them to let beaten teams back into ballgames. They also have yet to score 140 points or hold an opponent under 60. While we're at it, let's mention that Brooke Shields could use a few pounds, and that it would be nice if Michael Jackson would learn the slide trombone.



The Green Team's giddy glide through November continued at Boston Garden last night. On the strength of a 39-point performance by Larry Joe Bird, the Celtics beat the Detroit Pistons, 126-118, avenging their opening night beating in the Silverdome and extending their winning streak to seven games. They did all of this on the strength of a 45-31 first quarter in which they vaporized the visitors, hitting 19 of 24 floor shots.

The margin was down to 12 at the half, and Detroit actually took a one- point lead in the third, but Bird, Robert Parish (28, 12 rebounds) and Kevin McHale (23, 12 rebounds) refused to crumble to the Detroit wheels this time. Boston's treetop trio combined for a whopping 90 points and 32 rebounds while hitting 35 of 52 floor shots (67 percent). "They played like they want to win a world championship," said Detroit coach Chuck Daly. "Bird had a classic game, and they just ran it down our throats. They had revenge on their minds."

Bird was particularly accurate. Playing both forward and guard, he had 16 in the first quarter, 22 at halftime and 33 after three periods. When Kelly (Scarface) Tripucka (26 points) led the Pistons back into it, Bird and his sidekicks, Parish and McHale, were there to answer. "When you get in trouble, you want to go with your power, especially down the stretch," said Celtic coach K.C. Jones. "That's why we went with Larry in the backcourt and kept trying to get the ball down low." The fourth-quarter surge should have been for the benefit of Greg and Carlos Clark. Boston's first-half explosion should have buried the Pistons.

Gerald Henderson scored 11 in the first six minutes as the Celtics burst to a 27-12 lead. Think about that: 27 points in six minutes would mean 216 points in 48 minutes. When the quarter was over, the Celts led, 45-31, and already had three players in double figures. "All around, I'd say it was our best quarter of the season," said Parish. Detroit's Isiah Thomas (27, eight assists) didn't get untracked until the second quarter. His running mate, Tripucka, waited until the second half, but had an excuse. He suffered a 10-stitch cut Tuesday and wore goggles throughout the first quarter. Tripucka was no Kareem Abdul-Jabbar with goggles. His game improved markedly when he discarded the protection.

A Scott Wedman jumper before halftime gave the Celtics their biggest lead, 67-50. Detroit trimmed the deficit to a dozen by intermission and roared to a short-lived lead in the third quarter. The Celtics were at their giveaway worst in the opening minutes of the third. Boston players stood around and admired Thomas and Co. for six minutes after halftime. In that stretch, Detroit outscored Boston, 21-9, and when Tripucka hit a jumper from the left corner, Detroit had its only lead, 80-79, with 6:03 left in the third.

Parish got the lead back on a followup, the start of a 6-0 Celtic run. A jumper out top by Bird made it 85-80. With Bird and Parish taking charge, the Celts went on another roll and managed to push their lead back to 102-89 by the end of the quarter. In the fourth, Detroit got to within six with 3:48 left, but McHale responded with three consecutive baskets to give the Celtics a 122-110 lead and the ballgame. "We've been losing leads like this all season long," noted Bird, who had 8 rebounds, 5 assists and 4 blocks to go along with his 39 points. "Hopefully we won't keep doing it in the future. "If we were playing a team like Philadelphia, Milwaukee or New York, we wouldn't be so lucky," he said. "It seems that when we have a lead, we have lapses on defense and they come back on us."

1983-84 Boston Celtics
April 15, 1984

Weatherman Harvey Leonard thinks Dennis Johnson is going to make the difference. The guys at the Newton Y are worried about Gerald Henderson's ballhandling at the end of close games. A Celtics' season-ticket holder says Boston will win it because it's Red Auerbach's curtain call. There is no shortage of opinions. The Bruins are home for the religious holidays, the Red Sox are comfortably nestled into their season without hope, and New England now turns its eyes toward the team that has rewarded loyalty with 14 world titles.



The 1983-84 Celtics are ready. They have blitzed through the regular season, carry the league's best record into the playoffs and have a relatively healthy and rested team, plus the unexpected momentum of a late-season winning streak. "I think we're playing much better now than we were at the end of last year," says Cedric Maxwell. "An upward climb and timing mean a lot at playoff time. We're playing consistently right now, and I think we have a good shot to win."

The Celts were in disarray after last May's sweep by the Bucks. Picking up the pieces of shattered hopes and egos was not an easy task, and new coach K.C. Jones deserves much credit for steering this group to more than 60 victories without alienating or exhausting his players.

Any analysis of the Celtics' championship hopes starts with the backcourt. Still the team's most vulnerable spot, the acquisition of Dennis Johnson appears to have solved a lot of the backcourt problems. DJ is the big, defensive guard the Celtics have lacked. He's done a credible job on Andrew Toney, Sidney Moncrief and Co., and gives the Celtics a guard who can take his man down low. He plays hard, plays hurt and is a proven playoff performer (1979 MVP with Seattle). Henderson has complemented DJ perfectly, and the Celtics must hope that Henderson's hamstring injury is better for Washington. He's been bothered by trapping defenses at times, but enjoyed an outstanding season.

Quinn Buckner emerged as the third guard, and Scott Wedman proved that he can play back there against certain teams. Danny Ainge's star-crossed season leaves him out of the picture as the playoffs get under way. The "four-guard" problem of 1982-83 never materialized. When the Celtics were buliding their big lead over the 76ers and Knicks, K.C. was using DJ and Henderson for 35-40 minutes a game.

Underneath, the Celtics are stronger than ever and undoubtedly possess the NBA's most dominant frontcourt. Larry Bird is the MVP-designee, Maxwell is back from a year on Neptune, and Robert Parish has played more consistently than any center, with the possible exception of Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. Fatigue may be a factor with Parish. His minutes are up from last year (when he fizzled in the playoffs), but he says that less strenuous practices have saved his strength. Kevin McHale remains the player opponents fear. Playing with Parish, he gives the Celtics tremendous mismatch opportunities.

Bird, the leader, says, "I think we're as ready as we're going to be. We're all a lot more confident than we were earlier in the season. We accomplished the goals we set out to accomplish. I think the key was when we went out on the West Coast and played well (4-2) out there. That led up to what we're doing now. "I'm not going to say we'll go out and win it, but we have a lot better attitude, especially after what happened last year."

Boston was 4-2 against the Bullets this year. Both of Washington's victories were in the Garden. The Celtics didn't rebound especially well against the Jeff Ruland and Co., and got into trouble when they stopped running. "I think our players believe we can get to the Celtics, and I think the Celtics think we can beat them," Washington coach Gene Shue said last week. The Milwaukee massacre should serve the Celtics well. The wound still stings, and it's unlikely that Boston will take any team lightly. Assuming they beat Washington (best-of-five), the Celtics will play either New York, New Jersey, Milwaukee or Detroit in the second round (best-of-seven).

What about the World Champions from Philadelphia?

"They're playing better now, but they're not invincible like they were last year," says Maxwell. "Their armor has been tarnished a little. They can be beaten." The Celts were 2-4 against the Sixers this season. A Boston-Philadelphia conference final is what everybody waited for and missed last year. The two teams met in the Eastern showdown in 1980 and again in '81 and '82. Philadelphia won two of those three series. A seven-game Celtics-Sixers tong war should decide who plays the Lakers in the final, but speculation beyond Philadelphia is foolhardy. There'll be plenty of time for that if the Celtics keep winning.

Paul Pierce arrived early to practice Wednesday at UCLA, well ahead of the main bus transporting the rest of the Boston Celtics from their team hotel in advance of tonight's matchup with the Lakers at Staples Center.To pass some time, Pierce challenged Celtics equipment manager John Connor to a 3-point shooting contest. Connor, middle-aged with thinning gray hair, accepted the invite with no hesitation.

He then proceeded to easily take the first two games from Pierce, who had to rally just to get a tie in the third game. That's not good. "Yo, Paul," Connor howled after the resounding victory. "I'm gonna go unpack the bags now."

LINK

That's kind of embarrassing for one of the greatest shooters in NBA history. In fact, it might be worse than getting dunked on by a high school student.

Thursday night, April 28, 1966, was eventful in Boston.

It was seventh game of the championship series against the Los Angeles Lakers and Red Auerbach's last as a pro coach. The Celtics were going for an eighth consecutive National Basketball Association title.

Auerbach, reliving the past, recently recalled his final pep talk.

"This one means $700 apiece to you guys," he told his team. "That's the difference between the winners' and losers' shares. Show me another way you can make $700 quicker."

The National Basketball Association has since grown from 9 to 23 teams and the playoff pool to $1.5 million, with the winner's share worth about 30,000 a player.

The Celtics beat the Lakers in that last game, 95-93, and Auerbach went out a winner.

Three seasons later, on May 5, 1969, the Celtics were again involved in a seventh game in the championship round against the Lakers. This time it was Bill Russell's final game as a Celtic.

Jack Kent Cooke, then the Los Angeles owner, ordered thousands of balloons to be released from the Forum in Inglewood, Calif., to mark a Laker victory. They never were released because Boston won, 108-106, for its 11th championship.

KG's Rookie Year
11/16/1995

The Timberwolves have difficulty with the San Antonio Spurs, and Wednesday night's game at Target Center was no exception. The Spurs' 105-96 victory was further proof that the Wolves' turnaround has not yet begun. The loss was the third straight for the Wolves (1-5) despite a career night for 19-year-old rookie Kevin Garnett. Garnett had 19 points and eight rebounds. The Wolves dropped to 3-28 lifetime against the Spurs.

Whenever the Wolves play the Spurs (5-2), the focus usually falls on David Robinson. Last season's NBA most valuable player didn't let a teen-ager upstage him, pouring in 30 points and collecting 12 rebounds in 29 minutes. Sean Elliott complemented Robinson with 21 points. Tom Gugliotta, doing most of the inside work with Christian Laettner on the injured list with an ankle sprain, finished with 20 points and 13 rebounds. But Gugliotta, like his teammates, wilted in the second half. Gugliotta had only four points in the second half. The Wolves shot 39 percent (31 of 78), the fourth game in which they shot below 40 percent.

Spurs guard Avery Johnson made a free throw and fed Robinson for an alley-oop dunk to build a 95-87 lead with 3:53 remaining. The Wolves trailed only 91-87 with 6:56 left after Sean Rooks' hook shot over Robinson. They had three chances to tie or take the lead but came up empty on each possession. Gugliotta missed two shots, one a three-pointer, and Micheal Williams had the ball stolen by Johnson.

Behind Garnett's inspiring play, the Wolves cut into a 13-point deficit to trail 85-78 by the end of the third quarter. Garnett blocked a shot by J.R. Reid and scored the Wolves' last six points of the quarter, four on impressive tip-ins. Robinson's jumper had given the Spurs an 82-68 lead with 3:28 left in the third quarter. The Wolves seemed to get caught flat-footed trying to locate guard Vinny Del Negro. Del Negro got the Spurs off to a fast start in the period with 12 points, including two three-pointers over Doug West.

Already angered by Del Negro's flurry, West lost his cool when Gugliotta hit the floor hard on a drive to the basket and a foul was not called. Replacement referee William Kennedy hit West with two technical fouls, an automatic ejection. Robinson made the technical free throw to put the Spurs up 76-66 with 5:09 left in the quarter. West's outburst came when the Spurs were taking over the game after a sluggish second quarter.

The Wolves took advantage of cold shooting by the Spurs in the second quarter and Robinson's foul problems to take a 59-57 lead at halftime. Robinson picked up his third foul with 7:16 left in the quarter and sat out the rest of the period. If not for the foul trouble, Robinson might have had even more impressive numbers. He had made six of his first nine shots to open with a quick 15 points, 14 in the first quarter.

After Robinson left the game, the Spurs made only four field goals the rest of the half. They finished the second quarter shooting 5 for 22 (23 percent), which helped the Wolves make a run just before halftime. Trailing 52-47, the Wolves went on a 12-2 spurt highlighted by two fast-break baskets by rookie Mark Davis. Garnett started the run with an inside move. Rooks added two free throws and Gugliotta converted a layup and two free throws.

Gugliotta, who posted his fourth double double (points and rebounds) this season in the first half, was the Wolves' most active player. He had 16 points and 10 rebounds at intermission.
Nine of his points came at the free-throw line, an indication of the Wolves' determination to take the ball inside with Robinson playing soft because of foul problems.

Danny Ainge didn't even turn too many heads as a Toronto Blue Jays infielder, and when he was pried away to join the Boston Celtics in 1981, he simply became just another player sitting on the end of the bench.



Then, on Aug. 24, 1983, the image was shaped. The nastiest guy in the NBA, some said. The guy you most like to hate. The guy who will stop at nothing. It was a Sunday afternoon, the Celtics were hosting the tough Atlanta Hawks at Boston Garden when Ainge received an elbow from seven-footer Tree Rollins. Ainge, a scrapper from way back, laid the smackdown on Rollins, wrestling him to the ground. Under a pile of players, Rollins bit one of Ainge's fingers, opening up a six-stitch gash.

Ainge's life was never the same. From that point on, while most of the free world mistakenly assumed that it was Ainge who bit Rollins, the 6-5 Celtics guard was a marked man. He was suddenly scrutinized and vilified. He was the guy who'd stop at nothing. Yet he was still a second-stringer on a very good team.

Ainge is viewed as a guy who'll stop at nothing to succeed in his new job. It's an attitude borne out of his early days in the NBA. Ainge wouldn't back down from anybody in those days, and to make a mark on a team that featured the Big Three, he had to lay on the hustle and the desire that he did as a youngster getting pushed around by older brothers Doug and David. A week after the Rollins incident Ainge caught up to a breaking Sidney Moncrief of the Milwaukee Bucks in Game 3 of the Eastern Conference playoffs, unintentionally decking him. It nearly created an international incident. Bucks coach Don Nelson went on to call the Celts guard a "cheap-shot artist, a dangerous player who could cause serious injury."


He got involved in well-publicized scrapes with New York's Darrell Walker and Philadelphia's Sedale Threatt and Maurice Cheeks. After Ainge caught Cheeks from behind, fouling him hard, Cheeks said, "C'mon Danny, you do that all the time.""I do it to my brothers every time, too," Ainge said. "I'd do it to my wife if she were going for a layup."


If the fans didn't respect him, certainly most of his opponents did. Said Hawks assistant coach Willis Reed: "He's the type of guy that nobody likes but everyone wants on his team." Former Lakers coach Pat Riley: "He's an effort player. If you don't play him with effort yourself, he'll kill you. He's the prototype of work ethic. If you don't come ready to play he'll make a monkey out of you." Former Lakers guard Michael Cooper: "He's like one of those gnats you hear buzzing around when you're on the front porch."

1983-84 Boston Celtics
Record 36-9
February 3, 1984

Things had been going almost too well for the Celtics. With the club riding a seven-game winning streak, only scant mention seemed necessary when veteran Dennis Johnson hobbled off the Boston Garden floor Wednesday night with a sprained ankle. But yesterday morning, with Johnson's ankle the size of a grapefruit, the first-place Celtics found themselves making plans to revamp their starting lineup. Johnson's ankle was "severely sprained," according to trainer Ray Melchiorre.

The injury will keep him out of tonight's game (7:30) against the Indiana Pacers at the Garden, and Dr. Thomas Silva, team physician, said that because of the swelling Johnson might not be able to even begin running for a week. Johnson hopes to be ready for next Wednesday's game against the Lakers at the Garden.

1983-84 Boston Celtics
Celtics 102, Sixers 98
Record 34-9
January 26, 1984

It wasn't quite the same. Beating the 76ers when they don't have Moses Malone is like winning Olympic hockey gold without playing the Russians or attending a Pips concert without seeing Gladys Knight. Still, the Celtics' fandom had to be happy with Boston's ragged, grinding 102-98 victory over the world champs last night. The win pushed the Celtics into a whopping five-game Atlantic Division lead and assured a comfortable All-Star break for K.C. and the Sunshine Band.

This wasn't an epic like the first three Boston-Philadelphia games this season. In a bumbling fourth quarter, the Celtics outscored the Sixers, 15-12, while the two teams shot an aggregate 25 percent (10 for 40). If it had been Cleveland vs. Indiana, folks would have asked for their money back. Since it was Boston and Philadelphia, it made you wish we could dispense with the 82-game formalities and get on with the Eastern Conference finals.

Malone's absence tarnished the evening. Without him in the game, you had a feeling that the Celtics would be able to control down the stretch. Sixers coach Billy Cunningham kept tossing sandbags named Sam Williams (a presence with 12 points and eight rebounds), Marc Iavaroni and Clemon Johnson into the surf, but in the end, he couldn't hold off the Green Tide. As always, the fourth quarter dictated the outcome. In a memorable display of offensive strangulation and ineptitude, the Sixers went six minutes without a basket, and made only 3 of 19 shots (.157) in the final 12 minutes. The scariest part was that the Sixers were actually able to mount a comeback in the process.

Asked to explain Philly's Big Chill, Dennis Johnson said: "I'd like to say it was all us, but they might have had a little to do with it."Andrew Toney went 3 for 12 from the floor and scored only 14; Malone's backup, Clemon Johnson, was 3 of 13; Julius Erving missed 6 of 12 free throws. "That's something that shouldn't happen," admitted the Doctor. "As long as I've been around, I'll have to take the demerit." Larry Bird was another rim clanger, making only 5 of 18 shots. The Celtics were led by heroic Robert Parish, who came through with 24 points, 13 rebounds and 4 blocks. Kevin McHale added 17 points (8 of 11) and 11 rebounds, and Quinn Buckner and Danny Ainge played like starters.

It was 31-31 after one. The second quarter featured 16 lead changes and ended with the Celtics leading, 60-58. In the third period, Boston looked as if it might put it away when it went ahead, 76-64. The Celtics capped a 16-6 drive when Gerald Henderson stripped Iavaroni and fed Bird, who found McHale for an easy layup. The Garden rocked, the Celtics led by 12 with 5:21 left, and Cunningham called for time. Boston's euphoria was short-lived. After a pause, Clint Richardson (10 points in 3:40) led a 14-4 Philly run that closed the gap to 80-78 with 2:01 left in the third.

The Sixers tied it at 82-82, and again at 86-86, but one free throw by Buckner with three seconds left gave the Celtics a scary 87-86 lead after three. DJ, Buckner, Cedric Maxwell (6 of 7 from the floor) and Clemon Johnson all had four fouls when the fourth quarter started. Parish pushed the Celtics to a 95-88 lead early in the fourth quarter. Erving brought the Sixers back to within three (95-92), before the Celtics effectively put it away with a 6-1 run. The fourth quarter's only surge started when Parish blocked Clemon Johnson's shot. Then McHale followed up a DJ miss, and Ainge (eight points and no turnovers in 22 minutes) hit from the top of the key after an Erving free throw. While wearing Bobby Jones, Bird canned one from the top of the key with 3:30 left to make it 101-93. It was Boston's final basket.

It was 101-94 when, with 2:15 left, the Sixers started their final comeback. They cut it to four and had Erving at the line with 48 seconds left. Again, Doc missed one of two. After a hideous turnover (Henderson's pass to a not-looking McHale flew out of bounds), Parish blocked Johnson's shot and came up with the loose ball. The Celtics led, 101-98, only 27 seconds remained, and the game was finally safe.

1983-84 Boston Celtics
Celtics 102, Sixers 98
Record 34-9
January 26, 1984

It was like trying to break the sound barrier in a balloon. Moses Malone, the 76ers' human pneumatic drill, was in Philadelphia last night. As a result, his teammates were in limbo, headed directly for oblivion. While Malone nursed a sprained left ankle suffered in New York 24 hours earlier, the Sixers attempted to compensate for the 23 points, 13.6 rebounds and incalculable intimidation that they'd left home with him.

Not surprisingly, they'd have had as much success playing in Boston Harbor as they did in Boston Garden. After absorbing a 102-98 loss to the Celtics, the Sixers staggered into the All-Star break at the bottom of a five-game canyon that now separates them from their Atlantic Division archenemies. When it was over, coach Billy Cunningham looked forlornly at the 6-foot- 10, 255-pound void in the middle of his frontcourt and assessed the absence of Malone thusly: "The guy's been MVP two of the last three years. I think that answers the question of how much we missed him in itself."

For elaboration, all one had to do was consider the plight of Malone's replacements, Clemon Johnson and Marc Iavaroni. Johnson and Iavaroni are serviceable role players, but their primary role is not to play much. They were up against Robert Parish, the heir to Malone as the starting East center in the All-Star game. Call an ambulance. Johnson and Iavaroni were two lemmings against Parish, who profited from this gross mismatch to the tune of 24 points and 13 rebounds. Meanwhile, Johnson could muster only six points and eight rebounds in 39 minutes, almost twice as much playing time as his normal workday. Iavaroni was worth nine points and six rebounds in 21 minutes, most of them spent at power forward.

"I was trying to keep the ball out of (Parish's) hands, to front him, because he had 4 or 5 inches on me," said Johnson, who is in fact only 2 inches shorter than Parish but is dwarfed by the Boston center in talent. "When you've got a 220-pound power forward like myself playing backup center," said Iavaroni, "it leaves you with a lack of depth." And without a prayer. The chasm at center was graphically evident in the final quarter, when Boston obliterated an 88-87 deficit with a 14-5 run that Philly never dented. During the final 12 minutes, the Sixers hit only 3 of 19 field goals; when Malone is around to smother the boards, they usually don't miss 16 shots in a game, let alone a quarter.

"The difference was down the stretch," said Julius Erving, the other half of the Sixers franchise. "That's his bread-and-butter time. Having him on the boards and on offense means a lot. We could've used his muscle. That's his time of the game." Last night it was the Sixers' time to fold.

November 8, 1991

FINALS CHAPTERS CLIMAXED LEGENDARY RIVALRY


Magic Johnson and Larry Bird were the epicenter of the earthquake that shook the NBA in the 1980s.

Magic's Lakers and Bird's Celtics met three times in the NBA Finals, in 1984, '85 and '87. Magic's teams won the last two, but it was the first encounter, in 1984, that may have been the on-court shot of adrenaline the league needed to take the jump to "big time."

The series shattered previous TV ratings and, because of Bird and Johnson, rekindled the LA-Boston rivalry, which dominated the league for much of the decade. Last year Magic had pined for one more Boston-LA matchup, a Glory Days revisited, if you will. Both teams were playing  well and the Lakers made it. The Celtics did not. If it happens again, Magic won't be a part of it. The Lakers guard
retired yesterday.

Two Celtics guards who battled Magic in those memorable playoff series reflected on the player and the individual. Dennis  Johnson and Danny Ainge both went head-to-head with Johnson and both felt the better for it. Ainge said he still got a kick out of playing against Magic.

"It's the ultimate challenge for me. I love playing against him. I've said it before, but I think he's the best player of all time," Ainge said. "Maybe Michael Jordan will be, but Magic has been doing it for 12 years." Dennis Johnson said, "I've probably guarded Magic more than anyone in the league. And when you played against a guy like  him, you came away with a lot more than just basketball. The happiness. The adulation. And he never said a negative word about anyone."

Magic already had two rings, and Bird one, when the Celtics and Lakers met in the 1984 NBA Finals. It was a hugely anticipated matchup in that it had been five years in the making. Although both players entered the league in 1979, months after their memorable meeting in the NCAA final in Salt Lake City, the Lakers and Celtics somehow managed to avoid each other come playoff time until 1984.  Bird had taken Rookie of  the Year honors. Johnson had finished that season with his memorable 42-point, 15-rebound, 7-assist performance while playing all five positions in the Game 6 closer against the Sixers in the Spectrum.

The Celtics won the '84 series in seven games, and Magic spent a disconsolate summer trying to shed his unfamiliar image as series goat. There were three events in that series that led to the demythologizing of Magic, something that was as short-lived as it was utterly absurd.

In Game 2, the Lakers were in position to win, but Gerald Henderson stole a James Worthy pass and tied the game. The Lakers still had time for one last possession, but Magic dribbled out the clock before LA could get off a shot. Boston went on to win in overtime.

His second gaffe came in Game 4. He had two free throws that would have put the game away but missed both. The Celtics again went on to win in overtime. In Game 7, as the Lakers were making a comeback, Magic had the ball stolen at a critical time.

Revenge came a year later, but it was a series remembered mostly for Kareem Abdul-Jabbar's performance. The Lakers won in six, and for the first time, Magic was on a world champion without being the playoff MVP. Johnson always was able to add weapons to his game. He became a 3-point threat. And because of his height, he developed an affinity for posting up smaller guards and learned the baby sky hook from Abdul-Jabbar.

That move came in handy in Game 4. The Lakers had crushed the ailing Celtics in the first two games and, save for Greg Kite, might have won Game 3. Boston built a double-digit lead into the third quarter in Game 4 and seemed destined to tie the series.

But Magic stepped forward. With the Celtics leading, 106-105, Johnson posted up and tossed in a baby hook from the lane. LA took a 3-1 lead and closed out the Celtics at home in Game 6.Johnson also had one dramatic game-winner against Boston in the regular season. The two teams met early in the 1987-88 season, and both were struggling. The Celtics had lost three of four, and LA was on an Eastern swing, having lost to  Cleveland.

Magic won the game for the Lakers at the buzzer with a banker off an inbounds pass. The Lakers then went on a 15-game winning binge and eventually won their second straight NBA title. Ainge was on all three Boston teams, as was DJ. Ainge ran into Johnson again last year in the Western Conference finals. "I felt we had a great team last year in Portland," Ainge said. "We won 63 games and we might have won a championship.

But Magic Johnson beat us. Magic Johnson has been the roadblock to a few championship rings for me. Game 4 in Los Angeles had been an epic - truly one of the great games in Celtics playoff history - and now the teams were arriving at Logan Airport late on a Thursday afternoon to find a very different Boston than the one they had left five days earlier

For Boston was in the grip of a heat wave. We're talking high 90s with accompanying East Coast humidity. Logan Airport was chaotic. There were cars and taxis everywhere. There were people sweating, babies crying, miserable, angry, and frustrated people all over. If you ever saw "The Year of Living Dangerously," you know what I'm talking about. The traffic was such a mess that the state troopers would not allow the Laker bus to get near Terminal C. And that's when  I saw Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and Magic Johnson folding themselves into the same taxi, and never mind the idea of the president and vice president flying on the same plane "This," I remember thinking, "is not exactly what those two had in mind."

It was the eve of Game 5 in that unforgettable 1984 NBA Finals between the Boston Celtics and the Los Angeles Lakers, and it was a pretty good prelude for the game that took place the following night
It was to be a very important affair, Game 5, with the teams tied at two games apiece and feelings coming to a boil. The series could easily have been an LA sweep, but a lot had happened to change the tone of the series, most notably a vicious Kevin McHale takedown of Kurt Rambis in Game 4 that would have gotten him suspended for the duration today. The weather snippet on the far right corner of the game-day Globe said, "Hazy, humid, low 90s," but that turned out to be an understatement. By mid-afternoon it was a record-setting 96, so everyone knew it was going to be a very interesting evening of basketball because the original Boston Garden did not have that newfangled thing known as air conditioning.

There were some hot nights in that old building over the years, but there was never one like the evening of June 8, 1984. The male fans wore shorts and short-sleeved shirts. The women wore, well, as little as possible. Halter tops proliferated. There was never a day or evening in the long history of that building when there was so much exposed skin CBS announced a game-time temperature of 97 degrees. The Lakers did not like it, and Kareem disliked it most of all. He was 37, and fairly cranky to begin with, and playing a Finals game in 97-degree heat was not his idea of fun. He would shoot 7 for 25 and wind up sucking on oxygen (honest).  "I suggest you go to the local steam bath with all your clothes on," he said afterward. "First, try to do 100 push-ups. Then run back and forth for 48 minutes."

Referee Hugh Evans had to leave at halftime, a victim of dehydration. Robert Parish sat out a stretch of the second half with leg cramps. But there was one player who applied mind over matter better than everyone else, one player who not only overcame the circumstances to play a good game of basketball, but who so took to the conditions that he played one of the great games of his life

As my mother used to say, I'll give you three guesses, and the first two don't count "I play in this stuff all the time back home, " sneered Larry Bird. "It's like this all summer." He had just played 42 minutes in Kareem's sauna. He had scored 34 points, grabbed 17 rebounds, and shot 15 for 20. He
even blocked a James Worthy shot. The Celtics had won, 121-103, to take charge of a series they would win in seven, and the man deserving the first, second, and third stars was No. 33. "The man who made the difference was Bird," acknowledged Lakers coach Pat Riley. "He was just awesome. He made everything work. He was the catalyst, and that's what happens when great players come to the front."

"I've never seen him as intense as he was tonight," said Kevin McHale. "Never." The other great force that night was the crowd, which turned what could have been a negative into a complete positive by
celebrating the absurd conditions. Rather than bemoaning the heat, those savvy people celebrated it, realizing that the Lakers were feeling sorry for themselves because they were used to the creature comforts of the palatial Forum Here was the message: Watching a game in an old, cramped, steamy building and sitting on those hard seats, why, that's  what we do here in New England. We don't need your cushioned seats and we don't need no stinkin' air conditioning. We  leave that stuff to you West Coast wusses. And, by the way, your team is soft "It was extremely hot; both teams were affected," said Riley. "But Boston showed up better than we did. I think the home crowd had something to do with that. It gave them some adrenaline."

Those great people just did what used to come so naturally. Wyc and Pags, get this: No over-the-top PA man. No ridiculously loud and unnecessary music. No Jumbotron to tell you when to cheer and how to react. No dancing girls. The fans created an atmosphere to remember all by themselves. People in those days actually knew how to cheer. They went to the game to see the game, not for a mini-concert, and not, Lord knows, to see themselves on a big screen On the night of June 8, 1984, 25 years ago tomorrow, we had an unscripted evening of serendipitous athletic joy. The Clippers will win a championship before we'll ever have the remotest chance of anything like it ever happening again.

1983-84 Boston Celtics
Celtics 102, Sixers 98
Record 34-9
January 26, 1984

Robert Parish will be the Eastern Conference's starting center in Sunday's NBA All-Star game. Moses Malone, who turned his ankle against the Knicks Tuesday night, did not play against the Celtics last night and will not be in Denver Sunday. Malone was voted starting center by the fans. Detroit's Bill Laimbeer will fill Malone's spot on the East roster, but East coach K.C. Jones has selected Parish to start. "It would be nice, but it's not what I anticipated," said Parish, who finished fourth in the fan balloting. "I anticipated playing 20 minutes tops. This kind of changes things. I'll have to be a good boy out there." Jones had no trouble deciding on a starter and doesn't believe his choice is a provincial one.

"Robert's been around the league a few times this year and teams have seen his rebounding and scoring," said Jones. "I think that's impressed them enough to make him a starter." Parish ranks with the league leaders in rebounds (11.1) and shooting percentage (.571). He is averaging 12.7 rebounds in his last 16 games and has shot 63 percent (81 of 128) in his last 10 games. He has appeared in three All-Star games, but this will be his first start. "We'll miss Moses, though. I was hoping to play Moses and Andrew Toney and Doctor J 48 minutes each, so it would be hard for them to play against us the rest of the year," said Jones with a smile. "Moses blew that for me."

Malone turned his left ankle with less than seven minutes left against the Knicks. He flew to Philadelphia yesterday morning and was examined at Temple Universiy Hospital. "He'll be out 10 days to two weeks," said Sixers trainer Al Domenico. "He gets this quite often in both ankles. I talked to him this afternoon and he made the decision." Hope you've enjoyed the early-season glut of Celtics-Sixers contests. The Celts play the Sixers in the Garden again Feb. 12, then play Philadelphia only once in the last 31 games.

1983-84 Boston Celtics
Celtics 102, Sixers 98
Record 34-9
January 27, 1984

With the four day All-Star cease-fire in effect, the Celtics and 76ers have a lot of time to digest the first half of the 1983-84 regular season. The 34-9 Celtics own a healthy five-game lead over the 29-14 defending world champions. After Wednesday's 102-98 Garden victory over the Moses Malone-less Sixers, Celtic guard Dennis Johnson said, "We really wanted to win so we'd go five games up. That gives us a little cushion, which will be nice to have after the All-Star break."



"Being up by five is very important for us," added coach K.C. Jones. "We still have to make the West Coast trip, and Philly's already done that." Boston's midseason lead is a bit deceiving. The Celtics are playing well, but not much better than they were at this time last year. Boston has won five straight, 11 of 12 and 25 of 29, yet the 34-9 record is only one game better than it had after 43 games last year.

The Sixers, however, are eight games behind their torrid pace of 1982-83. "Last year, we were on a mission, but we're not this year," admitted Bobby Jones. Wednesday's loss was Philly's third straight. The Sixers hadn't lost three in a row since March 21-25, 1982. In '82-83, Philadelphia averaged 16.3 offensive rebounds. They're down to 13.9 this year. Malone and Andrew Toney have been turning the ball over. Prior to his ankle injury in New York Tuesday, Malone committed 11 turnovers in a 66-minute span. Toney averaged one turnover every 4.6 minutes in the last three games, and shot only 36 percent in his last four. Maurice Cheeks has been up and down. He's averaging 8.3 assists when the Sixers win, but only 3.6 when Philly loses.

Meanwhile, it's hard to find any holes in the Celtic situation. A second- half collapse and playoff fold seem unlikely this time around. Larry Bird, Robert Parish and Kevin McHale are having All-Star seasons, and Cedric Maxwell is playing his best basketball since the '82 playoffs. Boston's ever-controversial backcourt situation has stabilized and produced beyond all expectations. DJ is everything he was when he was playoff MVP for the SuperSonics, and Gerald Henderson is hitting 56 percent of his shots in 43 starts.

If that isn't enough, Quinn Buckner and Danny Ainge have suddenly jelled into an effective and speedy second unit. Both are getting more minutes, and they worked extremely well together against the Cavaliers and Sixers this week. Since his embarrassing DNP (Did Not Play) against Washington, Ainge has played 128 minutes in nine games and committed only one turnover. He has no turnovers in his last 76 minutes. Before the Sixers left Boston, Philly coach Billy Cunningham freely admitted, "The Celtics are playing the best ball of anyone in this league."

MISC

In four games against Philadelphia, Bird is shooting only 39 percent (35-91). He's still hitting a white-hot .887 from the free throw line this year . . . Boston's contingent in Denver includes Parish, Bird, McHale, coaches Jones, Chris Ford and Jimmy Rodgers, plus player reps M.L. Carr and Buckner . . . The Celtics are 10-1 in January, 18-3 at home and 16-6 on the road . . . Boston has outrebounded the opposition by 50 in the last five games . . . Since the start of the 1979-80 season, the Celtics and Sixers have met 47 times in regular-season and playoff competition. Philly leads, 24-23. If you think that's parity, check this out: In 59 regular-season meetings since 1976-77, the Celtics have outscored the Sixers, 6153-6150.

The 1974 and the 1976 Celtics were my teams. I became a Celtics' fan on day one of the 1974 Finals. Cowens v. Jabbar. Celtics v. Bucks. The Bucks were the prohibitive favorites. The Celtics didn't stand a chance. That was enough for me. I'm rooting for the Celtics. The memories are so vivid, I even remember the pair of shoes my parents bought for me when we went out for dinner before game 1 started.



Until the 1985-86 season, the two best Celtics teams I ever saw were the 1974 and 1976 teams. The 1981 teams was good, but didn't play basketball at a consistently high level. The 1984 team was fortunate to walk away with a banner. You could say the same thing about the 1974 Celtics, who won the championship only after going the full seven games, or the 1976 Celtics, who lost two in a row in Phoenix, and required three overtimes to keep them from going down 3-2, heading back to Phoenix. Still, the 1970s Celtics champions exuded excellence and superiority, and you expected them to win.

Case in point.

Watching game 5 last night, the first quarter began with a Celtics steamrolling their way to a 20-4 lead. Paul Silas, of all people, was leading the way. Fifteen footers, seventeen footers, driving layups. Silas was a man possessed. "Phoenix Suns coach John McCleod may have to reconsider his game plan if Paul Silas continues to assert himself offensively," said Rick Barry, who was providing color for the game. You can almost hear Mark Jackson echo those sentiments about Leon Powe during game 2 of the 2008 NBA Finals.

Just when you figured the Celtics' run would stop, it continued. The Celtics began zipping passes around the horn, running give-and-goes, and pick-and-rolls, all the while Dave Cowens is dominating the glass on both ends. 36-18 at the end of one. One of the best exhibitions of pure basketball that I have ever seen, including the infamous 36-6 quarter against the Hawks in the 1986 Eastern Conference Semis. The 1970s Celtics champions could hang with any Celtics team in history.

Which is why it surprises me that neither team makes Bob Ryan's list of top ten Celtics' teams. Yes, the 1972-73 Celtics make the list. But, Bob, they didn't win the title! How do they make the list and neither the 1974 or 1976 teams do? Ditto for the 1985 and 1987 teams. I mean, come on.

Back to the Celtics-Suns game. Midway through the second quarter, we see back-up center Jim Ard dipsy-doo his way through the paint for a finger roll. Someone tell me the name of a back-up center on the 1985 or 1987 squads who could do that (and don't say Bill Walton, cuz he was useless in 1987). A couple minutes later Glenn McDonald drains an 18-footer, nothing but net. But for McDonald's steal in OT, the Celtics probably don't win the game. Using McDonald at the three allows Hondo to move to the back court. Hmmm. A 6-7 off guard with off-the-chart skills and a championship pedigree. I don't think the 1985 or 1987 teams had anything like that.

One of these two 1970s championship teams deserves a top-five mention in Celtics' lore. I don't care which one. But one of them deserves some love.