Patriot Ledger
When the Boston Celtics arrived in Halifax, Nova Scotia, for a preseason game in September 1978, they discovered that forward Marvin Barnes had packed two left shoes - and no rights. At that point they discovered something else: impending disaster.
After many years of unprecedented success, the Celtics relapsed to 33 wins in 1977-78, a season that ended with John Havlicek's swan song at Boston Garden. But the following season was an unmitigated calamity. With such characters as Barnes, Bob McAdoo, Earl (The Twirl) Williams and Curtis Rowe, plus the franchise swap with the Clippers, an owner who was a scourge and an early-season coaching change, the Celtics fell to an embarrassing 29 wins.
It was Team Turmoil. "From top to bottom," said WEEI radio analyst Cedric Maxwell, a second-year forward with that 1978-79 team. "It was management - I remember (owner) John Y. Brown coming in giving us a lecture - all the characters we had. We had so many people: McAdoo, Marvin Barnes, Billy Knight."
Knight was a solid citizen, but 18 players came and/or went that season, including McAdoo, the prolific scorer who came over in the bizarre franchise swap that involved the Buffalo Braves moving to San Diego, and then the owners swapping themselves (Irv Levin for Brown) and seven players and two draft picks.
One year later, 1979-80, the Celtics won 61 games, the biggest turnaround in NBA history. Starting to see a parallel? Last season the Celtics, who'd been have-nots for many years, won 24 games. With the Utah Jazz in town tonight, the Celts are up to 51 and counting, having been the NBA's leader from opening day. They can clinch the Atlantic Division with a victory.
"It brings back memories in the way they're winning," Maxwell said, "because we were losing so many games and they lost so many games, so the comparison could easily be there. All of a sudden in one year you turn it around from being a laughingstock to being the cream of the crop. That similarity can definitely be there. As a player it makes you think how lucky you were and how far you were from where you were last year."
There were differences, of course. The team the Celtics fielded last season was not the bunch of misfits and disgruntled veterans that the 1978-79 team had.
"It was a bad team but I was a young player so I was trying it establish my own credentials," Maxwell said, "so I might have been playing for a different reason, trying to establish myself. But I had things happening around me with Jo Jo (White) getting traded (to Golden State), all the guys moving around, Bob McAdoo coming in my second year, becoming my roommate because he was so frustrated at being traded to the Celtics that he said he wasn't going to get an apartment and he slept on my couch in my apartment for a whole month and a half. So there was a bunch of different things going on."
Brown clashed often with GM Red Auerbach, and fired Satch Sanders 14 games into the season. To save a salary, the owner asked Dave Cowens to become player-coach. The team lost 12 of its last 14 games. After years of rousing successes, the Garden was dead. Auerbach threatened to leave the following summer, and nearly accepted a job with the Knicks, but, ultimately, was convinced to stay by a Boston cabbie. Shortly thereafter, Brown's partner, Harry Mangurian, bought him out and the team's fortunes began to turn.
Auerbach acquired defensive specialist ML Carr from Detroit, and gave the Pistons McAdoo in return for two first-round draft choices in 1980. They were used in the acquisitions of Kevin McHale and Robert Parish a year later. For that season, though, he had Larry Bird coming in thanks to a draft pick he made a year earlier. Chris Ford and Tiny Archibald were holdovers from the dreadful 1978-79 team.
"Harry Mangurian got the team and Red Auerbach and him meshed together along with (coach) Bill Fitch," Maxwell said, "and everything collectively kind of came together: the coach, the GM, the pride of the Celtics, Larry Bird, all the players we had. Everything meshed together and it made for a magical year, just like this year for the Celtics."
Last season, when the Celtics won 24 games, the new Garden was always jumping. Fans saw promise in a young group of players, including Al Jefferson, Tony Allen, Rajon Rondo and Delonte West. It was a solid team under Doc Rivers, but it wasn't happening because of youth.
"The only difference between those teams and my '78 team and transitioning was that most of the better players were younger," Maxwell said, "whereas on this team, Kevin Garnett, Ray Allen, Paul Pierce are all older and established veterans. There's some similarities in the way these guys have played, how the chemistry has come together."
Maxwell was asked if he could understand how Pierce felt, playing for so long under such difficult circumstances, but he pointed out that he was a second-year player just trying to establish himself. Pierce had tasted the playoffs and was trying to get back. "I'm sure he was very frustrated. I was frustrated because you're so used to winning, and on a team like the Celtics you just figure that's automatic. That's one of the guarantees that Red Auerbach gave me for not giving me as much (salary). He said, 'We make the playoffs all the time so you can get extra playoff money.' How'd that work out the first couple of years?"
But Maxwell can also relate to Pierce's rejuvenation this season. Coming to work was a chore in September, 1978, a year later it was unabashed joy.
"It was truly a college atmosphere because guys who had not won in the NBA, guys who were new to the NBA, everybody was cheering for everybody else. It became more than fun to come to work because you could see a sense of greatness, you could see a great picture about to be painted. You wanted to be there, you wanted to play hard, you wanted to play well and saw better things happening for this team."
After many years of unprecedented success, the Celtics relapsed to 33 wins in 1977-78, a season that ended with John Havlicek's swan song at Boston Garden. But the following season was an unmitigated calamity. With such characters as Barnes, Bob McAdoo, Earl (The Twirl) Williams and Curtis Rowe, plus the franchise swap with the Clippers, an owner who was a scourge and an early-season coaching change, the Celtics fell to an embarrassing 29 wins.
It was Team Turmoil. "From top to bottom," said WEEI radio analyst Cedric Maxwell, a second-year forward with that 1978-79 team. "It was management - I remember (owner) John Y. Brown coming in giving us a lecture - all the characters we had. We had so many people: McAdoo, Marvin Barnes, Billy Knight."
Knight was a solid citizen, but 18 players came and/or went that season, including McAdoo, the prolific scorer who came over in the bizarre franchise swap that involved the Buffalo Braves moving to San Diego, and then the owners swapping themselves (Irv Levin for Brown) and seven players and two draft picks.
One year later, 1979-80, the Celtics won 61 games, the biggest turnaround in NBA history. Starting to see a parallel? Last season the Celtics, who'd been have-nots for many years, won 24 games. With the Utah Jazz in town tonight, the Celts are up to 51 and counting, having been the NBA's leader from opening day. They can clinch the Atlantic Division with a victory.
"It brings back memories in the way they're winning," Maxwell said, "because we were losing so many games and they lost so many games, so the comparison could easily be there. All of a sudden in one year you turn it around from being a laughingstock to being the cream of the crop. That similarity can definitely be there. As a player it makes you think how lucky you were and how far you were from where you were last year."
There were differences, of course. The team the Celtics fielded last season was not the bunch of misfits and disgruntled veterans that the 1978-79 team had.
"It was a bad team but I was a young player so I was trying it establish my own credentials," Maxwell said, "so I might have been playing for a different reason, trying to establish myself. But I had things happening around me with Jo Jo (White) getting traded (to Golden State), all the guys moving around, Bob McAdoo coming in my second year, becoming my roommate because he was so frustrated at being traded to the Celtics that he said he wasn't going to get an apartment and he slept on my couch in my apartment for a whole month and a half. So there was a bunch of different things going on."
Brown clashed often with GM Red Auerbach, and fired Satch Sanders 14 games into the season. To save a salary, the owner asked Dave Cowens to become player-coach. The team lost 12 of its last 14 games. After years of rousing successes, the Garden was dead. Auerbach threatened to leave the following summer, and nearly accepted a job with the Knicks, but, ultimately, was convinced to stay by a Boston cabbie. Shortly thereafter, Brown's partner, Harry Mangurian, bought him out and the team's fortunes began to turn.
Auerbach acquired defensive specialist ML Carr from Detroit, and gave the Pistons McAdoo in return for two first-round draft choices in 1980. They were used in the acquisitions of Kevin McHale and Robert Parish a year later. For that season, though, he had Larry Bird coming in thanks to a draft pick he made a year earlier. Chris Ford and Tiny Archibald were holdovers from the dreadful 1978-79 team.
"Harry Mangurian got the team and Red Auerbach and him meshed together along with (coach) Bill Fitch," Maxwell said, "and everything collectively kind of came together: the coach, the GM, the pride of the Celtics, Larry Bird, all the players we had. Everything meshed together and it made for a magical year, just like this year for the Celtics."
Last season, when the Celtics won 24 games, the new Garden was always jumping. Fans saw promise in a young group of players, including Al Jefferson, Tony Allen, Rajon Rondo and Delonte West. It was a solid team under Doc Rivers, but it wasn't happening because of youth.
"The only difference between those teams and my '78 team and transitioning was that most of the better players were younger," Maxwell said, "whereas on this team, Kevin Garnett, Ray Allen, Paul Pierce are all older and established veterans. There's some similarities in the way these guys have played, how the chemistry has come together."
Maxwell was asked if he could understand how Pierce felt, playing for so long under such difficult circumstances, but he pointed out that he was a second-year player just trying to establish himself. Pierce had tasted the playoffs and was trying to get back. "I'm sure he was very frustrated. I was frustrated because you're so used to winning, and on a team like the Celtics you just figure that's automatic. That's one of the guarantees that Red Auerbach gave me for not giving me as much (salary). He said, 'We make the playoffs all the time so you can get extra playoff money.' How'd that work out the first couple of years?"
But Maxwell can also relate to Pierce's rejuvenation this season. Coming to work was a chore in September, 1978, a year later it was unabashed joy.
"It was truly a college atmosphere because guys who had not won in the NBA, guys who were new to the NBA, everybody was cheering for everybody else. It became more than fun to come to work because you could see a sense of greatness, you could see a great picture about to be painted. You wanted to be there, you wanted to play hard, you wanted to play well and saw better things happening for this team."
2 comments:
I love reading about the Celtics teams from the past. I just finished the book Celtics Pride about the rebuilding of that team in the 70's. Excellent read. Good stuff in this article as well.
Hmmmm.
How did I miss that book.
Who wrote it?
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