Cowens Doesn't Like Showboating Either

"I'm somewhat old-fashioned in a lot of ways," Cowens says. "I don't appreciate all the yakking and trash talking on the court. Like when someone gets dunked on and he falls down, and the guy who scores the basket stands over him and taunts. If it was me on the ground, that would be an instant `you're-going-to-get-hit.' I'm going to jump up and get after it."

That is what Cowens did best: He got after it. In practice. In a preseason game. Whenever, wherever. He was a seven-time All-Star, a league MVP, a Hall of Famer, but one who attacked every competitive situation like a man jostling for a roster spot.

"We used to play these benefit games," says Hank Finkel, a Celtics center from 1969-75, "and I quit playing because Cowens is running 100 miles per hour and I was going to have a heart attack. He played the same in any kind of game, whether you were 20-up or 30-down.

"You'll never, ever see another Dave Cowens in your life."