The same intense style that enabled him to battle Lanier, Wilt Chamberlain and Kareem Abdul- Jabbar also drained his reserves. A running-on-empty Cowens took a two-month leave of absence to rejuvenate himself in 1976 before returning to play the next three-plus seasons, which included a 68-game stint as a player-coach in 1978-79.
Then, during training camp in 1980, Cowens abruptly announced his retirement on the team bus, enlisting one of the team's beat writers to edit the statement he had fashioned. "I wouldn't feel guilty about the amount of money I would earn under these conditions if I thought I could play even as well as I did last year," the statement said. "But I can't."
His sense of timing did not threaten Big Ben's. He was the team captain and had gone through much of the preseason with his teammates. But Cowens says his desire had waned, and he felt a team featuring a young nucleus of Robert Parish (fifth season), Bird (second) and rookie Kevin McHale could succeed without him. He was right: While he adjusted to life away from basketball by directing athletics at Regis College, the Celtics went on to dispatch Houston in the NBA Finals.
"That was a little too much, probably," Cowens says, acknowledging a tinge of regret for quitting in that manner. "I was almost at the point where I didn't care anymore, and I hated that feeling. I figured there had to be something else out there for me because I believed this wasn't getting it done for me."
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