Ed MacAuley Finished Career as Third Leading Scorer in NBA History

Ed Macauley Weekend
Jon Goode
Boston.com

Ed MacAuley played six seasons (1950-56) with the Celtics and was an all star in all six seasons. Also with the Celtics, MacAuley was a member of the All-NBA first team three times and was the 1951 Most Valuable Player in the very first NBA All Star game scoring 20 points, which was played at the Boston Garden on March 2, 1951. He had his Celtics No. 22 retired on October 16, 1963 at the same time with Bob Cousy's No. 14. They were the first two to have their numbers retired by Boston.

MacAuley played a total of ten seasons in the NBA. Prior to the Celtics, "Easy Ed" played one season in St. Louis and then after the 1956 season was traded back to St. Louis for Bill Russell. MacAuley played three more seasons before retiring and won an NBA title with St. Louis in 1958. “I got a call from Walter Brown and he said they had a deal that would send me to the St. Louis Hawks,” said MacAuley. “When we were in Boston my son Patrick was diagnosed with spinal meningitis and we came back to St. Louis where he was under care.

“Walter said he didn’t want to make the deal because he couldn’t imagine the Celtics without me. Walter and I were close and I told him he would be doing me a favor and to make the deal (because my son’s care was there). That’s the way the deal went down.” “Easy Ed” retired as the NBA's third all-time leading scorer trailing only George Mikan and Dolph Shayes at the time. “I didn’t start playing basketball until I was in the eighth grade and that was for a team that didn’t win a game,” said MacAuley. “I didn’t think I was going to have a great career in basketball.”