April 1, 1980
THE TALE OF THE TRANSFORMATION FITCH, BIRD AND A PAIR OF COMEBACKS TURNED THE CELTICS AROUND
A year ago, as I recall, the Celtics were marked by turmoil, chaos and confusion. You had an owner who had just completed a gigantic trade his coach and general manager knew nothing about. You had an aging NBA center as coach. You had a malcontent little guard sitting on the bench. The only bright thing on the horizon was the potential of Larry Bird. If ever there was a moribund franchise, it was the Celtics. And for the rest of us, the worst is yet to come, courtesy of the Dick Vitale Sweepstakes."-Pat Williams, 76er general manager
What more can anyone say? Last year, after one watched the Celtics, any team looked good. This year, practically no team does. Bill Fitch and his dozen players have accomplished the single greatest turnaround in the 34-year history of the National Basketball Assn. Should they win the championship, it will be permissible to discuss only the 1969 Mets (who, incidentally, finished next-to-last, and not last, the year before) in the same breath when the cocktail conversation turns to Great Sports Resurrections.
After two trying seasons in which a reputation it took almost a quarter- century to construct was severely shredded, the Celtics have come back in just one season to challenge for the championship. Red Auerbach never did like the phrase "rebuilding year" anyway. He thought it was for losers. And that's precisely what the Celtics were last season - losers. They disintegrated during the final third of the season, dropping their last 13 road games and being the victims of some frightful beatings on enemy courts.
That was last year. This year the Celtics have a 61-21 record, the best in the league. They won a dizzying total of 34 games by 10 or more points. They had the best road record in the league, an impressive 26-14 mark that was the NBA's best in six years. They went four months without losing two successive games, and they never did drop three in a row (and two straight only three times). Moreover, they sold out Boston Garden a record 30 times while establishing a home attendance record. It was truly an idyllic season.
They did it with seven of the same players who finished the 1978-79 season in Boston. Of course, two of those players, Dave Cowens and Nate (Tiny) Archibald, came back this season in far superior physical and mental shape and were, as a result, the equivalent of new players. It would be absurd to go any further without mentioning the effect of Larry Bird on the franchise. So monumental was the publicity surrounding his signing that it now seems difficult to believe he actually entered the league as an underrated commodity. For one of the few times in recent sports or social history, a ballyhooed product actually exceeded his hype.
Nor is it possible to proceed without crediting the coach. Red Auerbach obviously knew what he was doing when he hired the wisecracking ex-Cleveland mentor, even if nobody else realized it. The simple fact is that without Fitch's coaching, the Celtics very likely would have been dueling with Washington and New York for a playoff spot. The coach, therefore, was the difference between being a marginal playoff team and having the best record in the league. Here's one man who won't have to apologize for accepting his paycheck.
In the most basic terms, the Celtics are where they are for the following reasons:
1. The signing of Bird.
2. The signing of M.L. Carr as a free agent.
3. The simultaneous personal comebacks of Cowens and Archibald.
4. The signing of Fitch as coach.
5. As a final needed building block, the signing of Pete Maravich, who ultimately made the difference between finishing first and second in the Atlantic Division.
Name an aspect of coaching and Fitch would get an A-plus for his efforts this season. He reviewed all the films of last season over the summer, so that when he got to training camp he knew more about the incumbents than they could possibly know about themselves. He then put them through a rugged training camp that was somehow never boring, no matter how demanding physically. This ability of his to conduct interesting practices was to be a continual source of team admiration during the season. Nothing can sour a player on a coach as fast as poor practice techniques. Just ask Tom Heinsohn's players.
When the season began, the players quickly became aware that they would be the beneficiaries of some great coaching preparation. They seldom were asked to face the unknown, so well were they prepared for the opponents. Their own offense was sso varied, meanwhile, that they could never lack for options. And when improvisation was needed, Fitch would just whip out his clipboard and whip up something that invariably worked. After a while, if Fitch had declared that Holyoke was the capital of Massachusetts, the players would have wondered how they missed the story in the papers. They had no choice but to believe the coach; he was right about everything else.
The team needed some immediate gratification, coming off that 29-53 record of last season, and they got it with a 114-106 Opening Night triumph over the Rockets. Next they needed to establish an ability to win on the road, and they proved something to themselves the very next night by smashing Cleveland by a 139-117 score. It is conceivable that had they gotten off to an 0-2 start, the rest would not have fallen into place.
Their early successes were greeted with skepticism around the league. "Come and see me when they win 29," snorted Elvin Hayes early in the season. They weren't about to get carried away themselves. "I just want to get off to a good start," said Cowens. After a couple of months, it was evident that they were a team of substance, that they had legitimate depth and that they were a team with - to use an oft-overworked word in sports - character. In contrast to the finger- pointing aggregation of a year ago, this was a group of players who genuinely liked each other personally, and it definitely helped them win ballgames.
It may not sound like a big deal now, given the eventual destruction of the Pistons, but a game against Detroit in early December best exemplified what the Celtics were all about. They entered the fourth quarter trailing by 15 points. Fitch put Rick Robey in at center. Robey, who would later give the team an enormous lift when Cowens injured his toe, completely outplayed Bob Lanier, until the team was losing by three points with eight seconds to go. A play was designed for Cowens to take a three-pointer as Bird and Carr crashed the boards.
Carr outfought Bird for the rebound and sprinted into the far left corner. He fired, and the buzzer went off with the ball in the air. The ball went through the hoop to send the game into overtime. With 15 seconds to play in the overtime and the game wrapped up, Archibald, a morose individual the year before, was jumping around and squealing like a school kid. More than anything else, this vignette summed up the spirit of this club.
The best was yet to come. The team had to go to the Detroit airport to catch an early-morning plane, and the only place to stop for something to eat while en route was an all-night diner. The commiseration that took place in that roadside joint resembled nothing other than what you would have expected from a high school team returning home from the Big Game. It would have been an unthinkable scene the year before.
What the Celtics achieved technically is on the record. Their ability may or may not be enough to win the playoffs. But their greatest distinction has been to restore the Celtics' image and provide for themselves an experience and a feeling they may never know again. To watch them play makes every fan feel good. That's a legacy few athletes will ever leave behind.
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