The Ed Macauley Interview

By:  Michael D. McClellan |  “Easy” Ed Macauley never wins a championship with the Boston Celtics, and yet he indirectly gives birth to the NBA’s first true superpower. He plays only six seasons in a Boston uniform, and yet his legacy is so great, and his mark so indelible, that his No. 22 is retired on October 6, 1963, along with Bob Cousy’s No. 14. Walter Brown thinks so highly of the slender, 6-foot-8 gunner from St. Louis that he gives Macauley veto power over the seismic trade that delivers Bill Russell to Boston. Brown later writes Macauley, saying: “What this means for the Boston Celtics, God only knows. You have heard me say many times that as long as I have Ed Macauley, I have a ball club. Well, now I don’t have Ed Macauley. This is the hardest letter I ever tried to write.”

Macauley, in many ways, is Brown’s favorite son, a fellow Catholic who represents the Celtics with humility and class, a player whose popularity helps keep the Celtics afloat during lean years. And he can flat out play; Macauley, along with Cousy and Bill Sharman, forms an All-Star nucleus perfectly suited to Red Auerbach’s up-tempo attack. His hook shot and deft passing make it hard for the league’s bigger, slower centers to keep up. His willingness to battle those same bruisers on the defensive end makes him a crowd favorite. Yet few today know who Ed Macauley is, or why he is such an important part of basketball history. There are some who can recite the highlights—MVP of the first NBA All-Star Game, the first Celtics player to average 20 points in a season, a seven-time All-Star, the youngest player ever inducted into the Hall of Fame—but these old-school fans are harder to find with each passing year.

Raised by devout Catholic parents, Macauley attends St. Louis University High School. He blossoms during his senior season, earning All-District and All-State honors, and recruiters from national powers like Kentucky and Notre Dame come calling. He chooses St. Louis University, finishing his sophomore year as a Helms Foundation Third Team All-America. A coaching change prior to the start of the 1947–48 regular season threatens to derail the Billikens’ momentum, but St. Louis finishes the season with a 24–3 record, earning a berth in the 1948 NIT, then the premiere collegiate tournament in the land. The Billikens defeat New York University for the championship, touching off a wild celebration back home in St. Louis. Macauley, who scores 24 points in a 41–24 victory, is named the MVP of the tournament. A few weeks later he’s 36 Boston Celtics honored as a Helms Foundation First Team All-America and caps his magical season with National Player of the Year honors.

Macauley’s senior season starts with the Billikens ranked first in the nation. It ends with him being named a consensus first-team All-American, and by being selected as the Associated Press Player of the Year. It’s a series of pinch-me moments that culminate with another trip to Madison Square Garden, and while the Billikens fail to repeat as NIT champions, Macauley stamps himself as a can’t-miss NBA draft pick.

The embryonic NBA is a tenuous place in 1949, with teams struggling to build fan bases. The league’s answer is to include territorial picks in the draft, which allows a team to forfeit its first-round pick and instead select a player from its immediate area, presumably with a strong local following. The St. Louis Bombers waste little time forfeiting its own pick to snag the Billikens’ star. Despite its cash-flow problems, the Bombers give Macauley $10,000 in base salary and a $7,500 signing bonus. His other offer? A contract for $300 a month from the Phillips Oilers of the Industrial League.

“Dick McGuire was only making $7,500 with the Knicks,” Macauley says with a laugh. “But if they were going to offer me $17,500, I wasn’t going to turn it down.”

Macauley spends one largely forgettable season in a Bombers uniform, averaging 16 points and proving that his game is suited to the pros. The team folds after the season ends, and the players are thrown into a dispersal draft. Macauley is awarded to the Celtics.

The Celtics are struggling on the court and Brown is losing money off it when Macauley arrives at the start of the 1950–51 season. Auerbach’s fast break, which now features Cousy pushing the ball and Macauley finishing at the rim, boosts the Celtics’ record to 39–30. Macauley finishes third in the league in scoring, behind only Mikan and Alex Groza, while earning All-NBA First Team and NBA All-Star honors.

Heading into the 1950–51 season, the NBA is looking for ways to generate interest in its product, and Walter Brown has an idea. Noting the popularity of baseball’s midsummer classic, Brown pitches the idea of a basketball showcase event. He also offers to host the inaugural game, and on March 2, 1951, the game’s best players gather in the Boston Garden for the first-ever NBA All-Star Game. Cousy and Macauley both start for the East All-Stars, coached by the Knicks’ Joe Lapchick. Macauley scores 20 points, helps hold Mikan to 12 and walks away with the MVP trophy.
Bill Sharman joins the Celtics for the 1951–52 season, giving the team a backcourt scoring threat to complement Cousy’s passing. Rugged forward Bob Brannum is added and plays the role of enforcer, delivering hard hits whenever an opponent decides to play rough with Boston’s two young guards. Still, it isn’t enough to put the Celtics over the top.

Macauley continues playing at an All-Star level, again finishing among the league’s top 10 scorers—something he will do in each of his six seasons in Boston. But the Celtics are still far from contending for a championship. The balance sheet isn’t much better.

The 1952–53 season sees Macauley erupt for a career-best 46 points against the Minneapolis Lakers. The Celtics qualify for the playoffs, defeating bitter rival Syracuse to win a playoff series for the first time in team history but fail to break through to the Finals.

When Syracuse Nationals owner Danny Biasone’s plan for a 24-second clock encounters widespread opposition, Macauley attends an owner’s luncheon in Boston and voices his support. Prophetically, Macauley says: “Make us shoot the ball within a set number of seconds and you’ll see a better game.” In the summer of 1954, the 24-second shot clock rule is put into effect. The shot clock helps, but Macauley gets roughed up on a nightly basis.

Following the 1955–56 season—Macauley’s sixth in Boston—the Celtics and Hawks consummate the historic trade that brings Bill Russell to Boston.
For Macauley, the trade is bittersweet. It ends his run in a Celtics uniform, but it also brings him home to finish out his career, where he can be closer to his son, Patrick, who suffered brain damage following a short illness.

Macauley joins Bob Pettit in St. Louis, providing additional scoring punch to go along with the Hawks’ solid defense. St. Louis reaches the 1957 NBA Finals, taking Boston to Game 7 before losing in double overtime, 125–123.

The following year St. Louis returns the favor, winning the championship against Boston in six games. In the clinching game, Macauley only scores two points but jokingly takes credit for the victory, pointing out that the margin was one point.

“We beat the Boston Celtics in 1958 because we had a better ball club, because we had more desire, and because we were better coached.” Macauley pauses for dramatic effect and laughs. “Of course, Russell hurt his ankle early in that series, so that may have had something to do with it, too.”

Russell’s injury notwithstanding, Macauley now has an NBA title to go along with his NIT championship. At 32, he becomes the youngest player ever inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame.

You were born on March 22nd, 1928, in St. Louis, Missouri. Please tell me a little about your childhood.

I went to a Catholic grade school – St. Barbara’s – and I was tall for my age. So tall that my mother, after the second grade, suggested to the teacher’s that I looked like I’d been held back. I was a very good student, so they talked about it and decided to let me skip the third grade. I didn’t play many sports in grade school. We had a basketball team that didn’t win a game. I wasn’t very athletic. So my basketball experience wasn’t much to speak of, and it wasn’t anything like what you see with some of the kids today. You see kids start playing as early as the first and second grade, and some of the them keep playing right into the NBA. I started several years later than that.

 

You were a three-year letter winner at St. Louis University High School. Please take me back to this period in your life.

St. Louis University High was a Jesuit high school. When I asked my counselor about playing basketball on the freshman team, he said that that wasn’t going to be possible. He said that a new class called ‘typing’ was starting up, and that it was going to be held right after school, which was when the freshman class practiced.  Since I was in the class, he told me to forget about freshman basketball and to concentrate on typing [laughs].

 

Obviously that didn’t stop you.

Just because I couldn’t play on the team didn’t mean that I was disinterested in basketball. So after typing class I’d go to the outdoor courts and shoot. If I was really lucky, I’d get to go into the gymnasium and practice on my own.  The next year I was a substitute center on the sophomore team.  When I got to play I didn’t play very well, but at least I was on the team and getting taller every year.  As a junior I played on the varsity. We had a fair year, nothing spectacular, but I kept practicing and working hard– by myself many times, and also with the team.  People would always ask, ‘Why are you always practicing? Why don’t you have some fun, and go out and do other things?’ My senior year was really the first year that I had a breakout year. I was the All-District center, and I was All-State. We played in the state tournament – we didn’t win it, but we finished in third place overall. I started getting scholarship offers from colleges, and I didn’t know anything about what that meant. It was all new to me.

 

Please take me back to your decision to play collegiate basketball at St. Louis University.

I got offers from all over – Kentucky, Notre Dame, Boston College, Missouri, St. Louis University, and a few more. But my father was an invalid at that point in his life – he had been in an automobile accident and was pretty much confined to his bed. So for whatever reason, I decided to go to St. Louis University which didn’t have a very good basketball team. In fact, the year before they didn’t even have a basketball team at all – this was due to World War II…there just weren’t very many men around. I think I agreed to go there before they had even hired a permanent coach [laughs].

The interim head coach was a man named John Flannigan, who was a great player in what was then known as the Industrial League. He was a magnificent gentleman who really taught me a lot. He used to scrimmage against me and beat my brains out [laughs], but he prepared me for what was coming. Many people today don’t have any recollection about that league, but Philips Petroleum Company and other corporations would have basketball players on their payroll. Anyway, we didn’t do too much as a team during my freshman year. One thing does stand out: I had the pleasure of playing against Bob Kurland, the dominant big man from Oklahoma A&M. Bob was seven feet tall and weighed about two-fifty – I was six-eight, and weighed about one hundred seventy-five [laughs]. That night he put up 58 points against me, which was a new collegiate scoring record at that time. Fortunately, he graduated that year [laughs].

 

You weren’t an overnight success, but you worked hard.

I kept practicing and trying to get better – I didn’t have many dates in high school, and none during the first part of my college career, so basketball was my primary form of entertainment. I worked hard during my freshman and sophomore years – I got to play as a sophomore, I had a good year, but I wasn’t doing anything that might draw national recognition. We won the Missouri Valley title that year. My junior season was my breakout year.

 

Please tell me how you earned your nickname, “Easy Ed.”

We had a tradition of rotating our captains before every game, and Coach Flannigan came to me and let me know that is was my turn. It was an honor – and I was really nervous. He said that all I had to do was lead us out of the dressing room then through a door and onto the court. That’s the only thing I had to do, and I really didn’t want to mess it up. So I did it; I pushed the door open, ran down the other end of the court with the ball and took a couple of shots. When I turned around there was no one else there. Nobody had followed me, because the National Anthem was being played. I was so nervous I didn’t even hear it [laughs]. The fans started to yell ‘Take it easy, Ed’, since the game hadn’t even started. Our sports publicity man liked that so much that he started using it in press releases. It stuck, and I guess it turned out to be a very appropriate nickname.

 

You led Saint Louis University to the NIT championship on March 18, 1948, this at a time when the NIT was the premiere tournament in college basketball. Please take me back – what memories do you have, and what was it like to be recognized as the tournament MVP?

Ed Hickey had been hired as the head coach – the president of the university fired Flannigan even though he had a great record, because they had gotten into an argument and couldn’t’ see eye-to-eye. Hickey came in from Creighton and we just took off…we had great backcourt men…Danny Miller and Bobby Schmidt. Danny flew 35 missions over Germany during the war, and Bobby was in the Marines. D.C. Wilcutt was one of the forwards – he fought in the Philippines against the Japanese. Hank Raymonds, who later coached Marquette, was on the ball club. We had a good mix. I started scoring. We didn’t the Missouri Valley title – we lost to Oklahoma A&M again – but we only lost three or four games that year. We were invited to the National Invitation Tournament up in New York, and at that time it was considered the premiere tournament. If you paired the teams who played in the NIT tournament against those in the NCAA tournament, the NIT probably had the better teams. At that time the NCAA was picking conference winners, and some of those conferences down south didn’t play very well. Some of the guys on those teams were just football players trying to stay in shape [laughs].

We went to the NIT tournament and won it. We became the darlings of New York City, because we used the fast break, and we really got down the floor in a hurry. I was still skinny, but I could score. We won our first game against Bowling Green. They had Charlie Share, a big 7’0″ center who went on to play several seasons in the NBA. We won our next game against Western Kentucky – I didn’t have many points in that one, but the team played brilliantly. We faced Dolph Schayes and Ray Lumpp in the final game against New York University. Both were great, great players. We were the underdogs and the fan favorites heading in, because NYU was playing at home and had won 19 straight games heading into the final. But we weren’t intimidated. We had beaten Holy Cross and their star, Bob Cousy, and we had beaten Yale. I played probably the best game of my life up to that point. I had 24 points – we won fairly handily, with Schayes playing against me – and I was named the Most Valuable Player in the tournament. The City of St. Louis just went wild [laughs]. We didn’t get home for three days, because we didn’t fly – we rode trains back then. We stopped at Niagara Falls for a day or two. When we got home at Union Station there were 15,000 people there waiting for us. It was a very special moment, because everyone on the team was from St. Louis.

 

You were a First Team All-American selection in 1949, as well as the Associated Press Player-of-the-Year.

Both were great honors, and it was nice to be recognized in that way. We started off undefeated and went down to the Sugar Bowl, where they had a basketball tournament two days before the football game. Four teams were involved – Holy Cross with Cousy, Kentucky with Beard, Groza and all the guys, Tulane, and St. Louis. We beat Holy Cross, and Kentucky beat Tulane. We beat Kentucky by two-or-three points in the finals. Groza and I had fair games. The next week the very first Associated Press basketball poll was published. They had been doing football polls for quite a while, but they hadn’t had a basketball poll up until that point. St. Louis University was ranked number one in the country in that first poll, and we were able to hold the top spot the second week, too. And then we played Oklahoma A&M, and we lost to them again [laughs]. Oklahoma A&M took the top spot, Kentucky came in at number two, and we were number three in the country.
It was great for the city and the school. The people in St. Louis didn’t even know what it meant [laughs]. They couldn’t imagine a college team from St. Louis being ranked number one in the nation. The fans were just phenomenal. They’d never seen anything like this in the city as far as the colleges were concerned. There was just a great following by the fans at that time. We had great backing. We had to move out of our gymnasium and go down to a public building, Kiel Auditorium, and played against our real rivals – Notre Dame. We had played Notre Dame them all four years, and the first two years we had lost all four game. My third year we beat them. We went back up there my fourth year, the fans were just rabid, and we crushed them [laughs]. I had a great night that night. As I walked off the court with three or four minutes to go, the Notre Dame fans gave me a standing ovation. Someone at the school told me that that had never happened before [laughs].

We went back to the NIT, but we lost in the first game to Charlie Share and Bowling Green. They had an Olympic tryout that year, and we were asked as a team to come back to play it. There were four teams – a service team, the winners of the NCAA and NIT tournaments, and an industrial league team – but two of our guys, D.C. Wilcutt and Danny Miller, were getting married that summer, and they couldn’t go. So we decided as a team not to go back for the tryouts. It would have been an honor to represent my country, and it would have been a great experience, because in those days the United States always won the gold in Olympic basketball.

 

In 1949, you were the territorial selection of the NBA’s St. Louis Bombers.

I would have to say that that’s the worst team I ever played on [laughs]. We had a lot of nice guys, but they liked women and they liked booze, and every once in a while basketball would get into the mix. So we didn’t do very well. I had a good year – I think I finished fifth or sixth in scoring in the NBA that season.

Interestingly, St. Louis University was very popular at Madison Square Garden when I played, and Ned Irish [Basketball Director of Madison Square Garden] was a friend of our coach, Ed Hickey. When the Bombers folded, Ned tried to buy the team to get me [laughs]. He’d seen me play a lot in New York, but the league put a stop to that very quickly. So the ballplayers went into a pool, and the other teams got to pick them. I was picked by Boston, so I went up there.

 

You arrived in Boston the same season as two other Boston Celtic immortals – Red Auerbach and Bob Cousy.

Cousy had graduated from Holy Cross.  He was popular.  The press and the fans wanted the Celtics to select him with the top pick, but Red Auerbach didn’t want Cousy. He didn’t draft him and he followed that up by making the now-famous ‘local yokel’ comment in the press. Later that year a couple of other teams folded. They had another drawing in New York, Auerbach had the last pick, and Cousy was the last player left. Max Zaslofsky came from Chicago, and Andy Phillip came from Chicago – they ended up going to New York and Philadelphia, respectively. So that’s how Cousy and I wound up in Boston together. We had no idea that we’d ever be there – we’d played against each other in college, and we admired each other.

 

Tell me about those early years in a Celtics uniform.

The Boston Celtics really weren’t that special those first six years that I was there. Cousy was phenomenal, and I was very good. We were on the All-NBA team, and I was the Most Valuable Player of the first NBA All-Star Game. And then [Bill] Sharman arrived. But we didn’t have enough ballplayers. And when I say that, I’m not criticizing the people that were there. The other teams had better overall teams that we had. Syracuse had Dolph Schayes, Freddie Scolari and Paul Seymour. New York had Dick McGuire, Harry Gallatin and Ernie Vandeweghe, and we always had a tough time with them. We would finish second or third in the league, and go into the playoffs and usually get knocked out right away. I think we got out of the first round once. So when I say our ballplayers weren’t good enough, I’m not knocking them at all, because they were as good as they could be. From top to bottom, we just didn’t have the talent that the other teams had. We didn’t win anything for the six years that I was there.

 

Your relationship with the late Walter Brown was clearly special – in many ways, it was a father-son relationship. Please tell me about Mr. Brown.

Walter was one of the greatest men in sports, but he wasn’t a self-promoter. He was just a great Catholic man that loved athletics. He probably overpaid his people too much. He was a great Red Sox fan – he used to attend every Red Sox game during the summer. He had a young daughter, and his daughter liked me more than she like Bob Cousy [laughs]. She was about eight at the time, and there weren’t too many girls, no matter how old they were, who liked me at all [laughs]. Anyway, Walter and I really respected each other…we were both Catholic. Walter was just a great figure in sports. But as I’ve said, we didn’t win anything while I was playing for him.

 

Let’s talk money. Today the NBA is big business, and players pull down extravagant salaries. What was the pay scale like in the 1950s?

I think at that time I may have been the second-highest paid player in the NBA. They had to draft me in St. Louis. I had a $10,000 salary with a $7,500 bonus if I played well, and I played well. I was making $17,500. George Mikan was making anywhere from $25,000 to $28,000, I’m not exactly sure how much. Guys like Cousy were probably making $7,000 to $8,000. Not many guys were over $10,000. Some guys were under $5,000.

At that time, friends and teammates from college were working regular jobs and making $400 a month. They were buying homes, buying cars, and starting families. So while the highest paid players made more than someone working a regular job, the difference in salaries wasn’t as vast as what you see today. As a result, there was more camaraderie on teams back then. There was probably less jealousy on a ball club because nobody was getting rich, and we were playing because we liked to play ball.

 

You were MVP of the first All-Star Game, which was held in the fabled Boston Garden. Please take me back to that inaugural midwinter classic.

I was on the All-Star team each year that I was there, and the inaugural All-Star Game was held during my first season with the Celtics. I don’t know if you’ve been to an All-Star Game lately, but they are extravaganzas. There’s dancing, and bands, and guys jumping on trampolines. Well, the first All-Star Game in Boston was almost cancelled, because they didn’t know if there would be enough people in the stands to even hold it. Cousy and I represented the Celtics – we were in Boston, so we arrive at the Garden and meet the other players in our locker room. We didn’t have a luncheon, or a big ceremonial dinner, or any of that. Today they have huge luncheons, and all kind of hoopla. The second All-Star Game was also held in Boston, and I think we had a small luncheon for that one. We were on our own for that first All-Star Game [laughs].

That first game was quite an experience. Joe Lapchick was our coach – the Knicks were in first place – Harry Gallatin was on the team, and Dick McGuire, and those were guys that we hated [laughs]. Suddenly, we were on the same team. I had to walk in and say, ‘Hi Dick, hi Harry, let’s go win a ball game’. And somehow we were able to put aside our differences and do just that [laughs].

 

Bill Sharman joined the Celtics for the start of the 1951-52 season.  What was it like having Sharman and Cousy in the backcourt?

Billy was a great shooter, and he was strong. He was baseball player who played in the major leagues, as you know, so he came to the Celtics with a lot of game experience. Major League Baseball is a obviously a different game, but there are things that you learn that are going to be helpful in basketball. He was a great shooter – one of the greatest free throw shooter in the history of the game.  Cousy was phenomenal. Every scorer loved to play with Cooz, because if you were open you were going to get the ball. He made everyone on the ball club better. If you weren’t open, and he had to take the shot, then he was a great scorer himself.

 

You once scored 46 points against George Mikan, easily the most dominant big man of his era, but the Celtics routinely struggled against the Minneapolis Lakers.

We didn’t win because we didn’t have any size on the club. I was 6’8″, 185 pounds, and we’re playing against Harry Gallatin with the Knicks – he outweighed me by fifty pounds. We’re playing against George Mikan, who was 6’10”. I always had good games against George. He couldn’t stop me and I couldn’t stop him. Those 46 points were the highest point total of my career.
We weren’t big – we had Bob Harris and Bob Brannum at the corners. They weren’t great scorers. Brannum was 6’5″, and he was strong, but Harris was built like me. So guys like Brannum and Harris really had their work cut out for them – they were matching up against guys that were taller or heavier, and they did a hell of a job. We played games with the best ballplayers we had. We just didn’t have the talent that the Knickerbockers had on its roster, or the talent that Philadelphia had, or even the talent that Syracuse had from top-to-bottom. We had great scorers, but we just didn’t have rebounding. We didn’t have great defense. As a result, we never won the Eastern Division. A lot of people looking at our team would marvel that we won as much as we did. It took the outstanding scoring of Cooz and Sharman and myself to stay competitive. If we had dropped just one of those three people we would have really been in trouble. I always kid Red Auerbach – whenever I see him, I ask him how come he waited for Bill Russell to starting winning all of those championships [laughs].

 

The Boston Celtics conducted annual preseason barnstorming tours throughout New England, often playing up to 17 games in twenty-one days, all against the same opponent.

We’d travel and we’d play the town teams, which was always very dangerous because they wanted to break your leg or rough you up [laughs]. We’d travel by car, and everybody fought not to be in Auerbach’s car because he drove like a maniac. It was very, very taxing. You’d play a game at night, go back to the hotel and get some sleep, and then drive 60-to-100 miles the next day and do it all over again. And like I said, we were playing against some town teams, too. They were playing against the pros, so they wanted to make a name for themselves. This was their big chance – ‘Gee, if I break Macauley’s leg that’ll be great, we might win.’

The Celtics were doing it just to make a few bucks. Many of the teams were not only in trouble, many of the teams also went broke. Chicago, for example. St. Louis. As far as the players were concerned, we wanted to play basketball. And if that was part of it, you just did it. Even the guys who weren’t making great money were making more than some of the guys that they went to school with. They were certainly having more fun than someone sitting in an office, or someone working as a carpenter. It was the same thing that the baseball people went through fifty or sixty years ago. You just barnstormed and picked up a few bucks along the way. Now it’s completely different. It’s ridiculous now – players have their own valet and everything else [laughs].

 

In 1956, you were a part of the biggest trade in NBA history.  Tell me about the deal that sent you to the St. Louis Hawks and allowed Red Auerbach land Bill Russell.

The year before that transaction, my wife Jackie, my daughter Mary Ann, and my son Patrick were in Boston. I played a Sunday afternoon game and came home, and Jackie said that there was something wrong with Patrick. He had a terrible fever. We took him to Boston Children’s Hospital, one of the best in the country, and handed him over to the doctors. We waited and waited and waited. When the doctors came back, they told us that Patrick had spinal meningitis. We said, ‘What’s that?’ They told us that it was very serious. It’s a disease that carries a high fever, and depending on how long the fever lasts will determine what happens. Unfortunately for Patrick, it lasted long and it was high, and it destroyed his brain. He was a cerebral palsy boy, and he died when he was thirteen.

So I was back home in St. Louis, and I didn’t know what I was going to do. We didn’t have the financial resources that people have today, so I didn’t even know if I could even come back to Boston. About that time, Walter called and said that there was a deal pending, and that if it goes through, the Celtics will get Bill Russell and that I would go to St. Louis. But he also said that he didn’t want to make the deal. He said that he couldn’t imagine the Celtics without me. We were that close. But I said, ‘Walter, I don’t even know if I’ll be able to come back to Boston because our son’s situation.’ It wasn’t a case of having unlimited finances, to where we could hop on an airplane as a family and have a nurse come along with us. Jackie would have had to stay home and care for Patrick while I was in training camp, and while I was away on the road. So I called Walter and asked him to do me a favor and do the deal – which he did. Then he said, ‘Well, you haven’t signed your contract for next year, do you want to sign it now?’ I said no, because I thought I’d best work out a new deal with [Hawks owner] Ben Kerner. I did okay on the deal, but in those days I didn’t know Ben Kerner as well as I knew Walter [laughs].

That’s the way it happened. But if I said that I wanted to come back to Boston, I sincerely believe that that might not have prevented Auerbach from getting Russell. Auerbach was a great judge of talent, and a great negotiator, as was Ben Kerner, so there may have been another way to get Russell. In that particular situation it worked out well for everybody. Very clean.

 

The Hawks won the championship following the 1957-58 season.  What was it like to win a championship for your hometown fans?

There are two or three things about sports. You can ask every player the following question: Aside from the money and the hoopla, what do you want most? I think most would say that they want a world championship ring, because that’s what you play for. That’s what you think about when you’re growing up. The second thing would be induction into the Hall of Fame. To me those are the two things that stand out above the rest. One of them – induction into the Hall of Fame – you have some control over. The other – a world championship – is something that you really don’t have individual control over. So you can be the greatest basketball player in the world, and you’re not going to win a world title unless you have great men around you. Wilt Chamberlain is a prime example; I don’t consider him the greatest player ever, but he was still one of the best. Wilt didn’t win a title until Alex Hannum started coaching the Philadelphia ball club.

When you look at championship rings, you could fill a book with the number of great players who have never won an NBA championship, or a World Series title, or a Super Bowl ring. So, as a member of a team that wins a title, you could be the tenth man on the team, but you’ve got something. You’ve got that ring that is prized by everybody in the sport. And as I’ve just said, some fantastic ballplayers have never won a championship. And yet you’re the tenth man on the championship team and you’ve got a ring. Everybody wants one. So, to win that championship was very special to me. And to win it in for the fans in St. Louis, that was an unbelievable experience. Something I’ll never forget.

 

In 1960, you became the youngest player ever enshrined in the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame.

Being inducted into the Hall of Fame is the crowning achievement. It says that you did the things that you had to do – that you worked hard, played with great teammates, played for great coaches, and got a little lucky along the way.  I’m proud of being the youngest player ever inducted. It’s an honor no matter when it comes. You know what it means – at least I did. As the years go by, it’s not a greater thrill, you’re just happy that you’re in the Hall of Fame, and you’re happy that you can participate in the activities sponsored by the Hall. And then as other great ballplayers are enshrined – the Bill Russells and the Bob Cousys, people like that – you realize how we all make the Hall of Fame a unique organization. It’s not easy to get in there [laughs].

 

Final Question: If you could offer one piece of advice on life to others, what would that be?

Live by the tenets of your chosen religion. Work hard in your chosen profession. And while you may not end up with great power or wealth, you will have peace of mind.

Michael McClellan
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