The Hank Finkel Interview
By: Michael D. McClellan | Someone had to bear the burden of replacing arguably the greatest winner in the history of professional sports, and that someone turned out to be Hank Finkel. A karaoke singer who had somehow wandered onto Pavarotti’s stage, Finkel performed for an audience spoiled by the immensely unattainable standards of his predecessor. Celtics fans could recite Bill Russell’s accomplishments as if had all happened yesterday: Eleven titles in thirteen seasons, eight in a row, two of the last three as player-coach. Still drunk from a dynastic run of championship celebrations, they refused to see Hank Finkel for what he really was – a piece of a rebuilding puzzle, a stop-gap measure until Red Auerbach could unearth a starting center capable of filling Russell’s shoes.
“Henry Finkel is not the reason we’re losing,” head coach Tommy Heinsohn barked at reporters during a particularly frustrating stretch during the 1969-70 regular season. “It’s not fair for him to be singled out as the symbol for the team’s problems. You lose a Bill Russell, and there are going to be consequences.”
For his part, the player nicknamed “High Henry” by legendary radio announcer Johnny Most tried to stay positive, but he found himself so depressed that he considered walking away from basketball completely. Heinsohn promised him that help was coming, and that things were going to get better. Auerbach delivered in big way, drafting center Dave Cowens in 1970 and trading for power forward Paul Silas two seasons later.
“Tommy defined my role as a backup to Dave and Paul,” Finkel says quickly. “I was able to come off the bench and play alongside All-Star talent. I wasn’t the focal point. I could do the little things that I did best, while the other guys could focus on rebounding and scoring.”
Finkel burst onto the scene at the University of Dayton, where he led the nation in field goal percentage as a senior. The slender seven-footer also earned All-America honors in 1966, attracting the attention of scouts throughout the league. The Los Angles Lakers selected Finkel in the second round of the 1966 NBA Draft, only to make him available for the NBA expansion draft a year later. Selected by the San Diego Rockets, Finkel played two uneventful seasons in San Diego before landing in Boston. Finkel stood no chance as Russell’s replacement, as the Celtics missed the playoffs for the first time in 20 years.
Fast-forward to the 1972-73 season. With Cowens and Silas in the fold, and with a young Jo Jo White running the attack, the Celtics roared to a 68-14 record, losing to the New York Knicks in the Eastern Conference Finals. A year later, however, the Celtics’ championship drought would come to an end; in a season in which John Havlicek would record his 20,000th regular-season point, the Celtics would capture their 12th NBA title, dominating the Milwaukee Bucks in a winner-take-all Game 7.
“It was a hard-fought series,” Finkel recalls. “Neither team could maintain control of home court advantage. We thought we were going to win the title in Game 6 at the Boston Garden, but then Kareem hits that huge sky hook at the buzzer to force Game 7 back in Milwaukee. We pushed the ball hard in that next game, and we made their guards – particularly Oscar Robertson – work to bring the ball up the court. It was an unbelievable feeling to win a championship – and my proudest moment as a Boston Celtic.”
Finkel would retire a season later – his sixth with the team – but by then the torment of 1969-70 was a distant memory. He had shown incredible strength and poise in the face of adversity, and he had become a better person because of it. The fan abuse also made him more appreciative of the good times. To this day he remains a beloved figure to fans and teammates alike.
“I prided myself in doing the little things, and I think my teammates understood that that’s what I did best. All-Star players like John Havlicek, Dave Cowens, Don Nelson and Jo Jo White need guys that can do the dirty work. That was my specialty, and that was what I gave the team every time I stepped on the floor. We were a very close-knit group. That made winning a championship with them even more special.”
Celtic Nation is honored to bring you this interview.
You were born April 20th, 1942, in Union City, NJ. What childhood memories stand out after all of these years?
First of all, Union City, New Jersey is exactly that – all city. In a matter of five minutes you could have gotten ten guys together and gone down to the court and played five-on-five. It was that urban. We definitely weren’t the suburbs. So that’s what stands out most in my mind. That, and all of the friends you make coming from the city. I think it’s easier because of the concentration of people, as opposed to the suburbs where things are more spread out.
You played high school basketball at Holy Family. Tell me about your high school career.
It was a parochial school. I went from kindergarten to twelfth grade in the same building – after that, I said ‘thank you very much’ [laughs]. It’s very unusual for somebody to go from kindergarten to twelfth grade in one building. The grade school was on one floor, and the high school was on another floor. The gymnasium was downstairs below.
I started playing basketball during my sophomore year in high school. Up until then I didn’t want to play organized basketball, because I was having fun just playing in backyards and on schoolyards. I entered high school during my freshman year at six foot, and by my sophomore year I was six-five. I stood head-and-shoulders above everybody else. Of course it was a parochial high school, and we only had 150 boys and 150 girls in the entire school. So I was taller than everybody else, and the coach said, ‘Who’s that big guy walking down the hall?’ And they said, ‘That’s Finkel.’ The coach had my sister Louise in his physics class, so he looks at my sister and says, ‘I want to see your brother at the first basketball practice.’ And that’s what started it. I went on to play three years of high school ball. I just didn’t want to play as a freshman, and to be honest with you, I didn’t want to play as a junior or senior, either. I was seven feet tall when I graduated from Holy Family. I went from six feet as a freshman to seven feet as a senior. The problem was that I was seven feet tall and only weighed 175 pounds, so the big guys on the other teams used to move me around pretty good. But looking back on how my life has been touched by basketball, I thank God that I did end up playing.
What led you play college ball at Dayton?
I spent one year at St. Peter’s College in Jersey City, New Jersey. I played my freshman year there before I moved on Dayton – and there is actually a funny story behind that. I was standing on a street corner, at a Dairy Queen, talking to my buddies. That’s when an opposing coach from high school drove by and saw me standing around – I was hard to miss, because I was seven feet tall – and he pulled the car over and said, ‘What are you doing?’ And I said, ‘Nothing.’ Which was true, because I had just left St. Peter’s College. Then he says, ‘How would you like to go back to school?’ Well, I told him that I would have to talk to my mother first, because my dad had just passed away. My mom never even batted an eyelash. She looked at me and simply said, ‘You go back to school.’
The coach that I’m referring to was quite a player himself – his name was Harry Brooks, and he was an All-American basketball player at Seton Hall. So we’re standing there on the corner that day, discussing a possible basketball scholarship, and at some point during the conversation I say, ‘Where are you talking about? Seton Hall?’ And he says, ‘No, no. I’m talking about the University of Dayton, in Ohio.’ I thought about it for a second, if that, and I say, ‘Okay, that’s great.’ And that was it. One minute I’m hanging out on a street corner, with not real plans for the future, and the next I’m playing basketball Division I basketball at Dayton.
As a senior, you were honored as a Helms Foundation All-American. How did it feel to be recognized as one of the best basketball players in the country?
I never looked at it that way. I always got a lot of criticism because I couldn’t jump. The only thing that I could do very well at that time was shoot. So I never really looked at myself as one of the best players in the college basketball. Besides, I never focused as much on individual feats and statistics as much as I did playing well and the team winning. I had no interest in making All-American. I wanted to win with the University of Dayton.
In 1974, you were inducted into the University of Dayton Athletic Hall of Fame. What does this honor mean to you?
Once again, not being an individual and being a team guy, I guess it means that the team did well. I think that’s why I was inducted into the UD Hall of Fame. Having said that, having some statistics to accommodate the team doing well probably enabled me to get in. For me, the Hall of Fame at UD really doesn’t mean anything. What does mean something is the fact that I went to the University of Dayton. I’ve said all along that if I didn’t have the opportunity to turn pro, then I would have stayed in Dayton, Ohio. The fans were wonderful. The people on the campus were supportive. The coach was terrific – his name was Don Donoher. And everything about it at that time would have encouraged me to stay in Dayton, Ohio.
Tell me about Coach Donoher.
He was like my brother. First of all he wasn’t much older that I was. He was a young fella. He took over for a guy named Tom Blackburn. Blackburn was the coach my sophomore year, and then he became sick and passed away from cancer. He passed away at the end of my sophomore year. At the time, Donoher was the assistant coach under Blackburn. Everybody liked Donoher, so we all petitioned to help him get the job. As a result, he was a very young head coach at the time. I think he was in his early thirties – he was only ten years older than his players. The whole team with Donoher was more like brothers than we were like coach and team. That may have been a big reason why everybody got along so well. And we did very well on the court – of course, it helped because we had a pretty good team.
You were selected in the second round of the 1966 NBA draft by the Los Angeles Lakers. What was it like to start your professional career on the other side of that great Celtics-Lakers rivalry?
I hear that a lot – about being drafted by the Lakers – but I was actually picked by the Chicago team at the time. They either sold or traded me to Los Angeles immediately after the selection, but I wasn’t drafted by the Lakers. I think it was the Chicago Zephyrs.
Anyway, I got the single best piece of advice on being a pro from a pro – you may have heard of him…his name is Jerry West [laughs]. It came in that first training camp. In college I was predominantly a scorer, and I tried that in training camp against guys like Leroy Ellis and Darrall Imhoff. These guys were seven-feet tall like I was, and as a result they were knocking me off-balance, blocking my shot, and making it very difficult for me to score.
Freddie Schaus was the coach at the time, and during one of the scrimmages he calls timeout and tells everybody to take a rest. That’s when Jerry West came over. He said, ‘Finkel, you don’t have to shoot the ball every time you get it.’ I said, ‘What are you talking about?’ He said, ‘Go out and set some picks. Set a pick for me. If I have the shot then I’m going to take it. If I don’t have the shot, then roll to the basket and I’ll get you the ball.’ That turned out to be the single best piece of advice that I ever received. For the next ten years I made a living setting picks and blocking out, and all of the credit goes to Jerry West.
Your next two years were spent with the San Diego Rockets. During this period you teamed with rookie phenom Elvin Hayes, as well as future coaching greats Pat Riley and Rick Adelman. Please tell me a little about each of these men.
I teamed with Elvin during my second year in San Diego. The first year was the expansion year, and I fared well because that was an expansion team and I got a chance to shoot. Pat Riley was on my team that first year, and I’ll never forget the story about seeing him for the first time. It was at training camp that very first year, we were all gathered outside, and here came Pat Riley in a canary yellow Corvette. It was a convertible, of course. Black interior. And he was as polished then as he is today. He was wearing a gorgeous golf shirt, form fit, and he had a pair of shorts on at the time. Nice tan. Forty years later, Pat Riley is still the same guy. And by the way, he was one tough competitor. A tough kid. Six-five, well-built, strong…set a pick on him and he’d try to break you in half.
The only thing that I remember clearly about Rick Adelman was that he played with his head. He knew where guys were, and he was a pretty good shooter. And if I’m not mistaken, I think he was drafted in one of the later rounds – maybe the seventh round by San Diego – but he played so hard and so well that he made the team. And those same characteristics have helped him to become an outstanding head coach.
Elvin – just a great, great player. Big and strong – I’ll bet that he was about six-ten, about 260, big hands, strong body….he could shoot the ball, he could rebound, he could jump, he could clog the middle so that it was tough to get around…he was just a great all-around player.
On August 7th, 1969, you were traded to the Boston Celtics. What went through your mind?
Two things – I knew that I had to get rid of my convertible and all of my Bermuda shorts, because I was coming to Boston. Secondly, Elvin Hayes had come on the scene in San Diego. So, my time was up. I was not getting any playing time at all. I was still young – twenty-seven or twenty-eight years old – and I felt that I could contribute in some capacity to another team. Pete Newell was the general manager for the Rockets, and when he told me that I’d been traded to Boston, I said, ‘Boy, it doesn’t get any better than that.’ Coming up here with all of this tradition and all of these great players, the numbers in the rafters, and the parquet floor…and that doesn’t even speak of Red Auerbach and Tommy Heinsohn. Red was the general manager and Tommy was the head coach. So I said, ‘That’s terrific.’ And that’s how I wound up getting traded to Boston.
Your arrival in Boston coincided with the retirement of the great Bill Russell, and the end of the Celtic Dynasty. What was that first season like, and how did you handle the expectations placed on you by the city and its fans?
I almost quit. Celtics fans are tough – they want a winner. And I’ve said all along, that if you’re going to play sports in any town, you would want to play in either Boston, New York, or Philadelphia. I say that because they have the most rabid fans in the country – and arguably in the world.
When I came to Boston, Sam Jones had retired. Russell had retired. The whole team was beginning a new era, and a rebuilding process was taking place. I was by no means in the category of the guys I’ve just mentioned, but I had my own assets. I was prepared to come in and do whatever I could to help this team continue that same standard of excellence.
Well, the team struggled. Things got rough, and the fans started booing me, and I got discouraged. It got to the point that I contemplated retirement. And then, after the season, Red and Tommy pulled me into Tommy’s office and said, ‘Wait, slow down, we’re going to get you some help.’ And I said, ‘Okay, not a problem. I’ll stick it out.’ And then they went out and drafted Dave Cowens. The rest is history. So I stayed with the team, and after they draft Dave Cowens I said, ‘Man, it doesn’t get any better than this.’
Red Auerbach nabbed Jo Jo White in the first round of the 1969 NBA Draft, and followed that up with the selection of Dave Cowens a year later. Please tell me about each of these men, and their significance in turning the Celtics back into champions.
Jo Jo – great shooter, great team player, all finesse – but boy, when you needed a clutch basket you went to Jo Jo every time. Cowens’ play could be described as anything but finesse. He was a hard-working, blue collar, aggressive player. He was a 6’9” center who dominated his position in the NBA. You’ll never see another Dave Cowens in the NBA as long as you live. This guy would tear you apart on the basketball court. And he did it night in, and night out…and he did it against other centers who were much bigger and much taller.
By the way, I’ve always been asked who I found to be the toughest player to play against in the NBA, and the first name at the top of the list is Dave Cowens. That would be Dave because I had to play against him everyday in practice. And when you play against Cowens in practice you may as well just go against him in a game, because he only has one speed and only knows one way to play the game – and that’s hard. So he was just as tough in practice as he was in the games.
Anyway, they were just two different types of players. Jo Jo was more finesse but a great shooter, and Dave was the kind of guy to dive on the floor and get his hands dirty and his knees scratched. He wasn’t afraid to get in a scrape.
Two holdovers from the glory years were Satch Sanders and John Havlicek. Please tell me a little about Satch and Hondo.
Satch was a great influence because he knew the game, he knew what it took to win, and he tried to teach all of the young players – including myself – what to do and how to do it. Satch was almost a coach-like figure, even though he was still a player.
Havlicek was Havlicek. To me, it seemed like Havlicek used to run 125 miles-per-hour up and down the court and never break a sweat. What a great player – great shooter, great rebounder, great team player. And what a great influence to have on the team.
And by the way, don’t forget about Larry Sigfried. Larry was a very hard-nosed player – a typical Red Auerbach guy. Like Cowens, not afraid to get his hands dirty or his knees scratched. Not the most talented player in the world, but he always played very hard. You knew that he would give you 110% every night. I loved Larry Sigfried – boy, he was a tough kid.
Your coach in Boston was Tommy Heinsohn, who was one of your most vocal supporters. Please tell me a little about your relationship with Mr. Heinsohn.
I had a great relationship with Heinie. Heinie knew exactly what I could do, and what I could not do. The same can be said for Red as well. Red Auerbach’s philosophy on building a team – and this comes into play with me, too – was that a basketball team was like a puzzle that has twelve parts. He always said that you don’t trade two of them to pick up one, because that still leaves a piece of the puzzle empty. Tommy subscribed to that. He realized that I was big and strong, that I could shoot, but, more importantly, he also knew that I could block out and set picks. Back in those days, the NBA had great centers like Kareem, Wilt, Willis Reed, Nate Thurmond, and Wes Unseld. And if Cowens was playing forward, or if he was in foul trouble, the only thing I had to do was block those guys out. We already had the rebounders in Cowens, Paul Silas, Don Nelson, and John Havlicek. As long as I kept the big guy off the boards, then those guys had a chance to get the rebound. And the other aspect of it was on offense; besides being a shooter, I could set a pretty good pick. If you set a pick for guys like Havlicek, Jo Jo, Westphal, Nelson, and Cowens when he was playing forward…if you get those guys free for one second, then they’ll hit 75% of those shots. And that’s what I did – I kept going around setting picks for those guys, a little bang-boom…you get a great shooter free for just a split second, and he’s going to put the ball in the basket. And that’s all I did. I defined my NBA career by doing those two things – blocking out and setting picks.
The late Johnny Most nicknamed you ‘High Henry,’ something that has stuck with you through the years. Please tell me a little about the legendary Johnny Most.
Wonderful guy. By the way, he made icons out of all of us. I’ve been retired for thirty years now, and to this day people call me ‘High Henry’, and that’s only because of Johnny Most. Johnny was the kind of guy that, if you were playing for anybody, you wanted to play for the Celtics because he made you out to be a superstar [laughs]. He was a homer, and everybody knew it. He had his own style. He found the opposition to be the evil, bad guys. As far as off the court, you could sit down and talk basketball with Johnny in the hotel lobby. This guy had a background that pre-dated the arrival of Russell. So, what you wanted to do was sit down with Johnny and talk to him about all of the old-timers whose numbers are in the rafters and whose names are in the Hall of Fame.
But having said that, Johnny Most made icons out of all of us guys. That goes for superstars like Havlicek and Russell, as well as the fringe players like Hank Finkel. He was just a great guy to have on your side. And he was a good friend on top of that. One last thing about Johnny; if you were in the hotel lobby or the restaurant, you knew whether he was in there or not. His voice was that loud and that piercing.
By 1972-73, the Celtics were once again among the NBA’s elite. That team won a club record 68 games, but fell to the New York Knicks in the 1973 Eastern Conference Finals. Had that Celtics team won the NBA championship, where do you think it would rank among the all-time greats?
I think that the Russell Era had all of the great teams, because they used to go nine, ten deep. And then you have Russell in the pivot. He was the difference maker. So, I can’t tell you whereabouts we’d rank – certainly it would have been behind those great Russell teams, but I do think that we had a great team in our own right. We had the likes of Cowens at center, Havlicek and Nelson Satch underneath. We had Jo Jo running the offense. I don’t know where it ranks, or where it would have ranked had we won it all, but I think that we were one series away from winning the title that year. If we would have gotten past the Knicks in the Eastern Conference Finals, we would have won our first championship a year earlier.
A year later the Celtics won twelve fewer games, finishing 56-26, but the end result was a world championship – the team’s first since the retirement of Bill Russell. Please tell me about that playoff run, the win over the Milwaukee Bucks, and what it was like to be a part of that first post-Russell championship team.
Well, Milwaukee had a pretty good team, too. They had Kareem at center and Oscar Robertson at guard. They had Bobby Dandridge. I remember getting to play quite a bit in that series, because Kareem got Dave in foul trouble a couple of times. It was just a great feeling to win the championship, but there was more to it than that. I’ve said all along that being a Boston Celtic was the greatest thrill of my basketball career. Winning the championship was the icing on the cake. When you’re a part of an organization that has Red as the general manager and Heinsohn as the coach, and all of those great players as teammates, that’s the epitome of playing for the Celtics.
The second greatest thing was my teammates. You go from Silas to Havlicek to Cowens, and on down the line. Jo Jo, Don Chaney, Paul Westphal. You just can’t beat playing with guys like that. And the third greatest thing was winning that championship, because everybody wants to win a championship. But again, the greatest thrill was just being a part of the Celtic family. Nothing compares to that.
Please tell me about your teammate, Celtics great Don Nelson.
Nellie was a great shooter. A great team player. Knew the fundamentals. Always looked out for his teammates on the court, but he was a great shooter. I remember once particular incident where Nellie had 9,999 points, and he needed another hoop or another foul shot to get 10,000 points – which was quite a feat in the NBA, especially at that time. There was a timeout, and Heinsohn asked Nellie what he wanted. And Nellie said, ‘Have Finkel set the pick.’ Sure enough, I set the pick, and Nellie came off of it, hit the basket, and surpassed 10,000 points. Nellie wasn’t a superstar, but he was a basic, fundamental, all-around player. That’s why he was so successful as a coach. He knew the entire game.
The Celtics would win two championships during the 1970s but, in many ways, these titles tend to get overlooked. Do you think this is because both titles were sandwiched between the Bill Russell and Larry Bird Eras?
Probably. You got two players right there that are the greatest in franchise history – and two of the best in the history of the NBA. Red has said that if he had to start a team from scratch, he didn’t know if he would pick Bird or Russell. So, you are probably right. But I’ll tell you what – I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again; you’ll never see another Dave Cowens. The guy was 6’9”, and he played with so much heart and tenacity. You’ll never see another guy that size play center and be that effective in the NBA. And then you have Havlicek, Jo Jo, Chaney, and Westphal. We had great teams, too, but you’re probably right. The marquee names of Russell and Bird are what causes us to get lost in the shuffle.
You have a special relationship with the Volk family. Please tell me a little about the late Jerry Volk, and also a little about his son, Jan.
Jerry Volk, in my opinion, was just a perfect gentleman. I was put on waivers, and my wife and I were contemplating going back to San Diego. The weather was nice, and I had an opportunity to teach school out there. I had already lived in Boston for seven years. We owned a house and had two children who were in the school system there, and this was the place we’d lived the longest since college. So my wife and I were trying to figure out what to do when Jan called. He said that his father wanted to talk to me. This was in November, when all of the teaching and coaching jobs were pretty much taken. So Jerry said, ‘I don’t know what your plans are, but what don’t you go to work for me? You could make a few bucks and see if you like business.’ And the rest is history. It’s because of Jerry Volk that I own a business now.
Unfortunately I went to a Celt game when Larry Bird was playing, and Rick Weitzman was sitting next to me at the press table. He said, ‘Did you hear what happened to Jerry today?’ And I said, ‘No.’ He said, ‘Jerry had a heart attack and dropped dead.’ That just broke my heart. I’m forever indebted to Jerry for giving me that opportunity. He was just a great guy. And Jan Volk – I didn’t know him as general manager of the Boston Celtics, to be honest with you. But I understand that he was really good at managing the salary cap and organizing a team.
You were also close with Tommy Heinsohn.
I can’t say enough about Heinie. I think he really appreciated the way I would dive on the floor. I think he appreciated that I wasn’t afraid to bump and bang and shove. He really appreciated those kinds of things. He kept me on the team for six-plus years, so he must have liked what he saw out of my effort. Great coach. I think he retired prematurely. He’s been very successful in broadcasting, and he’s making a good buck, but I still say that it doesn’t matter where he went, he would have made a great coach. He made the playoffs seven out of eight years, and he won the championship twice. Nowadays you have 30+ teams, so you have a lot of mediocre teams. Back them you had fewer teams, and every team had at least two superstars. Golden State had Rick Barry and Nate Thurmond, plus a multitude of other players. Cincinnati had Oscar Robertson and Jerry Lucas. And back then fewer teams made the playoffs. It was much harder to qualify. So Heinsohn really did a heck of a job.
Final Question: If you could offer one piece of advice on life to others, what would that be?
The same thing that Red Auerbach always said to us. He said, ‘I’ll tell you something; you’re either going to play, or you’re not going to play. There is no gray area.’ And he said, ‘If you’re not going to play, then let me know. I’ll put someone else in that will play.’ That’s why he had a place for each of his players. He wanted guys that would give him 110% every single night, no excuses. That’s why I don’t accept excuses now from my children or anybody. There is no gray area in anything in life. It’s either black or it’s white. You’re either going to do it or you’re not. And my choice was not only to do it, but to give it 110% every night. I learned that from Red.
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