The Bob Cousy Interview
By:
Michael D. McClellan
|
February 9th, 2004
The game was a springboard for Cousy, who went on to become a three-time All-American at Holy Cross. Led by Cousy’s playmaking brilliance, the Crusaders won 26 straight games during his senior season and finished second in the National Invitation Tournament – then the premier collegiate tournament and the determiner of the national championship.
Professional basketball at that time was still in its infancy. The Basketball Association of America folded, and the Boston Celtics joined the newly created National Basketball Association. The Celtics, in an ironic twist, were coached by Julian during the 1949-50 NBA season, finishing dead last in the Eastern Division with a 22-46 record. But things were definitely on the uptick: The moribund Celtics, by virtue of their record, possessed the coveted first pick in the draft. Owner Walter Brown also replaced Julian with hot coaching prospect Arnold “Red” Auerbach, whose fiery style seemed the perfect tonic for his struggling franchise. The stars seemed magically aligned, and it became almost a foregone conclusion – especially to those covering the team -- that the lowly Celtics would nab Cousy in the 1950 NBA Draft.
Auerbach had other ideas. He was hardly enamored with the flashy point guard, instead placing a premium on height. His goal was to build the Celtics from the inside out, which led him to choose Chuck Share, a 6-foot-11 center from Bowling Green. "We need a big man," Auerbach growled at the time, sounding almost Napoleonic. "Little men are a dime a dozen. I'm supposed to win, not go after local yokels."
The remarks did not sit well with the press, many of whom considered Auerbach an outsider and Cousy one of their own. They also saw Cousy as a way to fill the Boston Garden and, more importantly, as a way to help legitimize a sport that ranked far behind baseball and hockey in terms of relevance.
Cousy was ultimately selected by the Tri-Cities Blackhawks, but Bob Kerner, the team’s owner, was unable to sign the reluctant All-American to a contract. Cousy was more interested in starting a driving school in Worcester. Kerner traded his rights to the Chicago Stags, but that franchise folded before the 1950-51 season started. The names of three Stags -- Cousy and two much sought-after players were tossed into a hat. Gathered in the New York Commodore Hotel, the owners of the Celtics, the New York Knicks and the Philadelphia Warriors each pulled out a name. All three wanted the league's leading scorer, Max Zaslofsky. The Celtics, picking last, ended up with Cousy.
Cousy's arrival in Boston represented a paradigm shift in the NBA. He revolutionized the pro game with his ball-handling wizardry, bringing flash and showmanship to a league that had been, up until then, largely the domain of bruising post players and methodical set-shooters. The NBA in 1949 B.C. -- Before Cousy -- had been struggling to survive, its teams owned by hockey men who desperately needed to fill their arenas through the winter months. Cousy changed all of that. He electrified audiences. He made people care about the game. He legitimized the sport. Simply put, Robert Joseph Cousy was the equivalent of color television in a league overstocked with black-and-whites, and the world ate it up.
Behind the electrifying play of Cousy and the soft touch of “Easy” Ed Macauley, who had been picked up by the defunct St. Louis Bombers, Auerbach engineered the Celtics’ first-ever winning season in 1950-51, at 39-30. The best was yet to come; over the next several seasons Auerbach complemented Cousy with such Hall of Fame talent as Bill Sharman (1951), Frank Ramsey (1954) and Tom Heinsohn (1956). The biggest move of all came prior to the 1956-57 season, when Auerbach traded Macauley and the rights to UK star Cliff Hagan for the right to draft Bill Russell. Together, Russell and Cousy provided a one-two punch unparalleled in NBA history.
The Celtics won the NBA championship, and a dynasty was born.
“Cooz was the absolute offensive master," Heinsohn told the Boston Herald in 1983. "What Russell was on defense, that's what Cousy was on offense -- a magician. Once that ball reached his hands, the rest of us just took off, never bothering to look back. We didn't have to. He'd find us. When you got into a position to score, the ball would be there.”
