The Dennis Johnson Interview
By:
Michael D. McClellan
|
Tuesday, October 1st, 2002
You were labeled a
cancer and a malcontent in Phoenix, and in the summer of 1983 you were
centerpiece of a trade between the Suns and the Boston Celtics. What
was it like joining the most storied franchise in basketball?
It was a new beginning, a chance to prove that I
wasn't the problem child that [Phoenix head coach] John MacLeod made me out
to be. We were never going to see eye-to-eye, and he [MacLeod] met
with [general manager] Jerry Colangelo and demanded that the Suns trade me.
Joining the Celtics was perfect situation for me. It was a dream come
true to play with Larry [Bird], Robert [Parish] and Kevin [McHale].
Coming to Boston allowed me to play for a championship again.
What
was it like to finally meet Red Auerbach?
Intimidating. Being a
basketball fan, I knew a lot about Red. All of those championships,
the cigar, everything. He was history alive. When I was with the
Sonics, Russell would talk about Red all the time He would tell us all
of these stories about him -- about how he ran training camp and practices,
and about those preseason barnstorming tours the team would take all over
New England.
I'm sure I didn't impress him that first training camp -- I reported slightly overweight, and I was definitely out of shape -- but he didn't make a big deal about it. He let me trim down on my own, and we got along great.
Practice would definitely take on a different tone when Red was there. Everyone -- and I mean everyone -- would snap into place. We would work a little harder, because we wanted to make sure that he saw us at our best. It was almost like we were the soldiers and he was the four-star general out on the battlefield, surveying his troops.
What
were the practices like?
The practices were more intense
than some of the actual games that we played. We had some real battles
-- the first and second units going at each other like it was war. And
it wasn't every once in awhile -- this was a daily occurrence. Every
practice was a fierce competition, and it made us a better team. The
second unit made sure that we were always ready to compete, that we were
always prepared whenever we stepped out on the floor. Some of my
fondest memories are of those battles.
You
were acquired with one primary goal in mind: To be the defensive
stopper that the team sorely lacked, particularly against Lakers superstar
Ervin "Magic" Johnson. Please take me back to your first season in
Boston, and to the 1984 NBA Finals against the Los Angeles Lakers.
That whole season
was geared toward meeting the Lakers in the Finals. Everyone knew that
we were the two best teams, and it almost seemed like a forgone conclusion
that we were going to battle for the NBA championship. People were
talking about it six months before playoffs started. And it certainly
lived up to the billing. That Finals was one of the most intense ever
played -- fortunately, we were able to come out on top.
The rematch occurred a year later, in the 1985 NBA Finals. Tell me about that series.
The Lakers
won, and it hurt more than any loss I've ever suffered on a basketball
court. We were so close to repeating as champions -- it would have
been the first repeat since the Celtics did it in 1968-69 -- but we just
didn't pull it off.
The series started perfectly, with us blowing them out on Memorial Day. We couldn't have played any better that afternoon. But Kareem came out and played like a man possessed in Game 2. We couldn't stop him. The Lakers won that game, took away our home court advantage, and then we had to play the next three games in Los Angeles. We won one game there, which allowed us to send the series back to Boston, but we didn't get the job done. The day we lost that series was the lowest point in my professional career. We had given everything that year to repeat as champions, and we put ourselves in a position to make history. We were so close, but we just couldn't pull it off.
We were untouchable that
year. We were healthy, and everyone was at the top of their game.
With players like Bill, Scott [Wedman] and Jerry [Sichting] coming off the
bench, we were incredibly deep. It was a dream season.
