The Tom Heinsohn Interview
By:
Michael D. McClellan
|
Friday, August 3rd,
2006
Johnny
Most enjoyed writing poetry, while you were well-known as an artist. In
many ways, Johnny viewed Tom Heinsohn as an artist on the basketball court.
Did you view Johnny as a poet with a microphone?
Johnny
Most – I would ask him questions about everything. He was in second World War,
and I would meet all of his
buddies. He was a gunner on a B-24. So, we’d go
out somewhere and one of his buddies from that crew would meet up with us. I’d
go out to dinner with them, or breakfast or lunch, or whatever, so I got to know
all of his old-time buddies. Johnny had a tough time in the service. He was in
Italy, and he was there with the Tuskegee Airmen, and he was one of the planes
that they used to protect. So, he wrote about stuff like that. And it made him
ultra-sensitive. He would tell stories about that period in his life.
He always had a slew of jokes – he’d sit down, and he’d just rattle off these jokes. You’d go out with him after a game, and sit at a bar, and he’d start telling jokes and everybody would be laughing their tails off. What else? He’d been up in the Borscht Belt in New York, which is up in the Catskills. He knew all of the comedians, and everything else. So, Johnny was a special person and a good friend of mine. And it was a shame that, ultimately, even when he knew what was going to happen he never stopped smoking.
You
scored 37 points and grabbed 23 rebounds in the Celtics’ thrilling
double-overtime Game 7 victory over the St. Louis Hawks in the 1957 NBA
Championship. This game – and your performance – is often overlooked when
discussing any “great” list. But those who were there, including your close
friend Harold Furash, rank it as one of the greatest games of all time.
Please take me back to that dramatic Game 7.
It
was a championship game, winner-take-all. I got up for the game, and
Russell got up for the game, and Cousy and Sharman were so nervous that they
never really performed at their best. Now, Russell had a super game, but I
had a super game, too. Frank Ramsey played very well, and so did Jim
Loscutoff. Cousy and Sharman were like 4-for-40 from the field, or
something like that. They really had a tough night scoring. But they
played great defense, and they got the ball to other people when they needed
to.
So, I remember the whole thing with Russell fouling out of the game. I remember how intense the game was, and the excitement in the Boston Garden. The two greatest plays that I ever saw in basketball happened in that game – one with Russell, who blocked a shot after going out-of-bounds and running the length of the court. He came out of nowhere to block Jack Coleman’s shot for a layup. It was breathtaking to watch. And then, Alex Hannum throwing the ball the length of the court pass off the backboard and into the hands of Bob Pettit, to get a shot with two seconds left. It was an eighteen footer, and it almost went in. I had never seen anybody ever do anything like that before or after. And now they’ve changed the rules, of course, so you don’t have to do that. But he threw it the length of the court, it hit the right corner of the backboard, and it rebounded all the way out to Bob Pettit [laughs]. He got the ball, and he almost made it.
You
scored 22 points in Game 6 of the 1960 Eastern Conference Finals, including
the game-winning tip-in at the buzzer. Please tell me a little about that
classic battle with Wilt and the Philadelphia Warriors.
That
was one of my more memorable games, because I tipped that shot in at the
buzzer. That’s the only time that anybody has ever shut up 11,000
Philadelphians all at once [laughs]. Convention Hall went deathly silent.
