The Dave Cowens Interview
By:
Michael D. McClellan
|
Saturday, March 5th, 2005
World champions at last, Cowens and the Celtics had reached the pinnacle for the first time since Russell’s retirement. The ensuing celebration quickly became urban legend, as Cowens joyously visited with friends and well-wishers until daybreak. He was found sleeping on a park bench, awaking just in time to join the victory parade through downtown Boston.
Also enhanced with the franchise’s 12th banner was Auerbach, who had built yet another budding dynasty in an entirely new era of NBA basketball – this just five scant years removed from the team’s incredible eleven-titles-in-13-years run. Both Cowens and Auerbach were in fine form a year later, as the 1974-75 Boston Celtics won 60 games and captured another Atlantic Division crown. Cowens averaged a team-high 20.4 points per game and finished second to Wes Unseld for the rebounding title (14.7 rpg). Unseld and the Washington Bullets doused any dreams of a Celtics repeat, stopping Boston 4-2 in the Eastern Conference Finals. Overall it was a good year for Cowens, who posted strong personal numbers despite missing 15 games with a broken foot. A spot on the NBA All-Defensive Second Team help to cement his reputation as a tireless defender. Still, there was a void. Cowens had tasted a world championship. Now he wanted more.
The offseason brought with it the threat of losing Paul Westphal to free agency, and this spurred Auerbach into action. He traded the promising young guard to the Phoenix Suns for more offensive punch, bringing Charlie Scott to Boston nearly six seasons after Auerbach drafted him out of North Carolina. Honing his shooting touch first with the ABA’s Virginia Squires and then the Suns, Scott brought with him the missing ingredient to put the Celtics back on top. With Havlicek on the backside of his brilliant career, Auerbach knew that he needed additional scoring help to secure a fourteenth banner. Scott was that man. With Cowens still a beast on both ends of the floor – his 19 points and 16 rebounds per game gave testament to this fact – and Scott pouring in 17.6 ppg, the Celtics won their fifth consecutive Atlantic Division crown. Dispatching the pesky Buffalo Braves and then the Cleveland Cavaliers, Cowens & Co. found themselves once again on the game’s biggest stage. Ironically, Phoenix awaited them in a series heightened by the Westphal-Scott subplot. Little did anyone know that this would produce that Game 5 masterpiece, now hailed by the NBA as ‘The Greatest Game Ever Played’.
Through four games the teams had battled to a 2-2 series tie, transforming the 1976 NBA Finals into a best 2-of-3 affair. Game 5 thus became be the most pivotal of contests, and both teams played as if their very lives depended on it. As the battle raged back and forth, the steamy Boston Garden roared with the voices of a sellout crowd. The game that began sloppily for the Suns ended sloppily for the Celtics, and with both teams deadlocked at 95-95. Gar Heard of the Suns tied the score at 101-101 in the first overtime, but the extra session ended with the controversial non-call on a timeout by Paul Silas with five seconds remaining. Had official Ritchie Powers assessed a technical for Silas calling a timeout that the Celtics didn’t possess, the Suns were prepared to send Westphal to the line in an effort to win the game. Powers either didn’t see the timeout request or refused to call the technical, depending on which uniform tells the story, and the teams found themselves still deadlocked and in a second overtime session.
In the second OT, Westphal's steal led to a Curtis Perry jumper with five seconds remaining to give the Suns a one-point lead. Havlicek responded with a running leaner that put the Celtics back on top and – seemingly, at least – into a 3-2 series lead. As fans stormed the court and players removed tape from their ankles, Powers conferred with the scorer’s table and determined that one second remained on the clock. Bedlam ensued.
Amid the maelstrom, Westphal hit upon an idea: Have the Suns call a timeout that they didn’t have, resulting in a technical foul shot by the Celtics. The free throw would put Boston up by two, but it would also allow the Suns to inbounds the ball at midcourt. The calculated gamble worked perfectly, as a Jo Jo White free throw dropped through the hoop and set the stage for the wildest play in Finals history. Heard stepped onto the court knowing the Suns’ Game 5 fate rested squarely on his shoulders. The Celtics knew it, too; Heard, unable to go backdoor, floated into an open space 18 feet from the basket. His quick, high-arching shot off of the inbounds pass sank cleanly through the net, forcing the third overtime period.