The Ed Pinckney Interview
By:
Michael D. McClellan
|
Monday, April 5th, 2004
You arrived in Boston on February 23rd, 1989, as part of
a midseason trade involving current Celtic VP of
Basketball Operations Danny Ainge. What do you remember
most about your first few weeks in a Celtics uniform?
Just trying to figure out if I was going to stay with
the team, and how I was going to convince them that I
belonged. Earning the respect of the players was also a
huge concern for me. Coming over with Joe Klein, I
didn’t know how I was going to gain the respect of the
Big Three. My immediate concern was fitting in with
them and contributing, which actually go hand-in-hand.
I knew that I had a chance of staying with the ball club
if I came in and helped them out.
Ironically, Boston played Sacramento just one day before
the trade that made you a Celtic, and in that game
Robert Parish collected his 10,000th
rebound. Please tell me a little about Robert.
Robert was the consummate pro. He was one of the first
big men to truly take care of his body, and all of that
conditioning certainly paid off for him. Just think
about it; to be able to play that many seasons in the
NBA is incredible. He was a model of consistency – you
could always count on a productive Robert Parish in the
lineup, and you didn’t have to worry about him missing a
bunch of games due to injury. Chief was also the
greatest running big man to ever play the game – nobody
his size ran the floor like him for that many years.
His personality was ideally suited to playing alongside Larry Bird and Kevin McHale. Those guys were huge, huge parts of the offense, so having someone like Robert doing all the unsung things helped create the greatest frontline ever. I have so much respect for Chief.
Everyone has a favorite story about the great Red
Auerbach. After all these years, which one stands out
most in your mind?
I remember my first full season with the team. We won
fifty-two games that year, but ended up losing in the
first round to the New York Knicks. Coming from
Sacramento, where it was a major accomplishment just to
win twenty-five games, winning more than fifty games
qualified as a pretty successful season. So naturally I
thought that we’d accomplished something by simply
reaching that mark and making the playoffs.
We had a breakup dinner following that opening round loss to the Knicks, and Red addressed the team. He started off by saying how horrible the season was, and how he wasn’t satisfied with what we’d accomplished. He went on for several minutes, expressing his disappointment. I’ll never forget that, because it showed me that Red used a different stick to measure the success of the Boston Celtics. He was responsible for all of those banners, all those titles, and he measured the team’s success strictly in championships. There are a lot of things that I remember about Red, but that stands out the most.
Parish, McHale and Bird will forever be known as the Big
Three. As a post player, what was it like playing with
arguably the greatest frontline in NBA history?
Arguably isn’t accurate. Larry, Kevin and Robert are
the greatest frontline ever, and I don’t think its even
close. I can’t think of another group that combined the
talents of these three guys. They were all great
individually, but together they were truly greater than
the sum of their parts. They meshed so well together,
and the chemistry between them was unbelievable.
For me, it was an experience of a lifetime to play with these guys. I learned something new every day. Those who saw them in the games got a taste for how competitive they were, but you really didn’t get the full effect unless you saw them in practice. It was an absolute war. The intensity of those scrimmages was so great, and it made the team better prepared to play in the actual games themselves.
Bird and McHale were always talking trash, always talking about whose team was going to win. Parish was the same way – he had this public persona, and everyone thought he was quiet. Parish wanted to win those scrimmages just as badly as Bird and McHale, and he did his share of talking. He always thought his team was going to come out on top.
The great thing about those scrimmages was that you never had the same team. Bird would take the reserves and try to win with them, and then everyone would rotate. It was unbelievable. Guarding any of those three guys was torture, and you usually came out on the short end of the stick [laughs]. It was a great environment – there was never a dull moment, and I’ve been able to use those lessons to grow as a coach.