The Mel Counts Interview
By:
Michael D. McClellan
|
Friday, May 20th, 2005
“I don't remember a lot about the ebb and flow of the gold medal game,” Counts wrote years later. “I remember that the Soviets had a guy on their team named Jan Kruminsh. He was 7'6" and weighed 320 pounds. They actually recruited him from the Siberian forest. I don't think he had to saw the trees down, he could just tear them out by the roots and load them on the trucks by hand. He was huge. And he wasn't even their starting center. The guy who was their starting center was "only" 6'11.
"At that time, we were just starting to send American coaches and players to foreign countries. These other counties hadn't caught on to how we played the game here in America. The Soviets, like a lot of teams from other countries, were a lot more mechanical, less creative and freelancing, than we as Americans were. That really hurt their game. We were clearly better than them at the point.
“We ended up winning the game, and the most vivid memory I have is stepping up on the podium with a gold medal draped around my neck. What a great feeling. I was kind of awestruck, like, ‘Hey, this is what it looks like. This is for real. I'm here!’ The rest of the team felt the same way, like, ‘We came here to get the job done, we did it, and it was exciting.’"
Drafted ninth overall by the Boston Celtics, Counts continued his tutelage under another coaching luminary, Arnold “Red” Auerbach. It was at that first training camp that Counts would experience Auerbach’s military-style approach to conditioning, an approach that, along with superior talent, would help propel the Celtics to 11 championships in thirteen seasons. Counts, for his part, would average 4.8 ppg and 4.9 rpg in mostly mop-up duty, with his primary contributions coming against Russell during the team’s rugged practices. The Celtics won sixty-two games that season, then a club record, culminating with a 4-1 NBA Finals win over the Los Angeles Lakers – and Boston’s seventh consecutive NBA championship.
While the rookie may not have seen the court much during the regular season, and even less of it during the playoffs, Counts nonetheless was blessed to be present for perhaps the single biggest moment in franchise history. Immortalized by radio announcer Johnny Most’s signature ‘Havlicek stole the ball!’ call during Game 7 of the Eastern Conference Finals, John Havlicek’s famous theft only seems to grow bigger through the years – and Counts had the good fortune to be courtside for history in the making.
Counts would win another title a year later, his second with the team, as the Celtics would conclude their record string of eight consecutive championships. Statistically, the player known as ‘Goose’ would improve in almost every important category – games played (67, versus 57 the year before), minutes played (1021 versus 572), points-per-game (8.4 versus 4.8), rebounds-per-game (6.4 versus 4.9), and field goal percentage (.403 versus .368). His playing days as a Celtic, however, were all but done; Auerbach’s retirement as coach meant a full-time gig as the team’s general manager, and one of his first offseason moves was to appoint Russell as his successor. The first African-American head coach in any of the three major sports, Russell had no intentions of slowing down. As player/coach, he was determined to log the same heavy workload that he had in the past. For Counts, that would mean another season’s worth of garbage-time minutes, something that he was ready to accept in order to win another championship. Auerbach had other ideas; convinced that the team needed more depth at power forward, as well as more size underneath the boards, he traded Counts to Baltimore in exchange for All-Star Bailey Howell. He then acquired Wayne Embry to fill Counts’ spot as a backup to Russell. The Celtics would win two of the next three championships, sending Russell off a winner.
Counts’ stay in Baltimore was abbreviated; he played 25 games during the 1966-67 NBA season before being shipped to the Lakers in a trade. Counts fit in perfectly with the likes of Elgin Baylor, Wilt Chamberlain, and Jerry West. With Baylor and Chamberlain down in the paint, Counts was free to play away from the basket and use his great outside touch. He averaged a career-best 12.6 ppg in 1969-70. The Lakers went to three NBA Finals in those four seasons. Ironically, he found himself squarely on the other side of the heated Celtic-Laker rivalry, learning firsthand what it was like to lose to the great Bill Russell.
Counts went to the Phoenix Suns in 1970, and had one solid season (11 ppg, 6.3 rpg). Then he had one bad season, and soon he found himself bouncing around the league. Counts went to the Philadelphia 76ers, returned to L.A., and then finished his career with the New Orleans Jazz before retiring after the 1975-76 season. In all, he played in 789 regular season and 85 playoff games. Still, he thinks of himself as Boston’s green giant, the player who arrived at a place and time that was truly special, where legendary men performed in an historic venue, where the fiery coach chomped victory cigars in the waning moments of games big and small, and where anything less than a championship was considered a season wasted.
Since retirement, Counts has received numerous accolades and awards, including enshrinement into the PAC-10 Hall of Honor, the US Olympic Hall of Fame, the OSU Hall of Fame, and the State of Oregon Sports Hall of Fame. Celtic Nation is honored to bring you this interview.