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“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.
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