The M.L. Carr Interview
By:
Michael D. McClellan
|
Thursday, March 22nd, 2012
You were
cut by the Celtics 47 games into the 1984-85
regular season. Were you prepared for that?
I was, because I knew what getting cut felt like. I didn’t go into the league as a first round pick with lots of money. I made mine the hard way and was able to take care of what I’d made, and I knew that there was another world out there beyond playing professional basketball. And I knew what it was like to work – I’d worked in a federal penitentiary and sold cars on the front side of my career, and as I started playing I made appearances and made sure that I learned from my mentors so that I’d be prepared. As an example, Robert Kraft who now owns the New England Patriots, brought me onboard Channel 7 as a board member. That gave me a chance to see the inner-workings of how big businesses actually work. The president of the Bank of Boston gave me an opportunity to become involved in a community outreach program, which up until then had never been tried before. Jim Davis, the founder and chairman of New Balance, brought me on as a board member. All of these things gave me an easy transition into a post-playing career, because the biggest thing any athlete faces when transitioning from their playing days is the deafening silence. When the cheers stop coming, the boos stop coming, the ball stops bouncing, and the team camaraderie comes to an end, that’s when everything stops abruptly and there’s a deafening silence that causes a lot of guys to go into a deep depression. They’re not equipped to deal with that. But I was prepared, so I didn’t have to deal with figuring out the next chapter in my life.
Let’s talk about the
legendary Red Auerbach.
When I first met Red, I’d just gotten cut from the Kansas City Kings. Red called and said he’d like to meet with me, so I go up to Boston and walk into Red’s office. He tells me to sit down, and then he tells me that he doesn’t have a spot for me on this team. And I’m thinking to myself that he could have told me that over the phone. Then he tells me that he thinks he’ll have a spot for me next year, and that he wants to send me over to Israel for a year to play, so that he could hide me and so that I could get another year’s worth of experience under my belt. And then I’m thinking, if he wanted to hide me why didn’t he try to hide me somewhere in Harlem instead of Israel [laughs]. But I didn’t ask any questions. If Red Auerbach thought a year in Israel could get me into the NBA then I’d pack my bags and head overseas. And that’s exactly what I did.
Red had a vision, and he always talked about getting people to buy into that vision. And he preached having a clarity of vision. It’s the same thing in business. You have to have clarity of vision, and then you can get people to buy in. Larry Bird was another example of Red’s vision – he drafted Larry a year early and then waited for him to turn pro. And we all know how that turned out.
Tell me about Bill
Russell.
The first time I met Bill Russell I’d just signed with the Celtics. He was doing broadcasting work for CBS-TV at the time, and we were getting ready to play Philly. He walks up to me and says, ‘M.L. Carr.’ And I say, ‘How are you doing, Mr. Russell?’ He says, ‘Fine. Guess What? I’m going to turn you into a household word today. You know what word that is?’ I said, ‘No, what?’, and he says ‘Garbage.’ And then he breaks out in a big grin and lets loose with that famous laugh of his. So that was his way of welcoming me to the team, but he was also saying that I had a good opportunity here, and that I would need to work at it. Russ has been very supportive to me over the years.
John Havlicek?
My first encounter with John came when I was a member of the Detroit Pistons. It was my first game against the Celtics – and trust me, I was a Celtics fan growing up, even though most people in that area were Philadelphia 76ers fans – and I had the task of guarding John Havlicek. And he got the quickest and easiest 27 points that anybody had ever scored on me. He would run down the court and run me off of either Paul Silas or Dave Cowens, and then he’d be wide open for an easy jumper.
Well, later that season we play the Celtics in Boston, and I decided I wasn’t going to let John run me into Silas or Cowens, and that I wouldn’t let them pop me in the chest the way they did in the previous game. So my strategy was to rough up John before he could get me into those screens. Well, the first time down the court I bump John pretty hard, and I learned that that’s the worst thing you could do in Boston. I thought the fans were going to come out of the stands after me. It was almost like I’d hit the pope [laughs].
Havlicek retired as
the Celtics all-time leader in points
scored. Paul Pierce is closing in, but it’s
still an amazing record because the player
affectionately known as ‘Hondo’ started his
career as the team’s sixth man and never had
the luxury of the three point shot.
Not only that, when you look at what guys like Havlicek accomplished you realize that it was a different era. It was tougher back then. The travel was tougher. They didn’t have the same nutrition that they have today. Sports medicine was in the Dark Ages back then. What John did was unbelievable when you think about it. Guys like John, Jerry West, Russ and Chamberlain. That’s why I don’t like to compare eras. When I retired we flew first class. Guys back then traveled by car and train, teams today have their own private jets.
You came back to the
Celtics in the ‘90s and took over as the
team’s general manager.
It was a great opportunity that came about because I was chasing [team owner] Paul Gaston and constantly trying to buy the team from him – I’d put together an ownership group that would have had the resources to purchase the Celtics. He had no interest in selling at the time, so he asked me if I’d be interested in running the team. For me, I thought that would be the next best thing, and that it would give me the inside track if he ever did decide to sell.
What was that
experience like for you?
It was a great experience, because it gave me a chance to give back to a Celtics family that had been so great to me over the years. It gave me the opportunity to guide the team through some very tough times. When I arrived, the talent level clearly wasn’t where it had been. The team was in transition. And realistically, it was going to be a few years before we got it back. So I eventually decided to run the basketball operations, and then to also coach it at the same time.