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By:\u00a0 Michael D. McClellan |<\/strong>\u00a0\u00a0He played in the league with that red, white and blue ball, teaming with the great Rick Barry and doing battle with the incomparable Julius Erving, but his ultimate thrill was winning an NBA Championship with Dave Cowens, John Havlicek, Jo Jo White, and the rest of the 1975-76 Boston Celtics. Game 5 of that \u201976 NBA Finals will forever be known as \u201cThe Greatest Game Ever Played,\u201d a triple-overtime heart-stopper in the fabled Boston Garden, and Jim Ard, pressed into duty following the disqualifications of Cowens and Paul Silas, stood tall when his team needed him most. From winning the tip in that third overtime to canning the decisive three-throws in what would be a 128-126 nail-biter, Ard proved himself a worthy middle man in the Celtics\u2019 bid to gain control of the series. Anonymous to many, especially to those outside of Boston, Ard\u2019s spirited play in the final five minutes helped the Celtics capture that all-import Game 5 \u2013 and, in the process, take a 3-2 series lead back to Phoenix for the championship clincher. How big was that win? Had the Suns, behind a miracle shot by Garfield Heard, the dubious officiating of Richie Powers, and the spectacular play of Paul Westphal, somehow managed to wrest control of the series by winning that Game 5 classic, Phoenix would have been playing for the 1976 NBA Championship on its home floor. Who knows what might have happened. Instead, it was the Suns who had their backs against the wall in Game 6. Demoralized and weary-legged, Phoenix proved no match for the Celtics in a must-win game. The rest, as they say, is history.<\/p>\n While never a star at the professional level, Ard was heavily recruited out of Thornton Township High School in Harvey, Illinois. He was a rugged big man with decent footwork and a good feel around the basket, and more than a hundred schools offered scholarships. The University of Cincinnati won out, in large part because of its storied basketball tradition. He finished his senior season by being named All-American, at which point both the established NBA and the fledgling ABA heavily courted his services. The ABA, with its lure of the bigger contract, ultimately proved too appealing for Ard to pass up. He signed a four-year deal with the New York Nets, played there for three of them, and then found himself a member of the dreadful Memphis Tams. It was during this period that Red Auerbach, ever on the prowl for talent, plucked Ard from the waiver wire. Ard was thrilled.<\/p>\n \u201cIt was a big moment for me,\u201d he recalls. \u201cIn the ABA, I had a chance to play with, and against, some very special players \u2013 Rick Barry, John Roche were teammates, while Julius Erving and Dan Issel were rivals. And while the quality of play in the league was good, everything else just didn\u2019t measure up to the NBA. So, to join a championship contender, especially a team with a storied tradition like the Boston Celtics\u2026it just didn\u2019t get much better than that.\u201d<\/p>\n Signed to relieve Cowens and Silas, injuries instead thrust Ard into the spotlight far sooner than expected. He struggled through 59 games that season, never growing comfortable in the offense, and the Celtics failed to repeat as NBA Champions. A year later, Ard was ready to help his teammates reclaim what they\u2019d lost. He proved himself a key reserve, coming off the bench to play tough, hard-nosed defense, and the Celtics were suddenly far deeper \u2013 and healthier \u2013 than the year before. They finished with a 54-28 regular season record, muscled their way past the Buffalo Braves and Cleveland Cavaliers in the playoffs, and faced off against those young, resilient Suns in the Finals.<\/p>\n That \u201976 championship would be Ard\u2019s zenith. He would play one more full season in a Celtic uniform, before being waived on November 8, 1977 \u2013 just one game into the 1977-78 campaign. He would retire nine games later as a member of the Chicago Bulls.<\/p>\n \u201cI had an enjoyable and rewarding basketball career,\u201d Ard says with a smile. \u201cI was able to play for a storied collegiate program, and I was fortunate enough to win an NBA title with the greatest franchise in professional basketball. How many people can say that?\u201d<\/p>\n Not many.<\/p>\n Celtic Nation is honored to bring you this interview.<\/p>\n You played basketball at Thornton Township High School in Harvey, Illinois, but your early years were spent out West.<\/strong><\/p>\n I was born in Seattle, but my family moved south to Richland not long after that.\u00a0 Richland was home to the Hanford Site, or better known as the home of the first nuclear power plant in the United States.\u00a0 We lived there though junior high school, at which point we relocated in Illinois.\u00a0\u00a0In junior high I wanted to play football, but I found out that I didn\u2019t like it.\u00a0 I ended up playing basketball instead.\u00a0 My father put up a backboard \u2013 I could either play by myself and work on the various aspects of my game, or I could have friends over to play against.\u00a0 It was a valuable tool in my development.\u00a0 I think that’s the thing that really got me hooked on basketball.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/u><\/strong><\/p>\n You led Thornton to the state championship in 1966, received dozens of scholarship offers, and decided to play collegiate basketball for the University of Cincinnati.\u00a0 What led you to sign with the Bearcats?<\/strong><\/p>\n I was part of the team, but I can’t really say that I led Thornton to the championship.\u00a0 It was exciting to win it all, no question about that, and it helped to open doors at schools like Cincinnati.\u00a0\u00a0In selecting a college, I wanted the right combination of academics and athletics.\u00a0 There were several schools that had the right blend, and I was able to narrow my choice down to two \u2013 Cincinnati and Michigan.\u00a0 But the Big Ten was more of a football conference, while Cincinnati had a rich basketball tradition and a very strong nucleus of players.\u00a0 I had a chance to sit down with Oscar Robertson and talk about the University of Cincinnati, and my place in the basketball program.\u00a0 It was a great meeting.\u00a0 I was in awe.\u00a0 He’s the one who sold me on the school.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n During were named All-American following your your senior season.\u00a0 What was it like to be recognized as one of the best basketball players in the country?<\/strong><\/p>\n It was rather surprising to be named All-American, to tell you the truth.\u00a0 We had a great team during my senior season \u2013 I think my selection was a result of the team\u2019s success, and not anything that I did that was extraordinary.\u00a0 That\u2019s the way I\u2019ve always looked at it.\u00a0 I just went out and did my part to help us win games, which was the attitude all of my teammates had that season.\u00a0 We preferred team achievements over individual accolades.\u00a0 Still, it was an honor to be selected.\u00a0 Cincinnati has a storied basketball program, and there have been so many great All-Americans to play there \u2013 Oscar, Tom Thacker, Ron Bonham, Bob Wiesenhahn, Paul Hogue, and Tony Yates, to name a few.\u00a0 It was an honor to join a group like that.<\/p>\n Socially, there was a lot going on in our country during my time in high school, and later at Cincinnati.\u00a0 You had the Vietnam War, you had the assassinations of Martin Luther King and President Kennedy, and you had the British Invasion.\u00a0 It was a very interesting time to grow up.\u00a0 In professional basketball, you had Bill Russell and all of those great Celtic championship teams.\u00a0 You also had the rivalry between Russell and Wilt [Chamberlain], and the rivalry between the Celtics and the Lakers.\u00a0 In that context, I later found it hard to believe that I had won an NBA Championship playing for those same Celtics.\u00a0 It was a great thrill.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Following college, you found yourself coveted by two leagues:\u00a0 The Sonics drafted you with the sixth overall selection in the 1970 NBA Draft, while the fledgling ABA also made its intentions known.\u00a0 What led you to spurn the NBA in favor of the league with the red, white and blue ball?<\/strong><\/p>\n Basically, I think I may have gotten to the same place either way \u2013 playing basketball in the NBA \u2013 even though I knew I wasn\u2019t going to play for Seattle.\u00a0 My agent and the owner of the Sonics were not on the best of terms, and that led to some hard negotiations with Seattle.\u00a0 The fact that another league was involved in the bidding process helped financially, because it drove up the dollar amount that the [ABA] New York Nets were willing to pay.<\/p>\n I think we finished just under .500 during my first year with the Nets.\u00a0 We had some characters on that team \u2013 a young Rick Barry, and Bill Melchionni, who had gone to Villanova and won an NBA championship with Wilt Chamberlain in Philadelphia.\u00a0 My rookie year in the ABA was definitely an eye-opening experience.\u00a0 The travel, the accommodations, the facilities \u2013 none of that was on par with what was being offered in the NBA.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/u><\/strong><\/p>\n The ABA was able to compete for players because of something known as the “Dolgoff Plan”.\u00a0 What role did this plan play in luring top talent to the ABA, and what impact did it have on player salaries?<\/strong><\/p>\n Well, first I\u2019ll tell you about the lure of the Dolgoff Plan, and then I\u2019ll tell you about the reality of that arrangement.\u00a0 The lure was that it made the value of the ABA contract far larger than what the NBA was offering.\u00a0 The face value of the contract with the Nets was $1.4 million, and that\u2019s what was reported in the news, but the actual dollar value was nowhere near that dollar amount.\u00a0 It worked out to be $250,000 over four years.\u00a0 The Nets also agreed to put $8,000 a year for 10 years in a Dolgoff Plan, which was an annuity that I would collect starting at age 41.\u00a0 That sounded all well and good, given the financial forecasts at the time of my signing, but the stock market took a horrible turn almost immediately after the ink had dried.\u00a0 The money was locked into some really bad investments \u2013 so bad that the plan was worthless by the time I was old enough to begin collecting.\u00a0 I went to court over the way the plan was constructed, and eventually received a small settlement.\u00a0 It was nowhere near the $1.4 million face value of the contract.<\/p>\n The Dolgoff Plan was a valuable tool in the ABA\u2019s battle to attract talent that would have otherwise gone to the NBA.\u00a0 The deferred payments allowed the ABA to offer contracts that, on paper at least, were far greater than those in the National Basketball Association.\u00a0 But that was only on paper.\u00a0 The ABA used it to sign guys like Spencer Haywood, Billy Cunningham, and Dan Issel.\u00a0 But in each case, the plan just didn\u2019t pay off as expected.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n While with the Nets, you were coached by a young Lou Carnesecca.\u00a0 What was it like to play for Lou?<\/strong><\/p>\n Very intense.\u00a0 He was a very demanding coach, detail-oriented, and also very focused.\u00a0 Those are the traits that made him so successful wherever he coached.\u00a0 He was also a very good teacher.\u00a0 He could watch you do something once, and then tell you exactly what you were doing wrong \u2013 and how to fix it.<\/p>\n Lou was just a great, great coach.\u00a0 He led the Nets to the ABA Finals, and he had all of those great teams with St. John\u2019s University.\u00a0 He was the Big East Coach of the Year, and the National Coach of the Year.\u00a0 He\u2019s in the\u00a0Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame<\/em>.\u00a0 You look at what he\u2019s accomplished in his career, and it just doesn\u2019t get much better than that.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n For the 1970-71 season, owner Roy Boe acquired superstar Rick Barry\u00a0from the Virginia Squires.<\/strong><\/p>\n It was very interesting playing for the Nets that season.\u00a0 Rick was supposed to play for Virginia, but he refused, stating that he would not play for the Virginia Squires.\u00a0 So, when he arrived in New York, I wonder what we\u2019ve gotten ourselves into with this guy.\u00a0 He was known to be so over-the-top, and so vocal, that I wasn\u2019t sure that he would fit in.<\/p>\n Well, when Rick arrived, Lou asked me to work with him after practice.\u00a0 We went to a local playground for two straight weeks, immediately after practice, and worked on our shooting and our defense.\u00a0 He was such an unbelievable shooter.\u00a0 He could hit from anywhere, and with consistency.\u00a0 Those one-on-one practice sessions really helped both of us, and it didn\u2019t take me long to realize that Rick wasn\u2019t the arrogant star that the press had written about.\u00a0 That\u2019s not to say that he didn\u2019t have a lot of confidence in himself.\u00a0 He had enough ego for three basketball teams.\u00a0 He definitely spoke his mind.\u00a0 But away from the game he was a decent guy.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n During the 1972 ABA Playoffs, the Nets pulled off a huge first round upset of the mighty Kentucky Colonels.<\/strong><\/p>\n That was a special season for us.\u00a0 We signed John Roche, who had been drafted by Kentucky, and who had been a three-time All-American at South Carolina and the MVP of the Atlantic Coast Conference.\u00a0 We signed [Tom] Trooper Washington.\u00a0 He wasn\u2019t a big guy, maybe 6\u20197\u201d, but he always established great position underneath the glass.\u00a0 I think he averaged close to ten rebounds per game that season.\u00a0 And Rick managed to stay healthy the entire season, which was a huge advantage for us.\u00a0 He finished the season just behind Charlie Scott for the ABA scoring title.\u00a0 We also had the first winning season in team history.\u00a0 So, we had a lot of momentum going into the playoffs.\u00a0 We felt confident that we could compete against Kentucky, even though we\u2019d only won 44 games compared to their 68.\u00a0 We weren\u2019t intimidated.<\/p>\n The first two games of that series were in Louisville.\u00a0 We went into their place, which was rocking, and we won both games.\u00a0 Rick scored 50 points in the series opener \u2013 the Colonels tried everything, but they just couldn\u2019t stop him from scoring that night.\u00a0 They kept applying more and more pressure, forcing Rick to take shots farther from the basket, but it didn\u2019t matter.\u00a0 He just kept draining them.\u00a0 He was too much for Kentucky to handle, and that gave us a great mental edge.\u00a0 We played loose.\u00a0 Kentucky played tight.<\/p>\n We shut them down in the first half of Game 2 \u2013 I think we held them to 34 points.\u00a0 Rick and John played great ball.\u00a0 We won that game decisively.\u00a0 The best thing was that no one gave us a chance to win a game in the series, and we left Louisville up 2-0.\u00a0 We split games in New York, and then lost Game 5 back in Louisville.\u00a0 That sent the series to Nassau Coliseum for Game 6.\u00a0 We were pumped up.\u00a0 The crowd was deafening.\u00a0 We knew we didn\u2019t want to play Game 7 back in Kentucky, so we went out on the court and played aggressively.\u00a0 It was an unbelievable win for us.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n One round later, you faced Julius Erving and the favored Virginia Squires in the Eastern Division Finals.\u00a0 What was it like to play against a young Dr. J?<\/strong><\/p>\n It\u2019s hard to describe to someone just how gifted Julius Erving was, because words fall short of adequately explaining his impact on the game of basketball.\u00a0 He was Michael [Jordan] before Michael.\u00a0 He was able to defy gravity in a way that was almost preposterous.\u00a0 He was an athletic freak, and I mean that in the most sincere way possible, because the gifts that he had come around once in a generation.\u00a0 That\u2019s how special he was as an athlete.\u00a0 Beyond that, he was just as special as a person.\u00a0 Very bright.\u00a0 Articulate.\u00a0 Great flair.\u00a0 He was the biggest star the ABA had to offer, and our signature player.\u00a0 Later, with the 76ers, his appeal helped to propel the game to new heights.\u00a0 He became a true ambassador of the game of basketball.<\/p>\n I remember that series against Virginia very well.\u00a0 The Squires won the first two games in Virginia, Dr. J was the biggest reason for that.\u00a0 He scored 26 points in Game 1, and then 38 points in Game 2.\u00a0 At that point, it looked like we were going to be swept out of the series.\u00a0 We couldn\u2019t establish any momentum \u2013 Rick didn\u2019t play particularly well, at least by his standards.\u00a0 And even though we did a decent job of containing Julius, he was still able to hurt us down the stretch.<\/p>\n We returned home for Game 3, but there was a big delay \u2013 ten days \u2013 because the Nassau Coliseum was booked for other events.\u00a0 Something like that would be unimaginable today, and even back then the NBA didn\u2019t run into those kinds of problems.\u00a0 But that was the norm in the ABA.\u00a0 It was struggling to survive and flourish in the shadow of an established league.\u00a0 Anyway, the delay was necessary because neither team wanted to play a playoff game at the Island Garden.\u00a0 It had bleacher seating.\u00a0 It was adequate for high school basketball, and maybe small college ball, but that was it.<\/p>\n The long layoff turned out to be an advantage for us.\u00a0 It enabled us to regroup and heal \u2013 we were pretty banged up by that point in the season.\u00a0 We won both games at home to even the series, then split the next two games to force Game 7.\u00a0 Up to that point, neither team had won on the other\u2019s home court.\u00a0 Game 7 was in Norfolk.\u00a0 The place was packed.\u00a0 Julius played great \u2013 I think he finished with 35 points \u2013 but Rick hit a huge three-pointer late in the game and Virginia was unable to answer.\u00a0 It was a great series, and one of the most exciting that I\u2019ve ever played.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Following a stop in Memphis, you found yourself plucked off of the waiver by Red Auerbach.<\/strong><\/p>\n I found myself very fortunate to join a team with the rich history of the Boston Celtics.\u00a0 It was amazing.\u00a0 My expectation was that I would come in and provide backup relief to Dave Cowens and Hank Finkel \u2013 injuries changed all of that.\u00a0 I remember signing my contract, and thinking that I\u2019d have a couple of weeks to get ready to contribute, and then getting thrown into the fire immediately.\u00a0 It wasn\u2019t an easy adjustment.\u00a0 The biggest difference between the ABA and the NBA, in my opinion, was the size of the men in the middle.\u00a0 The ABA had Artis Gilmore, who was 7\u20192\u201d, but there weren\u2019t many other players his size in that league.\u00a0 The NBA had imposing players on just about every team \u2013 and sometimes two.\u00a0 Washington had Wes Unseld and Elvin Hayes.\u00a0 Bob Lanier was out there to be reckoned with.\u00a0 Kareem Abdul-Jabbar.\u00a0 There were just so many talented big men, so you faced one almost every night.\u00a0 In the ABA, it was basically Artis as far as size and strength were concerned.\u00a0 Thankfully, Dave and Hank were able to come back quickly, and we were able to establish a solid rotation.\u00a0 That helped us mesh the next season, when we won the championship.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n What was it like to play center for the Boston Celtics?<\/b><\/p>\n <\/u><\/b>It was probably the best-managed organization that I\u2019ve ever been a part of, and that includes my post-NBA career.\u00a0 Since retirement I\u2019ve worked for a number of tech companies in Silicon Valley, very successful enterprises, and none of them comes close to the way the Red Auerbach and the Celtics ran things in Boston during my time with the team.\u00a0\u00a0It was also a great thrill to be a part of such a legendary team.\u00a0 Playing in front of the Boston fans, playing in the fabled Boston Garden, playing beneath all of those championship banners\u2026it was a very special experience, and unlike any other in basketball.\u00a0 It must be akin to playing baseball for the New York Yankees, or playing football for the Green Bay Packers.\u00a0 It was more than just about the game of basketball.\u00a0 It went much deeper than that.\u00a0 Looking back, being a Boston Celtic was the highlight of my basketball career.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n The Celtics won 60 games that season, but stumbled against the Washington Bullets in the Eastern Conference Finals.<\/b><\/p>\n <\/u><\/b>What stands about for me was the respect that I had for guys like Wes Unseld and Elvin Hayes.\u00a0 They were the big guys that made life so difficult for us in that series.\u00a0 They dominated us in that series.\u00a0 We just couldn\u2019t find an answer underneath the basket, and fell behind 3-1.\u00a0 That was too much of a hole to dig out of, even with all the great players we had on the roster.\u00a0 I think we lost that series in six games.\u00a0 That kept the Celtics from a chance to repeat as champions, and it also put the Bullets into the \u201975 NBA Finals.\u00a0 Rick [Barry] was playing for Golden State then, and the Warriors won that championship series, 4-0.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Fellow ABA-er Charlie Scott joined the Celtics for the 1975-76 season.\u00a0 Please tell me about Mr. Scott.<\/b><\/p>\n <\/u><\/b>Charlie Scott was a very, very bright individual.\u00a0 Very talkative.\u00a0 You put those two elements together, and you realize that he should have been a lawyer [laughs].\u00a0 He was a thrilling player.\u00a0 I didn\u2019t know him very well prior to his joining the Celtics, and I was a little apprehensive at first because of the stories that I\u2019d heard.\u00a0 There were rumors that he had been a malcontent in Phoenix.\u00a0 My concern was what impact he would have on team chemistry, and how he would mesh with established stars like John Havlicek, Dave Cowens and Jo Jo White.\u00a0 Would there be enough basketballs to go around?\u00a0 Would he cause problems in the locker room?\u00a0 Things of that nature.\u00a0 Plus, we had given up a promising young player in Paul Westphal to acquire a proven veteran to help us win a championship.<\/p>\n I was pleasantly surprised to find Charlie Scott very much a team player.\u00a0 He came to Boston and did his best to fit in.\u00a0 He didn\u2019t try to be the star, and he didn\u2019t have to score a ton of points to be happy.\u00a0 He was only concerned with winning, and I think that that\u2019s what made him seem like such a diva in Phoenix.\u00a0 It wasn\u2019t that he had to lead the Suns in scoring in order to be happy.\u00a0 I think the team was so bad, and the talent level so low, that he felt a need to shoulder the offense in order to win.\u00a0 I think that if the Suns had other players who could score, then Charlie Scott would have been happy to distribute the basketball more.\u00a0 Anyway,\u00a0 by mid-season I could tell that the trade for Charlie Scott was a good one.\u00a0 He was a leader.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n What was it like for you to finally win a world championship, and what do you remember about that triple-overtime game against the Suns?<\/strong><\/p>\n There are so many things that still stand out.\u00a0 I remember the heat in the Boston Garden.\u00a0 I remember that we had a big first half \u2013 we were dominating the Suns in just about every aspect of the game.\u00a0 And then, just like that, we quit hitting shots.\u00a0 I don\u2019t have an explanation for it, other than to give Phoenix all of the credit for making the adjustments defensively.\u00a0 Westphal played a great game.\u00a0 He helped the Suns cut into the lead in the second half, and played a pivotal role by calling that timeout the way that he did.<\/p>\n The fans were rowdy, no doubt about that.\u00a0 I remember Gar Heard\u2019s shot, the clutch play of Glen McDonald, and my own contributions in overtime.\u00a0 And there were so many bizarre calls by the officials.\u00a0 Somehow we hung on to win. \u00a0I remember thinking, in that third overtime, that whoever hung on to win this game would probably win the series.\u00a0 It was that pivotal.\u00a0 Everybody was spent.\u00a0 Had we lost that game, we would have gone to Phoenix for Game 6 needing a win just to stay alive.\u00a0 The Suns would have had the huge mental and physical advantage.\u00a0 Their fans would have been just unbelievable.\u00a0 But we were able to win it, and then we were able to lock up the championship in Phoenix.\u00a0 Charlie Scott played great in that game.\u00a0 Winning that championship was an unbelievable experience.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n That 1975-76 championship team was stocked with talent.\u00a0 Please tell me a little about Dave Cowens, John Havlicek, Jo Jo White and Paul Silas.<\/strong><\/p>\n Dave and Paul worked so well together.\u00a0 They were a great combination.\u00a0 Whenever Dave would roam outside, Paul would be underneath the basket, hauling down rebounds.\u00a0 I think each made the other a better player, and each benefited from having the other on the court with them.\u00a0 Dave was the unquestioned leader.\u00a0 Paul \u2013 I could talk about him all day long.\u00a0 He was ferocious on the glass.\u00a0 He was relentless.\u00a0 He had those big hands and that big, strong body.\u00a0 You weren\u2019t going to get around him.\u00a0 Even guys much taller couldn\u2019t handle him.\u00a0 He was a beast.<\/p>\n Havlicek was just a great athlete, and an exceptional basketball player.\u00a0 When it came down to taking the last shot, he was the guy you wanted with the ball in his hands.\u00a0 If I were the coach of that team and the game was on the line, I\u2019d set up a play and run the ball through John.\u00a0 He was going to score more often than not.<\/p>\n Jo Jo \u2013 he was a strong man.\u00a0 People may not realize that about him.\u00a0 He was an ex-Marine, and he was always in such terrific shape.\u00a0 He could have been a superstar on other teams in the league, but he was all about winning.\u00a0 Jo Jo knew that he had Cowens, Havlicek and Silas on his team.\u00a0 His job was to distribute the ball, score when the opportunity presented itself, and play punishing defense.\u00a0 That, and push the ball up the court.\u00a0 Tom Heinsohn, who was our coach at the time, developed an up-tempo attack that we used very effectively.\u00a0 Jo Jo was key to that philosophy, and one of the main reasons it proved so successful.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n The great Celtics teams of the 1970s often get overlooked, in large part due to the success of the Bill Russell and Larry Bird Eras.\u00a0 How do the 1975-76 champions stack up against the best in the NBA today?<\/strong><\/p>\n Well, it depends on the rules.\u00a0 There were no zones back then, as there are today.\u00a0 The hand-checking rules are far different today.\u00a0 And I understand why all of these changes have been made.\u00a0 The game has evolved, and in that process there has been some offensive stagnation.\u00a0 In the late eighties, there was a trend toward isolation plays on the offensive end of the court.\u00a0 There was no ball movement.\u00a0 A team would bring the ball up the court, and the best player would go one-on-one and try to score.\u00a0 It became boring.\u00a0 When you look at teams today, teams like Phoenix and Dallas, you are almost surprised that they push the ball up the court and play team basketball.\u00a0 Everyone is involved.\u00a0 You\u2019ve got great players like Steve Nash and Dirk Nowitzki, and the teams are running on every possession.\u00a0 There is a lot of ball movement.\u00a0 It\u2019s really beautiful to watch.\u00a0 Well, that\u2019s the way basketball was played in the \u201870s.\u00a0 That style was the rule, not the exception, and it didn\u2019t look so unique because everybody played it.\u00a0 Now, it\u2019s almost a novelty.\u00a0 That\u2019s a shame, because I think that brand of basketball is far more exciting to watch.\u00a0 It\u2019s definitely more fun to play.<\/p>\n But to answer your question, I think a lot depends on the rules.\u00a0 If the rules are the rules that we played under, then I think that gives our team an advantage over the best in the NBA today.\u00a0 If we play by the rules today, I\u2019m not so sure how we\u2019d stack up.\u00a0 I think we\u2019d be very competitive, and one of the better teams in the league \u2013 a contender for a championship.\u00a0 I just don\u2019t think the new rules would allow us to maximize our strengths as a team.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n What do you remember most about the fabled Boston Garden?<\/strong><\/p>\n I was shocked the first time I played there \u2013 it was so old and decrepit, and it was kind of shocking to see how far in disrepair that place had fallen.\u00a0 But then I quickly learned that that was part of the charm of the Boston Garden.\u00a0 That was part of its mystique.\u00a0 It was cold in the winter and hot in the summer, and the parquet floor had all of those dead spots on it.\u00a0 I learned very quickly how important that place was to the team and the city, and how much of a home court advantage the Boston Garden really gave the team.\u00a0 My favorite memory in the Garden?\u00a0 You might imagine it to be Game 5 against Phoenix, but it was actually the next season, when we raised that championship banner to the rafters.\u00a0 It was then that I realized that I\u2019d contributed to something very special, and that I had joined a very elite club in doing so.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n When looking back on playing in both the ABA and NBA, who were some of your most difficult defensive assignments, and why?<\/strong><\/p>\n Dan Issel.\u00a0 He had that great jump shot, and he was very efficient at getting to the basket.\u00a0 Bob Lanier.\u00a0 The best footwork of any center in the league.\u00a0 Like Issel, he had a great jumper.\u00a0 And he was so strong.\u00a0 I\u2019d rather try to take a jumper over him than try to overpower him in the paint.\u00a0 You couldn\u2019t push him around \u2013 it just wasn\u2019t going to happen.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Final Question:\u00a0 If you could offer one piece of advice on life to others, what would that be?<\/strong><\/p>\n Never forget where you came from.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" By:\u00a0 Michael D. McClellan |\u00a0\u00a0He played in the league with that red, white and blue ball, teaming with the great Rick Barry and doing battle with the incomparable Julius Erving, but his ultimate thrill was winning an NBA Championship with Dave Cowens, John Havlicek, Jo Jo White, and the rest of the 1975-76 Boston Celtics. 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<\/p>\n