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By: Michael D. McClellan | <\/strong>Someone had to bear the\u00a0burden of replacing arguably the greatest winner in the history of professional sports, and that someone turned out to be Hank Finkel.\u00a0 A karaoke singer who had somehow wandered onto Pavarotti\u2019s stage, Finkel performed for an audience spoiled by the immensely unattainable standards of his predecessor. Celtics fans could recite Bill Russell’s accomplishments as if had all happened yesterday:\u00a0 Eleven titles in thirteen seasons, eight in a row, two of the last three as player-coach.\u00a0 Still drunk from a dynastic run of championship celebrations, they refused to see Hank Finkel for what he really was \u2013 a piece of a rebuilding puzzle, a stop-gap measure until Red Auerbach could unearth a starting center capable of filling Russell’s shoes.<\/p>\n \u201cHenry Finkel is not the reason we\u2019re losing,\u201d head coach Tommy Heinsohn barked at reporters during a particularly frustrating stretch during the 1969-70 regular season. \u201cIt\u2019s not fair for him to be singled out as the symbol for the team\u2019s problems. You lose a Bill Russell, and there are going to be consequences.\u201d<\/p>\n For his part, the player nicknamed \u201cHigh Henry\u201d by legendary radio announcer Johnny Most tried to stay positive, but he found himself so depressed that he considered walking away from basketball completely. Heinsohn promised him that help was coming, and that things were going to get better. Auerbach delivered in big way, drafting center Dave Cowens in 1970 and trading for power forward Paul Silas two seasons later.<\/p>\n \u201cTommy defined my role as a backup to Dave and Paul,\u201d Finkel says quickly.\u00a0 \u201cI was able to come off the bench and play alongside All-Star talent. I wasn\u2019t the focal point. I could do the little things that I did best, while the other guys could focus on rebounding and scoring.\u201d<\/p>\n Finkel burst onto the scene at the University of Dayton, where he led the nation in field goal percentage as a senior.\u00a0 The slender seven-footer also earned All-America honors in 1966, attracting the attention of scouts throughout the league.\u00a0 The Los Angles Lakers selected Finkel in the second round of the 1966 NBA Draft, only to make him available for the NBA expansion draft a year later.\u00a0 Selected by the\u00a0San Diego Rockets, Finkel played two uneventful seasons in San Diego before landing in Boston.\u00a0 Finkel stood no chance as Russell’s replacement, as the Celtics missed the playoffs for the first time in 20 years.<\/p>\n Fast-forward to the 1972-73 season.\u00a0 With Cowens and Silas in the fold, and with a young Jo Jo White running the attack, the Celtics roared to a 68-14 record, losing to the New York Knicks in the Eastern Conference Finals.\u00a0 A year later, however, the Celtics\u2019 championship drought would come to an end; in a season in which John Havlicek would record his 20,000th regular-season point, the Celtics would capture their 12th\u00a0NBA title, dominating the Milwaukee Bucks in a winner-take-all Game 7.<\/p>\n \u201cIt was a hard-fought series,\u201d Finkel recalls.\u00a0 \u201cNeither team could maintain control of home court advantage.\u00a0 We thought we were going to win the title in Game 6 at the Boston Garden, but then Kareem hits that huge sky hook at the buzzer to force Game 7 back in Milwaukee.\u00a0 We pushed the ball hard in that next game, and we made their guards \u2013 particularly Oscar Robertson \u2013 work to bring the ball up the court.\u00a0 It was an unbelievable feeling to win a championship \u2013 and my proudest moment as a Boston Celtic.\u201d<\/p>\n Finkel would retire a season later \u2013 his sixth with the team \u2013 but by then the torment of 1969-70 was a distant memory.\u00a0 He had shown incredible strength and poise in the face of adversity, and he had become a better person because of it.\u00a0 The fan abuse also made him more appreciative of the good times.\u00a0 To this day he remains a beloved figure to fans and teammates alike.<\/p>\n \u201cI prided myself in doing the little things, and I think my teammates understood that that\u2019s what I did best.\u00a0 All-Star players like John Havlicek, Dave Cowens, Don Nelson and Jo Jo White need guys that can do the dirty work.\u00a0 That was my specialty, and that was what I gave the team every time I stepped on the floor.\u00a0 We were a very close-knit group.\u00a0 That made winning a championship with them even more special.\u201d<\/p>\n Celtic Nation is honored to bring you this interview.<\/p>\n You were born April 20th, 1942, in Union City, NJ.\u00a0 What childhood memories stand out after all of these years?<\/strong><\/p>\n First of all, Union City, New Jersey is exactly that \u2013 all city.\u00a0 In a matter of five minutes you could have gotten ten guys together and gone down to the court and played five-on-five.\u00a0 It was that urban.\u00a0 We definitely weren\u2019t the suburbs.\u00a0 So that\u2019s what stands out most in my mind.\u00a0 That, and all of the friends you make coming from the city.\u00a0 I think it\u2019s easier because of the concentration of people, as opposed to the suburbs where things are more spread out.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/u><\/strong><\/p>\n You played high school basketball at Holy Family.\u00a0 Tell me about your high school career.<\/strong><\/p>\n It was a parochial school.\u00a0 I went from kindergarten to twelfth grade in the same building \u2013 after that, I said \u2018thank you very much\u2019 [laughs].\u00a0 It\u2019s very unusual for somebody to go from kindergarten to twelfth grade in one building.\u00a0 The grade school was on one floor, and the high school was on another floor.\u00a0 The gymnasium was downstairs below.<\/p>\n I started playing basketball during my sophomore year in high school.\u00a0 Up until then I didn\u2019t want to play organized basketball, because I was having fun just playing in backyards and on schoolyards.\u00a0 I entered high school during my freshman year at six foot, and by my sophomore year I was six-five.\u00a0 I stood head-and-shoulders above everybody else.\u00a0 Of course it was a parochial high school, and we only had 150 boys and 150 girls in the entire school.\u00a0 So I was taller than everybody else, and the coach said, \u2018Who\u2019s that big guy walking down the hall?\u2019\u00a0 And they said, \u2018That\u2019s Finkel.\u2019\u00a0 The coach had my sister Louise in his physics class, so he looks at my sister and says, \u2018I want to see your brother at the first basketball practice.\u2019\u00a0 And that\u2019s what started it.\u00a0 I went on to play three years of high school ball.\u00a0 I just didn\u2019t want to play as a freshman, and to be honest with you, I didn\u2019t want to play as a junior or senior, either.\u00a0 I was seven feet tall when I graduated from Holy Family.\u00a0 I went from six feet as a freshman to seven feet as a senior. \u00a0The problem was that I was seven feet tall and only weighed 175 pounds, so the big guys on the other teams used to move me around pretty good.\u00a0 But looking back on how my life has been touched by basketball, I thank God that I did end up playing.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n What led you play college ball at Dayton?<\/strong><\/p>\n I spent one year at St. Peter\u2019s College in Jersey City, New Jersey.\u00a0 I played my freshman year there before I moved on Dayton \u2013 and there is actually a funny story behind that.\u00a0 I was standing on a street corner, at a Dairy Queen, talking to my buddies.\u00a0 That\u2019s when an opposing coach from high school drove by and saw me \u00a0standing around \u2013 I was hard to miss, because I was seven feet tall \u2013 and he pulled the car over and said, \u2018What are you doing?\u2019\u00a0 And I said, \u2018Nothing.\u2019\u00a0 Which was true, because I had just left St. Peter\u2019s College.\u00a0 Then he says, \u2018How would you like to go back to school?\u2019\u00a0 Well, I told him that I would have to talk to my mother first, because my dad had just passed away.\u00a0 My mom never even batted an eyelash.\u00a0 She looked at me and simply said, \u2018You go back to school.\u2019<\/p>\n The coach that I\u2019m referring to was quite a player himself \u2013 his name was Harry Brooks, and he was an All-American basketball player at Seton Hall.\u00a0 So we\u2019re standing there on the corner that day, discussing a possible basketball scholarship, and at some point during the conversation I say, \u2018Where are you talking about?\u00a0 Seton Hall?\u2019\u00a0 And he says, \u2018No, no.\u00a0 I\u2019m talking about the University of Dayton, in Ohio.\u2019\u00a0 I thought about it for a second, if that, and I say, \u2018Okay, that\u2019s great.\u2019\u00a0 And that was it.\u00a0 One minute I\u2019m hanging out on a street corner, with not real plans for the future, and the next I\u2019m playing basketball Division I basketball at Dayton.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n As a senior, you were honored as a Helms Foundation All-American.\u00a0 How did it feel to be recognized as one of the best basketball players in the country?<\/strong><\/p>\n I never looked at it that way.\u00a0 I always got a lot of criticism because I couldn\u2019t jump.\u00a0 The only thing that I could do very well at that time was shoot.\u00a0 So I never really looked at myself as one of the best players in the college basketball.\u00a0 Besides, I never focused as much on individual feats and statistics as much as I did playing well and the team winning.\u00a0 I had no interest in making All-American.\u00a0 I wanted to win with the University of Dayton.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/u><\/strong><\/p>\n In 1974, you were inducted into the University of Dayton Athletic Hall of Fame.\u00a0 What does this honor mean to you?<\/strong><\/p>\n Once again, not being an individual and being a team guy, I guess it means that the team did well.\u00a0 I think that\u2019s why I was inducted into the UD Hall of Fame.\u00a0 Having said that, having some statistics to accommodate the team doing well probably enabled me to get in.\u00a0 For me, the Hall of Fame at UD really doesn\u2019t mean anything.\u00a0 What does mean something is the fact that I went to the University of Dayton.\u00a0 I\u2019ve said all along that if I didn\u2019t have the opportunity to turn pro, then I would have stayed in Dayton, Ohio.\u00a0 The fans were wonderful.\u00a0 The people on the campus were supportive.\u00a0 The coach was terrific \u2013 his name was Don Donoher.\u00a0 And everything about it at that time would have encouraged me to stay in Dayton, Ohio.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Tell me about Coach Donoher.<\/strong><\/p>\n He was like my brother.\u00a0 First of all he wasn\u2019t much older that I was.\u00a0 He was a young fella.\u00a0 He took over for a guy named Tom Blackburn.\u00a0 Blackburn was the coach my sophomore year, and then he became sick and passed away from cancer.\u00a0 He passed away at the end of my sophomore year.\u00a0 At the time, Donoher was the assistant coach under Blackburn.\u00a0 Everybody liked Donoher, so we all petitioned to help him get the job.\u00a0 As a result, he was a very young head coach at the time.\u00a0 I think he was in his early thirties \u2013 he was only ten years older than his players.\u00a0 The whole team with Donoher was more like brothers than we were like coach and team.\u00a0 That may have been a big reason why everybody got along so well.\u00a0 And we did very well on the court \u2013 of course, it helped because we had a pretty good team.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n You were selected in the second round of the 1966 NBA draft by the Los Angeles Lakers.\u00a0 What was it like to start your professional career on the other side of that great Celtics-Lakers rivalry?<\/strong><\/p>\n I hear that a lot \u2013 about being drafted by the Lakers \u2013 but I was actually picked by the Chicago team at the time.\u00a0 They either sold or traded me to Los Angeles immediately after the selection, but I wasn\u2019t drafted by the Lakers.\u00a0 I think it was the Chicago Zephyrs.<\/p>\n \u00a0Anyway, I got the single best piece of advice on being a pro from a pro \u2013 you may have heard of him\u2026his name is Jerry West [laughs].\u00a0 It came in that first training camp.\u00a0 In college I was predominantly a scorer, and I tried that in training camp against guys like Leroy Ellis and Darrall Imhoff.\u00a0 These guys were seven-feet tall like I was, and as a result they were knocking me off-balance, blocking my shot, and making it very difficult for me to score.<\/p>\n Freddie Schaus was the coach at the time, and during one of the scrimmages he calls timeout and tells everybody to take a rest.\u00a0 That\u2019s when Jerry West came over.\u00a0 He said, \u2018Finkel, you don\u2019t have to shoot the ball every time you get it.\u2019\u00a0 I said, \u2018What are you talking about?\u2019\u00a0 He said, \u2018Go out and set some picks.\u00a0 Set a pick for me.\u00a0 If I have the shot then I\u2019m going to take it.\u00a0 If I don\u2019t have the shot, then roll to the basket and I\u2019ll get you the ball.\u2019 \u00a0That turned out to be the single best piece of advice that I ever received.\u00a0 For the next ten years I made a living setting picks and blocking out, and all of the credit goes to Jerry West.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Your next two years were spent with the San Diego Rockets.\u00a0 During this period you teamed with rookie phenom Elvin Hayes, as well as future coaching greats Pat Riley and Rick Adelman.\u00a0 Please tell me a little about each of these men.<\/strong><\/p>\n I teamed with Elvin during my second year in San Diego.\u00a0 The first year was the expansion year, and I fared well because that was an expansion team and I got a chance to shoot.\u00a0 Pat Riley was on my team that first year, and I\u2019ll never forget the story about seeing him for the first time.\u00a0 It was at training camp that very first year, we were all gathered outside, and here came Pat Riley in a canary yellow Corvette.\u00a0 It was a convertible, of course.\u00a0 Black interior.\u00a0 And he was as polished then as he is today.\u00a0 He was wearing a gorgeous golf shirt, form fit, and he had a pair of shorts on at the time.\u00a0 Nice tan.\u00a0 Forty years later, Pat Riley is still the same guy.\u00a0 And by the way, he was one tough competitor.\u00a0 A tough kid.\u00a0 Six-five, well-built, strong\u2026set a pick on him and he\u2019d try to break you in half.<\/p>\n The only thing that I remember clearly about Rick Adelman was that he played with his head.\u00a0 He knew where guys were, and he was a pretty good shooter.\u00a0 And if I\u2019m not mistaken, I think he was drafted in one of the later rounds \u2013 maybe the seventh round by San Diego \u2013 but he played so hard and so well that he made the team.\u00a0 And those same characteristics have helped him to become an outstanding head coach.<\/p>\n Elvin \u2013 just a great, great player.\u00a0 Big and strong \u2013 I\u2019ll bet that he was about six-ten, about 260, big hands, strong body\u2026.he could shoot the ball, he could rebound, he could jump, he could clog the middle so that it was tough to get around\u2026he was just a great all-around player.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/u><\/strong><\/p>\n On August 7th, 1969, you were traded to the Boston Celtics.\u00a0 What went through your mind?<\/strong><\/p>\n Two things \u2013 I knew that I had to get rid of my convertible and all of my Bermuda shorts, because I was coming to Boston.\u00a0 Secondly, Elvin Hayes had come on the scene in San Diego.\u00a0 So, my time was up.\u00a0 I was not getting any playing time at all.\u00a0 I was still young \u2013 twenty-seven or twenty-eight years old \u2013 and I felt that I could contribute in some capacity to another team.\u00a0 Pete Newell was the general manager for the Rockets, and when he told me that I\u2019d been traded to Boston, I said, \u2018Boy, it doesn\u2019t get any better than that.\u2019\u00a0 Coming up here with all of this tradition and all of these great players, the numbers in the rafters, and the parquet floor\u2026and that doesn\u2019t even speak of Red Auerbach and Tommy Heinsohn.\u00a0 Red was the general manager and Tommy was the head coach.\u00a0 So I said, \u2018That\u2019s terrific.\u2019\u00a0 And that\u2019s how I wound up getting traded to Boston.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Your arrival in Boston coincided with the retirement of the great Bill Russell, and the end of the Celtic Dynasty.\u00a0 What was that first season like, and how did you handle the expectations placed on you by the city and its fans?<\/strong><\/p>\n I almost quit.\u00a0 Celtics fans are tough \u2013 they want a winner.\u00a0 And I\u2019ve said all along, that if you\u2019re going to play sports in any town, you would want to play in either Boston, New York, or Philadelphia.\u00a0 I say that because they have the most rabid fans in the country \u2013 and arguably in the world.<\/p>\n When I came to Boston, Sam Jones had retired.\u00a0 Russell had retired.\u00a0 The whole team was beginning a new era, and a rebuilding process was taking place.\u00a0 I was by no means in the category of the guys I\u2019ve just mentioned, but I had my own assets.\u00a0 I was prepared to come in and do whatever I could to help this team continue that same standard of excellence.<\/p>\n Well, the team struggled.\u00a0 Things got rough, and the fans started booing me, and I got discouraged.\u00a0 It got to the point that I contemplated retirement.\u00a0 And then, after the season, Red and Tommy pulled me into Tommy\u2019s office and said, \u2018Wait, slow down, we\u2019re going to get you some help.\u2019\u00a0 And I said, \u2018Okay, not a problem.\u00a0 I\u2019ll stick it out.\u2019\u00a0 And then they went out and drafted Dave Cowens.\u00a0 The rest is history.\u00a0 So I stayed with the team, and after they draft Dave Cowens I said, \u2018Man, it doesn\u2019t get any better than this.\u2019<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Red Auerbach nabbed Jo Jo White in the first round of the 1969 NBA Draft, and followed that up with the selection of Dave Cowens a year later.\u00a0 Please tell me about each of these men, and their significance in turning the Celtics back into champions.<\/strong><\/p>\n Jo Jo \u2013 great shooter, great team player, all finesse \u2013 but boy, when you needed a clutch basket you went to Jo Jo every time.\u00a0 Cowens\u2019 play could be described as anything but finesse.\u00a0 He was a hard-working, blue collar, aggressive player.\u00a0 He was a 6\u20199\u201d center who dominated his position in the NBA.\u00a0 You\u2019ll never see another Dave Cowens in the NBA as long as you live. \u00a0This guy would tear you apart on the basketball court.\u00a0 And he did it night in, and night out\u2026and he did it against other centers who were much bigger and much taller.<\/p>\n By the way, I\u2019ve always been asked who I found to be the toughest player to play against in the NBA, and the first name at the top of the list is Dave Cowens.\u00a0 That would be Dave because I had to play against him everyday in practice.\u00a0 And when you play against Cowens in practice you may as well just go against him in a game, because he only has one speed and only knows one way to play the game \u2013 and that\u2019s hard.\u00a0 So he was just as tough in practice as he was in the games.<\/p>\n Anyway, they were just two different types of players.\u00a0 Jo Jo was more finesse but a great shooter, and Dave was the kind of guy to dive on the floor and get his hands dirty and his knees scratched.\u00a0 He wasn\u2019t afraid to get in a scrape.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Two holdovers from the glory years were Satch Sanders and John Havlicek.\u00a0 Please tell me a little about Satch and Hondo.<\/strong><\/p>\n Satch was a great influence because he knew the game, he knew what it took to win, and he tried to teach all of the young players \u2013 including myself \u2013 what to do and how to do it.\u00a0 Satch was almost a coach-like figure, even though he was still a player.<\/p>\n Havlicek was Havlicek.\u00a0 To me, it seemed like Havlicek used to run 125 miles-per-hour up and down the court and never break a sweat.\u00a0 What a great player \u2013 great shooter, great rebounder, great team player.\u00a0 And what a great influence to have on the team.<\/p>\n And by the way, don\u2019t forget about Larry Sigfried.\u00a0 Larry was a very hard-nosed player \u2013 a typical Red Auerbach guy.\u00a0 Like Cowens, not afraid to get his hands dirty or his knees scratched.\u00a0 Not the most talented player in the world, but he always played very hard.\u00a0 You knew that he would give you 110% every night.\u00a0 I loved Larry Sigfried \u2013 boy, he was a tough kid.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/u><\/strong><\/p>\n Your coach in Boston was Tommy Heinsohn, who was one of your most vocal supporters.\u00a0 Please tell me a little about your relationship with Mr. Heinsohn.<\/strong><\/p>\n I had a great relationship with Heinie.\u00a0 Heinie knew exactly what I could do, and what I could not do.\u00a0 The same can be said for Red as well.\u00a0 Red Auerbach\u2019s philosophy on building a team \u2013 and this comes into play with me, too \u2013 was that a basketball team was like a puzzle that has twelve parts.\u00a0 He always said that you don\u2019t trade two of them to pick up one, because that still leaves a piece of the puzzle empty.\u00a0 Tommy subscribed to that.\u00a0 He realized that I was big and strong, that I could shoot, but, more importantly, he also knew that I could block out and set picks.\u00a0 Back in those days, the NBA had great centers like Kareem, Wilt, Willis Reed, Nate Thurmond, and Wes Unseld.\u00a0 And if Cowens was playing forward, or if he was in foul trouble, the only thing I had to do was block those guys out.\u00a0 We already had the rebounders in Cowens, Paul Silas, Don Nelson, and John Havlicek.\u00a0 As long as I kept the big guy off the boards, then those guys had a chance to get the rebound.\u00a0 And the other aspect of it was on offense; besides being a shooter, I could set a pretty good pick.\u00a0 If you set a pick for guys like Havlicek, Jo Jo, Westphal, Nelson, and Cowens when he was playing forward\u2026if you get those guys free for one second, then they\u2019ll hit 75% of those shots.\u00a0 And that\u2019s what I did \u2013 I kept going around setting picks for those guys, a little bang-boom\u2026you get a great shooter free for just a split second, and he\u2019s going to put the ball in the basket.\u00a0 And that\u2019s all I did.\u00a0 I defined my NBA career by doing those two things \u2013 blocking out and setting picks.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n The late Johnny Most nicknamed you \u2018High Henry,\u2019 something that has stuck with you through the years.\u00a0 Please tell me a little about the legendary Johnny Most.<\/strong><\/p>\n Wonderful guy.\u00a0 By the way, he made icons out of all of us.\u00a0 I\u2019ve been retired for thirty years now, and to this day people call me \u2018High Henry\u2019, and that\u2019s only because of Johnny Most.\u00a0 Johnny was the kind of guy that, if you were playing for anybody, you wanted to play for the Celtics because he made you out to be a superstar [laughs].\u00a0 He was a homer, and everybody knew it.\u00a0 He had his own style.\u00a0 He found the opposition to be the evil, bad guys.\u00a0 As far as off the court, you could sit down and talk basketball with Johnny in the hotel lobby.\u00a0 This guy had a background that pre-dated the arrival of Russell.\u00a0 So, what you wanted to do was sit down with Johnny and talk to him about all of the old-timers whose numbers are in the rafters and whose names are in the Hall of Fame.<\/p>\n But having said that, Johnny Most made icons out of all of us guys.\u00a0 That goes for superstars like Havlicek and Russell, as well as the fringe players like Hank Finkel.\u00a0 He was just a great guy to have on your side.\u00a0 And he was a good friend on top of that.\u00a0 One last thing about Johnny; if you were in the hotel lobby or the restaurant, you knew whether he was in there or not.\u00a0 His voice was that loud and that piercing.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n By 1972-73, the Celtics were once again among the NBA\u2019s elite.\u00a0 That team won a club record 68 games, but fell to the New York Knicks in the 1973 Eastern Conference Finals.\u00a0 Had that Celtics team won the NBA championship, where do you think it would rank among the all-time greats?<\/strong><\/p>\n I think that the Russell Era had all of the great teams, because they used to go nine, ten deep.\u00a0 And then you have Russell in the pivot.\u00a0 He was the difference maker.\u00a0 So, I can\u2019t tell you whereabouts we\u2019d rank \u2013 certainly it would have been behind those great Russell teams, but I do think that we had a great team in our own right.\u00a0 We had the likes of Cowens at center, Havlicek and Nelson Satch underneath.\u00a0 We had Jo Jo running the offense.\u00a0 I don\u2019t know where it ranks, or where it would have ranked had we won it all, but I think that we were one series away from winning the title that year.\u00a0 If we would have gotten past the Knicks in the Eastern Conference Finals, we would have won our first championship a year earlier.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n A year later the Celtics won twelve fewer games, finishing 56-26, but the end result was a world championship \u2013 the team\u2019s first since the retirement of Bill Russell.\u00a0 Please tell me about that playoff run, the win over the Milwaukee Bucks, and what it was like to be a part of that first post-Russell championship team.<\/strong><\/p>\n Well, Milwaukee had a pretty good team, too.\u00a0\u00a0 They had Kareem at center and Oscar Robertson at guard.\u00a0 They had Bobby Dandridge.\u00a0 I remember getting to play quite a bit in that series, because Kareem got Dave in foul trouble a couple of times.\u00a0 It was just a great feeling to win the championship, but there was more to it than that.\u00a0 I\u2019ve said all along that being a Boston Celtic was the greatest thrill of my basketball career.\u00a0 Winning the championship was the icing on the cake.\u00a0 When you\u2019re a part of an organization that has Red as the general manager and Heinsohn as the coach, and all of those great players as teammates, that\u2019s the epitome of playing for the Celtics.<\/p>\n The second greatest thing was my teammates.\u00a0 You go from Silas to Havlicek to Cowens, and on down the line.\u00a0 Jo Jo, Don Chaney, Paul Westphal.\u00a0 You just can\u2019t beat playing with guys like that.\u00a0 And the third greatest thing was winning that championship, because everybody wants to win a championship.\u00a0 But again, the greatest thrill was just being a part of the Celtic family.\u00a0 Nothing compares to that.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Please tell me about your teammate, Celtics great Don Nelson.<\/strong><\/p>\n Nellie was a great shooter.\u00a0 A great team player.\u00a0 Knew the fundamentals.\u00a0 Always looked out for his teammates on the court, but he was a great shooter.\u00a0 I remember once particular incident where Nellie had 9,999 points, and he needed another hoop or another foul shot to get 10,000 points \u2013 which was quite a feat in the NBA, especially at that time.\u00a0 There was a timeout, and Heinsohn asked Nellie what he wanted.\u00a0 And Nellie said, \u2018Have Finkel set the pick.\u2019\u00a0 Sure enough, I set the pick, and Nellie came off of it, hit the basket, and surpassed 10,000 points.\u00a0 Nellie wasn\u2019t a superstar, but he was a basic, fundamental, all-around player.\u00a0 That\u2019s why he was so successful as a coach.\u00a0 He knew the entire game.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/u><\/p>\n The Celtics would win two championships during the 1970s but, in many ways, these titles tend to get overlooked.\u00a0 Do you think this is because both titles were sandwiched between the Bill Russell and Larry Bird Eras?<\/strong><\/p>\n Probably.\u00a0 You got two players right there that are the greatest in franchise history \u2013 and two of the best in the history of the NBA.\u00a0 Red has said that if he had to start a team from scratch, he didn\u2019t know if he would pick Bird or Russell.\u00a0 So, you are probably right.\u00a0 But I\u2019ll tell you what \u2013 I\u2019ve said it before and I\u2019ll say it again; you\u2019ll never see another Dave Cowens.\u00a0 The guy was 6\u20199\u201d, and he played with so much heart and tenacity.\u00a0 You\u2019ll never see another guy that size play center and be that effective in the NBA.\u00a0 And then you have Havlicek, Jo Jo, Chaney, and Westphal.\u00a0 We had great teams, too, but you\u2019re probably right.\u00a0 The marquee names of Russell and Bird are what causes us to get lost in the shuffle.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n You have a special relationship with the Volk family.\u00a0 Please tell me a little about the late Jerry Volk, and also a little about his son, Jan.<\/strong><\/p>\n Jerry Volk, in my opinion, was just a perfect gentleman.\u00a0 I was put on waivers, and my wife and I were contemplating going back to San Diego.\u00a0 The weather was nice, and I had an opportunity to teach school out there.\u00a0 I had already lived in Boston for seven years.\u00a0 We owned a house and had two children who were in the school system there, and this was the place we\u2019d lived the longest since college.\u00a0 So my wife and I were trying to figure out what to do when Jan called.\u00a0 He said that his father wanted to talk to me.\u00a0 This was in November, when all of the teaching and coaching jobs were pretty much taken.\u00a0 So Jerry said, \u2018I don\u2019t know what your plans are, but what don\u2019t you go to work for me?\u00a0 You could make a few bucks and see if you like business.\u2019\u00a0 And the rest is history.\u00a0 It\u2019s because of Jerry Volk that I own a business now.<\/p>\n Unfortunately I went to a Celt game when Larry Bird was playing, and Rick Weitzman was sitting next to me at the press table.\u00a0 He said, \u2018Did you hear what happened to Jerry today?\u2019\u00a0 And I said, \u2018No.\u2019\u00a0 He said, \u2018Jerry had a heart attack and dropped dead.\u2019\u00a0 That just broke my heart.\u00a0 I\u2019m forever indebted to Jerry for giving me that opportunity.\u00a0 He was just a great guy.\u00a0 And Jan Volk \u2013 I didn\u2019t know him as general manager of the Boston Celtics, to be honest with you.\u00a0 But I understand that he was really good at managing the salary cap and organizing a team.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n You were also close with Tommy Heinsohn.<\/strong><\/p>\n I can\u2019t say enough about Heinie.\u00a0 I think he really appreciated the way I would dive on the floor.\u00a0 I think he appreciated that I wasn\u2019t afraid to bump and bang and shove.\u00a0 He really appreciated those kinds of things.\u00a0 He kept me on the team for six-plus years, so he must have liked what he saw out of my effort.\u00a0 Great coach.\u00a0 I think he retired prematurely.\u00a0 He\u2019s been very successful in broadcasting, and he\u2019s making a good buck, but I still say that it doesn\u2019t matter where he went, he would have made a great coach.\u00a0 He made the playoffs seven out of eight years, and he won the championship twice.\u00a0 Nowadays you have 30+ teams, so you have a lot of mediocre teams.\u00a0 Back them you had fewer teams, and every team had at least two superstars.\u00a0 Golden State had Rick Barry and Nate Thurmond, plus a multitude of other players.\u00a0 Cincinnati had Oscar Robertson and Jerry Lucas.\u00a0 And back then fewer teams made the playoffs.\u00a0 It was much harder to qualify.\u00a0 So Heinsohn really did a heck of a job.<\/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 The same thing that Red Auerbach always said to us.\u00a0 He said, \u2018I\u2019ll tell you something; you\u2019re either going to play, or you\u2019re not going to play.\u00a0 There is no gray area.\u2019\u00a0 And he said, \u2018If you\u2019re not going to play, then let me know.\u00a0 I\u2019ll put someone else in that will play.\u2019\u00a0 That\u2019s why he had a place for each of his players.\u00a0 He wanted guys that would give him 110% every single night, no excuses.\u00a0 That\u2019s why I don\u2019t accept excuses now from my children or anybody.\u00a0 There is no gray area in anything in life.\u00a0 It\u2019s either black or it\u2019s white.\u00a0 You\u2019re either going to do it or you\u2019re not.\u00a0 And my choice was not only to do it, but to give it 110% every night.\u00a0 I learned that from Red.<\/p>\n \n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" By: Michael D. McClellan | Someone had to bear the\u00a0burden of replacing arguably the greatest winner in the history of professional sports, and that someone turned out to be Hank Finkel.\u00a0 A karaoke singer who had somehow wandered onto Pavarotti\u2019s stage, Finkel performed for an audience spoiled by the immensely unattainable standards of his predecessor. 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<\/p>\n