The Arnie Risen Interview
By:
Michael D. McClellan
|
Wednesday, December 13th,
2006
Please tell me a little about Walter Brown.
Walter
Brown was a great man. His word was his bond, and when he told you something he
meant it. In all the time
Auerbach worked for Brown, the two of them never had
a written contract in place. It was a year-to-year verbal agreement between
them, which tells you something about the trust and respect that they had for
each other. Walter Brown let Red run the basketball side of the business. He
knew that Red was the one with the basketball knowledge, and he trusted Red to
make the right decisions. And Walter was one of the best owners in the league.
He cared about the players and their families, and he paid a little more than
the other owners. I think he understood that happy players gave a little more
on the court, and in practice, and that it made good business sense if they were
motivated. He reminded me of Les Harrison in that regard. So the relationship
between the two was really close, which is why there was no contract. They
would meet once a year, discuss a salary, and that would be it until the next
year. The players had contracts, though; that was controlled by the league.
But Walter would let Red negotiate directly with the players. He trusted Red,
so he knew that Red would do the right thing for the Boston Celtics.
The
fabled Boston Garden was home to some of the greatest moments in NBA
history. What was it like to play in the Garden, both as an opponent and as
a member of the Boston Celtics?
The
parquet floor – nobody else had a floor made like that. It was beautiful.
As an opponent, you had to be concerned about condensation on the parquet
floor during the spring. That’s because the Bruins also played their games
in the Boston Garden, and in the spring they would lay the basketball court
right over top of the ice. There was actually a time when a gamed was
called off because condensation from the hockey ice caused pools of water to
form on the parquet floor. And then you had to be concerned about the
so-called dead spots. Legend had it that the floor had places where the
ball wouldn’t bounce back the way it normally would, and that the Celtics
knew where the spots were, and that they would try to force you into that
area to create a turnover. Well, there was a lot of talk about the dead
spots, but I don’t think it was any deader in spots than any of the other
inlaid floors. As a member of the Celtics, having the dead spots was in our
favor was part of our psychological advantage. They may not have helped win
a game, but just having the thought in the opponent’s mind was enough to
make the Garden a more difficult place to play. It was a great atmosphere
when I played there, because they filled the place up and we were winning.
You
played against Boston’s original tough man, Bob Brannum, and with the player
who would later take his place – Jim Loscutoff. Please tell me about each
of these men.
They
were two different types of individuals. They both acquired the reputation
of being the team’s enforcer. Brannum was quite a character. Of the two,
Brannum was probably the team’s true hatchet man. He loved to fight, and he
was a rough, tough man. He didn’t have a lot of skill as a shooter, but in
the early days he was the player who kept Cousy from getting roughed up.
Loscy would fight, too, and he would also be right there by Cousy’s side,
but he doesn’t get enough credit for what he could do with the basketball.
Loscy was actually a skilled offensive player. I know that may be
surprising to a lot of people today. He could dribble pretty well, and he
could shoot the ball. He more than held his own in practice, and could
shoot the ball about as well as anybody on the team. But there just weren’t
enough shots to go around when the games started. If Loscy gave up the ball
in a game, then he didn’t get it back. Not that they wouldn’t hit you if
you were open. It was just that everybody liked to shoot the ball, and
everybody was free to do it whenever they wanted to. But in a game of
horse, Loscutoff didn’t have to take a back seat to anybody. He could more
than hold his own. And to his credit, Loscy understood his role. He knew
that Cousy and Sharman were going to take shots, and that Heinsohn was going
to be taking more than just about anybody on the team. Red asked him to
play the tough man role, and to clean up the shots that didn’t go into the
basket. Loscy did that. He averaged double figures during that ’57
championship season, but I think that was the only time in his NBA career.
Anyway, Loscy wasn’t going to back away from a fight. He just wasn’t the
type that would instigate one. He was just a protector. So, if somebody
was threatening to Cousy, then Loscy would stand up beside of him.
Bob Harris is another player who doesn’t get enough credit for what he did
on those early Celtics teams. He was a tough player. Tough as nails. His
nickname was Gabby, and he was someone that you didn’t look forward to
playing. Back then the Celtics weren’t a particularly big team, and Harris
was one of the players who could mix it up. He was the probably the real
butcher, and I don’t mean that in a negative way. That’s just the way he
played. He hustled and he banged, and you got hit a lot – inadvertently –
whenever you went up against him.
Frank
Ramsey is widely regarded as the NBA’s original Sixth Man. Please tell me a
little about Frank.
A
fellow Kentuckian. Frank was a great college player. His record
speaks for itself. He was always talking, always yakking. A
chatterbox. He was a high energy player who would come into a game and
immediately make things happen. I think that’s why Red used him in
that role off of the bench. There were times when the offense would
bog down, or times when Red didn’t think we were playing defense hard
enough, and that’s when he would call on Ramsey to provide the team with a
spark. He was like a buzz saw out there. Always running here and
there and getting involved. I think that’s what made him such a good
Sixth Man. He’d come in and create a whole lot of enthusiasm because
of his energy.
