The Gene Guarilia Interview
By:
Michael D. McClellan
|
Monday, September 26th,
2005
The
Celtics battled the Lakers in the 1962 NBA Finals, a classic series that
went seven games and turned on Frank Selvy's misfire that could have won
Game 7 – and the championship – for the Lakers. Please take me back to that
classic series in general, and that game in particular.
Actually,
the game before that was in Los Angeles, and the Lakers were ahead 3-2. We
had to win out there or we were done. We played a great game out in LA, and
we ended up making it 3-3. The final game was in Boston Garden and we got
lucky, we really did. Frank Selvy took a shot, it bounced up off the rim,
Elgin Baylor tipped it, it hit the rim and came off, and that was the end of
regulation.
It was nip-and-tuck in the first overtime. Baylor had 64 points by that juncture. At the end of the first overtime, all of our forwards had fouled out – Ramsey fouled out, Sanders fouled out, Loscutoff fouled out. Auerbach said, ‘Gene, go in there.’ I was nervous. Red said, ‘Hey, kid, do the best you can. Just play like you do in practice. Just play hard, and everything will fall into place.’ I had to guard Elgin Baylor. I tried to keep him from getting the ball – I tried to front him, and he didn’t get a point off of me…I played the whole overtime, and he did not score one point off of me. I grabbed two or three key rebounds. Russell came over to me afterwards and congratulated me. He said that the Celtics probably wouldn’t have won that game if I hadn’t done a great job on Baylor. But you have to remember that Baylor was tired, and I was fresh – I hadn’t played the whole game and I had a lot of energy. Boy, I was keyed up afterwards – I don’t think I slept for two days [laughs].
Let's
talk road life in the NBA. I've heard that Red would front you in the card
games that inevitably broke out on those long flights to and from games.
Notoriously tight with his money, Red must have seen something in your
card-playing. Were you a team's card shark?
I
don’t know about that [laughs]. We used to play high-low poker. On the
planes we always played hearts, because we didn’t want the passengers or the
crew to see money on the table. When we’d get to the hotels, we’d designate
somebody’s room and we’d play poker…either after the game, or if we had a
layover. In high-low poker there were always two winners – if you were
going high, you put one quarter in your hand so nobody would see it, and if
you were going low you put two quarters in your hand. If you were going
both ways – you could actually be high and low – then you put three quarters
in your hand. Then you would get the whole pot. And it was always seven
card stud. It never got into serious money. We used to get $8 a day in
meal money, which was $40 if we were on the road a week. If you lost that
$40 in a poker game, that was considered a lot. So it wasn’t outrageous
money. And if you ran short, Auerbach would always loan you enough money to
eat on until you got back to Boston.
What about those annual preseason barnstorming trips that involved the Celtics and another NBA team, usually the Lakers?
My
second year with the Celtics we played the Lakers – they’d selected Jerry
West that year, so he was a rookie – and we played our way up through New
England. We played in places like Bangor, Maine, and Augusta, Maine. We
played in Hanover, New Hampshire, where Dartmouth is located. Would you
believe that we beat the Lakers fourteen out fifteen times during that tour,
and then the regular season starts. We’re playing the Lakers in
Minneapolis, we were 7-0, and they smeared us in that game. They murdered
us. Baylor went nuts in that game – I think he had 60 points when it was
over. Nobody could guard him, not even me. I couldn’t believe it.
But New England is beautiful in the fall. It’s a gorgeous place to be. In fact, we even took in a football game when we were on that that tour. I think it was Colby versus Amherst, up in Maine, and what a setting – beautiful small college campus, the fall foliage…it was a great break from all of those games against the Lakers [laughs].
We didn’t take buses on those trips – I rode with Red and Gene Conley…I think Gene had a red Ford convertible. Russell took his car…he had a big Lincoln. Bob Brannum drove his car. And the writer that was covering the exhibition games at the time always took his car. We had some great times on those trips, but we were always glad when they were over.
Please
tell me about Walter Brown.
Walter
Brown, what a great guy. If you wanted more money, you went to Walter
Brown. If you talked contract with Red, you always ended up with $2,000
less than you probably should have [laughs]. I went to Walter Brown – he
was the guy to see. Great, great guy.
