The Glenn McDonald Interview
By:
Michael D. McClellan
|
Monday, March 20th,
2006
Please tell me a little about Dave Cowens.
Dave….[laughs]….one
of the most intense individuals I’ve ever met in my life. To this day I have
the utmost respect for him, because Dave has always been the most down-to-earth
individual. The thing that I’ve always liked about him is that he says what’s
on his mind, and he’s not going to let you sit around wondering what he’s
thinking. He’s going to tell you what he thinks about different things.
Tremendous player. For his size – he was only 6’9” – the things that he would
do, and the way he would throw his body around in order to help his team win,
you just can’t ask for more from a player. He was very, very talented. He was
a lefty that would take it at you. He was ferocious on the boards. Never gave
up. And then you get him off the court and he’s a very low-key, down-to-earth
person. And just a joy to play with. If I ever had to do it over again, he is
somebody that I would definitely want to be on my team. He epitomizes what hard
work is all about. He wasn’t the most talented person in the world, but my God,
he got it done. He had the biggest heart that you would ever see.
Following
the 1974-75 season, the Celtics traded Paul Westphal to the Phoenix Suns for
Charlie Scott. What did Scott’s arrival mean to this team in terms of
regaining the championship?
He
was already a phenomenal scorer, but he was also a big, quick guard that
wanted it. He came in and hadn’t won a championship, and he really wanted
that ring. I think that his mindset was one of fitting in. He was going to
come in here and do whatever possible to help us win a championship.
Charlie could rebound, he could shoot, he could take his man off the
dribble. He was a long guard that could defend pretty much anybody in the
backcourt. He also had heart. He’d been through so much during his college
days – the atmosphere that he had to play in, and he was just one of those
types of people who really wanted a championship bad. He was going to
sacrifice whatever he needed to sacrifice in order to do that. With him
having to come in and play with Jo Jo White, John Havlicek and Dave Cowens,
everybody wondered if there would be enough basketballs to go around.
Charlie subjugated his game to fit in with these guys. He knew that they
were the primary weapons on offense, and that his job was to compliment them
and defend.
I previous years, Paul Westphal wasn’t really looked upon as a scorer for our team. He was young and just starting, and he had a lot of potential. But there wasn’t a big need for him to produce points at that stage of his career. Charlie had to come in and pretty much play the same role as Westphal. He was suddenly the fourth option on offense, whereas he was the primary option in Phoenix. When he came in he knew his role and he accepted it, and he really played it well.
You’re
career with the Celtics is perhaps best known for your role in that
triple-overtime classic in the 1976 NBA Finals. Please take me back to that
game in general, and to your contributions in particular.
That
particular game was supposed to have been over at halftime. We were killing
them, up twenty-plus points, and it really illustrates that you can never
let up on your opponent. When a team starts gaining confidence, you don’t
know what’s going to happen. And that’s pretty much what happened with us.
We felt we had the game locked up. We made some mistakes defensively, and
then they started hitting some shots. I played earlier than normal in the
first quarter, and then I played early in the third quarter. After that I
was pretty much on the bench. By then I could tell that the Suns weren’t
afraid. They believed that they could come back in this game, and they
believed that they could win it. It became a situation where we’d score one
basket and they would score two or three, we’d make a mistake and they would
capitalize, and the next thing you know, we’re in the middle of a game. You
could see the players on our team trying to step it up – we were on our
heels and we needed to do something about it. You could tell that they knew
that it was time to get serious again. But it was already too late by that
time, because Phoenix already had the momentum. Paul Westphal was playing
unbelievable basketball, hitting just about everything he put up there.
And so we went into that first overtime, and then into the second overtime where we thought we had won the game. And then we had to come back out, because Richie Powers had made the call to give the Suns another second on the clock. I remember that he got jumped on by a crazed fan, and the place was an absolute madhouse. It was hard to believe the things that were going on out there.
My role was to be a cheerleader more than anything else. I really wasn’t focusing on the fact that I might be going back into the game. With so many veterans having been in those situations before, I was sure that my few minutes in the third quarter were the last that I’d see in the game. But then another one of our veterans fouled out, and at that point Tommy just felt that he wanted fresh legs. And that’s when he looked down the bench and called my name. He just looked at me and said, ‘Mac, get out there and run ‘em’. And that’s basically what it was. With me having fresh legs from sitting on the bench for awhile, I was able to get a couple of rebounds. I was able to fill the lanes and get out on the break. I was able to get a layup here-or-there. And that’s basically what my role was in that third overtime.
When Paul Silas fouled out, I told Steve Kuberski that he’d better get ready to go in. Steve took his warm-ups off, and all of a sudden Heinsohn says, ‘Mac, get in there!’ And I’m saying to myself, ‘Oh my God!’ But that was only for a split second. I jumped up didn’t think about the magnitude of the situation. I went in there to do my job, contribute, and make the most of a golden opportunity. And that’s what I’ve always told my kids. I stress how important it is to be focused and to be ready, because you never know when your number is going to be called. You want to be able to produce whenever they call your number. Fortunately for me, I was able to hit a couple of baskets and make a couple free throws. And fortunately it went right. It’s amazing, but it happened for me. I thank God that he put me in that position, and I thank Him even more for my being ready to produce when called upon.
The
Celtic championship teams of the 70s tend to get overlooked. Do you think
this is because those teams were sandwiched between the title teams of Bill
Russell and Larry Bird?
Probably
so. Yeah. Because, first of all, there were so many championships before
those teams won titles in the 70s, and then there were all of those trips to
the NBA Finals with Bird running the show. In both cases there wasn’t a big
gap between trips to the Finals – it just seemed like the Celtics were
playing for a championship every year. On one side of us you had Russell, a
phenomenal player won 11 titles in 13 years, and on the other you had Bird,
who won 3 in 7. He probably should have been more, if things had gone a
little differently against the Lakers.
Dave was named one of the 50 Greatest Players, but he still wasn’t the most dominant player around. Russell and Bird were dominant. Dave was a dominant player in his own sense, but it was mainly because of his blue collar work ethic. He was often overmatched against most of the centers in the league – he was always looking up to them, height-wise – but he had that great heart and he usually won the battles under the boards. He was a team player who worked extremely hard, like Russell and Bird, but he did it with less flash and bravado. I think that’s why he may tend to get overlooked, and why those championship teams of the 70s tend to get overlooked. I’m glad that he was recognized as one of the 50 Greatest Players, because he really deserved that honor.
