The John Havlicek Interview
By:
Michael D. McClellan
|
Thursday, October 18th,
2007
That 1976 title would be your last, and the eighth time that you would walk
off of the floor as an NBA champion. Did winning ever get old for you?
Winning
never gets old. It only gets old if you lose, and that's what made it
so special to play for the Celtics. The organization
was committed to
wining, and this started with [team founder and original owner] Walter
Brown, and was reinforced daily by Red Auerbach. Those two men created
a winning atmosphere within the Celtics organization, and this made it easy
for the players to put team success ahead of individual accomplishments.
If you look at any of those great championship teams, you'll see players who
could have easily put up big numbers on lesser teams elsewhere. But we
were interested in team goals. Winning championships never got old to
any of us.
Your career in Boston spanned two distinct eras - the Bill Russell Dynasty
of the 1960s, and the Dave Cowens Era of the 1970s. What was it like
to be part of both periods in Boston Celtics history?
When
you have the greatest defensive player in the history of basketball
anchoring your team, everything is going to be predicated on defense.
Defensively, Russell
revolutionized the game. He could dominate without scoring a point.
You also had KC Jones on those teams, you had Satch Sanders. Great
defensive players. But as we moved into the 70s, we shifted the
emphasis from defense to offense. Again, Russell was the greatest defensive
center the game has ever known. Dave Cowens couldn't come in and take
the place of Russell, at least not by trying to imitate him. Cowens
had to play the game to his strengths. He was a better shooter than
Russell. KC was a great defensive player. Jo Jo White was a
better shooter. I was counted on more to carry the scoring burden on
those later teams. So we were much more offensively oriented during
the 70s. But make no mistake, those Russell teams could also score -
as obvious as it sounds, you have to be able to outscore your opponent to
win a game, and we won more than our share during the 60s.
Your conditioning and fitness levels were the stuff of legend. Over
the course of your career you ran countless defenders ragged trying to keep
up with you.
Running
was a very important part of my game, no question about it. And I knew
from the first time I played a basketball game that the toughest guy to
score on was the guy who kept after me all the time, nose-to-nose,
basket-to-basket, on every single possession. So I stayed in motion,
and I used the constant movement to my advantage. I also knew that the
opposite was also true. The toughest guy to defend against was the guy who
kept running. The guy who never let up, never stopped moving, never let you
relax.
I
knew that I could be successful doing those types of things, and that over
the course of a game it would wear down the guy guarding me and open up
valuable scoring opportunities late in the fourth quarter. Those were
the types of advantages that I wanted to have, especially in the close
games. If you were in better shape than the man guarding you, you
could take advantage of the fatigue factor. That's the edge I
wanted to have.
Final
Question: You’ve
achieved great success in your life, and you’ve done
so with a great deal of dignity, pride and class.
You are universally respected and admired by many people
(both inside and outside of the NBA). If you could
offer one piece of advice on life to others, what would
that be?
I've
said it before and I'll say it again: Never
give up. I had hundreds of shots
blocked during my career, but I always
focused on making the next shot.
You've got to take chances, and you can't
dwell on the negatives.
