The Larry Siegfried Interview
By:
Michael D. McClellan
|
Tuesday, May 16th,
2006
The
'65 playoffs produced one of the most dramatic moments in NBA history, as Johnny
Most makes his legendary radio call: "Havlicek stole the ball! Havlicek stole
the ball!" Please take me back to that series in general, and that game in
particular.
I
wasn’t in the game at that time – I was watching it from the bench. We were
playing the 76ers, and at that time they had Wilt Chamberlain, Luke Jackson,
Chet Walker and Billy Cunningham. They had an outstanding basketball team. Let
me tell you, that series was a war. It was an absolute war. And that
particular night it happened right in front of us. Philly scored and we had the
lead by one point. Time was running out. All we have to do is inbound the
basketball, go up the court and the game’s over. What happened was this – in
the old Boston Garden the baskets were supported by guide wires that held the
baskets up. Russ threw the ball down court on the inbounds play, and it hit one
of those guide wires. And it dropped straight down. Well, Philadelphia got the
ball back, and was able to inbound it under their own basket with maybe five or
six seconds left on the clock. Red calls timeout. Russell and the guys come
over to the bench, and I remember that the place was going crazy. Well, after
the timeout Philadelphia ran their play – Hal Greer inbounded the ball, and
Havlicek got his hand on it. He deflected it to Sam Jones, who took off, and
that was the ball game. You just can’t imagine the response from the crowd,
because everybody expected Russell’s pass to go down the court, and then it hit
that guide wire and dropped straight down. And then the place really went crazy
when Havlicek stole that pass from Greer. It kept the dynasty alive, and we
were able to win another championship.
Red
Auerbach would bow out the following season with yet another championship,
the team's eighth in a row. Looking back now, what does it mean to be an
integral part of perhaps the greatest dynasty in the history of sport?
Here
again, it wasn’t about the winning. And I’m being very honest with you
about that. Am I proud of what we were able to accomplish? Yeah, sure.
That’s not what I’m trying to say. What I learned from my experiences at
Ohio State, even with all of the frustrations, and then what I learned with
the Celtics – those were the things that helped me to become a better
player, and those were the things that helped win championships. I say that
because everyone on that team was shaped by their experiences, both before
and after arriving in Boston. To me, winning those championships were
simply a byproduct. Those other things – my time at Ohio State, my time
with the Boston Celtics – have been burned into my being, and I will carry
them to my grave. I preach them and talk about them because I’ve lived
them, struggled through them, and learned the lessons. I’m thankful for
those experiences.
You asked about the championships and the trophies, and I don’t even know where the stuff is because that part is meaningless. Someone wrote a book at Ohio State, and the author came up to my house to talk basketball. And he wanted to know one thing – why were we able to win the national title? Why were we able to win it, when there were three other teams with just as much talent? He had done a study for the book, and then he came up here and spent eight or nine hours with the guys from that team, and what do you think he found as the common denominator that enabled us to win? I’m not talking about talent – you’ve got to have that just to have a chance. But what was it that separated our team from the other three? The family structure that was in place on that team. Winning was simply a byproduct of that structure. That goes back to the family, the home, the morals, all of that stuff. Those are the things that gave the coaches the opportunity to instill a philosophy that enabled us to win.
Now, let’s take this thing to Boston. All of the kids that played in Boston were kids that came from successful basketball programs. Were they the most talented? No. You had KC and Russell out of San Francisco. You’ve got Bailey Howell out of Mississippi State. You had John and I out of Ohio State. Clyde Lovellette out of Kansas. All of those kids came from great programs. Now, if you put it all together; if you take the family structure, which gives you the potential, and you add in a great basketball program to get the most out of that potential, then you’ve got all of the ingredients to create a winning team. And that is the thing that I am most proud of, and I preach it every day of my life. Do the championships make a big deal? Nah. It’s all of the other things that you carry with you that make it special. And if you happen to win without that family structure, and without that true sense of team, then you don’t have anything. Zero.
Kids today are so concerned about the end result that they don’t enjoy the journey of getting there. And that camaraderie and sense of team? That gets lost because everyone on the court is looking to do for themselves. It’s all about self. And that goes back to the family structure and the upbringing of these kids. Their home environment. What they’re learning. Who they’re getting their examples from. What they’re seeing on TV and in the movies. The role models that they pattern themselves after. Just look at sports on TV – look at the wild celebrations after someone scores a touchdown. Or look at how they act after catching a simple five yard pass. Or how they act after a quarterback sack. Basketball is the same way. And these kids don’t have the family structure to keep them grounded. They want to do it bigger, louder, and more sensational than the last guy. It’s all me, me, me. Look at me. Look at who I am and what I’ve accomplished. The team concept just goes straight out the window.
Now, let’s go back to my high school team. Of that starting lineup my senior season, three of those guys went on to become doctors. Why were they able to do that? The family structure was there – these kids came out of respectable homes. And then I went to Ohio State, and those kids at Ohio State came out the same type of home environment. Just look at their majors. Look at their GPAs. This stuff is written down…this stuff is in concrete. Then I go to Boston, and they have Russell, who can’t shoot the ball. But he’s a winner from the moment he picked up a basketball. And they have Bailey Howell, and John and I, and KC and Sam Jones, and you say to yourself, ‘Is this a coincidence?’ No. Those guys all came from strong homes and were able to build upon their physical talents. The family structure was the foundation around which everything else was built.
I hear people talk about who the best player is on this team, and who the best player is on that team. And when that subject comes up about the Boston Celtics I just cut them short. Because you can’t divide our team like that. You can’t carve it up in those types of slices. We were a true team in every sense of the word. When I was in Boston, we had the best basketball team in the world. Did we have the most talent? No. Did we have the best team? I repeat: We had the best basketball team in the world.
