The Tom Heinsohn Interview
By:
Michael D. McClellan
|
Friday, August 3rd,
2006
Nineteen years removed from your incredible double-overtime performance
against the St. Louis Hawks, your Boston Celtics took the court in Game 5 of
the 1976 NBA Finals. In your mind, what stands out most about that
triple-overtime thriller?
Fainting
in the locker room after it was all over [laughs]. I’d gotten dehydrated
during that thing, so they’d brought me into the
trainer’s room and I
fainted. Somebody asked me a question and I just keeled right over. I
ended up with a touch of high blood pressure, and they weren’t going to let
me go out to Phoenix and let me coach the next game. It wasn’t until the
next day that they changed their minds. They looked me over, and allowed me
go out and coach.
That game was such a draining experience. It was a terrific game. We got up big, and then Paul Westphal starting making these whirling-dervish moves. He was the only guy in the league that I’d ever seen go into the paint for a layup, and do a three-sixty at full speed, in the air, and make the shot. And he made about four of those in the second half of that game. And then, of course, Gar Heard hit that big shot. The next game, the sixth game, was in Phoenix. And whoever was able to bend over, tie their sneakers and walk out onto the floor was going to win that game [laughs]. That’s how debilitating that triple-overtime game was back in Boston.
If
your athletic career were a play, it would contain three acts: Your
sensational collegiate career at Holy Cross, your hall-of-fame career as a
player for the Celtics, and your equally impressive job as head coach. If
you had to choose a signature Heinsohn moment from each of these acts, what
would they be?
At
Holy Cross, it was winning the NIT and being named MVP of the Sugar Bowl.
As a player, it would be the seventh game of that first championship in
1957. As a coach, it would be wining my first championship against the
Bucks in ’74.
Final
Question: You’ve achieved great success in your life. 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
told my kids this – you don’t do things because people will like you.
Because I’ve found out playing basketball that forty percent of the people
with hate you no matter what. Forty percent of the people will love you no
matter what. And twenty percent of the people will actually be influenced
by what you truly do. So you’ve got to find something that you like to do,
that you have fun doing, and then do it.
