Even as he celebrates his 70th birthday, it's difficult to imagine John Havlicek, the perpetual motion machine, ever standing still in retirement. Not after all those big games, all those big shots and all those miles logged running and cutting across the fabled parquet floor of the Boston Garden.
With the prolific likes of Larry Bird and Paul Pierce coming after his 1978 retirement from the NBA, Havlicek is still the Boston Celtics' all-time leading scorer with 26,395 points. He was an eight-time NBA champion, a 13-time All-Star, the 1974 Finals MVP, was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 1984 and was chosen as one of the 50 Greatest Players in NBA History.
These days, Havlicek spends most of the basketball season living in south Florida, where he keeps an eye on the NBA and, most especially, his Celtics. On the eve of his birthday (April 8), I caught up with Havlicek to chat about the game that is still his passion.
NBA.com: Does Mr. Perpetual Motion spend his retirement days constantly on the move and running to open spots in the kitchen or the living room?
John Havlicek: (Laughing) Not quite. I golf every day. I do some hunting. I do a lot of stretching. I walk the dog and that type of thing. My knees have faltered on me. I'm more in the walking mode than the running mode these days.
NBA.com: Who in today's NBA reminds you of you?
JH: That's a question I've been asked since I retired. I think there are certain people who just are who they are. I mean, Jerry West is Jerry West and Oscar Robertson is Robertson and Russell was Russell and Wilt was Wilt and Kareem is Kareem. I just don't think you can make significant comparisons.
NBA.com: What do you make of this year's Celtics and their problems? Do they have another championship run in them?
JH: It's not a good sign when you lose a bunch of games at home. It's a fact that they've lost more games at home than on the road this season. That's bizarre. It shows the lack of something. I don't know if it's effort or it's injuries or what it can be, since I'm not there to follow it that close. The only thing I can say is maybe they're sort of hanging in there, resting themselves and getting ready for the playoffs. I hope that would be the case, but it's hard to turn it on and off. I can remember Bill Russell's last year. He was really tired and he basically took the last two weeks of the season off and didn't play. It helped rejuvenate him for the playoffs and we ended up winning the whole thing again. So maybe the Celtics now can refocus or redo what they have to do and get something going in the playoffs. But it's one of those things where Atlanta was unable to beat them before. Now Atlanta has beaten them every time they've played this year. The same is true with Orlando -- they feel they can beat the Celtics on any floor, anytime, anywhere. Once you give teams confidence against you, that can be a problem.
NBA.com: Today's NBA champions talk about the difficulty of defending their titles. How were your Celtics able to do it again and again?
JH: For one thing, most of the rosters change today. It seems there all kinds of people who wind up on rosters from year to year. I was listening to someone talk the other day about (Trevor) Ariza and (Ron) Artest. Maybe the Lakers should have kept Ariza instead of getting Artest. He's younger and explosive and all those things. Those are gambles you take to improve your team, but those are also changes you make and sometimes the change you make is not a good one to a championship team. We never changed and that was one of the things that kept us so good, because we were familiar with each other. We would pick up people off the waiver wire, but basically our team stayed intact and with a championship teams because it's easier to defend it with the people you had the year before.
NBA.com: But isn't there the temptation for the same team to get complacent during the regular season?
JH: We had a great group of winners on our team. Red Auerbach used to draft people based on what they'd accomplished with their teams. If he was thinking about one or two people, he would look at the winning record, even though they may have the same pedigree individually. On my first Celtic championship team there were seven members that were on NCAA championship teams. So they had been to the mountaintop and they had won. That was (Bob) Cousy and Russell and K.C. Jones and Frank Ramsey and Clyde Lovellette and myself and Larry Siegfried. That's seven guys who had won championships already, who knew and understood what it took to win one.
NBA.com: Rajon Rondo just broke Bob Cousy's single-season Celtics' assist record. What was it like to play with the guy who was the pioneer for the creative point guards?
JH: I loved playing with Cousy and I think he liked playing with me, because I could catch and I could finish and that's what he was interested in. The Cooz always found you when you were open, the pass was always on time and it's a pleasure to play with a guy like that. He was one of the originators of the behind-the-back dribble and that type of thing, but I guess the best ball-handler of all time was (Pete) Maravich. There are certain videos of him doing things that no one even attempts to do today. Cousy was one of the originals of things that are done today. But he was also so much different because he dribbled the ball. They don't dribble the ball today. They palm the ball today. It drives me crazy. If they had to play in our era, they might not be able to bring the ball up the court because they don't know how to dribble. Then again, times have changed. I move along with it. I'm OK with it. But there are differences.
NBA.com: Dwight Howard could end up leading the league in rebounds, blocked shots, field goal percentage and double-doubles this season. Is he a modern version of Bill Russell?
JH: I imagine in today's game, because he's the only shot-blocker that there is. You could compare him, yeah, but the comparison falls short. Russell intimidated a lot of people to make them change their shot. At times, he wouldn't even think about blocking their shot. He wanted to make them aware of his presence. Then during the latter part of the game, he would strike. There are times when he would decoy people to think that they were able to get their shot off. He might let them get the shot off so that they weren't hesitant. Then at the end of the game, he would say, 'Oh, this time I'm gonna get him.' He waited for his chances. He was so smart. Guys today just go up and block a ball. Russell would fake a block sometimes and do other things that Dwight Howard doesn't do. Russell would run people down from behind, much like LeBron (James) does. LeBron's the only guy who runs people down from behind, it seems. He's made some incredible plays this year by doing that. Russell did that on more than one occasion almost every game. You don't see Dwight Howard running down a person from behind.
NBA.com: What do you think of the new Hall of Fames inductees, Scottie Pippen, Karl Malone and Dennis Johnson?
JH: Scottie did a heck of a job as an all-around player and Karl was one of the all-time players in the league. D.J., when he was a rookie and I was in my final year, he was someone I played against and said, 'He's a rookie that plays beyond his years.' He was very good defensively. And Larry Bird says he's the best player he's ever played with. I guess it took a while for him because a lot of people looked at D.J. as 'maybe yes, maybe no.' I think it probably answers the question when you have the endorsement of one of the all-time greats like Bird. If he says the guy was pretty good, then I believe he belongs.
NBA.com: Who's the most deserving player that's been left out of the Hall of Fame?
JH: I have a friend who has credentials that are as good as a lot of people that are in the Hall of Fame and he's not in and it bothers me. That's Richie Guerin with the Knicks. He scored 57 points in one game. That was the Knicks record for a long time. He was one of the first Knicks ever to have a 2,000-point season. He was an All-Star a number of times. I'll admit, he's a friend of mine and I'm biased. But he's deserving.
NBA.com: Where do you think LeBron James will be playing next season?
JH: I hope he stays in Cleveland, because Cleveland needs a winner and they've got a native son. He's a guy that if he leaves he's going to be letting down a lot of people. And how much money do you need? I understand the draw of the media centers in New York, LA and Chicago. I hear that if LeBron goes to NY, LA or Chicago, his Nike contract automatically increases. I'm not for a lot of that free agency and the way it goes, but I understand why it happens. There are some people that need to be able to move on, because they get stuck in a rut. Some of the other people in the middle need to be able to move if they can improve themselves by going somewhere else. But if you're the top player, you're pretty well-compensated, I think.
NBA.com: Is this LeBron's year in the playoffs?
JH: It appears to be that way right now. Last year was a big disappointment to LeBron. Sometimes you have to pay your dues before you get there. Maybe last year was that dues-paying year. But I'll sit back, enjoy it, watch it and not worry about it when it's over. That's what's different about being retired. When I was playing, if I lost a playoff game, I used to replay that thing all night long. I don't do that anymore. I just move on to the next golf game.
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment