New York and New Jersey don't like to lose, especially to New England. We lost a great one to New England, and ended up losing a lot of games to him.
Now, both sides have lost him.
Thomas William Heinsohn was born on August 26, 1934 in Jersey City, Hudson County, New Jersey, and grew up in adjoining Union City. He went to the now-defunct St. Michael's High School there, and got a basketball scholarship to the College of the Holy Cross in Worcester, Massachusetts.
In his sophomore year, 1954, he led the Crusaders to the NIT Championship -- at the time, still as big a deal as the NCAA Tournament. In his senior year, 1956, he became their all-time leading scorer, including scoring 51 points, still a school record, in a game against their arch-rivals, Boston College.
Like Bob Cousy, a New Yorker, he went from Holy Cross to the Boston Celtics via a territorial draft pick. (These were eliminated in 1966.) In his rookie season, 1956-57, he made the NBA All-Star Game, and was chosen as NBA Rookie of the Year over his teammate, Bill Russell. (I can't say for sure that the choice was racially motivated, but it's possible.)
The Celtics and the St. Louis Hawks (they moved to Atlanta in 1968) took Game 7 of the 1957 NBA Finals, at the Boston Garden, to double overtime (the only time that's ever happened), and the Celtics won it, 125-123, taking their 1st NBA Championship. Heinsohn led all scorers with 37 points, and also had 23 rebounds. Russell scored 19, Frank Ramsey and Arnie Risen each got 16, Cousy 12, Bill Sharman 9, Jack Nichols 8, Andy Phillip 5, and Jim Loscutoff 3.
The Celtics lost to the Hawks in the 1958 NBA Finals, but won the title in 1959 over the Minneapolis Lakers, 1960 and 1961 over the Hawks, 1962 and 1963 over the now-Los Angeles Lakers, 1964 over the San Francisco Warriors, and 1965 over the Lakers again. After the 1964-65 season, Heinsohn retired as a player, but not before his deadly hook shot, tough rebounding and rugged defense had won the Celtics those 8 titles and make 6 All-Star Games.
He was always willing to shoot, being nicknamed "Tommy-Gun" and "Ack-Ack," for the sound machine guns were said to make. When Cousy retired after the 1963 title, and became a Celtics broadcaster, he said, "Give Tommy credit for one thing: He never shoots without the ball." And he was tough: Ramsey said, "He'd knock his grandmother down for 2 points."
In the long term, his most important actions came off the court. Heinsohn was elected to succeed Cousy as the President of the NBA Players Association. Before the 1964 All-Star Game at the Boston Garden, he led the union in telling the league that the players would go on strike if some form of free agency was not instituted.
This was 11 years before free agency came to Major League Baseball, and 2 years before Sandy Koufax and Don Drysdale had MLB's 1st joint holdout. The NBA was not nearly as strong as the MLB, the NFL, or even the NHL at that point. The league caved, and Tommy called the strike off.
Before the 1964 All-Star Game, Celtics founder-owner Walter Brown acted like pretty much every sports team owner ever, treating disloyalty as a greater sin than losing: "Heinsohn is the Number 1 heel in all my association with sports." Three months later, after another NBA Championship, Brown -- who also owned the Garden, the Bruins, and horse- and dog-racing tracks -- said, "No living thing -- horse, dog or human -- ever gave so much competitively as Tommy contributed to the Celtics."
After retiring as a player, due to a foot injury at age 30, Tommy was hired to broadcast for the Celtics. He held this job through the Celtics' 1968 and 1969 titles (beating the Lakers in both Finals). Russell had succeeded Red Auerbach as head coach in 1966, and retired as a player and resigned as coach after the 1969 title. Tommy was hired, and had to rebuild.
Fortunately for him, Red was still the general manager, and he got Tommy such players as Dave Cowens, Jo Jo White, Paul Silas and Paul Westphal. And they already had John Havlicek and Don Nelson.
By 1972, the Celtics were Division Champions again. In 1973, he led them to a team record 68 regular-season wins, and was named NBA Coach of the Year, but the New York Knicks did something no other team had ever done: They eliminated the Celtics from the Playoffs in a series-clincher at the Boston Garden.
In 1974, the Celtics won another title, beating the Milwaukee Bucks in 7 games. In 1976, they won another, beating the Phoenix Suns in 6 games, including a Game 4 at the Boston Garden that went to triple overtime.
The Sixties crewcut was gone. He had embraced the Seventies style.
But age and injuries caught up with the team, and Tommy was fired in the middle of the 1977-78 season. His coaching record was 427-263. He returned to the broadcast booth, and watched as Bill Fitch coached the team to the 1981 title, over the Houston Rockets; and K.C. Jones, a 1960s teammate, took them to the title in 1984, over the Lakers; and 1986, over the Rockets again. The Celtics also lost the Finals to the Lakers in 1985 and 1987.
"Tommy doesn't really do color," his longtime broadcast partner Mike Gorman said. "In his heart, he's still coaching the Celtics, and he always will be. It doesn't matter who the coach is, and it's no disrespect to the coach. This always will be Tommy’' team. Tommy will be coaching this team till he takes his final breath. If it was possible to still be playing for this team, he would be."
In addition to broadcasting for the Celtics, Tommy worked some NBA and college games for CBS. In 1988, the former hook-shot artist published a memoir, Give 'em the Hook. By 2008, when the Celtics won another title, beating the Lakers again, he was 73, and only broadcasting home games. They lost the Finals to the Lakers in 2010.
Tommy Heinsohn is the only person to have been with the Celtics in an official capacity for all 21 of their NBA Finals appearances, and all 17 of their NBA Championships. (Red Auerbach was still team president through the 1986 title, and a board member until his death in 2006. Bill Russell has not been an official Celtic employee since 1969.)
Russell and Heinsohn
Holy Cross retired Number 24 for Tommy, and the Celtics retired Number 15 for him. In 1986, he was elected to the Basketball Hall of Fame as a player. In 2015, he became the 4th and most recent person to be elected as a player and as a coach, following John Wooden, Lenny Wilkens (a Hawks opponent in the 1961 Finals) and Bill Sharman (a Celtics teammate from 1956 to 1961). In 1997, he was named to the NBA's 50th Anniversary 50 Greatest Players.
He was a Renaissance man, who dropped historical and literary references into his broadcasts, and he enjoyed painting. He remembered being disappointed as a boy one Christmas when he asked for a paint set and received a baseball glove instead.
Tommy died today, November 10, 2020. He was 84 years old. He was survived by his daughter Donna and his sons Paul and David. He had been married to Helen Weiss, who died in 2008.
He was a Jersey Guy who fit in well in New England: "One thing I learned a long time ago is that there's no control over what people think of you. Some people said of me, 'Hey, it's great to see somebody with enthusiasm.' Others said I was a screaming ass. And all I can say is, 'That's me, pal.' I'm involved, and when I'm involved, I let it all hang out. I don't worry about my image."
He was a Hall of Fame player, a Hall of Fame coach, and could even posthumously receive the Curt Gowdy Media Award, the Hall's equivalent to induction for broadcasters. His image is secure. Somebody with enthusiasm? A screaming ass? He was both. And he loved it. And even people who hated the Celtics admired him for it.
With his death, there are just 2 surviving players from the Boston Celtics team that won the NBA Championship in 1957: Bob Cousy and Bill Russell.
From the 1959 Celtics, 4: Cousy, Russell, Sam Jones and K.C. Jones (no relation).
From the 1960 Celtics, the same 4.
From the 1961 Celtics, 5: Cousy, Russell, the Joneses and Tom "Satch" Sanders.
From the 1962 Celtics, 6: Cousy, Russell, the Joneses, Sanders and Gary Phillips.
From the 1963 Celtics, the same 5 as 1961.
From the 1964 Celtics, 4: Russell, the Joneses and Sanders. (Cousy had retired the year before.)
From the 1965 Celtics, 6: Russell, the Joneses, Sanders, Gerry Ward and Mel Counts.
And, with Tommy Heinsohn's death, the earliest surviving head coach of an NBA Champion is now Al Attles of the 1975 Golden State Warriors.
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