He Changed the Game

Not Puffy, Bob Cousy

BY ALEX CARNEVALE

Click to see full size
Illustration by Ben Yaster
Bob Cousy

IN LIGHT OF THE star-studded NBA All-Star Weekend, it's worth remembering that there would be none of the flash of today's NBA without the originator of the behind the back pass, NBA legend Bob Cousy. "I used to go to the FleetCenter and see all the retired numbers," Providence Journal sports columnist Bill Reynolds, the author of Cousy: His Life, His Career, and the Birth of Big-Time Basketball told the Indy. "I'm old enough to remember when there was just one."

Cousy changed everything, becoming the NBA's number one arena draw and forcing the first set of rule changes to the game Dr. Naismith first invented. At the time Cousy entered the NBA there was no shot clock, and the game was worlds away from the fierce competitiveness of the Celtics' glory years, the excitement of run and gun basketball brought about by Pat Riley's Showtime Lakers, or the dominance of Michael Jordan's Bulls.

"Guys were big and slow," Reynolds said. "The NBA was a 'goons game'-the prototype was George Mikan, a big white stiff who would rumble down the court and make a layup."

Bob Cousy arrived in the NBA just as Arnold "Red" Auerbach, in his first season as head coach of the Boston Celtics, memorably told the local media, "We need a big man. Little men are a dime a dozen. I'm supposed to win, not go after local yokels." In the 1950 draft Auerbach selected a true bust, the 6'11" center Chuck Share from Bowling Green.

Cousy, on the other hand, signed with the Tri-Cities Blackhawks in Iowa, and was passed on to the Chicago Stags. The Stags had a promising future, but promptly folded, setting up the legendary scene in which the names of the three decent players on the Stags (Cousy, the scoring leader Max Zaslofsky, and Andy Philips) were thrown into a hat for a primitive draft. The Celtics, Knicks and Warriors selected players. When Celtics owner Walter Brown drew Cousy, he sighed in disgust, almost falling out of his chair. Cousy would go on to lead the Celtics to six championships.

In exchange for giving the Ice Capades concession to a rival owner in Saint Louis, Auerbach brought Bill Russell to Boston in 1956. Just two years after the implementation of the shot clock had increased the number of possessions each team would have during a game, Russell provided exactly what the Celts needed: rebounding and defense. And so arrived the workings for the NBA's first dynasty, a team to rival the Yankees for dominance and bring the burgeoning sport of basketball its first legends.

The Only Living Boy In New York

The son of French immigrants, Bob Cousy was born in Manhattan and grew up on the East Side of the city until his family moved out to Queens. His pregnant mother came through Ellis Island and he became a self-described "ghetto rat" of 80th and East End Avenue, sometimes called Yorkville. After Cousy broke his arm falling out of a tree at an early age, he learned to dribble left handed. Add that freak development to his abnormally large hands, and Cousy had a terrific handle on the ball.

At the time there was a lot of untapped talent in New York City, and as a way of reaching out to good players, the coach at Holy Cross sought out All-City basketball players. In stark contrast to the bling-bling of today's recruiting visits, Cousy received just a letter from Holy Cross, which he stuffed unceremoniously into his drawer. His only other option was an opportunity at Boston College. "These days," Cousy said in a recent interview, "if you're All-City in New York, you get 500 scholarship offers. I got two."

Boston College offered him a visit to the school, where he was told he had to live with a family. They didn't have a gym, but they were going to build one, and in the meantime they were going to play their home games at the Boston Garden.

"French was my first language.I was the original socially depraved shy ghetto kid," Cousy said in a radio interview. "The idea of living with a family terrified me." He accepted Holy Cross' scholarship offer after seeing in his brochure they had what he wanted: dorms.

In his first year at Holy Cross the coach received a $500 salary, the team practiced in a renovated barn, and eventually won the national championship. "The team was five older guys in the service, and city kids," Bill Reynolds told the Indy. "Cousy's right out of high school when they come out of nowhere and become a basketball power." In Madison Square Garden they beat Navy, City College, and Oklahoma in the National Invitational Tournament, a victory equivalent to today's NCAA championship.

Competitive, Schizophrenic

Reynolds had Cousy's total cooperation on Cousy: His Life, His Career, and the Birth of Big-Time Basketball, and he's not afraid to discuss Cousy's unique personality. "He was very driven, very competitive, and definitely had a schizophrenic side," Reynolds said. "As a public star, he had all kinds of doubts and insecurities." Cousy's need to compete gave him something of a dual personality, which both made him great and broke him down. He suffered from chest pains and stomach cramps in the locker room before big games.

While a slightly later Celtics incarnation continued to win championships, most observers consider the 1961 Celtics the best overall team to that point in NBA history. The team had its scorer Tommy Heinsohn, the great Bill Sharman, Cousy and K.C. Jones at guard, and Russell manning the middle. Russell was a mix of Ben Wallace and Shaq on the defensive end, stopping people with his length and power, and limiting the opposition to just one opportunity every time they came down the floor because of his tenacious rebounding.

The Celtics were terrific jump shooters and got plenty of second opportunities. It was the Celtics' powerful recipe for success, as they defeated all the other top teams of the era, including Wilt Chamberlain's Warriors, Jerry West's Lakers and the Oscar Robertson-led Cincinnati Royals. "When you look at how the Celtics of Cousy's era played," Reynolds said. "They played exactly like a modern team." The Celtics were a modern team in the sense that they pushed the ball up the court on offense and had multiple scorers and people who could handle the ball.

With the amount of success the Celtics achieved, you would think their performance would have generated Shaq-Kobe-like hype. Instead, they couldn't top the Red Sox in their own city. Ted Williams was immortal in Boston and it was only after he retired that Cousy got some of the props that he deserved. At the age of 35, Cousy retired in a crazy ceremony that was sometimes called "The Boston Tear Party." Even JFK was there to thank Cousy for his contribution to the game.

Air Cousy

In his prime, Cousy was the best pure point guard the game has ever seen. Other point guards had more assists, but Cousy's 7.7 assists per game in a time with a longer shot clock and no three-point line make his achievements at the point all the more stunning.

The center has had its time in the NBA. Because of the incredible number of super-athletic 6'8"-and-above players, dominant size is no longer important. The era of the forward in the NBA has also suffered from the increase in overall athleticism. Strong point guards who can distribute the ball will dominate the coming years of pro basketball, making the product more as exciting as the Celtics' Cousy-led attack.

In the Eastern Conference's top squad, Shaq's Miami Heat, Dwyane Wade handles the ball the majority of the time. Same goes in Cleveland, where Lebron's Cavaliers are slumping on defense, but using a similar offensive attack centered around their 6'9" point. At the same time you have the scoring point and Cousy clone Steve Nash of the Phoenix Suns on the MVP ballot. On a related note, the NBA champion Detroit Pistons, with a collection of role players and a talented backcourt, won last year's NBA Championship without a scoring center.

Whatever the ultimate effect of Bob Cousy's career on the game, there is no doubt he had some part in making the NBA the international phenomenon it is today, ushering in an era of exciting basketball we all can enjoy this month as the college game enters its NCAA tournament and the NBA season spirals towards the playoffs.

ALEX CARNEVALE B'05 is a point-forward in the Ben Yaster mold

Back to Top

the college hill independent

http://www.theindy.com