The Boston Celtics by Michael D. McClellan

Author:Michael D. McClellan
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781683581987
Publisher: Sports Publishing
Published: 2018-01-15T00:00:00+00:00

20-Second Timeout with:

CHARLIE SCOTT

Olympic gold medalist. ABA Rookie of the Year. Member of the ’76 NBA champion Boston Celtics.

• On being traded to the Celtics: I was on my way to Brazil. I was standing in line at the airport, and Paul Westphal was standing right in front of me. Talk about irony. We were getting ready to catch a flight, and Larry Fleischer asked me if I had heard the news. I said, ‘What news?’ He pointed at Paul and said, ‘You were traded to Boston for him.’ I thought it was a joke, so I played along and said, ‘Nah, you know that’s not true. Phoenix got more than that for me.’ Larry then proceeded to tell me that I’d been traded to Boston for Paul Westphal and two second-round draft choices.

• On that triple-overtime classic against Phoenix in the ’76 NBA Finals: One thing people forget is that we were up by 25 points at one time. Give the Suns credit; they came back, things turned around, and they were able to stay in the game and force overtime. Bob Ryan and Mike Lupica kept writing in the papers about how the Boston Celtics were bullying up on the poor Phoenix Suns. As a result, that triple-overtime game was a very closely called game, and that’s the only thing that made that game tight.

• On Game 6 being played on a Sunday: The championship game was played at nine o’clock in the morning. CBS had a golf tournament that they were committed to televising that afternoon. I’ll never forget it; we had a 5 a.m. wakeup call for a championship game.

• On his favorite Red Auerbach story: I’ll never forget, we had just lost to the Portland Trailblazers on national TV. Red had just signed Sidney Wicks to a multi-year contract, and Sidney really wasn’t the type of player that Red was used to having. Not long after that game Red came to practice, and he was giving us a little shakedown on what he thought about our performance, and about what he thought about players giving ‘false hustle.’ And he looked Sidney straight in the eye as he was talking to all of us, and he said, ‘Some of you guys think that you’ve got it on me because you’ve got long-term contracts, but I’ll tell you what; I wish you bad luck for the rest of your life.’ That was Red. All he wanted was your best as a ballplayer. He had no respect for those who didn’t put forth their best effort.

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