The Gilded Age of Sport, 1945–1960 by Herbert Warren Wind

Author:Herbert Warren Wind
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781504027557
Publisher: Open Road Media

II

In a game this winter in which the league-leading Philadelphia Warriors defeated the Boston Celtics 109–108, Bob Cousy of the Celtics enjoyed what was, even by the standards an expectant public imposes on the finest all-round player in basketball today and perhaps the finest ever, a very good night. During his forty minutes on the court Cousy scored twenty-nine points on nine field goals and eleven foul shots. Not that this was all he did by a long shot—as usual he built the plays that set up 80 per cent of his team’s baskets, pulled off such exclusive Cousyisms as his twice-around-the-back pass, and his unquenchable will to win fired the Celtics to a furious last-quarter rally that all but overcame the Warriors’ twelve-point lead. But a brief recapitulation of the various ways Bob scored from the floor that evening affords as handy an avenue as any to appreciating why Cousy is held to be, in knowledgeable quarters, the essence of imaginative, exciting basketball.

Cousy scored first on a right-hand hook shot after a combination play with Bill Sharman and Ed Macauley. He scored next on a running lay-up with his left hand, slipping in from the left and collecting a perfect pass from Macauley, who had faked a jump shot from ten feet in front of the basket. His third score was a long left-hand hook (off the backboard) from the left corner after dribbling to the center of the court from the left side, finding no one to pass to and no place to go, and then reversing his course and firing as he spun around. Next came on a soft one-hand push shot from just beyond the foul line. Next, a full-tilt lay-up after he had broken up a Warrior play at mid-court and stolen the ball. Next—a real beauty—a semi-underhand shot with his right hand which he somehow shoveled under the arm of one of the two men who apparently had him completely tied up with his back to the basket to the right of the foul line. He followed this with a comparatively unpretty basket, a little two-handed jump shot from about ten feet out after a set play from out of bounds had gone sour and the rebound from a hurried shot had been kicked around. Finally, as he directed Boston’s last-ditch rally, Cousy scored twice more from the floor in addition to five times from the foul line. The first was an orthodox straight-on lay-up, after he had dribbled the length of the court and effected his opening through the defense by faking his patented behind-the-back pass as he hit the foul line, stuttering that split second, and then driving in hard. His last one came after he had caught one of those desperation “forward passes” and, with only one defensive man to beat, feigned a drive to the left and simply dribbled around the man in a quick semicircle to the right. Heavier scorers you will see, but a virtuosity comparable to Cousy’s, no.

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