Boston Celtics’ ‘Cousy’ Excellent Introduction to Hall of Famer
Bob Cousy was the man who kept professional basketball alive in its formative years. When he began his career as a Boston Celtic in 1950, the college game was king. The NBA had been in existence for only a year (created when the Basketball Association of America (BAA) and the National Basketball League (NBL) merged.) There wasn’t a Celtic tradition yet, there were no banners hanging from the ceiling. There were only eleven franchises, with such names as the Syracuse Nationals, Fort Wayne Pistons, and the Tri-City Blackhawks.
Cousy brought a badly needed flare to the game. He was “the most charismatic player…the first player to pass behind his back, throw no-look passes, the first to play with much of the flair that later would become so much a part of basketball.”
March 17, 1963. That’s the day Bob Cousy, at the age of 34, retired from basketball after thirteen stellar seasons. There was no physical reason for it – it was all mental. He wanted to go out at the top, while he was still one of the best players in the game. That’s the day author Bill Reynolds covers in the first chapter of his book, setting the stage for the life that follows.
Reynolds covers it all, from Cousy’s birth in 1928 to immigrant parents (he spoke only French for the first five years of his life), to his childhood in the poverty-ridden tenements of New York City that molded him forever, to his college days at Holy Cross, to his career as a Boston Celtic.
In addition to a riveting look at a complex man, this is a fun look at the early days of professional basketball. All the player’s names are familiar (as are their photographs, with their very short shorts and trim waistlines and unmistakable faces such as Bill Russell, Tom Heinsohn, K.C. Jones, and Don Nelson).
The players jump off the pages at you, as Reynolds breathes life into them and into the games they played. You also learn quite a bit about Red Auerbach and the ethos of the Celtics. (“One of the main reasons the Celtics were a great team was the ability of both white and black players to get along, deal with one another, respect one another. This was no small thing in an America that was already in the nascent states of the Civil Rights Movement, the time when race in America was about to be put under a national microscope.”)
Cousy retired at the age of 34, and that’s pretty much where Reynold’s biography ends. The remaining 22 years of Cousy’s life (up until the present) are covered in two chapters – his stint as a coach at Boston College, as a coach in the NBA for the Cincinnati Royals, to his return to the Boston Celtics as a tv broadcaster for their away games.
Cousy’s basketball life is covered in several books – many written by Cousy himself. What would have really made this book unique would have been much coverage of Cousy, after his life on the hardcourt ended and his life in suit and tie began. Basketball changed dramatically during Cousy’s coaching career, in its racial makeup and in the amount of money that could be earned, and yet in two chapters there is barely enough room to scratch the surface, let alone deal with Cousy’s relationship with his wife and two daughters. Also it would have been nice to see a list of the championships won by the Celtics, or even a list of awards won by Cousy.
Overall, however, an excellent introduction to Cousy, and a good companion to Cousy’s own works – which are must-haves for anyone who wants to understand what drives someone with ‘a killer instinct’ to succeed in life.
