Short but sweet.

If you had to use one cliché to describe Dave Cowens’ career, it would probably have to be short but sweet. Cowens played only ten full years (eleven in all, including a 40-game stop with the Bucks in 1982-1983), but more than made his mark during those years. Cowens led the Boston Celtics to two championships, won the 1973 NBA MVP and made seven all-star games.

By the time he was 28, though, Cowens had peaked. He briefly retired immediately following the 1976 championship, after his close friend and teammate Paul Silas was traded to the Denver Nuggets. Cowens would return after a 30-game hiatus, but his play would never again approach the level he once maintained.

Cowens’ career might have been short but sweet, but that overused cliché would never be the way anyone would describe the way he played basketball.

Short? Yeah. Cowens was an undersized center playing against mammoths the likes of Kareem Abdul-Jabaar and Wilt Chamberlain. At 6’9” tall and only 230 pounds, Cowens wasn’t nearly the most physically imposing center in the NBA.

But sweet? Sweet would never be associated with Dave Cowens, at least on a basketball court. Cowens was a ferocious competitor. Whatever he lacked in size, the madly motivated center more than made up for with an insatiable desire to compete and to win. At only 6’9”, Cowens made a living on the glass, destroying bigger players with his unrivaled will on his way to averaging an astounding 13.6 rebounds per game (to go along with 17.6 ppg).

Even by his own accord, Cowens was never one of the more talented players in the league, but he refused to let his limitations get in his way. Playing with a reckless abandon, Cowens dove after loose balls, catapulted into the stands in a last-ditch attempt to save his team’s possession, hurled himself into opposing players to snatch rebounds from their outstretched hands, and sprinted the floor with the urgency of a man escaping a fire.

When talking about Cowens’ intensity and passion on a basketball court, my dad gave him one of the greatest compliments you can say about a man’s determination – “He was KG before there was KG.”

While some fans may not like some of Kevin Garnett’s antics, his infectious desire and boyish enthusiasm commands respect and admiration from any basketball fan. Garnett’s focus and single-minded passion has been given credit for rejuvenating a left-for-dead Celtics’ franchise.

Well, before there was KG there was Cowens. After Bill Russell’s retirement, the C’s briefly stopped winning titles. After winning 11 championships in a 13-year stretch, the Celtics failed to win championships for four straight seasons following the 1969 campaign. Finally, the Celtics broke out of their slump, raising banners for the 1974 and 1976 seasons.

John “Hondo” Havlicek is given a lot of credit for winning those titles, but it was Cowens who was the team’s best player as well as its heart and soul. Cowens played with an unbelievable motivation rarely seen in the NBA. Celtics’ legend Red Auerbach once said about Cowens, “A dedicated kid isn’t unheard of, but there aren’t as many around as we would like. But our problem with Cowens is telling him when to lay off. He does too much.”

Cowens never learned how to lay off, and maybe that’s why his career was so short. Maybe he just wasn’t able to maintain his unmatched standard of hard work for too long.

But Cowens’ standard of dedication and his brimming level of focus, commitment and perseverance were what made him great.

I’m glad Red never could convince him to lay off.

Nicknamed DJ, Dennis Johnson played one season of ball at Pepperdine University averaging 15.7 points, 5.8 rebounds, and 3.3 assists per game. The Seattle Supersonics drafted him with the 29th pick in the 1976 NBA Draft.

DJ had an underwhelming rookie season, but when Lenny Wilkens became the Sonics coach in 1978, DJ became the starting shooting guard and helped lead the Sonics to the NBA Finals. DJ, however, was the Finals scapegoat when he missed all 14 shots he took in Game 7.

A la Tim Tebow, DJ vowed never to let that happen again. In 1979, the Seattle Supersonics won the NBA Finals and Johnson made good on his vow, winning Finals MVP.

Despite his success, Seattle traded DJ to the Phoenix Suns in 1981 because he no longer got along well with coach Lenny Wilkens. With the Suns, DJ was a two-time All-Star, three-time All-Defensive First Team and was All-NBA First Team in 1982. Even with all the success, he once again clashed again with the coach, John MacLeod, and was traded to the Celtics for the 1984 season.

Before he joined the Boston Celtics, DJ was a very good player; in Boston, he became a memorable one. He won two NBA championships and earned the respect of teammates and opponents alike. Magic Johnson called him “ the greatest backcourt defender of all-time” and Larry Bird considered him “the best player he ever played with.” DJ will be remembered for his tenacious defense, the selfless, steady job he did as a Celtics floor general, and his game winning lay up against the Detroit Pistons in the 1987 Eastern Conference Finals on a steal and pass from Larry Bird.

John “Hondo” Havlicek was a 6’5” shooting guard-small forward who provided vital contributions at the end of the Boston Celtics Dynasty and then went on to win two more titles with the Celtics after Bill Russell had retired and the Dynasty had ended.

Havlicek is known as the player who revolutionized the sixth-man role. He was the first truly great player to come off the bench, saying about his role as sixth man, “It’s not who starts the game, but who finishes it, and I generally was around at the finish.” Hondo embraced his role, and was a true weapon as a 6th man who could change the outcome of a game.

Havlicek accumulated career averages of 20.8 points, 6.3 rebounds and 4.8 assists during his 16-year career. He was named to thirteen All-Star teams, eleven All-NBA First or Second Teams, and eight NBA All-Defensive First or Second Teams, won eight NBA Championships, and ended his career as the NBA’s top all-time scorer.

Though he became incredibly successful as a basketball player, Hondo had humble beginnings. Red Auerbach drafted him with low expectations, and Bob Cousy called Havlicek “a non-shooter who would probably burn himself out” after Havlicek’s rookie season. Havlicek spent his illustrious career proving his detractors wrong, and, to this day, remains one of the greatest Celtics of all-time.

Robert Parish was destined to play for the Boston Celtics. Though Parish went on to play the most games in NBA history, he almost quit basketball after the 1979 NBA season.

“I was contemplating retiring because I was losing my passion for the game,” Parish told the Boston Herald. “I didn’t enjoy playing and the guys I played with were very selfish and individualistic.”

Before the 1980 NBA season, however, Red Auerbach made a trade that would dramatically alter not only Robert Parish’s career, but the future of the NBA as well. Auerbach traded the 1st and 13th picks in the upcoming draft to the Golden State Warriors for Robert Parish and the 3rd pick, which turned out to be Kevin McHale.

McHale and Parish teamed up with Larry Bird to form, “The Big Three,” one of the best frountcourts ever and the nucleus for three Championships in the 1980′s as well as the best team in Boston Celtics history in 1986.

“Once I got traded,” Parish said, ” I felt rejuventated, with a new lease on life. It was a shot in the arm and I need that. That change recharged my batteries.”

Recharged like the Energizer Bunny, Parish went on to make 9 All-star appearances as a Celtic and won 4 NBA Championships, the last with the Chicago Buls in 1997. He is currently the 24th leading scorer in NBA history, the 7th leading rebounder and the 9th leading shot-blocker.

“It’s hard for me to even believe how good we were,” Parish later told the NBA website. “Some nights I’d be out there just kicking some guy’s butt, really feeling it, and then I’d look over and see what Kevin was doing, and what Larry was doing, and I’d say, ‘Man, this is something. This is special.’”

“The Cooz,” as he was called, was the first of the truly great Celtics. Widely regarded as the NBA’s best point guard throughout his career, Cousy led the Celtics to six world championships, was named to thirteen consecutive all-star teams, and led the league in assists eight times.

In a little-known fact, Cousy was originally drafted by the Tri-Cities Blackhawks and almost immediately traded to the Chicago Stags. When the Stags folded, three of their players’ names were placed in a hate, and the Boston Celtics, New York Knicks, and Philadelphia Warriors were each going to choose a player out of the hat to be on their team. The Celtics, who had originally passed on Cousy in order to select 6’11” center Chuck Share, picked Cousy’s name out of the hat, and the rest is history.

Cousy played with a flair that was ahead of his time. His penchant for between-the-leg dribbles and around-the-back passes led to his other nickname, “The Hardwood Houdini.” While at first Red Auerbach didn’t take to Cousy’s flashy play, he surrendered the Celtics’ reigns to Cousy, and Cousy proved to Red that his style could work through all his success, both as a team and an individual.

For his career, which also included a seven-game stint as player-coach of the Kansas City Royals, Cousy averaged 18.4 ppg and 7.5 apg, boosting those averages to 18.5 points and 8.6 assists in the playoffs. When the NBA unveiled its top 50 players to celebrate the NBA’s 50th anniversary, Cousy was among the 50 chosen.

Many young fans will recognize Cousy as the Celtics television broadcaster, a position he has held since 1974.

The 1975-1976 Boston Celtics returned to the championship throne after falling in the Conference Finals in the previous year.
Still led by Dave Cowens and John Havlicek, and with Jo Jo White and Charlie Scott playing large roles, the 1975-1976 Celtics finished the regular season 54-28, good enough for the best record in the Eastern Conference and second best in the NBA.

Statistically, the Celtics were led in both scoring and rebounding by Cowens (19.0 ppg and 16.0 rpg), and White led them in assists (5.4 apg). In heart, though, Cowens and Havlicek were the leaders.

Cowens was always known for his incredible passion on a basketball court and his willingness, as an undersized center and power forward, to pursue the basketball off the glass. He was an absolute warrior, and would not let anybody, especially someone from the other team, stop him from doing what he needed to do on a basketball court.

Havlicek was the team’s captain, a guy who’d been through the trenches and played on numerous championship teams and in countless big games. Because of his pedigree, his teammates found it easy to respect him and follow his lead.

In the playoffs, the Celtics beat the Buffalo Braves, the Cleveland Cavaliers, and the Phoenix Suns to win the organization’s thirteenth championship.