As most of you know, Larry Siegfried passed away due to heart failure on Thursday, at the age of 71.

Because I didn’t know much about Siegfried besides the fact that he was “the other Larry,” I didn’t want to offer my thoughts. I never saw him play, couldn’t have told you whether he was righty or lefty, and couldn’t possibly do him or his career justice. So I decided not to write a tribute.

But that didn’t work for me either. How could I not write a tribute of a man who won five championships for my beloved Celtics? Who was “hugely competitive,” according to Satch Sanders, and by all accounts exhibited Celtic Pride at all times? Who sounds just like a player I would have fallen in love with?

“He was one of the best pure basketball minds that I have come across,’” close friend and former Celtic Rick Weitzman told the Boston Globe. “He really understood the game, knew the game. It was great for me to play behind him because he wasn’t gifted with tremendous athleticism but he got the most out of his ability.”

Despite being the Cincinatti Royals’s first pick in the 1961 NBA Draft (and third overall), a long story left Siegried out of the game and teaching high school when John Havlicek convinced Red Auerbach to offer Siegfried a tryout. Likely down to his last chance at making an NBA roster, Siegfried was in real danger of being cut by Auerbach when Tom Heinsohn spoke on Siegfried’s behalf. Heinsohn told Auerbach that Siegfried was the only player on the Celtics’ roster who could beat Heinsohn one-on-one. It would be a mistake to cut such a talent, Heinsohn felt.

Auerbach agreed to secretly watch Heinsohn and Siegfried play a one-on-one game, and was impressed enough to keep Siegfried around. The rest is history. In seven years of being what the New York Times described as “a key element in a relentless and indomitable Celtic machine”, Siegfried won five championships and a spot in Celtics lore.

I couldn’t not write a tribute about a player like that, right? A player who had it all, lost it all, and scraped and clawed his way to earning some of it back? I had to, even if I know little about his game and can’t possibly do him justice.

I never got to see Larry Siegfried play, but after hearing about his career and the traits that make his passing such a big deal, I can tell you one thing: I would have loved to.

“As time goes on, the championship does not mean as much to me,” Siegfried said at Ohio State this spring while celebrating the 50th anniversary of his NCAA championship team. “The thing that matters to me is what coach Taylor taught us and the relationships, those intangible things. The core values that made me who I am today, that’s what’s important to me.”

As much as I love basketball, as much as I value wins and championships, Siegfried’s words couldn’t ring more true. We love basketball because it brings us closer to our father, because we’re still friends with our high school teammates thirty years later. We love basketball for the jokes we can tell to random strangers in a barber shop, and for the way we’ll one day teach our sons how to dribble. We love basketball for the stories we’ll undoubtedly share with our grandchildren, and we love basketball because you can tell a lot about a man just by seeing him box out.

As time goes on, the championships didn’t mean as much to Siegfried. But the Boston Celtics? I imagine they always had a firm place in his heart.

The Morning Walkthrough is a set of links to Boston Celtics articles throughout the internet, designed to get your day started the right way.

A. Sherrod Blakely, CSNNE – “However, he only needed eight shots from the field (he made four of them) as most of his points came from the free throw line. A career 63 percent free throw shooter, Rondo made 12 of his 15 free throw attempts in addition to nailing his lone 3-point attempt. ‘We had a lot of fast break opportunities to attack,’ Rondo said. ‘I just tried to go and attack and draw fouls.’ At halftime of Boston’s win at New York on Wednesday, he made a point of telling Rondo that at that he had yet to take a free throw in the preseason – an unusual occurrence for a player who has the ball in his hands as much as Rondo. ‘I said, ‘Rondo, you have to get to the line,’ ‘ Rivers recalled. Rondo did just that, as he attempted four free throws in the second half of the Celtics victory. ‘He has the ability … he should be a seven to eight (free throw attempts shooter) a night,’ Rivers said.”

Mark Murphy, Boston Herald – “Tests were taken of West’s sore back, though Rivers said he hadn’t received the results last night. But the coach isn’t worried about recovery by the guard, who stayed back in Boston for the second straight game. ‘With Delonte, we’ll have the luxury of the 10 games he can’t play at the start of the season,’ Rivers said of West’s impending gun-related suspension.”

Julian Benbow, Boston Globe – “‘I’ve got to do it consistently,’ Rondo said after scoring 21 points in 22 minutes. ‘Night in, night out. Tomorrow, I’ll try to be more aggressive getting to the line.’ Rondo has been relatively quiet this preseason. But the way he explained it, he’s slowing down to help new players such as Shaquille O’Neal and Jermaine O’Neal learn the system. ‘I’m not bored, I’m just trying to take control of the minutes that I play,’ Rondo said. ‘I’m not playing regular-season minutes, so when I’m not out there I just try to be an instructor. We’ve got new guys in the rotation. I’m going 100 percent, but as far as knowing my role and getting guys to learn what they’re doing out there on the floor, I’m trying to slow down a little bit to get guys to understand what we’re doing as a team. It’s totally different sets that the four [starters] know, but having Shaq and the other O’Neal in, we try to slow it up for those guys so they can learn the offense.’”

Mark Murphy, Boston Herald – “Ostensibly, the newest Celtic is suffering from sore hips. But in truth, at the age of 38, the issue stems more from the soreness of a long career. ‘It was never really a hip problem,’ [Shaq] said yesterday. ‘Just 28,000 points, a lot of minutes, a lot of games, done a lot of fighting. Sometimes you wake up stiff, but I’ll be fine. You just want to stay injury-free. I’m feeling pretty good now, and (coach) Doc (Rivers) gave me the luxury of taking a couple of days off. It starts for real in 11, 12 days.’ And even then, preservation will be an enduring virtue. … ‘My selfish mode is turned all the way off. I put up big numbers in my selfish mode, but it’s all about the team now.’”

Raptor’s Republic – “Superior opponent. Check. No transition defense. Check. Opponent shoots over 50%. Check. Big players coming up short. Check. All the elements that will make the season tough to get through were there last night and not surprisingly, the Raptors were down 25 in the fourth quarter against a Boston team missing Paul Pierce and Shaq, and giving their bench a good run. I would have liked to think that if you take the Raptors starters and put them against the Boston bench that they’d hold their own, maybe even pull through but that wasn’t the case. Nate Robinson dominated this game with his speed and got me thinking that maybe the Raptors could use Leandro Barbosa in a similar role – ball in his hands coming at the defense rain or shine. It might not be the fundamentally sound strategy but it could be fun to watch.”

Holly MacKenzie, The Score – “[Jay Triano] On the Celtics: ‘That is a really good team. You’re playing against a team with four Hall of Famers. That’s like, unbelievable. Even Miami doesn’t have that.’”

Gary Washburn, Boston Globe – “Larry Siegfried, who helped the Celtics win five NBA titles in seven years during the 1960s, died Thursday night at the age of 71. He had been at the Cleveland Clinic since suffering a heart attack Oct. 5. Mr. Siegfried was a starting guard on most of those title teams, which included Bill Russell, John Havlicek, Sam and K.C. Jones, Tom “Satch’’ Sanders, Don Nelson, and Tom Heinsohn. … ’He was a valuable contributor to the cause of the Celtics and is definitely going to be missed,’ Havlicek said. ‘It’s a sad day when you lose a teammate because when you’re a teammate, it’s almost like you’re family. And it’s just going to be different without him. It’s an emotional time. When you lose someone like that it hits close to home. We’re not all getting any younger and these things are going to happen, but it’s still a shock when it does.’”

A. Sherrod Blakely, CSNNE – “Being better communicators defensively is near the top of the list. During Boston’s 104-101 win at New York, Boston’s Paul Pierce voiced his displeasure to head coach Doc Rivers that some of his teammates weren’t getting in the right coverages defensively. ‘I was actually trying to ignore him, and tell him to talk to his teammates,’ Rivers said following the win over the Knicks. There was really no need for that. Although all of the C’s have to improve in this particular area, it’s especially important for the Celtics centers. ‘We’re the ones who see all the coverages; we see when the picks are coming,’ Jermaine O’Neal told CSNNE.com. ‘A lot of that is just getting used to playing with guys, getting a better feel for one another.’ … ‘The more I get to play with the guys and the more I know their strategies, yeah, I’ll talk,’ Shaquille O’Neal said. ‘I’ll be alright. The Big Shamrock will not be a problem.’”

Mike Gantner, Toronto Sun – “With the Raptors trailing by 25 midway through the third, the paying public was looking for something to keep them interested and with Shaquille O’Neal in sweats from the beginning tip and not knowing Doc Rivers had already determined he was going to sit both Shaq and Paul Pierce, the crowd began a ‘We want Shaq’ chant. Never one to miss an opportunity to bask in the limelight, O’Neal got up as if getting ready to check in and then sat down much to the displeasure of the fans.”

Got a tip? An article you think should be included? Send an email to jayking@celticstown.com or hit me up on Twitter @CelticsTown.