An Ode to a Forgotten Legend

On November 10, 2020, the world lost a man who was a basketball legend despite being far from a household name outside of Boston.  Tommy Heinsohn, who passed at age 86, was a power forward for the Celtics for 9 seasons and coach for almost 8 and a half more before fully shifting into a broadcasting role.  I would like to express my condolences to his family and friends and will say that he will be sorely missed.  Some outside of Boston might not recognize his massive impact to the sport, Tommy Heinsohn feels more important to Boston than most superstars in other cities.

Following a dominant career at Holy Cross, Heinsohn was selected in the 1956 NBA draft by Boston as a Territorial Pick (until 1965, the NBA let teams draft players who played amateur ball nearby to help build a market for the league), and was the Celtic’s power forward from 1956-1965.   He won Rookie of the Year in 1957 and helped the team win their first of 17 Championships.  He played a massive role in their championships from 1959-1965 as well, averaging 18.6 PPG and 8.8 RPG for his career while bumping it up to 19.8 PPG and 9.2 RPG in 104 playoff games.  While his career is now overshadowed by legendary teammates Bill Russell, Bob Cousy, John Havlicek, and Sam Jones while also playing alongside Hall of Famers Bill Sharman, Frank Ramsay, K.C. Jones, and Tom Sanders, he was a 6 time All-Star and named to 4 All-NBA Second Teams.  Ultimately, he won 8 championship rings as a player and made the Finals in every season he played.  Heinsohn was also the second president of the NBA Players Association and played a major role in negotiating more player rights with the owners.  The Players Union threatened to strike during the 1964 All-Star Game if the Players Union was not recognized, which was the first televised edition.  Since ABC was going to consider offering a T.V. contract based on the game, the owners agreed to recognize the union.  These negotiations led to many rights the players did not previously have, including laying the groundworks for free agency.  He was inducted into the Basketball Hall of Fame as a player in 1986.

 Heinsohn was hired as the head coach of the Celtics in 1969 and after a few down years, led them back to the playoffs.  He won Coach of the Year in 1973 after leading Boston to a franchise record 68 wins and won led the team to championships in 1974 and 1976.  Between the 1971-72 season and the 1975-76 season, the team averaged just under 59 wins per year and made the Conference Finals each season.  Ultimately, he finished his coaching career with a record of 427-263 in the regular season (61.9%), 47-33 in the playoffs (58.8%), and winning 2 championships.  He was inducted into the Basketball Hall of Fame as a coach in 2015, becoming the fourth individual to be inducted as both a player and coach, along with John Wooden, Bill Sharman, and Lenny Wilkens.

While Heinsohn was originally hired as a broadcaster after retiring, he returned to a television broadcasting role shortly after.  For 39 seasons, he and Mike Gorman were the duo who announced Celtics games and became one of the longest running broadcasting pairs in professional sports history.  He called some NBA Finals and NCAA Men’s Tournament games but was most known for his Celtic’s broadcasting.  There were several things I will always love and remember fondly about his broadcasting.  He always emphasized when any player put a hard work and awarded “Tommy points” when someone made hustle plays.  The end of the game, the Tommy Award would be awarded to players who made a major impact to the game and it was always fun to see a player like Gerald Green or Tacko Fall win it.  One thing that might have polarized fans of other teams but was loved by Celtics fans was Heinsohn’s obvious favoritism towards Boston.  Anytime he didn’t like a call (even if it was sometimes the right call), he would complain about the refs.  He also would talk about how he didn’t think opposing players wouldn’t be successful in the NBA due to lack of talent or lack of athleticism (he was often right) while ignoring the same issues on Celtics players.  However, my favorite thing about his announcing was how much fun he was having while announcing.  This was especially clear in the 2016-17 season, when a Celtics team that included players like Isaiah Thomas, Al Horford, Avery Bradley, Jae Crowder, Marcus Smart, Amir Johnson, Kelly Olynyk, Jonas Jerebko, rookie Jaylen Brown, Terry Rozier, and Gerald Green managed to finish first in the East with 52 wins and felt like every win was a struggle.  While this wasn’t a team that would blow everyone away with talent, it was a team that frankly played with a chip on their shoulder and bled green (I’ve always said Red Auerbach would have loved this team).  At the end of every game, 5’9 Thomas would put team on his back and put up monster scoring numbers to help the team win, and every time Heinsohn’s face would light up and he’d should “the little guy!”.  They joy in Heinsohn’s voice never wavered all season as Thomas did what he could during every close game.  While Thomas was the face of the team that season, Heinsohn’s voice always resonated along with it to the point where I often link the two to their success that season.

Ultimately, Tommy Heinsohn was a player or coach for ten championships and was a broadcaster during the Celtic’s other seven.  He was the only individual involved with each of their 17 championships and 21 Finals appearances.  While not a household name among basketball fans outside of Boston, he was a Boston hero during his playing and coaching careers and became the voice of Celtics basketball after his career.  Celtics fans across all generations have memories of Heinsohn that show the massive impact he had on the game of basketball and the city of Boston.  For me, I will always remember being excited to see he was one of the announcers that game, his excitement to see Marcus Smart giving up his body any way he could for a greater chance to win, and seeing Isaiah Thomas score, especially since I knew I got to hear what we all were thinking:  “the little guy!”.  While I always remember him singing his praises for Thomas and wondering who the next little guy could be, I also enjoy the thought of Tommy Heinsohn chuckling about the fact that a catchphrase of his uses the word little while describing a player with a massive impact and coming from a man who had one of the greatest impacts in team history.