May

24

D.J. You Left Us Far Too Early (Reprinted From 5/24/07)

Posted by Jeff Sack under SDC Birthday Bash 

Back on February 23, 2007, I was perusing the web when I let out a gasp loud enough for my wife to run out from our bedroom. The first thing she asked me was if I was all right. She could see by my face that something was really upsetting me. I told her that Dennis Johnson had passed away, and I was sorry that I was so loud that she heard me. My wife has no interests in sports - In fact, she brought a book to read at a NBA Finals game in 1986. Her eyes grew big as saucers. “D.J.oh my,when, how??” she asked excitedly.

I explained how Johnson had been coaching a NBA Developemental team, the Austin Toros, and that practice had just ended, and D.J. had collapsed at the end of the session. I told her that paramedics were on the scene quickly, and tried to revive him for 23 minutes before giving up and taking him to a hospital. He was 52 years old.

After spending over a decade in Pro Sports locker rooms, I am not easily excited with the prospect of meeting Pro Athletes. When you have interviewed the Michael Jordans, the Shaquille O’Neals, and covered LeBron James on a daily basis for his first few years in the NBA, you don’t get impressed very easily. When you have interviewed legends like Oscar Robertson, it takes a lot to make your pulse quicken. I spent over a decade covering the Cleveland Cavaliers, and during that time I met a lot of quality individuals, and had a good working rapport with many players. However, I grew up on the South Shore of Massachusetts. I was born in 1956, and lucky enough to come of age during the greatest Sports Dynasty of all time. I am of course talking about the Boston Celtics, who won their first NBA Championship when I was just a year old, and would end up winning 11 times out of the next 13 years. Growing up in Boston in the 1960’s you were assured of a few things. The Patriots would always be the joke of the NFL, (boy, how times have changed!) the Red Sox would never win the World Series, (had to wait until I was 48 years old for that miracle!) and the Celtics would always bring home the prize. In fact I felt cheated in 1967 when the boys in green lost to the Philadelphia 76ers in the Eastern Conference finals. But Bill Russell, and company won back to back championships in the next two years, so that kind of took away the sting.

Things changed radically as the 70’s rolled in. Celtics player-coach Bill Russell, retired, replaced by the hapless Henry Finkle at center, and the Celtics had to rebuild. They did so in relatively short period with a nucleus of John Havelicek, JoJo White, Dave Cowens, and Paul Silas. This edition of the Celtics won two championships in 1974 and 1976, the latter series featuring the triple overtime game, against the Suns, definitely one of the most exciting sporting events I have ever had the pleasure of watching. By the late 1970’s the Celtics were again in a tailspin featuring players like Bob McAdoo, Curtis Rowe, Sidney Wicks, and Marvin “Bad News” Barnes. Things got so bad that team general manager and architect of the Celtics, Red Auerbach, entertained thoughts of leaving Boston to go to work for the hated New York Knicks. But Auerbach, stayed in Bean-town, where he would garner one more round of glory. He drafted Indiana State fifth year senior Larry Bird who still had one year left to play in college. In fact this move so affected the league, that new rules were passed, outlawing this practice after that draft. Auerbach then in June of 1979 traded the first pick of the NBA draft to Golden State. The Warriors drafted big man Joe Barry Carroll (who was such a letdown in the Bay Area that he soon earned the nickname “Joe Barely Cares”). In return the team from Boston acquired center Robert Parish and the third pick of the draft that they used on power forward Kevin McHale. And although the Celtics lost in the Eastern Conference that season, the next year with a back court of Tiny Archibald and Chris Ford, the Celtics were again league champs.

Archibald was hurt during the playoffs the following season and was never the same player. The Celtics tried to retool acquiring former Hoosier Quinn Buckner from the Milwaukee Bucks, but were eliminated in the playoffs the next two years. But before the 1984 campaign, Auerbach may have pulled off his biggest swindle of his legendary career. Red traded backup center Rick Robey to the Phoenix Suns for the man who would prove to be the secret ingredient that won Boston two more championships, point guard Dennis Johnson. Johnson, who took the Seattle Supersonics to the championship in 1979, had fallen on hard times. He was banished from Seattle by coach Lenny Wilkens, who called him a cancer. And though Johnson did not play badly in Phoenix, his reputation had truly suffered. Enough so that Auerbach was able to get him for a player that was best known for being Larry Bird’s drinking buddy.

D.J. brought a fire and a passion to the Celtics that had been missing for some time. He proved to be the antithesis of his bad reputation, being a vocal leader on and off the floor. With fellow guard Danny Ainge, and a front-court of Bird, McHale, and Parish, the Celtics not only won the title in 1984 and 1986, but they were in the finals every year between 1984-1987. In fact, the 1986 Boston Celtics, with role players like Bill Walton, Scott Wedman, and Jerry Sichting, were the best NBA team that this reporter has ever witnessed. Unfortunately injuries soon befell that team. Walton and Wedman’s careers ended soon due to injuries. McHale, who played the 1987 playoffs with a broken foot would never be the same player. And then, Larry Joe was hurt, first with Achilles problems, and then a bad back ended his career in 1992.

Johnson retired after the 1990 season. He was an assistant coach with Boston for a few years. He and his wife, had a domestic dispute, that sullied his reputation and may have kept him out of the league for a few years. But D.J. bounced back again coming back to the NBA as an assistant, with the Clippers. The biggest injustice is that Johnson never made it into the Basketball of Fame during his lifetime, hopefully this will be rectified in the not too distant future.

I had the pleasure of meeting and interviewing Dennis Johnson while he was an assistant. And although I never told him of my deep respect and affection for him as a player, I always felt a little like the basketball fan of my earlier days, when ever I was in his presence. Johnson never said anything to me that was profound or illuminating, but there was always a part of me that wanted to tell him how big a fan I was of his. Unfortunately, due to protocol, I never got to thank D.J. during his lifetime. With this tribute I repay that oversight.

?? Copyright 2008 thesackattack.net



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