APRIL 15, 1965 JOHN HAVLICEK
Ask any basketball player what John “Hondo” Havlicek is best known for, and chances are they’ll give similar answers: Endurance. Hustle. Staying power. “On stamina alone he’d be among the top players who ever played the game,” an NBA coach once said of Havlicek.
“It’s just a matter of pushing myself,” Havlicek said. “I say to myself, ‘He’s as tired as I am. Who’s going to win the mental battle?’”
Fortunately for the Boston Celtics, for whom Havlicek played all sixteen years of his career, he brought great scoring talent, ballhandling abilities, and tenacious defensive skills, along with his endurance and mental toughness. With these skills, he fit perfectly into the slot of “sixth man,” the player teammates and coaches trust to come off the bench and help the team to victory.
“It’s not who starts the game,” Havlicek once replied when asked if he resented not being one of the starting five, “but who finishes it, and I generally was around to finish it.”
The 1964–65 Celtics was a team of superstars. Veteran center Bill Russell dismantled offenses by blocking shots at will and turning rebounds into scoring opportunities. Guards K. C. Jones and Sam Jones put the plays in motion with lightning-quick passes and expert ballhandling. Forwards Tom Heinsohn and Tom “Satch” Sanders provided scoring and rebounding might.
Yet as strong as these five players were, they still needed someone capable of filling their shoes when they needed a break. That man was John Havlicek. When one of the guards or forwards stepped out, he stepped in and spurred on the attack.
As in the previous six years, the 1964–65 Celtics were virtually unstoppable. The team romped through the regular season to an amazing 62–18 record. In the early weeks, they won eleven games in a row before suffering a loss. Later, they bested that streak by winning sixteen consecutive games!
It was the Philadelphia 76ers who broke the Celtics’ streaks both times. The 1964–65 Sixers were a solid team, led by their newest acquisition: Wilt Chamberlain.
In fact, sparked by Chamberlain, the Sixers dealt the Celtics their greatest number of defeats that season. Out of the ten times the two teams met, five ended in losses for Boston. In comparison, the Los Angeles Lakers, the Baltimore Bullets, and the New York Knicks bested the Celtics three times each. The Cincinnati Royals won twice against Boston. The St. Louis Hawks and the San Francisco Warriors emerged victorious only once each. And the Detroit Pistons came up short every single time they played the Celtics that year!
To no one’s surprise, the Celtics claimed the number-one spot in the Eastern Division. They faced the Sixers in the division finals after Philadelphia handily defeated the Cincinnati Royals. Whoever won the best-of-seven series now would advance to the NBA championship round against the winners of the Western Division.
Philadelphia hadn’t been to the Finals since 1955, when they’d been known as the Syracuse Nationals. Chamberlain, despite being hailed as the greatest center in the NBA, had yet to win a championship ring. He and his teammates were hungry for a series win, but to do so, they’d have to beat the six-time reigning champs and their archrivals, the Boston Celtics.
The Celtics proved to be too powerful for the Sixers to handle in game one, with Boston winning 108–98. Game two was a different story — one that ended with the Sixers tying the series at one apiece before their cheering hometown fans. Boston took game three, 112–94, but once again, Philadelphia knotted things up by eking out a 134–131 win in overtime in game four. Games five and six duplicated the previous pairs, with each team winning one to send the series to the final, decisive seventh game.
Game seven took place in Boston Garden — an arena where so many opposing teams had lost that some players claimed it was cursed. Philadelphia players may have been justified in believing in that curse. After all, they had lost every game they’d played there that season!
But now, with the chance of advancing to the NBA Finals on the line, the Sixers were playing harder than ever before. The Celtics weren’t about to bow down before their loyal fans, however, and battled with just as much ferocity.
The score seesawed back and forth as the clock ticked down to the final minutes. Then there were no minutes left, only seconds. With just five seconds remaining, the Celtics were up 110–107. Victory seemed certain.
But suddenly, Wilt Chamberlain got his hands on the ball and breezed to the basket for an easy layup! No Celtic stood in his way because no one wanted to foul him. But now the score stood at 110–109.
Celtic Bill Russell took the ball under the basket and prepared to inbound it to a teammate at the ref’s whistle. All that teammate would have to do would be to hold on to the ball until the clock ran out. When he did, another trip to the Finals for Boston would be in the bag!
The whistle blew, Russell threw—and the unimaginable happened. Instead of traveling in a smooth arc over Chamberlain’s outstretched arms and into a teammate’s waiting hands, the ball struck one of the guide wires attached to Boston’s basket! Now the Sixers had possession!
Five seconds may not seem like a long time, but in basketball, it is enough to get off one last shot. If that shot was taken by Chamberlain, there would be a very good chance of it going in. And if it did, then the 76ers, and not the Celtics, would be going on to the Finals.
Philadelphia guard Hal Greer took the ball out of bounds. The Celtics matched up man-to-man on defense. John Havlicek took up position near Sixer Chet Walker. He knew that once the ref handed the ball to Greer, Greer would have five seconds to put it in play.
“So I started to count to myself: one thousand one, one thousand two, one thousand thrree, one thousand four,” Havlicek recounted years later. “When I got to one thousand four, I realized Greer was having a problem getting the ball in.”
With one second remaining for the throw-in, Havlicek risked taking his eyes off Walker to glance at Greer. As he did, Greer lobbed a pass.
Havlicek leaped, stretched out his hand, and with one controlled sweep —
“Havlicek steals it!” Legendary radio announcer Johnny Most screamed into his microphone. “Over to Sam Jones. Havlicek stole the ball! It’s all over! Johnny Havlicek stole the ball!”
Havlicek’s quick reflexes may very well have saved the game — and the series — for the Celtics. If Greer had managed to get the ball in to Walker, or worse, Chamberlain, then Boston would have had few options. They could have let the receiver take the shot and hoped he missed or that his shot was blocked. Or they could have fouled the receiver to stop him from shooting, hoping he would miss his free throws and that they could grab the rebound.
Instead, Sam Jones got the ball and dribbled out the clock. The Celtics took the series and then went on to beat the Los Angeles Lakers, four games to one, to earn their seventh consecutive NBA title. All because, as Most so famously yelled, “Johnny Havlicek stole the ball!”
When John Havlicek retired in 1974, he held the NBA record for games played, was in the top ten for minutes played and total points, and had earned eight championship rings. But the greatest honor he received came from Red Auerbach. “If I had a son like John,” Auerbach told a reporter at Havlicek’s final game, “I’d be the happiest man in the world.”