On this day in 2019, legendary Boston Celtics forward John Havlicek died after a long fight with Parkinson’s disease at the age of 74 in Jupiter, Florida.
Hondo, as he was called, was born in Martins Ferry, Ohio in 1940, and would play his college ball at nearby Ohio State, where he would win an NCAA championship in 1960.
He was drafted 7th overall in the 1962 NBA Draft by Boston, and would play for the Celtics for 16 seasons, winning 8 NBA championships and being elected to 13 All-Star games, 11 All-NBA teams, and 8 All-Defensive teams among many other honors in that time.
Havlicek’s jersey was retired by Boston immediately after his playing career ended in 1978, and was elected to the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame in 1984.
It was on this date in 1950 that Celtics wing luminary Chuck Cooper became the first African American drafted into the NBA, aken out of Duquesne by Boston with the 14th overall pick.
Cooper joined Nat “Sweetwater” Clifton and Earl Lloyd as the first African Americans to play in the league that season, making his debut on Nov. 1 against the then-Fort Wayne Pistons.
Cooper would play for the Celtics for four seasons, averaging 6.8 points, 6.6 rebounds and 1.8 assists per game over that stretch, and would be elected to the Naismith Hall of Fame in 2019.
On the same day, Boston also selected Ed Macauley in the St. Louis Bombers dispersal draft, done to distribute the players from that franchise among the other NBA teams in the league after that franchise went under.
Macauley would play six seasons with the Celtics, and would be elected to six All-Star games and four All-NBA teams over that stretch, during which he averaged 18.9 points, 8.1 boards and 3.7 assists.
“Easy Ed” would later be dealt away with Cliff Hagan’s contract to the St. Louis Hawks for Boston big man luminary Bill Russell.
It is also the date of the 1951 NBA Draft, held in New York City, in which the Celtics drafted two players of note.
The first was point guard Jim Luisi, taken 56th overall out of St. Francis college.
Luisi would never play for Boston, instead fighting in the Korean War before returning to play a season for the Baltimore Bullets. He would later become an actor.
The other was shooting guard Ernie Barrett, selected by the Celtics seventh overall out of Kansas State.
Barret would play two seasons for Boston, averaging 4.9 points, 2.6 rebounds and 1.7assists per game in his Celtics tenure.
It is also the anniversary of the 1965 NBA Championship being won by Boston over the Los Angeles Lakers.
It was a Game 5 victory, Los Angeles only winning one game of the series, and saw the Celtics end it with a 129-96 blowout.
The loss came despite guard Jerry West’s 33 points, and saw Boston legend Russell pull down 30 rebounds to go with his 22 points.
Finally, it is the anniversary of the famous fight between Tree Rollins of the Atlanta Hawks and current team president and then-Celtics shooting guard Danny Ainge.
Rollins and Ainge would get into a bench-clearing fight in a playoff game of the first round of the 1983 Eastern Conference Playoffs that saw Rollins chomp on Ainge’s finger, both ending up fined for the altercation behind one of the greatest headlines in sports history, “Tree Bites Man”.
