On this day in 1984, Boston Celtics point guard Gerald Henderson stole a pass lobbed across the court by forward James Worthy of the Los Angeles Lakers.
With 13 seconds left on the clock in Game 2 of the 1984 NBA Finals and Boston down 113-111, Henderson would score on a layup to send the game into overtime, forward Magic Johnson dribbling out the game’s final seconds inexplicably.
The historic steal would give the Celtics a critical 124-121 win after dropping Game 1 of the series, and forward Larry Bird would later say the team might have been swept on Los Angeles if not for the timely steal.
While Boston would lose Game 3 of the series, they would eventually win the series in seven games to secure their 15th banner, then the most in league history.
On this day, Boston’s first coach, John “Honey” Russell was born in Brooklyn, New York in 1902.
Russell had a long career as a player and player-coach before being recruited to join the Celtics in their inaugural season of 1946-47, over which they logged an unimpressive 22-38 record.
The following season, Russell’s last before returning to Seton Hall to coach their collegiate basketball program, Boston recorded a 20-28 record, good enough for a postseason berth in that era.
It is also the birthday of former Celtics small forward Ron Bonham, who played for the Celtics for two seasons, winning two titles with the team in 1965 and 1966 in both of them.
Selected 16th overall in the 1964 NBA Draft out of Cincinnati, the Indiana native would average 6.3 points, 1.5 rebounds and 0.4 assists with the team before being drafted by the Chicago Bulls in the 1966 Expansion Draft.
Ex-Celtic reserve point guard Nate Robinson was also born today in Seattle, Washington in 1984.
Robinson would join the team after being traded to it by the New York Knicks in 2010, coming along with Marcus Landry in exchange for J.R. Giddens, Eddie House, Henry Walker and draft assets.
The Washingtonian would play for Boston for parts of two seasons, averaging 6.9 points, 1.6 boards and 1.9 assists.
He would be traded with Kendrick Perkins to the Oklahoma City Thunder for Jeff Green, Nenad Krstić, cash and draft considerations.
