Mr. Triple Double uncovered a fabulous video from 1991. Tommy Heinsohn and Bob Cousy are handling the play-by-play and color analysis for the Celtics and Pistons. Detroit, especially Dennis Rodman, is killing the Celtics on the boards.
Here are some classic lines:
Tommy: You gotta put an elbow in his face, Couz.
Tommy: I hope we have a replay of that rebound. Bird had two elbows in his neck.
Cousy: You know what we used to say, if you're over 6-6 you're no rocket scientist. How tall are you by the way?
I often wonder what opposing teams, their beat reporters and bloggers are saying about the Celtics after playing the Celtics. Here's a dose of 'enemy chatter' from Toronto.
Caught the better part of this one on a stream which had Tommy Heinsohn mouthing off randomly. The man is the greatest example of why strokes should be taken seriously and not ignored. Clearly he’s suffered many in his years and its affected his reasoning on topics ranging from basketball to talking without spitting. In fact, I’m pretty sure he had one in the third quarter when a Raptors played picked up a charge on a 50-50 call.
Briefly on this game, it wasn’t pretty from the start and it didn’t get much better. The Raptors’ effort was again great, unfortunately, the Celtics treated this one as close to a real game in the first half and that included playing great defense.
I find Tommy's homerism and rants amusing, but I completely understand how fans of opposing teams could find him "unlistenable."
Some of the commenters on this Raptors blog ripped Tommy for his belief that DeMar DeRozan taunted Avery Bradley by stepping over him after a foul. Except for initially saying DeRozan stepped on Bradley, Tommy was right on.
We've all been moving in, as they say in the movie Spaceballs, "Ludicrous Speed" since the lockout ended. Since then, neon green ooze has been drenched over the entire NBA, creating some mutant form attempting to resemble a training camp/free agency time frame. Let's take a couple of minutes to enjoy some comic relief from our beloved Tommy Heinsohn. The RedsArmy Rewind machine (sort of like the George Michael Sports Machine but not really) take us back to Game 4 of the 1991 Eastern Conference First Round against the Indiana Pacers.
Some background first to set up the clip: The C's took a 2-1 series lead just a few days prior at Market Square Arena after the Pacers shocked them at Boston Garden in Game 2, behind Chuck Person's 849 points and 37 threes. There was a lot of trash talking by Person before, during and after games. Naturally, Tommy wasn't shy in showing his disdain for Person. Take a close listen as Person goes to the announcers table and clearly does, well, something to bother Tommy and Bob Cousy:
Tommy Heinsohn is 77 years-old today. We'd like to honor the man by raising a glass of scotch (or a bottle... why get a glass dirty if you don't have to?) and toasting some of his finer moments in the C's broadcast booth.
Tommy, thanks for making Celtics games so much fun to watch.
Best part:
Tommy: "I'm getting aggravated..." Mike: "I can tell" Tommy: "Calm me down, please!!.... stroke me... do something" Mike: "I'm not going there..."
One thing that will sustain us all, besides planking, of course, is a regular look back at Celtics history. Lord knows there's plenty of it to sift through as we trudge through this lockout.
So in our first Red's Army Rewind, we're looking back on how the Celtics won their first ever NBA championship.
The Celtics entered the season with a new center, rookie Bill Russell out of San Francisco. But as amazing as Russell was that season (he averaged 15 ppg and 20 rpg. Blocks were not counted back then) he wasn't rookie of the year. Tommy Heinsohn was (16.2 ppg, 9.8 rpg). Add to that league MVP Bob Cousy, and this Celtics team was pretty stacked.
In the eight team NBA, the Celtics were the league's only 40-win team (44-28 in a then 72 game season). The Celtics swept past the Syracuse Nationals 3-0 to get to the St. Louis Hawks. What ensued was an amazing 7 game series that saw teams top the 120 point mark 6 times.
The Hawks took Game One 125-123 in Boston. The C's came back to take Game Two 119-99. The teams split the two games in St. Louis with the Hawks taking Game Three 100-98 and the C's taking Game Four 123-118. Both teams held home court in Games Five and Six with the Celtics winning at home, 124-109 and the Hawks winning by two, 96-94.
Game Seven was a double OT thriller that produced some amazing numbers. Our boy Tommy Heinsohn had one of the most amazing Finals performances ever, dropping 37 points and 23 rebounds. Let that sink in for a minute. Bill Russell added 19 points and 32 rebounds. That's right, they combined for 56 points and 55 rebounds. Imagine if Dwyane Wade and LeBron James did that this year in Game Seven? ESPN would still be whacking off to it.
The Celtics held on to win that game 125-123 to win the first of their 17 titles.
The Red's Army Rewind will be a regular feature as we head through the lockout. We hope you enjoy it and we hope some of our younger fans can get a new look at the team you all love. This team's history is as amazing as any team in pro sports. We look forward to bringing you more.
“It was a band-aid team to begin with,” Heinsohn said. “We didn’t have Perkins at the beginning of the year. He had surgery and wasn’t due back until January. They offered him a contract not knowing if he’d ever play again and he turned them down because he wanted to be a free agent. They expressed loyalty to the guy, but it wasn’t what he thought he was worth or his agent told him. When he came back we had lost (Shaquille O’Neal), Jermaine O’Neal and (Semih) Erden. Perk also was going be out for four weeks. So they had to do something, plus right from the beginning of the season they wanted to get a backup for Paul Pierce. When MarquisDaniels went down, they really need a backup. There you are, you’re under pressure to do something, so you make a move.”
“People are beating (Ainge’s) brains out because Perk is going to be a Hall of Fame player – that’s bull,” Heinsohn said. “He’s a good player. He was never in the end of the games. You finish with your best players. I’m not saying he wasn’t a good player. He was a very serviceable and functioning player. But all those considerations and the fact that they were probably going to lose him at the end of the year, I thought it was a great move because they got to pick who they wanted to fill in. Then they went out and got other people. They got (Carlos) Arroyo and (Troy) Murphy. (Ainge) did the best he could do. Unfortunately, the schedule worked against them because they were playing every other day so they didn’t have practice time. They were caught in between not having practices to save the legs of the veterans and having enough practices to bring these new players into the system. That never really worked out.”
Do you miss Tommy talking C's? Here he is with his "Tommy Points" for the C's against Miami. It's a little bit of an appetizer before you tune into Comcast Sports Net today at 2:30 for an hour long pre-game show before you flip to ABC for the game.
No..not really, but WEEI's Pete Gustin made a pretty cool mix of some of Tommy's quips and comments.
This was put together for Tommy and Mike's 30 Year anniversary appearance on "The Big Show". I was ecstatic when I heard this remixed version that includes Tommy's "God damned flop" comment that was seen here yesterday. Enjoy! And try to get through this without laughing-I dare you.
