Presented by BACON BOISE.
This Day In Sports…April 28, 1966, 60 years ago today:
Talk about a dynasty—the Boston Celtics defeat the Los Angeles Lakers 95-93 in Game 7 of the NBA Finals. That gave the Celtics their eighth straight championship, a record that still stands today (and will never be broken). It would be Boston’s final game under legendary coach Red Auerbach, who announced before the season that he would be retiring at the end of the campaign, basically telling the rest of the NBA it was their last chance at him, and good luck with that.
L.A. took the first game of the series in a 133-129 overtime thriller at Boston Garden. Then before Game 2, in an announcement many thought was intended to take the wind out of the Lakers’ sails, Auerbach revealed that Celtics superstar Bill Russell would be taking over as coach the following season (Auerbach became the Celts’ general manager and remained in that post until 1984). Boston went on the win the next three games in the Finals, but the Lakers won Games 5 and 6 to send it to a decisive Game 7, where Russell scored 25 points with 32 rebounds to will the Celtics to victory.
In Auerbach’s effort to hand-pick his successor, Russell was down his list. Auerbach first tried Frank Ramsay, then Bob Cousy, then Tommy Heinsohn. Heinsohn didn’t want to coach the highly-opinionated Russell, but he suggested the perennial NBA All-Star as a player-coach. Russell accepted the job, becoming the first Black head coach in league history. Russell was successful in both roles throughout his stint as player-coach, as the Celtics went 162-83 during the three seasons he had the dual jobs, winning two titles.
In 1968 under Russell, Boston became the first team in NBA Playoffs history to bounce back from a three games-to-one deficit and win a series. They did it against Russell’s fierce on-court rival Wilt Chamberlain and his Philadelphia 76ers in the Eastern Division Finals before defeating the Lakers for the championship. It wouldn’t be until 2016 that a team successfully dug out of a 3-1 hole again in the playoffs—when LeBron James and the Cleveland Cavaliers stunned the Golden State Warriors to win the NBA championship.
(Tom Scott hosts the Scott Slant segment during the football season on KTVB’s Sunday Sports Extra. He also anchors four sports segments each weekday on 95.3 FM KTIK and one on News/Talk KBOI. His Scott Slant column runs every Wednesday.)
