Tommy Heinsohn, uncompromising Celtics legend, dies

Tommy Heinsohn

was in the 17 rings the Boston Celtics have won, as many as the Lakers, more than any other NBA team.

He won the top eight as a player, two as a coach and seven as a commentator.

But not even that, forming the backbone of the most successful team for more than 60 years, manages to cover it.

Heinsohn, who died on Tuesday at the age of 86, was a winner on the track, a fighter in the offices and a revolutionary with the slate.

His teammates called him 'Tommy Gun', like the submachine guns made famous by the Chicago mafia, or 'Ack-Ack', because of the noise they made when shooting, because he never knew a basket shot that he did not like.

"In his defense, it must be said that he only shoots when he has the ball in his hands," joked

, who was so ugly by his habit of running to the locker room at breaks to get a cigarette.

"If you ran like that in matches ...!"

Cousy described it as a mixture of speed, power and an incredible desire to win.

In that first transitional basketball that made

defense possible

, he was one of the players ready to take off.

His problem was the lungs.

Satch Sanders

recalled that the team's forwards fought to sit next to

on the bench because as soon as Heinsohn was out of breath, he would get angry and send the first one he saw to the court.

"Get Tommy out of there!"

But if he was harder on him than on anyone, it's because he always responded.

He might lack discipline, but he never delivers.

Heinsohn had to retire at the age of 30 due to a foot injury, but in just nine seasons he had time to be capital in eight rings.

Only his teammates Russell (11) and

(10) earned more as players.

The race that hardly started

Tommy Heinsohn's career was about to not start.

The Celtics chose him in the

1956

as a territorial choice, a resource that allowed them to choose players from the area to attract more public.

But because of Auerbach's reaction, Heinsohn thought he didn't want it and was about to accept an offer from Caterpillar.

Yes, the machine builders.

At that time it was very common for companies to have basketball teams.

No, it was not a sponsorship: they offered an office position to players just out of college to play for the team.

And his was especially good: five Peoria Cats players were gold medalists at the 1952 Olympics and the entire team won the 1954 World Cup on behalf of the United States.

"They offered me more money than the Celtics," Heinsohn recalled a few years ago.

And that also speaks of what the NBA was then.

But a call from Bob Cousy convinced him to go to Boston.

That same year the Celtics

Bill Russell, who did not sign until December to play the Melbourne Games, and

, who would spend two years in the army before joining the team.

They had laid the foundations for a dynasty that would win 11 titles in 13 seasons.

Heinsohn, named Rookie of the Year, starred in the decisive game of the 1957 Finals with 37 points and 23 rebounds to open the Celtics' showcases.

The two revolutions

It was less than an hour before the 1964 All-Star began and the players were still entrenched in the locker room.

At one point a security man passed by and told them

, the owner of the Lakers, was at the door demanding that his two stars,

and

, get out of there immediately.

"Go tell you to fuck yourself," Baylor replied.

The players had been demanding a pension plan for years and did not plan to play until they had the commitment of all the owners.

They knew that the league could not afford that embarrassment and, led by Heinsohn and

pushed to the limit until they reached the agreement 15 minutes before the initial jump.

As president of the union, 'Tommy Gun' was also not afraid to shoot.

After retiring, he spent three years narrating Celtics games on television until in 1969 Auerbach called him to take over the team.

He had already proposed to be his relief three years before, but by then Russell was still playing and Heinsohn told him what deep down he was also thinking: Russell was not going to answer to anyone other than Russell, so he better go player-coach.

When the center hung up his boots, Heinsohn accepted the position.

By 1969 there was nothing left of the Celtics who had tyrannized the NBA.

They had high hopes like

or rookie

, but Russell's withdrawal had left a huge pivot hole that they didn't know how to plug.

In moments of desperation, says journalist

, Heinsohn came to try out a veteran

(1.98) as a center.

The solution came the following year with a rookie.

was a strong, mobile player with a good passer and a good hand.

He measured 2.05, but at a time when the great centers dominated, Heinsohn, at the suggestion of Auerbach, decided to put him at 'five'.

"He was our point guard. He handled the ball, passed and shot from the outside but he could also play the post. He was way, way ahead of his time. He would fit perfectly in today's basketball," said Tommy Heinsohn.

It was the first germ of what, half a century later, has evolved in the 'small ball'.

Celtic blood

After winning two more rings as a coach, in the early 1980s Heinsohn became the commentator on the Celtics' games, a career he did not give up until the end.

It is possible that in forty years, more than 2,800 games according to the account of his inseparable

, he never recognized a single fault by his Celtics.

But that was part of the grumpy and endearing character (well, and his relationship with the referees).

It is said that Heinsohn, of German descent, went to the cinema to see war movies with a Navy veteran like Auerbach and made him mad by saying that each one was cheering on a different side.

They also say that on game days he could stay well into the morning with

, the legendary voice of the Celtics, smoking and listening to their battles of World War II.

Heinsohn, as the English expression goes, was larger than life.

And since it is so complicated to bottle it in a few lines, a few years ago he did it himself in an interview with the

: "There is a generation, old, but a generation, that reminds me as a player. There is another generation that reminds me as a player. Coach. There is another who considers me a television commentator. And then there are the kids now, who think I'm Shrek. And I tell you one thing, I'll take everything. "

According to the criteria of The Trust Project

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