John Havlicek is one of the greatest and most unusual players in NBA history, and also one of the most underrated.
That sounds like a contradiction, but it’s not. People truly don’t understand who great he was, and that includes a lot of the people who saw him play.
We don’t know if anyone ever really studied Havlicek’s physiology, but it was crazy. In this video, former teammate Sam Jones said that not only did Havlicek never get tired, he didn’t even start sweating for 10 minutes. This is in the
NBA, against teams filled with great athletes, and of course, Boston was a fast-breaking team. Add guts and brilliant instincts to the mix, and you have Havlicek.
His energy level and endurance probably played a role in his most memorable play. At the end of Game 7 of the 1965 Eastern Conference Finals, Bill Russell tried to inbounds the ball, but it hit a guy wire connected to the backboard.
Philadelphia called a timeout, and Russell pleaded with his teammates to bail him out.
Havlicek obliged, making one of the three most iconic steals in Celtics history, and preserving the win for the Celtics.
The other two: Gerald Henderson’s against Los Angeles in the 1984 Finals, and Larry Bird’s against Detroit in 1987.
This is the best video/explanation we’ve seen about Havlicek’s enduring moment of glory.
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