There are successful players, there are championship players…and then there is 8-time NBA champ John Havlicek. At Ohio State Havlicek helped lead the Buckeyes to the 1960 NCAA title, but he became really famous after being drafted 7th overall by the Celtics in 1962. In the final seconds of Game 7 in the 1965 Eastern Conference Finals he made 1 of the most amazing steals in NBA history by tipping Hal Greer’s inbounds pass to Sam Jones to clinch a 1-PT win over the 76ers. He was named MVP of the 1974 NBA Finals, and 2 years later he scored 22 PTS in 1 of the greatest games in NBA history (a 2-PT 3-OT win over Phoenix in Game 5 of the NBA Finals). A 13-time All-Star, you know that you are special when no less than Bill Russell calls you “the best all-around player I ever saw”, and last month the accolades continued as Havlicek was inducted into the College Basketball Hall of Fame. HoopsHD’s Jon Teitel got to chat with John’s college teammate Mel Nowell about all of Hondo’s accomplishments and we congratulate him on his outstanding career!
After an All-Star game during his senior year, Jerry Lucas convinced Havlicek and Bobby Knight to join him and Coach Fred Taylor that fall at Ohio State: what did Jerry say to convince him, and where do you think that your recruiting class ranks in the history of college basketball? I remember watching Jerry’s team coached by Paul Walker when I was in 10th grade and I was just in awe. I was asked to join Jerry on the All-Star team and I jumped at the chance. We lost a close game to Kentucky before blowing away Indiana in our next game. After 4-5 games together we realized how successful we could be if we kept playing together in college. An Ohio State recruiter invited us to his farm for a picnic. I remember standing under a hoop on a court at the farm when a howitzer came flying in from far away and went through the hoop: that was my 1st introduction to Bobby Knight! I recall John saying that he looked at our scoring averages in high school and he knew that we could make shots. When we were freshmen we had to play for the JV but got to practice against the varsity, which began to tell us a lot about ourselves. We beat the varsity in front of a crowd and that made us feel that we were pretty darn good. John had a great shooting touch and great hands: they were just like glue. We were in great shape but lost a game to Utah during our sophomore year and needed oxygen in order to finish the game.
Ohio State football coach Woody Hayes told Celtics coach Red Auerbach that Havlicek probably would have been the best QB in Buckeyes history if he could have got him to come out for football: how good a QB was he, and why did he choose basketball over football? He was such a great athlete that I could see him being an excellent QB. He is very intelligent and applies himself to whatever he is trying to do. After our senior season we played a traveling exhibition throughout the state: Lucas and I dropped out of school but John stayed in school and would go back to campus in order to meet his academic requirements. Coach Taylor made it clear that school was priority #1 and basketball was priority #2, and John accepted his basketball scholarship knowing that football would be far down the chain. John would not have gone back on his commitment to Coach Taylor: he is a stand-up guy in every way.
Take me through the 1960 NCAA tourney:
2 days before the national semifinal he caught 2 of his fingers on a towel dispenser and had to get 10 stitches, but ended up with 10 REB in a win over NYU: how was he able to overcome the injury? That’s just Hondo: I think you would have to break his leg and put a cast on it before you could get him to stay off the floor! John told me that he believed fatigue was only in your mind: if you do not accept it then you can continue to operate at full-speed. We had to do a mile-long run after preseason camp and John won it every single year: there was no way he would let anyone catch him with those long legs. He would hustle on defense and hustle for rebounds so that he could get put-backs: we kidded him by calling him the “Garbage Man”.
He scored 12 PTS to help win the title over Cal: what did it mean to him to win the title? In my opinion he was extremely happy to win it all. In spite of all his accomplishments he was not 1 to brag: he just tried to achieve with great effort and then live with the results. We lost 3 times that year so we went into the tourney with no sense that the title was ours to lose: Cal was the defending champ and Cincinnati was the favorite to win it.
That summer he was named as an alternate to the Olympic team but did not make the final roster: did he really feel disappointed after the team was elected to the Hall of Fame in 2010 as perhaps the best amateur basketball team ever? I think it was the best Olympic team ever. He became more recognized by the end of the 1960 season. When we went into the locker room after the game I heard someone say “On to Denver!” I had no clue what they were talking about but it turns out that we were going to Denver to scrimmage against a group of All-Star players from smaller schools. I was disappointed because I just wanted to savor the victory. I was not in the best frame of mind and we were playing a team we knew nothing about: they caught us at the right time and beat us but after that we got our act together and won the rest of our games. The Olympic committee ended up choosing Lucas but not John or Larry Siegfried, both of whom were disappointed.
Take me through the 1961 NCAA tourney:
You were undefeated going into the title game, but had to wait an extra hour to play because the 3rd place game saw St. Joe’s beat Utah 127-120 in 4 overtimes (setting a tourney record for most combined PTS in a single game): did you get to watch any of that game, and what effect did the hour-long wait have on you and your team? I really think we lost the title because of it. We had to get dressed at our hotel because the locker room at the arena was not appropriate for a group of our size. We come out of the room and walked into the tunnel at the end of regulation…then had to head back into the small room when it went into OT. We kept doing that over and over while Cincinnati was just sitting behind the basket and laughing it up. I had such a headache by the time our game started due to all of the tension. I finally looked at the tape of our game recently and we just played pitifully. The part that hurts the most is that nobody cares who finishes 3rd: it meant nothing.
Lucas was named tourney MOP but was unable to tip in Havlicek’s miss at the end of regulation after getting boxed out by Paul Hogue, and you ended up losing to Cincinnati by 5 PTS in OT: did you think that Lucas was going to win the game in regulation, and did it feel extra-painful to lose to your in-state rival? We were #1 all year long in 1961 so Cincinnati had no idea that they could beat us. Fred designed a play for Larry and me to set a pick on Hogue while John threw a pass to Jerry. John’s pass was a little low and Tom Thacker was able to steal the ball, and then they out-executed us in OT. Cincinnati thought they would win it all in 1960 with Oscar Robertson but then we ended up winning it. I thought about going to Cincinnati but due to Lucas/my mother/my girlfriend I decided to stay in Columbus instead. Cincinnati fans were yelling insults at us in the hotel and posting signs on our doors: it was a very mean-spirited rivalry.
In the spring of 1962 he was drafted by both the Celtics and the Cleveland Browns, but after competing as a WR in the Browns’ training camp he was the very last guy cut: do you think he would have passed on the Celtics if the Browns had not cut him, and how good a WR do you think that he would have been? After being drafted in the 1st round by the world champion Celtics he chose to go try out with the Browns as a WR even though he had not played football in several years. They offered him a car if he agreed to sign and he made it all the way to the end of training camp before being cut. He had a rough-and-tumble attitude that would have translated well to the football field. He had muscles everywhere and had wiry strength, but he was also fast and smart so I think he could have developed into an All-Pro-caliber receiver. The cutting involved in basketball would have helped him a lot in football. My best friend in high school was Bernie Casey who had a similar build to John and later played in the NFL: I think John could have been a receiver like Bernie.
In 1965 he was at the center of 1 of the most famous play-by-play calls in NBA history when legendary Celtics broadcaster Johnny Most exclaimed, “Havlicek stole the ball!” after he intercepted Hal Greer’s inbound pass to clinch the Eastern Conference Finals against Philadelphia: what do you remember about the play, and could you tell at the time how big a deal it was? I remember watching the game. It was a typical smart play by John: he made sure that the receiver would not get past him and then he looked back, jumped up, and caught that sucker! He was determined to do his job well and not get caught out of position. At practice we would have some 1-on-1 drills: I was pretty tricky but against John I would have to be at my best. Even if I got around him he was still coming to further harass me with his great athletic ability.
In the magical 1974 NBA Finals he set a Finals-record with 9 PTS in a single OT in Game 6, and after Game 7 he was named Finals MVP: how was he able to play his best when it mattered the most? Auerbach had the talent and foresight to see a player who could become extremely valuable to his team. What he would not have completely known is how confident a shooter John would become because he would not take a lot of contested shots while he was in college. He was very much a team player who was willing to give the ball up, but once he learned to score off the dribble he became a great player.
He won 8 NBA titles during his 16-year career (2nd-most in NBA history behind teammates Bill Russell and Sam Jones): do you consider him to be 1 of the greatest “winners” in basketball history? Without question: having him on your team would give you an extra 30-40% chance of winning. He is a winner and has been a winner all his life. He is a fastidious person: even his sock drawer was always in perfect order! He was also great at knowing the value of a dollar: he did not buy a 2nd home until well into his career.
He was named an All-Star for 13 straight years from 1966-1978 and All-Defensive team for 8 straight years from 1969-1976: when people look back on his career, how do you think he should be remembered the most? What he did at Ohio Stae cemented him into the greatness of what the school had to offer, and the reason he made the Hall of Fame is because he was such a great player.
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