The Rivalry: Bill Russell, Wilt Chamberlain, and the Golden Age of Basketball
Page 50
“There are three things”: Los Angeles Times, Dec. 11, 1968.
a “peace conference”: Los Angeles Times, Dec. 13, 1968.
van Breda Kolff began complaining: “The Wilt Chamberlain Controversy,” Sport, Aug. 1969.
CHAPTER 23
Bill Russell had spent the summer: Boston Herald-Traveler, Aug. 22, 1968.
Russell’s marriage was breaking down: Russell, Second Wind, 268.
“It ain’t no big thing”: The Boston Globe, Sept. 24, 1968.
“His shooting touch”: Los Angeles Times, Nov. 19, 1968.
Joe DeLauri, the Celtics trainer: The Boston Globe, Feb. 3, 1969.
In late February: Los Angeles Times, Feb. 20, 1969.
Chamberlain’s main problem: West, Mr. Clutch, 192.
No matter what he did: Wilt Chamberlain int. in Los Angeles Times, March 9, 1969.
the players had held a meeting: “The Wilt Chamberlain Controversy,” Sport, Aug. 1969.
prompted Russell to administer: Los Angeles Times, March 17, 1969.
“As all schoolchildren know”: “Comebacks All Over,” Sports Illustrated, April 16, 1969.
Havlicek had realized: Havlicek, Hondo, 108.
“Four guards and not two”: “Comebacks All Over,” Sports Illustrated, April 16, 1969.
the worst game he’d ever played: Dave DeBusschere int. in New York Post, April 10, 1969.
suffering from migraine headaches: Los Angeles Times, April 16, 1969.
Boston Here We Come: Los Angeles Times, April 29, 1969.
CHAPTER 24
Baylor had never doubted: “Elgin Baylor’s Playoff Diary,” Sport, July 1969.
Chamberlain agreed, and he was convinced: Los Angeles Times, April 23, 1969.
“How you doing?”: New York Post, April 25, 1969.
“It was a game”: Los Angeles Times, April 24, 1969.
To Bill Russell’s surprise: Los Angeles Times, April 27, 1969.
Baylor, who felt that: “Elgin Baylor’s Playoff Diary,” Sport, July 1969.
a play they called “Ohio”: The Boston Globe, April 30, 1995.
Before the playoffs: Russell, Russell Rules, 202.
Even before he released it: Boston Herald-Traveler, April 30, 1969.
“Kiss the Blarney Stone”: Los Angeles Times, April 30, 1969.
West hated to be called: West, Mr. Clutch, 205–7.
What particularly irked him: Los Angeles Times, May 2, 1969.
Havlicek felt his body: Los Angeles Times, May 4, 1969.
“If I had to take”: New York Post, May 5, 1969.
“Who cares what Wilt says?”: Los Angeles Times, May 5, 1969.
He felt that whether: West, Mr. Clutch, 199.
van Breda Kolff told his team: “Elgin Baylor’s Playoff Diary,” Sport, July 1969.
Just before the game: Russell, Russell Rules, 190.
West just stood there: West, Mr. Clutch, 200.
it seemed to Baylor: “Elgin Baylor’s Playoff Diary,” Sport, July 1969.
his knee hurt so badly: Los Angeles Times, May 7, 1969.
There are no such things: Boston Herald-Traveler, March 18, 1969.
tighter than Ramses II: Boston Herald-Traveler, April 29, 1969.
Not only was Russell surprised: Russell, Second Wind, 192–230.
“I’m ready to go back in”: Wilt Chamberlain int. in New York Post, May 7, 1969.
Chamberlain had pulled down: Bill van Breda Kolff int. in Los Angeles Times, May 7, 1969.
“What are they going to do”: Los Angeles Times, May 6, 1969.
Chamberlain was angrier: Chamberlain, Wilt, 218.
An argument broke out: Libby, Goliath, 194.
he had played so hard: “Jerry West Wins Sport’s First NBA Award,” Sport, July 1969.
“I can’t stand to listen”: West, Mr. Clutch, 218.
“I love you”: Havlicek, Hondo, 115.
“You’ve refused all these years”: Los Angeles Times, May 6, 1969.
“Each game of the grueling playoffs”: Boston Herald-Traveler, May 7, 1969.
“Some day in the far-off future”: The Boston Globe, May 7, 1969.
Two days later: Boston Herald-Traveler, May 9, 1969.
CHAPTER 25
Milton Gross had watched: New York Post, May 7, 1969.
He decided van Breda Kolff: Chamberlain, Wilt, 212.
“The thing that kills me”: New York Post, May 7, 1969.
“If I had had fifteen minutes’ ”: “The Wilt Chamberlain Controversy,” Sport, Aug. 1969.
“one of those old-time duels”: New York Post, BHFA.
After the season ended: Account of Russell’s lecture-circuit remarks, from Russell, Second Wind, 277–78; “The Wilt Chamberlain Controversy,” Sport, Aug. 1969; Harris, Lonely, 37; Libby, Goliath, 194.
Two days after: Boston Herald-Traveler, May 7, 1969.
“Don’t worry, Red”: Russell, Russell Rules, 208.
Auerbach did not take: Red Auerbach int. in Herald Traveler and Boston Record American, Dec. 19, 1972.
their marriage had gone stale: Russell, Second Wind, 246.
it had gone bankrupt: Boston Herald American, Sept. 16, 1973.
he defaulted on a $90,000 loan: Christian Science Monitor, Feb. 12, 1975.
the IRS put a lien: Springfield Union, June 9, 1973.
Cold, icy cold: Harris, Lonely, 34.
revived his war: The Seattle Times, June 6, 1973.
“I am not a racist”: Boston Herald American, June 8, 1973.
“When and where”: New York Daily News, April 8, 1990.
“What are you doing?”: Auth. int. of Michael Richman.
“Bill Russell: Why do you”: Chamberlain, View from Above, 185.
Russell and Chamberlain were reunited: Auth. int. of Seymour Goldberg.
“I don’t care if I never”: Boston Herald Advertiser, March 2, 1975.
Casey figured: Boston Herald, Jan. 19, 1995.
The two men: Auth. int. of Seymour Goldberg.
a couple of old ladies: The New York Times, Oct. 30, 1996.
they never discussed: Bill Russell int. by Chris Matthews, Hardball, MSNBC, June 6, 2001.
Had he played: Bill Russell int. in Philadelphia Daily News, Oct. 30, 1996.
“I have trouble saying this”: Boston Herald, May 27, 1999.
Russell had bought Hal DeJulio’s: Auth. int. of Hal DeJulio.
“We love you, Bill!”: The Boston Globe, Dec. 30, 1999.
CHAPTER 26
Five months later: Auth. int. of Seymour Goldberg; City News Service, Oct. 12, 1999; Philly.com, Oct. 13, 1999; The Seattle Times News Service, Oct. 13, 1999; Los Angeles Times, Oct. 13, 1999.
But the loss Russell felt: Account of Russell’s feelings taken from his remarks at Chamberlain’s memorial service, The Washington Post, Oct. 17, 1999.
A few days after Chamberlain’s death: Auth. ints. of Al Attles and Seymour Goldberg; Houston Chronicle, Oct. 17, 1999; Los Angeles Times, Oct. 17, 1999; Lynch, Season, 233.
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ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
In previous books—whether about a corporate takeover battle, a murder trial, or a contemporary marriage—I have explored the psychology of conflict, and that was the issue that initially drew me to the story of the rivalry between Bill Russell and Wilt Chamberlain. But I soon became convinced that it also had the form of a classical epic, beginning in 1959, building through various reversals and shifting alliances over a ten-year period, and reaching a climax in the last minutes of the 1969 finals. It coincided with and was in good measure responsible for the growth of the NBA from a minor to a major league. It produced the first iconic black superstar athletes—outside boxing—and played a role in advancing race relations in the sixties. It involved the top players and coaches of the age, all extraordinarily vivid personalities with conflicting values. Finally, it gave me the opportunity to investigate the tension between talent and teamwork that is at the heart of all team sports.
The narrative of the rivalry has never been the subject of a book before. Books, most long out of print, have been written about the Celtics, but they also cover the post-Russell years, and the rivalry is usually relegated to a chapter analyzing the relative strengths and weaknesses of Russell and Chamberlain. Several sports memoirs, similarly out of print, also discuss the rivalry in passing. My goal was to capture these men and their teammates, opponents, and coaches, to explore the forces that motivated them all, and to convey the spirit of the times, the atmosphere of the arenas and dressing rooms, and the heat and smoke of the combat.
Numerous people were interviewed for this book: players, coaches, trainers, sportswriters, the family members of owners. Interviews were conducted in person, on the telephone, and in writing. Elgin Baylor described how he came to be the first black player to boycott an NBA game to protest segregation. Tom Heinsohn explained the narrowly averted strike he organized as head of the players association during the 1964 all-star game. Wilt Chamberlain’s sister Barbara Lewis told me about their father, who moved from rural Virginia to Philadelphia at the age of eighteen. Dolph Schayes discussed the perils of coaching Chamberlain. The 76ers trainer Al Domenico recalled the time the team’s bus was attacked by crazed Celtics fans. Wilt’s teammates Joe Ruklick and Al Attles recounted the night Wilt scored one hundred points. Michael Gross described his father Milton Gross’s journalistic creed: run with the pack and you’ll write like the pack. Sy Goldberg described the deal to trade Chamberlain to the Lakers and Bill Russell’s reaction to Chamberlain’s death. Some of the people who figure in the narrative, such as Tom Heinsohn, Dolph Schayes, Elgin Baylor, Bob Cousy, and Al Attles also read sections of the manuscript. While they had no power of approval over it, I wanted to give them the opportunity to confirm the material and point out any inaccuracies.
But a number of people, such as Frank McGuire, Alex Hannum, Guy Rogers, and of course Chamberlain himself, are now dead. Others were too elderly or too ill to sit for extensive interviews. Some people, including Bill Russell, simply declined to talk, and others talked but, unwilling to speak critically about teammates or opponents who have passed away or are aging in retirement, insisted that the controversies and personality conflicts that give the narrative its drama were manufactured or exaggerated by outsiders. “Wilt never missed a practice,” one of Chamberlain’s teammates assured me. “That’s because we never practiced,” another explained. In any event, the sunset reminiscences of retired players and coaches are not infallible. Red Auerbach has claimed for years that Walter Brown arranged for the Ice Capades to play in Rochester in return for information crucial to the Russell trade, and this has simply been asserted as fact in certain books, but the truth is the Ice Capades had already been performing in Rochester. Brown and Lester Harrison, the owner of the Rochester Royals and the man who might have acquired Russell in the 1950 draft, were friends and fellow owners in a struggling league who depended on
each other, and previously Brown had helped resolve a dispute between Harrison and the management of the Rochester arena over scheduling the Ice Capades. Similarly, Bob Cousy in recent years has claimed that after he graduated from college he had decided that if he was not drafted by the Celtics he would not play in the NBA, but in his own 1957 memoir, Basketball Is My Life, he describes how, after Boston passed him over in the 1950 draft, he signed a $9,000 contract with the Tri-Cities Blackhawks. Rather than rely on solitary voices, I have tried to draw on multiple accounts of events and cross-check them with contemporaneous sources.