WORCESTER – Celtics legend Bob Cousy no longer considers himself an expert on his former team, but he still has his opinion.
Speaking from his Worcester home on Tuesday, the 95-year-old Cousy said he ranks the retooled Celtics among the top teams in the NBA, but he wants to see them play together for a while longer before he crowns them as the favorite to win the championship.
“Maybe on paper they have that kind of capability,” he said, “but if I were a betting man, which I’m not, I wouldn’t put a large bet on the Celtics at this point in time. If we talk three months into the season, hopefully I’ll feel differently. Sure, they’re one of the best three in the league probably, but let them go out and prove it.”
Cousy couldn’t believe the Celtics lost three games at home, including the deciding Game 7, to Miami in the Eastern Conference finals last year because he considered the Heat to be “20 points weaker” than Boston.
After playing 13 seasons for the Celtics and helping them win the first six of their 17 NBA championships, Cousy retired 60 years ago.
“Time flies when you’re having fun,” he said.
Cousy broadcasted Celtics games on TV for 35 years through 2008, but he hasn’t attended a Celtics game in many years. He still watches about half of their games on television (the games out west start too late for him) and he plans to view their season opener at 7 p.m. Wednesday at the Knicks in New York.
Cousy is a big fan of Celtics star Jayson Tatum.
“Tatum, I think, has the potential to become one of the greats in Celtics history,” Cousy said. “He can beat you in so many ways, more ways frankly than [Larry] Bird. Bird had quickness, but he didn’t have speed, so he had to rely on the perimeter shot. He didn’t take it to the basket as effectively as Tatum.”
He wonders if the Celtics will regret trading Marcus Smart and Robert Williams. Cousy, who basically invented the point guard position, didn’t consider Smart to be a true point guard, but he did admire his toughness and tenacity.
“We’ve lost the killer instinct image by losing Smart,” Cousy said. “That was a large part of his game, diving on the floor, stepping into charging forwards going to the basket and drawing the foul. That kind of aggressive play, that’s what he was all about.”
Cousy also respected Williams’ defense and shot blocking ability.
“I agree he gets hurt every 20 minutes,” Cousy said. “The other side of that coin is I haven’t seen anyone do what that kid was able to do in the short minutes I saw since [Bill] Russell. That’s a franchise player you’re letting go and he also gave you muscle on the backboards. That’s what Russell used to provide.”
Cousy also liked the way Grant Williams, who left the Celtics to sign with Dallas, got in the face of opponents.
Cousy appreciates the offensive skills of Kristaps Prozingis, but wonders if he lacks the toughness of Smart and the two Williamses.
“He’s 7-3 and shoots it and passes it and has the skills to play the game, but he also has an injury problem,” Cousy said. “From Brad Stevens’ standpoint, he was getting a key component and that we will see about. My jury is still out on that.”
Point guard Jrue Holiday, acquired from Portland, is also known for his defense, but he’s a more effective scorer than Smart. Tatum, Jaylen Brown, Porzingis and Holiday are all proven scorers and Cousy is interested to see how they’ll play together.
“You can get too many offensive players,” he said. “Suppose Russell had wanted to score 25 points a game. That wouldn’t have worked.”
So Cousy believes Holiday will have to sacrifice his scoring at times to help the team.
“Point guards have to keep the other four guys happy,” Cousy said, “and the best way to do that is to give them the ball. So that’s got to be worked out.”
Cousy admitted that guard Derrick White has surprised him with his consistency on defense and his ball handling, and he appreciates that White can help the team without scoring much.
Joe Mazzulla will be under pressure to win it all as he enters his second season as Celtics head coach.
“I hope a young coach can handle all this intrigue,” Cousy said, “but it’s not going to be the easiest thing. This year, the cliche about you’ve only got one ball is really going to apply.”
Cousy would rather see the Celtics take the ball to the basket for layups and fouls instead of taking so many 3-pointers, but that’s the way the game is played throughout the NBA these days.
Cousy’s impressive NBA resume adds weight to his opinion. He was the NBA MVP in 1957, an All-Star in each of his 13 seasons, and a member of the All-NBA first team 10 times and the second team twice. He led the NBA in assists eight years in a row. He’s proud that he joined former Russell, George Mikan and Bob Pettitt as the only four players selected to each of the NBA’s 25th, 35th, 50th and 75th NBA anniversary teams.
He’s also a proud graduate of Holy Cross and helped the Crusaders win the NCAA Championship as a freshman in 1947.
Cousy’s outlook on life remains the same. During the interview for this story, he repeated what he’s said many times, “I’m the luckiest SOB on the planet.”
The oldest Celtics legend also joked that he’s “95 with one foot solidly in the grave,” but he’s still sharp and reads a book each week.
Cousy’s hands don’t work as well as they once did, but he’s still signing autographs for a company that pays him $100 for each one. He earns far more money signing autographs than he ever did for the Celtics. His highest salary with the Celtics was $35,000, a far cry from the five-year, $303 million extension that Brown recently signed.
“I can’t relate to that,” Cousy said. “I was told, and it was probably a fib because Russell was with us, that I was the highest paid player in the league.”
The NBA has changed a lot since then, but at age 95 Cousy remains a fan of the league, especially of his beloved Celtics.
Bill Doyle has been a professional journalist for 47 years, most of them as a sports writer for the Telegram & Gazette. He covered the Boston Celtics for 25 years and has written extensively about golf, boxing and local high school and college sports. He also worked for the campus newspaper when he attended UMass-Amherst. He can be reached at billdoyle1515@gmail.com
