Remembrance of Things Past

The new Celtics are playing--and winning--as of yore

For any other National Basketball Association team, it would have been bad enough, but for the Boston Celtics, one of the proudest dynasties in all of sport, the past two years were disastrous. It was not just defeat: 103 losses against only 61 wins, the worst record in the league. It was the way the games were lost: Curtis Rowe dribbling endlessly; Bob McAdoo shooting 20 times a game; Sidney Wicks driving into a wall rather than passing to an open teammate. It was not, in short, the Celtic way, the kind of team play that brought 13 championship banners to Boston, including eight straight titles between 1958 and 1966.

Now Rowe, McAdoo and Wicks are gone, and the winters of the Celtics' discontent have ended. The arrival of a new Bird (Larry, the No. 2 college scorer for the previous two years and the paradigm of a team player) and the revival of the old Cowens (Dave, the fiery redhead whose intensity inspires others) have combined to rejuvenate a franchise that had lost touch with its legacy. Boston is winning again, and winning the Celtic way.

The team sailed into the N.B.A. playoffs last week with a 61-21 record, the best in the league. They won 32 more games than they had in the previous season, the largest turn-around in the N.B.A.'s history. Boston's attack is so balanced that only Bird ranked among the league's top 20 scorers, but seven others averaged in double digits. Says Don Chaney, 34, whose career at guard and forward with the Celtics spans nine years: "There is more unselfishness on this team than on any I've ever been on."

That is high praise indeed from a player who remembers the nightly sacrifice under the boards of Bill Russell, the hustle of John Havlicek and the selfless playmaking of Sam Jones. General Manager Red Auerbach, who built those great teams, also remembers, and the memory rankles: "I was disgusted by what we had become. We made up our minds that we were going to get the right chemistry whether or not we could get ability."

The Celtics got both in Larry Bird. One of the finest shooters since Jerry West, Bird, 23, came from Indiana State with an equally high reputation for the shots he did not take, preferring to give up the ball with deft passes to open teammates. Auerbach made Bird the Celtics' No. 1 draft choice after his junior year. The wait, and Bird's reported $650,000-a-year salary, have proved worth it.

All but seven games in Boston Garden were sold out, and on the road the Celtics were the biggest draw in the league. Bird finished the season ranking 16th in scoring (an average 21.3 points per game) and tenth in rebounds (10.4 per game), and he dished off an average of 4.5 assists. The 6-ft. 9-in. forward is a virtual shoo-in for Rookie of the Year honors and has been touted for the league's M.V.P. award as well. Says Auerbach: "Usually a player with his kind of hullabaloo disappoints, but Larry has more than lived up to his notices. As a player, and even more as a person, he has exceeded expectations."

As always, the hardest worker is Cowens, delighted to be relieved of the player-coach job he suffered through last year. With Coach Bill Fitch doing the plotting, Cowens, 31, is free to do the playing. Once again, he is the man who dives for loose balls and ends up seven rows in the stands, sprints the length of the court to overhaul an opponent's fast break and manages to block shots with the best of the big men despite his small (6 ft. 9 in.) size for an N.B.A. center. Says Cowens: "I played for seven years with teams that valued teamwork, and I had a year and a half of turmoil. I got plenty tired of losing. I feel good about this team."

There have been other happy surprises. Bird's fellow starting forward, Cornbread Maxwell, finally came into his own, finishing the regular season with a league-leading 60.9 field-goal percentage. The three-point score introduced this season for shots taken beyond a line about 22 ft. from the basket turned out to be a bonanza for Guard Chris Ford; he hit on 43% of his long bombs, the second best record in the N.B.A. Guard Tiny Archibald, 31, the point man and playmaker, runs the Celtic offense with intelligence and verve. Despite a wrist injury, M.L. Carr has consistently come through in the Celtics' sixth-man role. Second-year Center Rick Robey, anchor of Kentucky's 1978 national championship team, filled in brilliantly when Cowens was injured in midseason.

The Celtic bench, suspect early in the season, has been strengthened by the addition of Pistol Pete Maravich. Recovered at last from knee injuries, Maravich provides firepower in reserve. Still Coach Fitch admits: "We're not great--not truly great. One on one, we don't stack up around the league." But that, of course, is just the point. Says Bird: "We're playing basic basketball, fundamentals. We work the ball well, try to hit the open man, and nobody forces his shots up. I'm a team ballplayer, and that's why I like it here. We're playing team basketball." As any Boston fan can tell the town's prize newcomer, that is the Celtic way.

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