Well I'm here to draw attention to the fact that a TRUE superstar is one who puts FANS in the seats. Babe Ruth did it, Ted Williams did it and so did Carl Yaztrzemski. Jim Rice, with all his statistics (for a short time) did not. Drew Bledsoe didn't BUT, Tom Brady sure does.
In Hockey BOBBY ORR was a superstar as was Gordie Howe and Rocket Richard BUT, Hockey, as well as baseball were established sports and die-hard fans were coming anyway.
But in BOB COUSY'S case he not only put fans in he seats in Boston but in all the other arenas around the country, wherever he played. THAT is documented by Walter Brown, the Celtics owner who announced to the press that the Celtics attendance increased slightly over 50% in Boston and likewise around the league.
"I would not have been able to meet the payroll for the 1951 season if not for all those fans who came to see if Cousy could really do all those things the media gave him credit for. They quickly found out....HE COULD do them and then some.
Teams were folding up, a few moved, but that wasn't solving too much. Walter admitted he was being pressured to just fold up the team and concentrate on the Bruins. But Walter loved basketball and took one last chance to keep the team going by hiring RED AUERBACH. THEN, by the luck of the draw, as two other teams folded and their players were dispersed around the league, the Celtics would up drawing Cousy's name out of a hat. The rest, as they say, is history.
Tommy Heinsohn, as astute a basketball mind as there ever was, made THIS analogy, comparing Cousy to Babe Ruth....."The same way Babe Ruth's home run prowess saved major league baseball after the "Black Sox gambling scandal, Cousy saved pro basketball." "If the Celtics folded the rest of the league would have been right behind them."
I feel if the Celtics folded in 1951 it would have taken years for another team to take their place in Boston...which was, at that time, a huge baseball and hockey town. Boston NEVER would have seen Red Auerbach, Bill Russell OR Larry Bird and there never would have been all those world championship banners hanging from the rafters AND all those retired numbers alongside them. AND, JOHNNY MOST would never have been seated, "HIGH ABOVE COURT SIDE" to forever change the way sports games were broadcast.
Bob Brannum, Cooz's teammate from '51 to '55 and the NBA's first true power forward, said, "Cooz made the game very exciting with his innovative style of play. He revolutionized Red's fast break and, with his great vision of the entire court, he could always hit the open man. Walter Brown got the team here but Cooz was certainly responsible for them staying."
Not only was Cousy a great basketball player he was a great showman. "You have to be a little bit of a ham," said Cooz. If you have God-given talents that allow you to do the un-orthodox the important thing is to work them within the context of the game. Don't do it just for the sake of showing off. As long as the showmanship or unorthodox lead to accomplishing a goal that, perhaps, you couldn't do otherwise is the criteria you should have in mind. I was the only one doing it at that time, perhaps that's why I get credit for it, but, actually, 90% of my game is pretty conservative. 10% was to be able to get into the unorthodox stuff."
In those days the term "point guard" was unknown. A guard was a guard. Cousy defined the position. He was the first to actually break the game down to a science and any time he became flashy or showman like he had a purpose in mind.There was always a method to his madness.
"Any effective point guard has to have an imagination and the ability to execute and put that imagination into play," said Cousy. You can't go into a game with a pre-conceived notion of what you are going to do simply because every trip down the court becomes a different scenario, The options are varied because there are so many of them BUT, they are not predetermined. "
One of the reasons the Celtics were so great was because, on any given day, any one of them could kill you. They all knew if they ran and worked hard to get open Cooz would always find them and put the ball right where they could easily put the ball in the basket. He called it, "dishing out the sugar."
And if they weren't open he took the shot himself OR drove in on the basket for his patented underhand scoop shot which usually wound up with a basket and trip to the foul line.
"Cousy invented the passes they use today and the reason I shot so much," said Heinsohn who truly earned the nick name, "TOMMY GUN." When I got open, which was often, he'd put the ball right where I needed it to take the shot and Red always said, If you get an open shot and don't take it I'm going to fine you." So I was just following Red's orders," he said flashing that great "Tommy Smile."
I've always felt that, because of the media's reluctance, or lack of sports history, TWO entire generations are being deprived of our (their) sports heritage. Heinsohn tells a story of when he was doing a show, in the early 80's called "Great Sports Rivalries." There was this young, 24 year old kid researching stuff on Cousy. He exclaimed to me, "Geez, I never knew how great Cousy was. Watching these films I've never seen anybody doing what he did, playing today. They just can't do it."
"The kid was absolutely right," said Heinsohn. Cooz was such a creative person on the court that even if you didn't know basketball you still understood you were watching a virtuoso performance." Cousy had many great accomplishments and received numerous honors such as TWELVE All-star
selections, two All-star MVP's in 1954 and 1957, league MVP in '57, six world championships, named to the NBA 25th anniversary team in 1970 and the 35th in 1980. He was voted into the NBA hall of fame in 1970 and was the first player ever elected to be its president in 1989.
There was something else that Cousy brought to the sport that is widely overlooked. As noted columnist, Bruce Martin wrote, Cousy meant much more to the game of basketball than his ability as an outstanding player. Projecting the right image was always important to him on and off the court. He enjoyed the responsibility and built his reputation as one of the game's great ambassadors.
"OFF the court he was always aware of who he was, what he did and being a winner," Heinsohn said. He WAS the ambassador for the sport and helped greatly in establishing the NBA and pro basketball in those critical early years."
The "Cousy era" was a great time to be a sports fan in Boston, and not just for the Celtics. Ted Williams was still hitting hone runs at Fenway Park, we had THREE undisputed world boxing champions, Rocky Marciano, Paul Pender and "The Pride of the North End, Tony DeMarco. Football fans now had the scrappy BOSTON Patriots and, of course, the Celtics would go on forever.....OR, would they. Marciano retired, so did Teddy Ballgame, and we lived through it.....but Bob Cousy??
Almost everyone I knew said, Nah, he'll change his mind...BUT we couldn't imagine the Celtics without Bob Cousy. It was unthinkable BUT, on March 17, 1963, in one of the most memorable and heart-wrenching episodes in Boston sports history...Bob Cousy said his good bye'to us all. I can still hear the echo of the fan up in the balcony, who spoke for us all when he cried out, as Bob fought back a tear..."We love you Cooz."
"Many people have told me I was born 20 years too soon," said Cousy because of the salaries. "I'm happy to say I have no regrets about it whatsoever. I wouldn't change a thing. Most athletes in team sports go through their entire career without ever getting near a world championship. I CAPTAINED a team that won six of them and I played for the greatest sports dynasty this country will ever see. i could not have been luckier. I earned my living playing a child's game alongside the greatest teammates ever." he concluded.
I'm reminded of a closing scene from a John Wayne movie, "The Man Who Shot Liberty Valence."
A newspaper editor says to his younger reporter, "When the legend prints better than the truth, always print the legend." In the case of Bob Cousy it's very evident that the legend IS the truth.
Bob, please know all of "Celtic's world" joins that fan in the Boston Garden balcony all those many years ago in saying....."We love you Cooz." Thank you for everything.