Celtics legend Bob Cousy is eager to see that 18th championship banner go up - The Boston Globe (2024)

Other than 85-year-old Satch Sanders, who did not come on board until 1960, all of the men who were with Cooz at the beginning of the Celtic dynasty are gone. Red Auerbach died in 2006. Bill Russell died two summers ago. Sam Jones, Tommy Heinsohn, K.C. Jones, and John Havlicek have all died since 2019.

Cousy is enjoying these playoffs.

“I will take great pride in seeing this,” he said. “This puts us back ahead of the Lakers. To have been a part of that is as good a legacy as I could hope for.”

He has no doubt about the Celtics beating the Mavericks in the Finals.

“Dallas will be sky-high for Game 3 and they may win that one, but I think the Celtics will be on the golf courses of the world by the end of next week,” said Cousy. “I’m saying this series will be four, maybe five games.”

Cousy won an NCAA championship as a player at Holy Cross in 1947 and took the NBA by storm as a rookie for Auerbach in 1950-51. He was “Mr. Basketball,” and stayed in the game as a coach (NBA and NCAA) and television analyst for more than a half-century. He is hardly “current” and acknowledges, “Today’s player is so much better,” but he still has a keen eye for what’s happening on the court.

“The Celtics have exposed Kyrie Irving as not quite a superstar,” said Cousy. “He has been severely subdued. They’re not even trapping him a lot. They’re doing it one-on-one. Kyrie’s working his ass off and they’re still stopping most of his stuff.

“He’s no longer in the superstar category. You’ve got to function in the playoffs to determine where you are in the hierarchy.

“There’s an increase in intensity in the playoffs. You’ve got to have experienced this. The playoffs format is so much different, and I remember that so vividly. You had to work so much harder.

“During the season, it’s like playing in the schoolyard, up and down, up and down. There are periods when you can turn up the intensity when it’s needed, but generally you don’t approach the game that way. So mediocre talent functions better and better talent functions more effectively during the season.

“But once the playoffs begin, you have to understand the severity and difficulty and full intensity you get. Some of the things you depend on during the year just don’t apply in the playoffs. There’s the pressure you put on yourself as well as the pressure the defense applies to you.

“Dallas’s strengths are [Luka] Doncic and Kyrie. And they have to be at their best, but their strengths go against the Celtics’ defensive strength. Doncic looks like a truck driver, but he’s an amazing athlete and gets it done. The Celtics have taken away his quick 3-pointer and he’s pretty much relying on the step-back. And that’s the shot the Celtics want him to take because that’s not a dangerous shot.

“I think [Dallas coach Jason] Kidd’s remarks pregame about [Jaylen] Brown being better than [Jayson] Tatum were meant to throw them off. Tatum’s facing extreme trapping every minute of the playoffs and that’s taken the quick three away from him. The second he gets the ball, he’s double-teamed, so he shouldn’t be looking for his own opportunities. Everyone’s looking for him to score 30-something points, but he’s fulfilling his role.

“The Celtics’ backcourt defense with [Jrue] Holiday and [Derrick] White is as good as anyone in the league. I can’t tell you how pleased I am with both of those guys.

“They really got lucky in getting Holiday. I can’t believe the Milwaukee people let that kid go. He’s a player. He takes what the game gives him and doesn’t force anything. In Game 2, because of the focus on Tatum, Holiday wound up with open shots and he made them and took it to the basket.”

Cousy said White’s late-game chase-down block of a P.J. Washington breakaway reminded him of Russell’s legendary block of St. Louis’s Jack Coleman late in Boston’s double-overtime (first championship) win over the Hawks in 1957.

“Tommy always said Russell’s block was the most athletic thing he’d ever seen,” recalled Cousy. “White’s play wasn’t quite akin to that, but it was great. He came from behind and was in a difficult position and evidently he has not only amazing timing but he’s more of a leaper than any of us give him credit for.

“He’s extremely athletic, and that’s a bonus. We didn’t know we were getting that from him, and [San Antonio boss Gregg] Popovich has got to be feeling badly every day of his life that he let that kid go.”

How does Cooz feel about the Celtics’ 35-year-old coach, Joe Mazzulla?

“For a guy who hasn’t had coaching experience, I guess I would give him an A,” said Cousy. “Last month I was blaming him for their mental instability. Now his body language is better and he’s calling his timeouts when he’s supposed to.

“The biggest thing a coach does in this league is stop a run when the other team gets going. Arnold would certainly do that, even if it meant getting thrown out of a game or coming close to taking a swing at the ref.”

The Cooz couldn’t resist one last critique voiced by many fans of a certain age.

“I still am not on board with the [expletive] 3-pointer,” he said. “I just can’t accept it as a coach’s first priority. I can accept it as a second or third option.

“If you’re wide open and there’s no other option, that’s fine, but to look for it as your first option … I’ll go to my grave disagreeing with that.

“It’s what the Celtics do, but they’ve got so much strength everywhere, they overcome it. It hasn’t been a factor in terms of losing the games, but it’s probably made the games closer than they would have been if they attacked the [expletive] basket first.

“All the coaches pretty much do it, so I can’t fault this guy. And the Celtics probably have the best group doing it.

“But the minute I see it go up quickly, I still say, ‘Don’t take that!’

“And then ‘boom.’ It goes in.”

Dan Shaughnessy is a Globe columnist. He can be reached at daniel.shaughnessy@globe.com. Follow him @dan_shaughnessy.