Member-only story
TOMMY HEINSOHN: LOOK BACK IN CELTIC GREEN
If you’re somewhat younger than me, your only memories of Tommy Heinsohn may be as an announcer, bringing you Boston Celtics’ games with the fervour of a true homer. Of course that means you’re too young to remember Johnny Most, the gravelly-voiced King of the Homers, whose famous “Havlicek stole the ball!” call outweighs all his “they’re murdering (Russ or Cowens or Jojo or Bird or Parish or whomever was wearing green) in there!” displays of partisan torment. Heinsohn was different. His analysis of the game was spot on; he spoke from the perspective of a guy who had been a star player and a championship-winning coach, and one who had hated and abused referees in both roles.
More than that, Tommy brought to commentary the kind of feeling you’d have if you were watching the game in a bar and the guy next to you turned out to be not only erudite, funny and outspoken, but also tp know a hell of a lot about the game. His long time broadcast partner Mike Gorman told a story about the time, early in their working together, Tommy, smoking courtside at the announce table, looked over at the papers in front of Gorman. “What are those?” he said. Gorman told him they were his game notes. Heinsohn reached across him for the notes, rolled them into a ball, and shot them into the stands. “We won’t need those,” he said. “We’ll just watch the game and talk about what we see.”
