Heinsohn Gives the Edge to His New Line of Work

Skip Myslenski of the Chicago Tribune asked Tom Heinsohn how announcing compared to coaching, and Heinsohn recalled the fifth game of the 1975-76 championship series between the Boston Celtics and the Phoenix Suns.

Boston won it in triple overtime, 128-126, and some have called it the greatest game in NBA history.

“It was a really, really tough basketball game,” Heinsohn said. “After the game was over, there was this throng of newspaper people that got me in a corner, and I had to sit down. I fainted.

“I have never fainted after announcing a game.”

Larry Bird told the Denver Post this one about Red Auerbach: “I remember when I was negotiating my $2-million-a-year contract. I went in and said, ‘Aw, come on Red, that’s not your money you’re giving up.’ He said, ‘Hey, what if maybe I want a raise some day?’ ”

Trivia Time: As a rookie, Bill Russell didn’t report to the Boston Celtics until after the season had started. Why? (Answer below.)

No, Bill Fitch isn’t satisfied that his Houston Rockets finished second best, even though they knocked off the Lakers in the West.

He told Gary Binford of Newsday: “Say you’re at a dance and there’s one pretty girl. She leaves with another guy, but on the way out she says, ‘You were second.’ How do you think you’d feel?”

Who does defending champion Andy North like in the U.S. Open at Shinnecock Hills, which he compares to the links courses in Scotland?

“I could see Lee Trevino doing well here,” he told Joe Juliano of the Philadelphia Inquirer. “I could picture this as the course he could play well. It’s very important to keep the ball in the fairway here, so maybe it’s a course for Calvin Peete.

“I can see Bernhard Langer, Sandy Lyle and Seve Ballesteros doing well because this is the kind of course they play in Europe. Jack Nicklaus? Well, I don’t think Jack has too many problems on any kind of course.”

Now-it-can-be-told Dept.: Glenn Wilson of the Philadelphia Phillies, recalling his slump to a .121 average in late May, told Peter King of Newsday: “Every high school or Little League coach I ever had called me with advice.”

So who’s advice did he take?

“Steve Carlton’s,” he said. “I figured he doesn’t talk to many people, so if he talked to me I should listen. He told me to use my body, not just my arms.”

In the next 14 games, Wilson drove in 18 runs and raised his average nearly 100 points.

Trivia Answer: He played for the 1956 U.S. Olympic team in Melbourne, where the Games were held in November-December, which is summer in Australia.

Quotebook

Hall of Fame pitcher Lefty Gomez: “I’ve got a new invention. It’s a revolving bowl for tired goldfish.”