“We were the basketball’s cosa nostra,” said Mr Hanson, who also coached the Celtics for their 1974 and 1976 titles. “We thought it was our thing.”
For the next pay generation of fans, he was known as an automated television analyst, his passion, delight and charm, so that he could become a colorful and controversial personality.
“One thing I’ve learned a long time ago is that there’s no control over what people think of you,” said Mr. Hanson, who was once seen thumbing out NBA referee Mandy Rudolph outside a bar in the famous Miller Light business. . “Some people said of me, ‘Hey, it’s great to see someone with enthusiasm.’ Others said I was a screaming ass.
“And all I can say is, ‘That’s me, Paul.’ I’m involved, and when I get involved, I’ll hang on to it all. I don’t worry about my image. “
Thomas William Hanson, born Aug. 26, 1934, in Union City, NJ, where he studied at St. Michael’s High School before enrolling at Holy Cross.
“My mother bought me a new suit to go to college,” he recalls. “We were poor, but she wanted me to have it. It was a powder-blue suit with paged pants – you know, skinny at the bottom I think I made a good impression with it. “
Mr. Hanson made a more effective impact on the court, where he was captain of the Crusaders and first-team All-American. He scored a school record 51 points against Boston College in the Garden and helped the Crusaders win the National Invitational Tournament title in 1954, as well as two NCAA postseason bids.
Before the Celtics selected him as their regional choice in the 1956 draft, Mr. Hanson was given an IL. Na thought of playing for the Amateur Athletic Union team in Peoria and tried to compete in the Olympics in Melbourne that year, where he would have performed alongside future Boston teammates. U.S. Russell and Casey Jones on the gold medal team.
Instead he signed with the Celtics and played an invaluable opening role in their 1957 title run. In Game 7 of the final series against the St. Louis Hawks, Mr. Heinshaw scored 37 points and 23 rebounds, leading the Celtics to a double. -Overtime victory. It was the franchise’s first NBA championship.
“I could only play futloose and fancy free,” said Mr Heinshaw, who has been named the league’s rookie of the year. “People who have been here all the time trying to win the championship, Kusi and Bill Sherman were so restless that they couldn’t come out of their way that day. I just went out and played. “
Mr. Heinzhon will earn 12,194 points during his career, averaging about 19 games, despite his habit of smoking in the locker room before games and at halftime.
“If Hanson wanted to kill himself, he was fine with me,” coach Red Erb Rabech said years later. “Unless he makes it to a slow run.”
Intensely competitive
Mr. Heinson, whose names were “Tommy Gun” and “Ek-ck K,” were the team’s designated shooters, who needed no incentives for targeting and firing.
“Sentix’s playmaking wizard,” Cusie once remarked, “give Tommy credit for one thing.” “He would never hit without the ball.”
The shooting was Mr. Heinsoh’s job, Erb Rabech said, while his teammates may choose to catch the ball in a few turns. Mr. Hanson, who performed in an era without a long-range 3-point shot, employed an arc-laser jumper and a skilled hook, but he could also cut through the hurricane on the way to the basket.
“He would have knocked his grandmother down for 2 points,” said teammate Frank Ramsay.
Mr. Henson, who stood feet feet inches inches and weighed 220 pounds, was a “volunteer” who intercepted Vij Chamberlain in a 7-foot Titan to allow Cushy and Russell to operate freely.
“He worked for a while but Wilt was caught and he didn’t like it,” Mr. Hanson said. “Finally he said, ‘You do it again, I’ll hit you on your ass.’ And I said, ‘Bring your lunch.’ And enough, the next time he hit me on the floor. “
Mr. Heinson, who was Erb Rabbach’s favorite target during the locker-or-lecture, was accustomed to absorbing abuse for the benefit of the team.
“Red Tommy will say, you have to do this, Tommy you have to do that – and that’s for you too, Russell,” Mr. Heinshaw said.
Mr. Heinson had the most explicit discussion of his role as president of the Players Union, whose members threatened not to play in the 1964 All-Star Game at the Garden until NBA owners agreed to establish a pension scheme.
“Heinzhon is the No. 1 heel in all my association with the game,” said Walter Luther Brown, owner of Angry Celtics, who considered Mr. Heinzhoun inaccessible.
The owners and players came to terms before the tip-off, and helped Mr. Hensoh build another title three months later in the Garden, then Brown turned himself in.
“No living thing – horse, dog, or human – has ever contributed to Tommy Celtics in a very competitive way,” he declared.
The transition to coaching
With one more season left for Mr. Heinshaw, his career was cut short by a foot injury at the age of 30. He retired from a final ring in 1965, which Mr. Hanson felt was diminished as he observed the final minutes of the final victory against the Lakers off the bench.
“It was heartbreaking for me to see Willie Nouls playing in my position and the Celtics watching their seventh straight title without me,” he wrote, “Hanson, you never smile?” With co-author Leonard Levine.
Erb Rabech, who resigned as coach after the 1966 season, offered him a job but Mr Heinshaw refused.
“I couldn’t handle Russell,” he told Erb Rabbach. “Russell will never play for me. I couldn’t inspire them. “
So Erb Rabech named Russell as the player-coach, and Mr. Heinzhon lost his job: transport insurance. But when Russell retired after three asons Tuo, Mr. Heinshaw took over his position.
He said selling insurance was not nearly as fulfilling as the life of the court.
“I got used to the immediate results – in 48 minutes I either won or lost,” he said.
The legacy he inherited in 1969 was a massive reconstruction project on Causeway Street, and that season’s record (34-48) was the club’s worst since 1950. But with John Havlicek, Tom Sanders and, Don Nelson and talented young players Dave Cavens with proven experience. , If Joe White, and Don Cheney, Mr. Hanson established an up-tempo running style that leaves competitors inattentive and breathless. After a change in his second campaign, he was named NBA Coach of the Year.
“I had a sense of making something that I made work,” he said.
The Celtics went on to win the crown in the following three years, but when the team was knocked out during the 1977-78 season, Mr Heinson, who signed a multi-year contract extension in the spring, was let go after nine years, 7૨7 wins, and six playoff appearances, Au Rabche said. It was “the hardest thing I’ve ever done” and was replaced by Sanders.
Mr. Hanson (“I’m not afraid of the world.”) Was philosophical about his dismissal.
He said, “I have a roller coaster ride. “I lived in Playland and went downstairs and I looked in all the mirrors. I’ve done it all. And I never looked back on anything. “
Creative with words and paint
Mr. Heinshaw continued his involvement with the Celtics as a color commentator on the team’s TV broadcasts with play-by-play announcer Mike Gorman. They will provide the longest continuous on-air collaboration of any professional sports team.
“Tommy doesn’t really paint,” Gorman observed. “At his heart, he still coaches the Celtics and he will always be. It doesn’t matter who the coach is, and he has no disrespect to the coach. This will always be Tommy’s team. Tommy will coach this team until he takes his final breath. If it were still possible to play in this team, it would be. “
Mr. Hinson’s full-throated commentary, with his hometown attitude, was simply shy of the participant. The man who was the league’s foremost coffee shop philosopher in his coaching days – his references from Romeo and Juliet to Henry Clay to Ebenezer Scrooge to Bigfoot – was a master at creating word pictures in the air.
Throughout his life, he would also display gifts for making paintings on canvas.
Painting has been Mr. Hinsoh’s favorite pastime since childhood, when he was frustrated with getting a bezel glove for a Christmas present instead of a bunch of pastels.
“When I first started, it was something I could do on my own,” said Mr. Heinzho, who once dreamed of retiring to paint Gloucester. “He’s really like a friend. It keeps me involved. It’s pleasant. It’s fun. It is a social exercise. It is an intellectual exercise. “
Mr. Hanson, a frequent exhibitor who sold some of his paintings and gave them to others, was partial to landscapes, many of which he traveled on roads across the country.
Once in his Cleveland hotel room, which was staring at the brick wall, Mr. Hinsohe put his shoes steady on the final table with the snow falling out.
“You keep doing that,” he said. “Sports is an art. Painting is an art. It’s about mastering the fundamentals and spreading your creativity in them. “
Mr. Heinzhon’s favorite portrait was his second wife, Helen, whom he called “Needham to Redhead,” who died in 2008 after a six-year battle with cancer.
“My joke was always: ‘Nothing can happen to me, because Tommy can’t find his socks.'” He said once.
