Tommy Time
RIP 1934 - 2020
After a no call on a Marcus Smart layup, when everyone in the Garden and at home could see his had been viciously slapped, I asked the man about 70 miles south of me, “Tommy, what do you think?”
“Oh, that’s terrible. You gotta call that!”
“Tommy thinks the refs are lousy tonight,” I said to my boys, as I do every Celtics game when Tommy Heinsohn is the analyst alongside Mike Gorman.
My kids have grown to appreciate Tommy, who at 85 years old is still going strong as Mr. Celtic.
Entering the room while the boys watched another C’s game, the refs gave the ball to the Nets on yet another awful call. I waited to hear Tommy’s exasperated indignation, only to hear the subdued neutral voice of an ESPN announcer.
“Put on Tommy and Mike!” I commanded to whoever had the remote.
“We tried! It’s not on!” they explained. Just as I’d silenced the TV to hear Johnny Most call games thirty years before, we all want to hear Tommy Heinsohn.
For an NBA franchise with a long and storied history, it takes a lot to earn the name Mr. Celtic. But having been with the organization since his rookie year in 1956, it’s a deserved title for Thomas William Heinsohn.
Hailing from New Jersey and playing in college at Holy Cross in Worcester, Heinsohn established his legend in his first year as a Celtic. he was an all-star, won the NBA rookie of the year and helped Boston win the first of their 17 NBA Titles.
After losing in the NBA Finals the next year, Heinsohn and the Celtics won the next seven NBA titles in a row. He retired at the age of 30 in 1965 due to a foot injury, having won the NBA Championship in eight of his nine seasons as a player.
After coach Red Auerbach and player-coach Bill Russell retired, Tommy became the Celtics’ head coach in 1969. He won two more championships for the Celtics in 1974 and 1976, clad in plaid with undersized teams that ran their opponents up and down the court into defeat.
Tommy teamed up with Mike in 1981 and they’ve been Celtics calling games together ever since.
I joke about how Tommy inevitably gets on the refs for any call that doesn’t go the Celtics way – it’s part of his shtick. But it’s also because he sees things through green-shaded sunglasses. It’s just not in his DNA to admit the refs are not part of a worldwide conspiracy against the Celtics.
I watch sports for fun and entertainment. I’d much rather listen to a fellow homer who sees things the same was I do. We need those calls for the C’s.
I understand it’s near impossible to make all the right calls in basketball - there are fouls on almost every play. Listening to Tommy blast the refs just makes the games more fun. But there is a lot more to Tommy than getting on the officials.
“The little guy!” was Tommy’s call when Isaiah Thomas went on his brilliant run in in 2016, hitting clutch shots almost every game and making every Celtics game an event.
“I love Walter!” was Tommy’s praise for Walter McCarty, a hard-working player who’d come off the bench and whose hustle and play-making endeared him to Celtics fans.
“That’s a Tommy point!”
Tommy points are a badge of honor awarded to a player who outworks an opponent for the ball. They’re given for maximum effort, a designation I can’t help but give my own players I coach for their own hustle plays on the court.
Of course, these catch phrases are only part of what Tommy brings to the games. Heinsohn has forgotten more about basketball than most of us will ever know. His rich analysis and decades of experience adds to any games he calls.
Boston is the best sports town in the country. Among all the sports legends in our city, it might be easy to overlook an octogenarian TV commentator who played in the NBA during the Eisenhower administration. And let’s face it – no one is in their prime at 85 years old.
But we don’t need Tommy Heinsohn in his prime. Celtics fans just need to appreciate Tommy during every game he still calls.