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John "Hondo" Havlicek (National Champion, NBA Champion, CBB/NBA HOF, R.I.P.)

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Photo Gallery: Ohio State-Minnesota Hoops, 1960 National Championship Team Ceremony | General Article

[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kUyP7D43kbE"]YouTube- sportslegendsnewengland.com for showtimes - John Havlicek Show[/ame]

[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pYW20vDZxQY"]YouTube- NBA at 50: John Havlicek (biography)[/ame]

[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rdMPSYtQeIQ"]YouTube- NBA's 60 Greatest Playoff Moments: #5[/ame]

[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u0yt93dzuR4"]YouTube- John Havlicek's retirement game April 9, 1978[/ame]
 
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That ElevenWarriors article has incorrect info about the # of championships for Bill Russell and Sam Jones. Russell has 11, Jones has 10. Havlicek's 8 rings are tied for third all time with 3 other Celtics.
 
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John Havlicek?s with this team
By Dan Duggan
Monday, June 14, 2010

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It has been 32 years since John Havlicek took off his Celtics jersey for the final time, but the franchise?s all-time leading scorer still feels like a part of the team.

Havlicek, who has homes in Weston and on Cape Cod, has remained a presence at the Garden, especially during the Celtics? two Finals appearances in the past three years. That kinship between generations of Celtics players is something franchise patriarch Red Auerbach tried to instill.

?We felt that we would always try to portray ourselves to each other as a team and even though I?m not playing on this team, I have great respect for them,? Havlicek said. ?I think they have respect for the older people. I go to practices occasionally and talk to the guys.?

John Havlicek’s with this team - BostonHerald.com

A taste of winning made Havlicek hungrier
By Julian Benbow
Globe Staff / June 16, 2010

LOS ANGELES ? The image of Bill Russell cupping his 11 championship rings is as good a symbol as any. The Celtics have always been a franchise that talked about championships in plural form.

When Ray Allen, Kevin Garnett, and Ray Allen came together to help the Celtics win the 2008 NBA championship ? the team?s first title in 23 years ? they had just enough time to cherish the crown they waited their entire careers to earn before having to set their sights on winning another. Their place in Celtics lore depended on it.

John Havlicek won eight championships in 16 seasons with the Celtics, including four straight from 1963-66. He was 22 years old and fresh out of Ohio State when he helped the Celtics beat the Lakers in six games for the championship in 1963. The first one only made him hungrier for more.

?Any time you win one, you have to feel grateful, but I was fortunate enough to be on eight [championship] teams. I think once you get the one, you?re always thirsty for another one,?? Havlicek said.

A taste of winning made Havlicek hungrier - The Boston Globe
 
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September 4, 2010
Original Old School: Iron John

SLAM 33: John Havlicek could play all day and night. Credit that to both stamina and will.

From SLAM 33, this throwback by Bob Ryan features the NBA?s ultimate ironman, John Havlicek. In an era when off-the-court issues and minor injuries throw off entire seasons (and even careers), we figured there?s no better time to honor Hondo?s unbelievable persistence.?Ed.

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SLAM 33 Old School: John Havlicek

by Bob Ryan

He could have played with Larry Bird, you know.

John ?Hondo? Havlicek would have been 39, but so what? He didn?t quit because he could no longer play. He retired from basketball in ?78 because he didn?t like going to work everyday any longer.

He had been used to teammates like Bill Russell and Dave Cowens, and by the ?77-78 season, he was saddled with the likes of Sidney Wicks and Curtis Rowe. Part of the deal for him was living the life; when the life became a drag, he thought it was time to say good-bye. But if he had really known what Larry Bird was going to be all about, well, who knows? He could have played until he was 40 or 41 and told the grandchildren that he had played with both Bob Cousy and Larry Bird. He would have been the linkage for 41 years of Boston Celtics, and NBA, history. As it was, he didn?t miss by much. He scored 29 points in his dramatic final game, averaged 16.1 points per game for the season?no surprise, because, as you?ve already heard, the man could still play.

Playing with Bird would have been fun, and to some degree it would have represented a full circle. It would have borne some similarity to playing with Cousy, which Havlicek did in The Cooz?s final season. ?All I did offensively in my rookie year,? Hondo once said, ?was run around and make lay-ups on passes from Cousy.? He could have gotten passes from Bird in much the same way, and he knew it.

Of course, the truth is that he did play with Bird and against him. It?s just that the public was not privileged to bear witness to the annual April 8th ritual of the late 70?s and early 80?s. April 8th is Havlicek?s birthday, and every year, then-coach Bill Fitch took full advantage of the opportunity to bring Havlicek in for a workout with his team. At ages 39, 40, 41, and beyond, Havlicek demonstrated that he could still play. A terminally-awful left knee ended all that, but not before the point had been made to youngsters who might not have fully appreciated that John Havlicek remains one of the handful of greatest basketball players who ever lived.

It was fashionable in his time to anoint either Oscar Robertson or Jerry West as the game?s best all-around player, and in the early days there was also plenty of sentiment for Elgin Baylor. Havlicek was regarded as the game?s pre-eminent sixth man, no more?until he stopped being a sixth man and became the Bionic Man.

The fact that Havlicek was not a full-time starter during the first seven years he spent with the Celtics was utterly irrelevant. As legendary coach Red Auerbach was forever fond of saying, ?It?s not who starts the game, it?s who finishes it.? And Auerbach knew what he had right from the start: as a rookie in ?62-63, Havlicek was third on the champion Celtics in minutes played. The next he advanced to second. And when it got to be what Magic Johnson called ?Winnin? Time,? Havlicek was on the floor, because he was one of the truly rare offensive players of note who is just as good on defense. Or maybe the other way around.

He did not exactly arrive in Boston amid great fanfare. Even though he had been a first-time All-American at Ohio State, Havlicek wasn?t even the most publicized player on his own team. That honor belonged to Jerry Lucas, a megastar in high school who was the acknowledged star of a Buckeye team that won the NCAA title in ?60 and finished second to Cincinnati in each of the next two years. Havlicek was the other guy.

He was the last man taken in the first round of the ?62 draft, and before he presented himself for Auerbach?s summertime inspection, he stopped in Cleveland to try out for the NFL Browns. They had drafted him as a quarterback even though he had not played since high school, but when he reported to their camp he was almost immediately converted into a wide receiver, a position he had never played. He performed in exhibition games and very likely could have made a weaker club. As it was, he was cut in favor of Gary Collins, a name any good football fan must recognize.

At 6-5 and around 210 pounds, John Havlicek had an ideally adaptable athletic body. His hands were large and exceptionally strong. He was amazingly flexible. And then there was that stamina.

That gift.

SLAM ONLINE | ? Original Old School: Iron John
 
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Ohio State legend John Havlicek enjoying life away from spotlight
By James Oldham
[email protected]
Published: Wednesday, January 19, 2011

John Havlicek was drafted by the Boston Celtics seventh overall in the 1962 NBA draft and is their all-time leading scorer with 26,395 points.

If he walked around campus today, how many students would recognize him? If students walking down High Street were asked to name the most accomplished basketball player in Ohio State history, would they know how to pronounce his last name?

The likely answer to both questions is no. The truth is, time passed John Havlicek long ago. He was underappreciated during his career, and his name has fallen through the cracks of history, eventually finding a home in the world of forgotten yesterdays.

Perhaps it was meant to be this way. With a tireless work ethic that reflected the blue-collar town he's from, Havlicek was an unassuming star who put on his hard hat and quietly went to work, day in and day out.

In 1978, he retired from the NBA third in career scoring, second in career minutes and first in games played.

"When John Havlicek retired, I thought he was the greatest all-around player I had ever seen," said Bob Ryan, former Celtics beat reporter for The Boston Globe and co-author of "Hondo: Celtic Man in Motion." "There's nobody today, no style that reminds me of John Havlicek."

Thirty-two years later, Havlicek's name rarely escapes the mouths of OSU students.

His hometown, Lansing, Ohio, has a population of about 500 people. His entire life was contained within a six-block radius. Though this eventually would work to Havlicek's advantage, it bothered him that as a kid, his parents wouldn't buy him a bicycle.

"As a young boy, I never had a bicycle," Havlicek said. "It was because we lived on a busy street, but all of my friends had one. So, when they would go from place to place, they'd ride their bikes and I would run."

That busy street was U.S. Route 40, and the Havliceks' front door was about 12 feet from the highway. His elementary school was a block away from his house, and the church was across the street from the school. So, he ran. Everywhere.

"Where I grew up, you played football, basketball and baseball," Havlicek said. "Those were the three major sports that everyone played regardless."

Cont...

http://www.thelantern.com/sports/oh...k-enjoying-life-away-from-spotlight-1.1903448
 
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John Havlicek's 1960 Ohio State basketball championship ring among items up for auction
Doug Lesmerises, The Plain Dealer
April 25, 2013

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COLUMBUS, Ohio ? It's just another Ohio State athlete selling a ring.

This one's from a national championship 53 years ago.

If John Havlicek wore every championship ring he ever won, he wouldn't be able to function in normal everyday life. You wear nine huge title rings ? eight from the NBA with the Boston Celtics, and one from Ohio State's 1960 national championship ? and try to pick up a glass of lemonade.

At age 73, Havlicek is selling a portion of his collection of awards and other mementos from his Hall of Fame career. He said he's worn his rings over the years, rotating them through, having strangers on airplanes gawk and ask questions. The Ohio State ring didn't get as much use once he added to his collection as a Celtic.

Still, knowing that Ohio State hasn't won a basketball title since 1960, it's striking to see that gold ring with its red stone available. The latest bid, as of early Thursday afternoon, was for $5,317. The auction ends Friday.

The 2012 Buckeye football players just received their rings for a 12-0 season that didn't end with a title. Terrelle Pryor and other Buckeyes sold rings and other memorabilia just a few years ago that led to NCAA violations. So it's something when you realize that one of the 50 greatest basketball players of all-time is selling the ring he won for a program that has been chasing another title for more than 50 years now.

?I wore that ring for a long time and I wore the watch for a long time,? Havlicek said in a recent phone interview with The Plain Dealer that was set up by the auction house to promote the sale, ?and then I got championship rings with the Celtics and you can only wear one at a time. It's something that I gave my children the option of going over just about anything they wanted and they took certain things.

?And with the Ohio State memorabilia I still have fond memories of it and I know what it meant to me and I know what it meant to my teammates.

?It was the first championship team I was ever on and I think the first one is something that is very, very special. And I know the members of the team felt the same way about it that I did, that we had a great team with great chemistry. We had a lot of feeling for each other and I know to this day we all look at each other and think we had one shining moment back in 1960.?

Yet the ring is for sale. Why?

Well, Havlicek said he is so worried about something happening to some of his memorabilia that he would rather sell it now and get it into the hands of people who want it, rather than risk losing it. He cited other athletes who have lost things to floods, fires or burglaries.

cont...

http://www.cleveland.com/osu/index....te.html?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=twitter
 
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BUCKYLE;2332161; said:
I can't wait for a bunch of people to rip him like they did Pryor.

They will once it is divulged that the 73 year old is violating NCAA rules, will be ineligible for some games, and Thad's covering up the offense costs him his job.

Takes time for that info to come out so be patient.
 
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buckiprof;2332177; said:
They will once it is divulged that the 73 year old is violating NCAA rules, will be ineligible for some games, and Thad's covering up the offense costs him his job.

Takes time for that info to come out so be patient.
There were plenty of folks upset at the selling of trinkets independent of any NCAA violations.
 
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BUCKYLE;2332204; said:
There were plenty of folks upset at the selling of trinkets independent of any NCAA violations.

I know...just having a little fun.

But the number of people who were upset solely for selling trinkets is smaller than the number of people upset that the selling of trinkets caused problems for OSU.
 
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