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RETRIEVING CONTENT...PLEASE WAIT
Being a Homer is a Good Thing- Part 1
Monday, August 28, 2006
by FLCeltsFan 8:16 AM
August 28, 2006
No one could ever mistake Johnny Most as an impartial analyst. He loved the Celtics and with every call, you could hear it. To Johnny, being called a "homer" was a good thing and we all loved him for it.
| From 1953 through the present, the Celtics have had a couple of the biggest homers in the business as their broadcasters. From 1953 through 1990, Johnny Most was the radio voice of the Celtics. Most never pretended to be objective: his Celtics were near-saints who could do no wrong (even when they did), and anyone not wearing the green were the scum of the Earth.
He was a legend to Boston Celtics fans during the Celtics' 30 year reign from the 1950s through the 1980s as basketball's most dominant team. Most was as much honored in Boston as Bill Russell, Bob Cousy and Larry Bird; Boston Celtics fans learned at an early age when watching the team play on television to turn the sound down on their television and pick up Most's radio broadcast of the game instead.
Born to Jewish parents, Most began his career in the 1940s mentored by Marty Glickman. He called road games for baseball's New York Giants and Brooklyn Dodgers, and football's New York Giants and Army. In 1953, Boston Celtics owner Walter Brown and Red Auerbach tapped him to replace Curt Gowdy as the team's radio play-by-play man on WBZ 1030. He always referred to his perch at Boston Garden as being "high above courtside." Most was never shy about criticizing the other team's players. One time Most described the Los Angeles Lakers' Kurt Rambis as "something that had crawled out of a sewer." He also nicknamed Washington Bullets players Rick Mahorn and Jeff Ruland as "McFilthy" and "McNasty." Kareem Abdul Jabbar was "Kareem Puff" and Isaiah Thomas was referred to as "Little Lord Fauntleroy." Most's pro-Celtic descriptions could turn shoving matches into "bloodbaths" and minor fouls into "vicious muggings" and once during a game in Detroit, he loudly proclaimed, "Oh the yellow, gutless way they do things here."
Of course, Most's most famous call came the closing seconds of Game 7 of the 1965 Eastern Conference Finals between the defending champion Celtics and the Philadelphia 76ers. The Celtics' lead had shriveled to 110-109, and Philadelphia regained possession with five seconds left after an inbounds pass attempt by Boston's Bill Russell hit one of the wires that ran down from the ceiling of Boston Garden and helped support the baskets in those days.
Hall of Fame guard Hal Greer prepared to toss the ball inbounds under his own basket. The logical target seemed to be massive Wilt Chamberlain in the low post, but Russell fronted Chamberlain and took away that option. K.C. Jones, guarding Greer, leaped along the baseline and frantically waved his arms to distract him as the five seconds ticked away.
To get a better view of the court, Greer jumped up and spotted high-scoring forward Chet Walker, seemingly open beyond the key. But Boston's John Havlicek had taken a position several feet off the direct line between Greer and Walker, making it look like Walker was open when he really wasn't. After counting off a couple of seconds in his head, Havlicek sneaked a peek over his shoulder at Greer just as he prepared to release the ball. He moved into the passing lane . but let Most tell it:
"Greer is putting the ball into play. He gets it out deep," Most intones, before his voices rises into a frenzy. "Havlicek steals it. Over to Sam Jones. Havlicek stole the ball! It's all over! Johnny Havlicek stole the ball!"
Havlicek tipped the inbounds pass away from Walker and toward teammate Jones, who dribbled out the clock as fans poured onto the court. The Celtics had the win, and would go on to capture their seventh consecutive championship. As Havlicek tipped the ball, Johnny Most could be heard yelling into the microphone in his raspy voice, "Havlicek stole the ball! Havlicek stole the ball! It's all over! It's all over!"
His second most famous call (and my personal favorite) came in Game 5 of the 1987 playoff series against the Detroit Pistons, the series tied at 2-2. Detroit had a one-point lead late in the game and needed to inbound the ball to secure the victory and take a 3-2 Series lead with Game 6 on their court. Isiah Thomas was inbounding the ball to Bill Laimbeer, who was in the backcourt. But in the words of the immortal Johnny Most:
"Now there's a steal by Bird! Underneath to DJ! He lays it up and in!! ... What a play by Bird! Bird stole the inbounding pass, layed it up to DJ, and DJ layed it up and in, and Boston has a one-point lead with one second left! OH, MY, THIS PLACE IS GOING CRAZY!!!"
On October 10, 1990, Johnny Most, who was a lifelong smoker announced his retirement due to health concerns. On December 3 of that year, Most was honored with the permanent installation at Boston Garden of his microphone, silver-plated and encased in a Celtic-green frame. The microphone was attached to the façade of the vantage point that Most always described as "high above courtside." On January 3, 1993, Most died at the age of 69 of a heart attack in Hyannis, Massachusetts.
Shortly after his death, Johnny Most was awarded the prestigious Curt Gowdy Media Award by the Trustees of the Basketball Hall of Fame for his contribution to basketball. It was very ironic, considering that Most replaced Gowdy as the Celtics' play-by-play announcer. On October 4, 2002 (almost ten years after his death), Most was inducted into the media category of the New England Basketball Hall of Fame at the University of Rhode Island.
Johnny Most is fondly remembered by any Celtics' fans fortunate enough to have listened to his broadcasts. When I watch the Celtics, I love hearing announcers who unabashedly love their team and who defend them no matter what. There was never a doubt that Johnny Most loved the Celtics.
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