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Hey guys, a friend of mine sent me this and I thought some of you may be
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THE SIXERS' ANDREW TONEY PLAYED HIS BEST IN THE CLUTCH
The Boston Strangler
by John Smallwood
 
At his sharpshooting best, Celtics fans grudgingly acknowledged him as basketball's "Boston
Strangler," the one player who struck fear in the heart of a team that would win three NBA
titles in the 1980s.  He was Andrew Toney.
 
Andrew Toney had a knack for hitting key shots in clutch situations.
 
Boston fans still recoil at the sound of that name, while Philly fans
remember the cocky, menacing demeanor he displayed on the court --
especially when he was up against the Celtics, Philly's No. 1 nemesis.
There is no sure way to know how good he could have become. The
debilitating
foot injury that would eventually end his career struck just as he was
entering his prime.
Playing in just 468 NBA games, he wasn't around long enough to reach the
level of excellence many said he could have attained. As time goes on and a
new generation of fans enter NBA arenas, his name fades more and more out
of
league lore. But walk down the streets of Philadelphia, and any fan who
watched those great 76ers teams of the early '80s can readily recite the
exploits of Andrew Toney.
And those who played with and against him will say Toney was as important
to
the success of those Sixers squads as any player who slipped on the
uniform.
 
"Do I remember Andrew Toney?" Indiana Pacers coach and former Boston Celtics superstar
player Larry Bird responded recently when asked on a trip back to Philadelphia. "The Boston
Strangler? -- yeah, I remember him. I wish we would've had him. He was a killer. We called
him the Boston Strangler because every time he got a hold of the ball we knew he was going
to score.  He was the absolute best I've ever seen at shooting the ball at crucial times.
We had nobody who could come close to stopping him. Nobody." For four seasons between 1981
and 1985, Toney scored 5,705 points in 306 regular season games [18.6 points per game]. As
an off-guard, he shot an amazing 51.1 percent from the floor. In 51 playoff games, Toney
averaged 19.7 points as the 76ers won two Eastern Conference titles and the 1983 NBA
championship.  An All-Star in 1983 and '84, Toney was as good as any shooting guard in the
league. And while Julius Erving, Moses Malone and Maurice Cheeks got most of the glory, it
was Toney who truly struck fear into the opposition's heart.  "Playing on a team with the
likes of Julius Erving and Moses Malone, maybe Andrew took a little of a back seat to
them," said former 76ers coach Billy Cunningham, who coached Toney for five seasons between
1980 and '85, "but let me tell you, Andrew was a special, special guy. He just had the
ultimate heart and the ultimate confidence in his talent.  "If not for the injury, he
surely would have had an outstanding career.  It's truly a shame that he and Maurice Cheeks
never got to reach their potential as a backcourt tandem. They had such a great
relationship off the court and complemented each other so well on it. They were something
special to watch together." They could have been one of the best backcourts ever.  Cheeks
was and still is Toney's best friend. His eyes flare when asked about Toney, and he won't
hesitate to expand on how good a player his backcourt mate was.  "Andrew would have been
one of the [NBA's] 50 Greatest Players if he had kept playing," said Cheeks, who is now an
assistant coach with the 76ers.  "He would have been one of the 50 best.  "I can answer
your questions before you even ask them. Andrew was fearless.  He was fearless. He didn't
care what time was on the clock. Who was posted up. If you needed one, Andrew always felt
he was the better option for getting the bucket.  "I remember we were late in a close game,
and we had a play. Andrew took the ball, and waved Doc out of the box for a clear out. He
waved Doc off the box and took the shot. He made it. Andrew was always taking last-second
shots or one-on-one plays, and nobody cared because he was good enough to do it."
Cunningham's clearest memory of Toney is that of an act of open defiance.  It was the kind
of play that has a coach screaming, "What the heck are you doing!?" until the ball snaps
through the net.  "We're playing the Lakers, and the game is in overtime and we're down a
point," Cunningham said. "We have the ball with close to 20 seconds left, so I call a
timeout. They play was for Maurice to hold the ball and, at a certain point, Andrew would
come off a screen for a shot. Now, I know Andrew heard me, but as the play starts, Andrew
runs over to Maurice, says give me the ball and takes it from him. I'm livid. Here we've
designed a play, and he just takes the ball. So, the clock is running down, and Andrew
finally drives to the right of the lane. I'm not exaggerating, but three Lakers come flying
at him to block the ball. Andrew lofts a 12-footer over them, banks it off the board, game
over.  "His argument? `Coach, I hear what you're saying, but just give me the ball.' That
was Andrew. And you know what? As a coach, you want guys like that. There are not a lot of
players who want the ball at crunch time and still perform. Andrew did and could." It
seemed the bigger the spotlight, the higher the level of competition, the more Toney
thrived. The reason he was so good against Boston was because the Celtics were the Sixers'
biggest rival. The winner of their matchups was usually going to be the team that won the
Eastern Conference.  For five seasons between 1980-81 and '84-85, either the Sixers or the
Celtics represented the East in the NBA Finals. During that time, Toney played in 26
regular-season games against Boston, averaging 19.3 points [49.3 percent from the floor] in
just over 30 minutes per contest. For good measure, he even dished off 4.1 assists.  In the
1981-82 and '82-83 seasons, when Philadelphia made consecutive trips to the Finals, Toney
torched the Celtics for 23.6 points a game while playing just 30.6 minutes in their 10
regular-season games.  "The three-point shot was so easy for him," Cunningham said. "Maybe
(Seattle SuperSonics veteran) Dale Ellis can shoot it as easily. But the three-point shot
wasn't the way we played. Andrew could have averaged close to 30 points a game had we asked
him, but he sacrificed on the teams we played with so we could win. But, the thing with
Boston, he just owned them for quite awhile.  He loved playing in that environment."
 
But the legend of the Boston Strangler was truly fortified in the 1982 Eastern Conference
Finals when Toney averaged nearly 30 points. After saying he let the team down by shooting
just 1-for-11 in a Game 6 loss, Toney responded by scoring a game-high 34 in the Sixers'
120-106 Game 7 victory that propelled them into the NBA Finals.
 
"I tell you, Andrew would give you nightmares when you thought about playing against him,"
said Phoenix Suns Coach Danny Ainge, a Celtic from 1981-89.  "He was already the Boston
Strangler, so, by the time I got there, I had heard all the stories about Andrew Toney. I
was given all kinds of advice on how to defend him -- be physical with him, just hang on to
him, fight him and hold him. I learned through my own experience that was the exact
opposite way to defend Andrew. I thought it was better to just let him run wherever he
wanted and try to let him get bored. Because every time he was challenged either mentally
or physically, he seemed to respond.  "I played against a lot of great players in my career
-- Michael Jordan, Isiah Thomas, Magic Johnson. I'm not saying Andrew Toney was as great a
basketball player as Michael Jordan, but he was every bit as difficult to defend in a
one-on-one situation." Toney, who resides quietly in Atlanta and no longer gives interviews
about his career, commanded that kind of respect.
 
The Sixers' 1980 first-round draft pick (8th overall) from Southwest Louisiana, Toney came
to a star-studded team that had just lost 4-2 to the Los Angeles Lakers in the 1980 NBA
Finals. But he found his place immediately. Despite starting just 58 of his first 152 games
in Philadelphia, Toney scored more points [2,242] than any other Sixer except Erving.
 
"From the start, you knew he was some special player," Cheeks said. "He came off the bench
his first two seasons and still averaged close to 15 points.  He was just that kind of
player. He didn't care who was guarding him. The better the defensive player, the more
Andrew wanted to score. Nobody wanted to guard Andrew. I'd have three guys guarding me
because nobody wanted to deal with him.  "What a shooter. There weren't a lot of guys
shooting three-pointers back then. In fact, there were so few guys that at home games, the
Sixers would give you a box of steaks when you made a three-pointer. Andrew had so many
boxes of steaks he had to start giving them away." The end for Toney came just as he was
about to start a meteoric rise.  Coming off his best season in 1983-84 when he averaged
20.4 points, shot 52.7 percent and had 373 assists, Toney began experiencing foot problems
toward the end of the '84-85 season. Toney played just six games in 1985-86. He totaled
just 81 games over the next two seasons and was out of the game after eight years. For his
career, Toney averaged 15.9 points, shot 50 percent from the floor, had 1,965 assists and
made 138 three-pointers.  With today's technology, Toney's ailment would have been
diagnosed as a plantar fascia injury and likely could have been fixed with proper
treatment. But 13 years ago, his foot problems were a mystery.  "It's unfortunate Andrew
got injured and couldn't play longer," Bird said.  "He was something special, just a great
player." Ask anyone who saw Andrew Toney play, and they'll tell you the same.  John
Smallwood is a columnist for the Philadelphia Daily News. He wrote about the 1997-98 rookie
class in the May issue of Hoop.  This article also appears in the June 1998 issue of Hoop.
 
 
 
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