McDonough: Cousy On The Way Out?

[Way Of The Ray <wayray@ix.netcom.com>]

                                [The Boston Globe Online][Boston.com]
                                [Boston Globe Online / Sports]

                    

                                No Cousy? Pointless
                                <snips>
                                By Will McDonough, Globe Columnist,
                                08/21/99
                                His has been the voice of reason
                                for the last 25 years, and now,
                                apparently, the people at Fox Sports New
                                England are trying to quiet it. The Boston
                                Celtics without Bob Cousy on the telecast?
                                That's the talk at the local cable outlet.

                                Fox has given the Celtics a bundle of
                                money to televise all their games, paying
                                much more than it should have for the
                                rights to such a poor team. But now the
                                word is that it is trying to dump Cousy,
                                which would be a monumental mistake.

                                ''All I would like to say at this point,''
                                offered Fox vice president David Woodman,
                                ''is that we want Bob Cousy. We are still
                                talking with Bob Cousy. All of this
                                [purchasing the rights to all Boston TV
                                games] happened fast, so we still have
                                some thinking to do.''

                                But he still wouldn't say if Cousy would
                                remain an analyst. In recent years, Cousy
                                has done the Celtics road games. He's the
                                voice of reason. If the Celtics are
                                looking good, he says they are good. If
                                they are bad, he says that as well. He has
                                terrific insights, is always well
                                prepared, and is a great balance to Tom
                                Heinsohn, who is biased toward the Celtics
                                and against the officials.

                                To spend all that money and not keep Cousy
                                where he is best suited would be stupid.
                                There is no other word for it.


                                The unrelenting pressure of his two-month
                                court battle in the Reggie Lewis case
                                hasn't stopped Dr. Gilbert Mudge from
                                moving on with the rest of his life. We
                                are told that in a 10-day period, Mudge,
                                who is chief of the cardiac transplant
                                unit at Brigham & Women's Hospital,
                                oversaw five successful heart transplants,
                                a rare occurrence. Meanwhile, there is no
                                settlement on the horizon in the Lewis
                                case. Mudge's lawyers are getting ready to
                                go back to trial with Donna Harris Lewis,
                                his widow. A Suffolk County jury would not
                                convict Mudge of malpractice in the first
                                trial, so Harris Lewis says she is going
                                to try again. In addition, the Equitable
                                Insurance Company is moving close to a
                                decision on whether to take legal action
                                against the Celtics in trying to reclaim
                                $5 million paid out to the team in life
                                insurance when Lewis died, if it deems
                                Lewis did not tell the truth in filling
                                out answers on the applications in regard
                                to using drugs and being tested for drugs
                               
                                Speaking of lack of homework, one local
                                pro team recently signed a free agent with
                                a dubious past. When this guy was leaving
                                one team, he sold a teammate a $10,000
                                Rolex watch that turned out to be a phony.
                                When he left another team, he sold a
                                teammate a top-shelf sports car for
                                $20,000. Turned out he simply was leasing
                                it. 
                                

                                This story ran on page G1 of the Boston
                                Globe on 08/21/99.
                                © Copyright 1999 Globe Newspaper Company.