Great Russell story, great Silas story

[Bob McChesney <rwmcches@uiuc.edu>]

I see that there has been a thread concerning Bill Russell and Paul Silas 
and their respective coaching talents. I lived in Seattle in the late 70s 
so let me share these two stories with you, one concerning Russ, the other 
Silas.

Russell coached the Sonics from 73 to 77, for four seasons. The first 
season the Sonics were terrible, the second season they got a lot better, 
the third season they stayed about the same, and his final season they 
began to stink again. It was clear by the middle of the 4th season in early 
77 that Russ would not be back.

The 1976-77 Sonics were not an impressive team. They had Fred Brown, one of 
the least appreciated scoring guards in NBA history, a rookie Dennis 
Johnson, and little else. By the end of the 77 season the Sonics were 
increasingly insubordinate to Russell and he had lost his interest in the 
team, which he realized was lousy beyond hope. The players began muttering 
about Russell, "Hey, he wasn't that good of a player. Back then the talent 
was weak, he wouldn't even be an all-star if he was playing today." One day 
Russell overheard these comments and commanded the players present out to 
the practice floor. Russell, at this point 43 years old and eight years 
away from his playing days, stood under the basket and dared every player 
present to try to drive on him and score. Each of them drove the lane and 
each of them had his shot blocked by Russell. Several tried a second time. 
The same thing happened. Russell walked off the floor. A couple of weeks 
later the season would end and he left the team.

The Sonics retooled almost overnight. The next year the team had added 
Marvin Webster, Jack Sikma, John Johnson, and Gus Williams. As important as 
any addition, however, was Paul Silas -- perhaps my all-time favorite 
Celtics player -- who came over in a trade from Denver at age 34. The 
Sonics lost in the NBA finals in 7 games to Washington in 1978. The 
following year they were even better but they were in a nasty western 
conference finals against the Phoenix Suns. This Suns team had Walter Davis 
and the very best guard in the NBA at the time --Paul Westphal -- who was 
at the peak of his game. The Sonics trailed in the hard fought series 3 
games to 2 and the 6th game was in Phoenix. Phoenix seemed to have the 
Sonics' number. Paul Silas basically grabbed the team by its collective 
balls and refused to let them quit. That sixth game was one of the most 
intense playoff games I have ever seen -- if it had been in the finals, it 
would go down as one of the ten greatest games ever -- and what I remember 
most is that Paul Silas, all 35 years of him -- dominated the backboards. 
He absolutely ruled. And the Sonics won in a squeaker. They went on to win 
the series and the 1979 NBA title.

I sometimes wonder how many more flags the Celtics would have won had they 
kept Silas and Paul Westphal. But whenever I think about this I quickly 
stop, because if the Cs hadn't collapsed in the late 70s, there would have 
been no Larry, no Chief, and no McHale. Too bad our collapse since 1993 has 
not produced a similar turnaround.

Bob McChesney