Considering Fantasy and Fear

I guess it was the Super Bowl that reminded me of a gift I once got for Christmas. It was a Patriots’ uniform, with pads, helmet, jersey and pants. It wasn’t really designed for a real game. But in my young mind I looked cool. I would put it on and play in our finished basement. I would toss a football to myself, trying not to skid it off the suspension ceiling. I imagined playing in the big game (at this point in time the Patriots hadn’t even been to a Super Bowl, much less won one). In my fantasy, I never failed.

It was the same when practicing baseball or basketball. I always caught the final out. If I missed the jump shot, miraculously there were another few seconds to hit the game winner. I suspect I was no different than any other kid growing up. That is the nature of fantasy- you always win the game. As we grow up the fantasy changes- you always get the girl or the really cool job.

But real life was different. When you were playing for real you were afraid you would strike out, miss the shot, or drop the ball. Not all of us are as crippled by that fear as one of the kids in the movie Parenthood. Steve Martin’s character was vexed by his son’s struggles, probably because he didn’t want his son to grow up like him- living in fear of failure and settling for a life of minimal risk.

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Considering The Big Three

During my teen years, my greatest love was the Boston Celtics.  I was enamored with Larry Bird, Kevin McHale and Robert Parish- in a manly sort of way of course.  The Red Sox had cooled off after the debacle of 1978.  The Big Three captured the heart of New England, selling out the venerable Boston Garden for years on end.  I had many fond memories of the Boston Garden.  I recall seeing Parish there when he was still a member of the Warriors.  I hated being up in the nosebleeds, fearful of falling down those steep cement steps.  But my father often had tickets during those years as he courted customers.  I was an occasional tag along.  Including the magnificent 1984 Eastern Conference Game 7 versus the Knicks.

So, the other day i was in the local library looking for some non-fiction and saw Peter May’s book The Big Three.  It was time to relive part of my youth.

But it was much more than that.  I learned alot about how the NBA used to be.  It is astounding how different the NBA is today.  I’m not talking about the style of play.  I’m talking about free agency, the draft and more.  All of these things mattered, setting up both the rise and the fall of one of the greatest frontcourts in all of NBA history.

In the late 70’s and early 80’s, when you signed a free agent you had to pay the other team compensation.  This was negotiated, and a master negotiator got the best end of the deal.  Red was a master negotiator, often getting the best end of the deal.  It was these types of deals that set them up to trade down to get McHale and Parish.

It was the strange trade rules that prevented Boston from trading any of them away, crippling the Celtics just like Bird and McHale suffered crippling injuries that stifled their careers in what should have been their prime.   Trading Bird would have been like trading Ted Williams or Yaz.  McHale, maybe, but those rules meant that there was no way they could get what he was worth.

So, Peter May provided some very interesting background to the game, and the players.  He had chapters on each of them.  Not as in depth as a biography, but certainly the high points and their development as players.  Oddly, both Parish and McHale attended schools that spent the duration of their college careers under probation.

Their time together as starters was too short thanks to Bird’s back (well, his heels first) and McHale’s ankles.  One can only imagine what might have been if those injures had not seriously curtailed their abilities on the court.

The 1980’s were a transitional time in basketball.  The resurgence brought about by Bird and Magic initiated numerous changes in the industry.  Salaries soared.  The draft became serious business (prior to this they never even brought in players for interviews).  During their period of dominance, the game change on and off the court.

I’m not a big fan of Peter May.  But this book is a good one, filling in many of those gaps that existed before the incredible transformation of information accumulation resulting from the internet.  This was a time before bloggers (including Celtics Blog) and access to 24-hour news stations (ESPN was just getting started).  I’m glad he put much of this down for people like me to remember, or learn for the first time.  Any fan of the NBA, and especially the Boston Celtics ought to read a copy.

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