When the Game Was Ours - Larry Bird [61]
"Bank shot," Bird would inform Saunders, then fly down the floor and kiss the ball in off the glass.
"Twenty-footer, left side," Bird would announce, before he stuck a long jumper in Knicks defender Trent Tucker's face.
"I always considered myself a pretty confident person," said former Celtics player Danny Ainge, "but I've never seen anyone who believed in himself like Larry did."
Even so, team chemistry was an issue. Mindful of the blossoming talents of Magic, Auerbach acquired rugged defensive specialist Quinn Buckner from Milwaukee with hopes he could help neutralize Johnson.
"I was sure we'd be seeing the Lakers in the Finals that spring [of 1983]," said Auerbach. "I don't mind telling you that Magic worried the hell out of me. He was so big and so strong. We needed someone who could be physical with him."
The addition of Buckner left Tiny Archibald, an All-Star the previous season, on the bench. Archibald struggled to accept his reduced role (the team would waive him shortly after the season ended), while Parish, McHale, Maxwell, and Carr chafed at Fitch's persistent prodding.
Maxwell was sitting in the locker room with his headphones on after the team had lost a close game when Fitch strode toward him and tapped him on the shoulder.
"If you ever have those headphones on again, I'll break them in half," Fitch said, and demonstrated the motion of snapping them in two. For the rest of the season, Celtics players walked up to Maxwell and mimicked the same snapping motion, reducing Maxwell to gales of laughter and further antagonizing the coach.
Boston won 56 games that season but finished 9 games behind Philadelphia in the standings. By the time the postseason rolled around, the players were at their breaking point. Fitch installed a curfew, and one night in Houston sat in the lobby waiting to make sure each of them adhered to it. McHale and Carr waited until seconds before the curfew before sauntering inside to their rooms.
"It was a bad season," Ainge said. "Max and Chief weren't listening. They had totally tuned Fitch out. And Kevin wasn't happy either."
"It was a professional mutiny," said Buckner. "They just wouldn't play for Bill Fitch. They spent half a season trying to embarrass him. That's not an environment I was familiar with. Bill deserved better."
In Game 1 of their best-of-seven series with the Bucks in the 1983 Eastern Conference Semi-Finals, the Celtics were thumped 116–95 on their own floor. Fitch, infuriated by the insubordination of his players, humiliated his starters by making them check back into the game in the fourth quarter of a blowout. The home crowd booed lustily.
Boston's performance deteriorated from there. In Game 4, with the Celtics already trailing 3–0 in the series, Buckner recalled Fitch imploring the players to push the ball up the floor.
"Instead, it looked like three guys were literally taking the ball up at a pace three times slower than it should have been—on purpose," Buckner said.
"I admit it," Carr said. "Our goal in 1983 wasn't to win a championship. It was to get rid of Fitch."
After the Bucks' sweep, McHale caused a stir when he declared he could "hold his head high" following the playoff debacle. A somber Bird contradicted McHale's assessment by saying all Celtics should be embarrassed, and he promised things would be different next season—or else.
"I was ticked off," Bird said. "After the game I told Red, 'Hey, look. We've got no leadership here. If you want me to lead this team, I will. But we've got to get back to winning championships and forget all this other crap, because it's killing us.' And I meant it."
Bird didn't limit his exasperation to a conversation with Auerbach. Once the locker room door was closed, he leveled a brutally honest assessment of their shortcomings at his teammates, including their poisonous attitude toward Fitch. Though Bird didn't single out any player by name, he did not hesitate to