Dr. Leach has explained to me that there have been times when a player’s health and a team’s destiny have been in direct conflict, and that a heavy decision has been his to make.
The story that follows recounts probably the most important and poignant of those decisions.
It is the 1973 Eastern Conference NBA play-off finals with the Boston Celtics seeking revenge against the hated New York Knicks who had beaten them in the finals the previous year 4 games to 1.
The Celtics were led by Dave Cowens, Jo Jo White and John Havlicek. Havlicek was the veteran presence, leading scorer and the core of the team.
The teams had taken turns routing each other in the first two games. Near the end of the third game Havlicek partially separated his shoulder in a collision with the Knicks’ Dave Debusschere, but still managed to score 29 points in a losing cause.
Leach recalls, “Havlicek had a great season. We were the best team in the league that year. It was really a shame, but John’s shoulder was badly separated. Of course, Tommy (coach Heinsohn) was concerned. Red (Auerbach) was concerned. And so was the press.”
“Auerbach was terrific to work for. He always told me that I didn’t have to speak to the press, and Tommy was right with him on that. But most important they never pressured me to rush injured players back. They would ask me what I thought, and while they would try to hold me to it, they always treated me well.”
This scenario was particularly dire though. Down two games to one to the team that had eliminated them the year before and the Eastern Conference Championship on the line, the Celtics had diminished hopes of revenge without Havlicek at full strength. The situation presented ethical and moral issues beyond just winning and losing.
Havlicek himself was upset but realistic. “John was analytical,” Leach recalls. “He always asked good questions and listened carefully to the answers. Of course, he was most interested in the bottom line. Could he play?”
“So here we were,” Leach continued “right in the middle of the play-offs trying to decide what to do about the shoulder. We could shoot it (with Novocaine) to mask the pain, and that would allow him to play. But there are, of course, problems with that. Without pain we’d be removing the protective sensation he would normally have if he overextends his arm or shoulder. So, really he wouldn’t be able to protect himself while playing…not to mention that not all treatments of this kind allow the player to be at his best anyway. Also, this could pretty easily lead to more tearing and more separation. There would be a good chance of total separation, and the shoulder might never be the same.”
There was an option, although perhaps not nearly as attractive from a wins and losses point of view.
“The option was to create a strange-looking tape job to protect the shoulder. It would allow him to play and preserve his shoulder, but essentially, he’d have to play one handed using his left hand,” Leach said.
Havlicek was (and is), of course, right-handed.
It must have been difficult for Auerbach and Heinsohn to imagine their star player competing at the highest level of the sport for the highest stakes unable to use his shooting hand.
Leach says, “the strategic question was could John be better left handed than somebody else right handed.”
“Still,” Leach recalled, “I told them that I would not shoot the shoulder. Havlicek would be better off in the long run and so would the team. But it would mean that he would miss a game, and be limited at best for the rest of the series.”
It was, in fact, a situation that probably cost the Celtics the championship.
To their credit Auerbach and Heinsohn concurred with Leach’s recommendation, and Havlicek did not play in game 4 in Madison Square Garden, which the Celtics lost. When Havlicek appeared on the sidelines before the game in street clothes, The New York fans gave him a standing ovation, perhaps out of relief as well as respect.
Leach, however, did execute the “strange-looking” tape job for game five and Havlicek, with his shoulder taped but most definitely not shot, and shooting left-handed was, indeed, “better than somebody else,” somehow managing 18 points in 30 minutes of play to contribute to a 1 point Celtics win and his own reputation as the ultimate competitor.
“So,” Leach recalls, “we played the last two games with John very limited.”
After game five the Knicks realized that Havlicek’s right side was useless, overplayed him defensively on his left side and shut him down. He played sparingly and had just 4 points in the final game loss.
When asked if he felt some responsibility for the Celtics losing the title that year, Leach answered, “I was not going to sacrifice his career for those two games, and I didn’t think that I had lost the championship for the Celtics. I felt it was the right medical decision and John himself, Red and Tommy all agreed. But it did confirm my own conviction that I was and would always be a player’s doctor, and that if I could do the best for the player, I was doing the best for the team.”
“Did I feel badly that the Celtics lost? Damn right. But look at what Havlicek did the next year.”
Time did look kindly on the decision as did the player. With his shoulder healed, the following year was one of Havlicek’s best as he led the Celtics to the NBA title over Kareem Jabbar and the Milwaukee Bucks, winning the finals MVP award in the process.
But there were more rewards beyond league titles and an extended career for Havlicek.
“Best of all,” says Leach, “that decision helped to cement my own personal relationship with John and his family.”
The two men and their families remain best of friends to this day.