These all-star games were played as though they mattered. Maybe the NBA should do as MLB does now--the winning league gets an advantage in the finals. Would be more fun for the fans to actually see a real game.
Dave Cowens was so great. But like Bird their style of rough and tumble dive on the floor for the loose ball took a heavy toll on them both. Its a shame these two guys had to get old. As good As Boston was with Bird, With Bird and a young Cowens they would have been unstoppable!
Cowen's handed the torch to Bird, for sure...what fascinates me about the initial preseason is that Pistol 0ete was there too. I d loved to have seen that.
@@burtonrivera5253 Unfortunately Pete was at the end of his career and hampered by injuries and mental issues. But prime Cowens, Bird, and the Pistol, along with McHale and DJ would have won every championship! It would have been like the 1960s all over again!And maybe even throw in Len Bias.
As a kid, I was a big Knicks fan . . . but Cowens terrorized us! His maniacal hustle was off the charts! Somehow, the Knicks beat that great Celtics team in '73 when the Celts won 68 games . . . bit I still don't know how they did it! LOL!!
The Knicks had a stronger top 7 that year Willis Reed Dave DeBusshere Bill Bradley ( yes the future senator) Earl "the pearl" Monroe Walt Frazier Phil Jackson ( yes, That Guy ) and one other guy....
The simple answer to your question was that Dave "DeButcher" hacked Hondo's right arm and that basically ended the series right there with Havlicek out for a game and then only able to use his left in the final. That Celtics team was the GREATEST in NBA history not to win the title. They OWNED the Lakers during the regular season and Wiltie had no idea how to deal with Cowens. I'll never forget that!
@@ailurophile17 No question, if Havlicek wasn't injured the Celtics would have won the title in 1973, which they won the following year. Havlicek was really in his prime in 1973, he had scored 54 points against the Hawks in an earlier round. I miss the basketball from the 60s and 70s!
Ya. You note all the players are capable of all the fundamental aspects of TEAM play. Passing ( notice the unique variants of that from non-guards), picks, anticipating the cut, excellent man-zone coverage. Maybe it was the absence of flashbulbs....
@@burtonrivera5253 The rules were much tighter then too - carrying the ball, charging calls were much tighter, it was also more physical. There were a number of teams at that time that played excellent team basketball like the Celtics, Lakers, Bucks, etc... In some ways I preferred the game then and in some ways I prefer the modern game.
The defining factor for this type if ball is that, even in an All-Star game, you see subtle razzle-dazzle, that's the beauty of seeing 10 well-rounded athletes, even though they re not teammates, they re playing team ball. Seeing one hotshot waving off one side of the floor is amusing, exept we are seeing an isolation-based offense, every 2nd or 3rd possession in regular season contests. We are seeing unprecedented triple-doubles because one guy is exclusively handling the ball.
One thing about the rosters, Its def. A fan thing. You d see teams like the Lakers, loaded as they were, contesting with, say, the Mavericks. Rolando Blackmon and Derrick Harper, as formidable as any other tandem, along with Mark Aguirre and Sam Perkins. They also had Jay Vincent and off/on Roy Tarpley. Terry Cummings too.
At 66 years old, I've been lucky to watch many great players in every sport as a Boston sports fan, While there have been better players in every sport, Orr, Yaz, Brady , Russell, Havicek and Bird etc. COWENS is my favorite of them all because of the way he played, all out, all the time! On and off the court he was one of a kind.
Celtic fan starting in early 70's and saw lots of these dudes. I cannot get over how active Cowens was. Cowens and Silas were quite a physical tandem in those days. Lots of physical players, Bob Lanier, Wes Unseld, Wilt etc. As a young teen I copied Bob Love's style of shooting. The game was so enjoyable to watch.
I've enjoyed watching this much more than any of the recent ASG (the last decade or so), to be completely honest. Here we have a display of plumbers' skills everyone is mentioning nowadays, right? Although these "electricians and plumbers" had played defense and had got great fundamentals, compared to today's All-Star games which have become pure entertainment and marketing. Players shooting from all over the place with opponents letting them do so, no battling for the ball, no will to win and no desire. There is one thing, though, I keep seeing for years - everybody talks about competitive spirit on the court, but no sign of it. No competitive nature whatsoever. Thanks for sharing the footage of this memorable and enjoyable game!
There were so many great players in that all-star game so it's quite a statement that Jerry West was the MVP. Cowens and Unseld were both great players whose skills were unique to this day and their influence on the game is significant. Current all-star Kevin Love borrowed a lot from Unseld's skill set to improve his game, for example. Thanks for the video.
Have you got any more Dave Cowens highlights? Young guys like me just can't appreciate his hustle for the game. Undersized and going against guys like Kareem, he's an inspiration.
Ive met dave cowens, i know it sounds crazy, but i met him last year, my math teacher married his daughter and he came into our school and talked to us about his career
My Dad briefly worked with him in the insurance business in the late 80s or early 90s. Has a few nice handwritten letters from Dave. My Dad said one day Dave just never came back to work, and the next time he saw him was on television as an assistant coach!
Amazing, mind boggling how this couldn't possibly look more different than "all star" games of recent times. Back then, they truly cared and it showed. Very difficult to watch today, to put it mildly.
Wes Unseld and Dave Cowens are probably the two most successful players ever from the state of Kentucky, though many don't realize Cowens is in fact from there.
The West team ended up winning this game (played in L.A.), on a final shot by Jerry West and resulted in Jerry West winning the only All-Star MVP of his NBAcareer. Dave Cowens shared rookie of the year honors the previous season with Geoff Petrie of the Trailblazers. Also the previous season, Wes Unseld was the starting center for the Bullets against Kareem and the Bucks in the NBA Finals. The Bucks swept the Bullets to win the '71 title in Oscar Robertson's first year with the Bucks. Later in this '72 season, Jerry West's Lakers team won the NBA Championship for the only NBA title of Jerry's great career. A lot of HOF and Top 50/75 guys in this game: Barry, Chamberlain, Cowens, Cunningham, Debusschere, Frazier, Goodrich, Havlicek, Hawkins, Hayes, Haywood, Kareem, Lanier, Robertson, Unseld, West, A terrific all-star game. Appreciate the great video.
I love how the All-Star teams wear the home and away uniform styles of the host team. They should do that now. It might make the game somewhat watchable even with a team flirting with 200 points.
Different type players. Cowens was more mobile, faster, stronger, and had an excellent face up jumper and McHale was taller, the master in the low post with more moves than U-Haul.
If I were starting a team I'd go with Dave Cowens everytime. If I were filling a spot for a specific power forward need you can't go wrong with McHale. But Dave was just off the charts with his unmatched hustle.
