The Boston Celtics were a super team during the Bill Russell era that ran for 13-years starting in the mid 50’s and through the 60’s that saw Boston win 11 championships during that time.

Russell was the best player in the NBA and would become an icon, winning five MVP Awards and 12 All-Stars in 13-years, not to mention winning two championships as a player-coach in 1968 and 1969.

The only player to stand in Russell’s way during his heyday was Wilt Chamberlain, to which I’m going to take us back to the Eastern Division Championship in 1965 at the Boston Garden.

With five seconds left in the game, Chamberlain got through the paint and scored to cut Boston’s lead to only one-point, 110-109, and he went on to finish the game with 30 points and 32 rebounds.

On the ensuing inbound play, the unthinkable and the unimaginable happened to Boston as Russell’s pass was touched by the guide wires supporting the backboard for stability, which made his pass to be ruled out of bounds and essentially turned the ball over.

In the photo below, you can see the guide wire bracket system attached the backboard that was used in 1965.

The guide wires were a relatively new system at the time and Russell just didn’t account for it in the heat of the moment. Here’s what he said about the play:

“I did not trust anybody else to take it out but me. I wanted to take it out because I’d make sure I could make a good pass… we go to the huddle and all I can say was ‘guys, we have to do something.’”

On the following inbound, Philadelphia struggled to get the ball on the court. The ball would eventually be stolen by John Havlicek based on pure instincts which would go on to become arguably the greatest play in NBA history and the greatest call in sports by the legend Johnny Most.

Havlicek was drafted by the Celtics seventh overall in the first round of the 1962 NBA Draft. He was an All-NBA player in 1964 and already a two-time champion at this time and was establishing himself as a reliable player for the Celtics.

Looking back on the iconic moment, Havlicek went through his thought process in the final moments of Game 7:

“Red Auerbach always said ‘you always try and look for an edge in some situation to try to gain an advantage.’ And I said ‘what kind of edge can I find out of this situation?’”

In the moment, the edge Havlicek found was being the smartest player on the court by anticipating and predicting the play that would happen.

“I think that the good players see the game in slow motion and actually they see what’s going to happen before it actually happens.”

Havlicek spent his entire 16-year career with the Celtics having raised eight banners and became the franchise leader in games played (1,270), points scored (26,395), and many other statistics including total minutes played (46,471) and field goals (10,513).

Hondo was a 13-time All-Star and was named MVP of the 1974 Finals.

“Havlicek steals it! Over to Sam Jones. HAVLICEK STOLE THE BALL! IT’S ALL OVER!”

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