EL CAJON, Calif. – As the Boston Celtics rumble along in the NBA Finals, Don Casey merely needs to step into his backyard to be reminded of his days coaching with the storied franchise. One peek at the pool transports him back.
Casey’s wife yearned for a spot to cool off on warm summer days and Robert Parish, Ed Pinckney and Joe Kleine helped make it happen.
“They gave her a ‘playoff bonus’ out of their playoff money,”Casey said.
Casey, a former San Diego Clippers assistant who later became head coach after the franchise bolted for Los Angeles, joined the staff of Chris Ford in Boston during one of the most meaningful chapters in Celtics history.
He was there for the stretch run of iconic superstars Larry Bird, Kevin McHale and Parish.
When the Clippers fired Casey, he received an assist from a San Diego sports icon. Casey used to meet Bill Walton for meals at D.Z. Akin’s while his former player was rehabbing after a knee injury.
Walton called up Bird to put in a good word.
The first time I met Bird, he walks into practice, looks me in the face and says, ‘Walton says you’re a pretty good coach,’ ” said Casey, 86, who lives in the Fletcher Hills area near Grossmont College.
“Then he says, ‘We’ll see’ and just walked away. “That was my first interaction.”
Casey soaked it all up – the star power, the parquet floor, the creaky bones of the Boston Garden and late cigar-chomping coach turned team executive Red Auerbach.
It was a franchise unlike any other at a time unlike any other.
The coaches knew there was no blueprint for how to handle the special group. Scrimmages were capped at seven baskets because the elite winners were so competitive that anything more pushed the needle into the red.
“We had to do that because it was so high-strung,” Casey said. “All those guys, plus Klein, Dee Brown, Reggie Lewis, (Kevin) Gamble, Brian Shaw, it was a war.”
Be the first to comment