Cousy and Heinsohn

Tuesday I had a new patient from Rhode Island, so we naturally started talking about the Celtics. When I told him that Cousy's home in Worcester had been only 1/4 mile away from mine, and the Tommy had lived a mile in the other direction, he said, "That's nothing. My father-in-law was a WW2 vet who was 22 when he got to Holy Cross as a freshman. His roommate there was an 18 year old Bob Cousy, and Dad always said "He didn't know anything. I even taught him how to shave." My patient met Cooz several times and said he was a very nice man.

He also knew Tommy well and golfed with him often. He said Tommy smoked more than anyone he had ever met in his life, and Tommy's wife, the redhead from Needham, did too. When they'd play golf Tommy would have 3 or 4 packs of cigarettes lined up at the front of the golf cart to get through the round. Once he got into Tommy's car and said, "How can you live in this car? It's like death with all the cigarette smoke." Tommy's home was reportedly just the same.

My patient also said that Tommy was a great painter. That was his avocation, and every summer Tommy and his wife would fly down to Bermuda for a vacation, and Tommy would just paint.

That's my news about Cooz and Tommy.

I’ve seen pictures of Tommy in his playing days in the lockeroom with cigarettes in his hand and thought that was strange....guess for Tommy was normal.

I love Tommy.

Amazing a lot of players back then smoked cigarettes. Saw KC with one in his hand walking out of the Garden back in the 60’s.

I saw a great article about Don Nelson's retirement life in Hawaii, but I can't remember where. Willie Nelson and Woodie Harrelson hang out at his house playing poker and smoking ganga. Apparently Harrelson has quit smoking weed, but Don has picked it up. Says it soothes his old aches and pains.

On vacay. Just landed in Dallas, where, coincidentally, Woody Harrison's dad was one of JFK's assassins.