Lex Nihil Novi - The Awful Year Before Bird, Game #4

Tough to think about any aspect of that season.

Sam

sam wrote:Tough to think about any aspect of that season.

But that roster, with the addition of one future Hall of Fame piece, became a contending team overnight, so there were lessons learned and experience gained during that season that led to greater things.

Odds are that it won't be a single piece that transforms this current Celtics roster into a contender, but all those accumulated draft picks mean they will be adding multiple pieces over the coming years that may have the same type of transformative effect. With a plan in place like the Celtics have, there is reason to be optimistic despite their current struggles, and the team from that 1978-79 season is a great example of that.

Outside,

My bad. I didn't take a good look because I assumed it was the Wicks/Rowe season and wasn't interested in torturing myself any more. If I'd looked more closely, I would have noted Havlicek's absence, and that would alerted me. Actually, Knight was the only one on that team that I really didn't like. Thanks for bringing that to my attention.

Sam

Sam,

You know those pre-Bird teams far better than I do. I was just going by the thread title that it was the year before Bird's arrival.

Outside,

Well you got it right, and I didn't. Which shows that reading and brains beat scanning and cranial vacancy any time.

Sam

The one thing that 1979 season taught me was the importance of patience when rebuilding.  

Auerbach in the 1978 draft had taken Larry Bird as a junior eligible with the sixth pick even though Bird had made it clear that he would return to college for his senior year and would not be playing for the Celtics until the 1980 season, if at all.

(Bird was eligible for the draft because his original college class graduated in 1978 but he had left Indiana University as a freshman and spent a year working for the Indiana DPW  before enrolling at Indiana State).

So five teams looking for immediate help passed on Bird.  The Celtics had just come off a horrible season--the apogee of the Wicks-Rowe era-- and were in desperate need of immediate help.  But drafting a guy who you wouldn't have in uniform that year sure wasn't the way to get it.

But when you have a chance to get a player the caliber of Bird it's worth it.

Wonder if today people would say that Auerbach tanked the 78-79 season?

No question about it, Red had a tanker mentality. Sherman tanker.

No question about it, Red had a tanker mentality. Sherman tanker.

Harrr!

Let's hope we can say the same thing about Ainge.