DJ: 1954-2007
Growing up in the Philly area, I had my fill of Dennis Johnson, or, as we referred to him, Dennis the Menace. People talk about the greatness of the 80's in the NBA and they talk about two teams, the Celtics and the Lakers, forgetting that there was a third squad in the equation, the Sixers, who in the 1982-83 season were in my (possibly biased) opinion the greatest basketball team to ever take the court.
The dominance of the Sixers that season was what brought Dennis Johnson to the Celtics. A myth has grown up in retrospect that Red went out and got DJ to guard Magic Johnson, which is preposterous. When the Celtics brought in DJ, it was unclear whether they'd actually ever meet up with Magic in the playoffs, because the Moses-led Sixers looked like the team to beat for the next decade.
No, Boston got Dennis Johnson for one reason - to get the Boston Strangler's hands off an entire city's throat. The Boston Strangler was, of course, the Sixers' combustible shooting guard Andrew Toney, who had his finest seasons in '82 and '83, making it to two All-Star Games, and more importantly, carving the Celtics a new one on a game-by-game basis.
Ironically, Johnson never really did that great a job with Toney after arriving in Boston, but it didn't turn out to matter much. The Sixers imploded without his help, meeting up with the Celtics in the playoffs just one more time in the 80's, the '85 conference finals, when Boston embarrassed us 4-1. But Andrew Toney aside, DJ was undoubtedly the final piece of the puzzle for the Celtics dynasty of the decade. Without him, I seriously doubt if they would have won another championship in the 80's, and we might be talking today about the Sidney Moncrief Bucks and their incredible rivalry with the Lakers. If you think that's overstating the case, just refer to Larry Legend himself. "He's the greatest player I ever played with," Bird has said many times of DJ. Take that Kevin McHale.
Below is a short video of Johnson talking about his playground days in Compton and some of the greats he played with there. If you haven't heard, Johnson died on Thursday, collapsed at a practice with his D-League team, the Austin Toros. DJ - R.I.P.
The dominance of the Sixers that season was what brought Dennis Johnson to the Celtics. A myth has grown up in retrospect that Red went out and got DJ to guard Magic Johnson, which is preposterous. When the Celtics brought in DJ, it was unclear whether they'd actually ever meet up with Magic in the playoffs, because the Moses-led Sixers looked like the team to beat for the next decade.
No, Boston got Dennis Johnson for one reason - to get the Boston Strangler's hands off an entire city's throat. The Boston Strangler was, of course, the Sixers' combustible shooting guard Andrew Toney, who had his finest seasons in '82 and '83, making it to two All-Star Games, and more importantly, carving the Celtics a new one on a game-by-game basis.
Ironically, Johnson never really did that great a job with Toney after arriving in Boston, but it didn't turn out to matter much. The Sixers imploded without his help, meeting up with the Celtics in the playoffs just one more time in the 80's, the '85 conference finals, when Boston embarrassed us 4-1. But Andrew Toney aside, DJ was undoubtedly the final piece of the puzzle for the Celtics dynasty of the decade. Without him, I seriously doubt if they would have won another championship in the 80's, and we might be talking today about the Sidney Moncrief Bucks and their incredible rivalry with the Lakers. If you think that's overstating the case, just refer to Larry Legend himself. "He's the greatest player I ever played with," Bird has said many times of DJ. Take that Kevin McHale.
Below is a short video of Johnson talking about his playground days in Compton and some of the greats he played with there. If you haven't heard, Johnson died on Thursday, collapsed at a practice with his D-League team, the Austin Toros. DJ - R.I.P.
3 Comments:
I always felt that DJ never got the love that he deserved. Even now as he is being remembered everyone mentions the Celtic days but few remember that he was hugely responsible for bringing the city of Seattle its only professional sports title ('79 Sonics).
Yeah - him and Sikma. I was very into that team, very into that Series.
I can't in general imagine him not getting props from people who watched those Celtics teams in the 80's. The dude was a monster, everywhere on the court. I passionately hated him, which is when you know someone is seriously good, when he's on a rival team you just see his face in your mind and hate the motherfucker.
I hear you, Im just saying nowadays I think he gets lost in the mchale, parrish, bird talk. Even walton gets more pub than him and you could make a case he had a better career than big bill.
Speaking of walton I saw him on ESPN saying that DJ died of a broken heart because he didnt get into the HOF. Obviously that is one of the craziest statements ever but it got me to thinking whether he deserves the HOF spot or not. I'm leaning towards no.
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