The Boston Celtics are your 2024 NBA champions. The Celtics won their 18th title last night, the most in NBA history. Many of those 18 titles were won in the 1960s, when Boston was led by Bill Russell, Bob Cousy, and a fella named John Havlicek.
John Havlicek’s steal in Game #7 of the Eastern Conference Finals is considered one of the defining moments of the NBA and also the “most famous radio call in basketball history.” Up just one point with seconds remaining in the Boston Garden, Havlicek’s steal propelled the Celtics to yet another NBA crown.
For Byron Gilbreath, John Havlicek is the “one that got away.” The Georgia Tech coach and recruiter failed to lure the basketball star in Atlanta. Gilbreath then spent the 1960s watching Havlicek win championships as a collegian at Ohio State and an NBA star in Boston. Gilbreath recalled those days in the Atlanta Constitution after his 1973 retirement:
“Byron Gilbreath has been a fellow basketball traveler for 18 years since he drove into Atlanta in his 1950 Studebaker back in June of 1955. He drove all the way from Sherman, Texas. Today, the strapping Texan will talk to you about the good and the bad, like about the time he lost John Havlicek for lack of a scholarship.”
“Gilbreath’s story begins with a 1958 recruiting trip to [Ohio] to scout [a prized recruit.] ‘I liked him and signed him to our last of 16 scholarships,’ related Byron. ‘[The recruit] told me he hoped I’d sign a good friend, that they wanted to go and play together.”
“I was impressed with his [friend] but I told him that our scholarships were all gone. I promised [the friend] I’d go back to Atlanta and try to work something out. By the time we worked out a scholarship for John Havlicek he had gone up to Ohio State. I could have had him right then if……”
Where Gilbreath failed in 1958, Celtics owner Red Auerbach succeeded in 1962. Havlicek won 8 NBA titles for Boston between 1963 and 1976 and notched the NBA Final MVP award in 1974. His #17 jersey was retired by the Celtics and hangs in Boston Garden.
Coach Byron Gilbreath (1979 AC Hall of Honor) may have failed to land John Havlicek at Georgia Tech. But he had success with recruiting in Sherman. As the Head Coach of Roo basketball in 1950, Gilbreath convinced a high school senior in Greenville, TX to enroll at AC and play for him. That Gilbreath recruit spent the next 50 years affiliated with Austin College.
His name was Bob Mason.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Havlicek_stole_the_ball
