NBA Championship Notebook : Celtic Players Can’t Be Silenced

BOSTON —  When the Boston Celtics arrived for practice here Wednesday morning, each player had a copy of a somewhat uncomplimentary column by Peter May of the Hartford Courant taped above his locker.

The headline read: “Celtics Talk Too Much, Worry You To Death.”

This was a not-so-subtle effort by Celtic management to keep the players, some of whom talk an even better game than they play, from continuing the often critical and outrageous comments they make about the Lakers and other teams.

Wayne Lebeaux, the Celtics’ assistant equipment manager, said Wednesday that he had been told to tape copies of the column to the lockers. Asked who had given the order, Lebeaux said: “Someone upstairs.”

Unless Lebeaux was talking about John Creed, a Celtic administrative assistant who was a priest before going to work for the Celtics, it was presumed that the order came from Red Auerbach, the team president.

If Auerbach was hoping that his team would immediately clam up, however, he was disappointed. Celtic players made light of the situation.

M.L. Carr, never at a loss for words, put a finger to his mouth and jokingly shushed his teammates. When Kevin McHale was giving an interview to a dozen writers, teammates called him McTell.

The Celtics often use verbal intimidation to gain an advantage over an opponent. They publicly criticized the Lakers in last season’s championship series, then backed up their talk by winning in seven games.

“I think it affected them (the Lakers) last year,” McHale said. “Against Philly, I don’t think it works. But we’ve seen it have its effect against other teams. We seem to play better if there’s some animosity.”

You can picture Celtic Coach K.C. Jones cringing whenever Carr calls the Lakers the Fakers, or whenever Cedric Maxwell or McHale calls them Hollywood quiche eaters.

Jones recently said that it bothers him when some of his players criticize the opponent. He said he held meetings to discuss the subject with the players whenever he reads a particularly inflammatory quote in the newspapers.

After Jones finished talking, he said, Carr would inevitably ask: “Coach does this mean we can’t woof?”

“Oh, you can woof,” Jones would answer. “You’re going to woof anyway. Just try to make sure you can back up what you say.”

It’s doubtful that Jones will be woofing during the series. He learned a lesson one season in the playoffs.

“One game, I held Jerry West to 16 points,” Jones said. “I couldn’t get to my locker because of all the reporters. I gave them three pages of stuff about what I did to him. I forgot that Jerry West could read. The next game, he got 43. That’s called foot in mouth.”

Five Lakers originally were subpoenaed to give depositions Wednesday afternoon for a lawsuit filed by a Lynn, Mass., man who claims that Laker forward Kurt Rambis punched him in the nose after the Celtics’ victory in Game 7 at the Boston Garden last year.

But Tuesday night, the sides agreed to postpone the suit until after the playoffs.

The players subpoenaed are Rambis, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, James Worthy, Michael Cooper, Magic Johnson and Mitch Kupchak. Had the players been forced to appear in court, the Lakers would have been forced to cancel practice.

“Red (Auerbach) is probably paying that guy’s court costs,” Laker Coach Pat Riley joked.

After the Lakers’ humiliating defeat in Game 1 Monday, Riley gave almost all the credit to the Celtics’ strong play and downplayed his team’s poor play. But after watching films of the game Monday night, Riley changed his mind.

“We were worse than I thought we were, and I’d thought we were bad,” Riley said. “It was like ‘Friday The 13th, Part IV.’ I thought it would just be the Celtics being just so great. Then you go home and take an objective look at it. You don’t see a lot of things until you sit and watch it.”

Riley on Celtic Larry Bird: “He is what we call a no-catch, no-leave, no-no.” Translation: Don’t let Bird catch the ball and don’t leave him open.

Riley on the Lakers’ disposition going into Game 2 tonight: “Some people get angry and seethe. Other people get angry and are emotional. I’d say we’re obstinate. That’s angry enough for me.”

Maxwell, on why players around the NBA dislike Celtic guard Danny Ainge: “He’s the Mormon assassin. He’s been so feisty lately, there’s no telling what he’ll do next. . . . If Danny Ainge got hit by a car, people would say he threw himself in front of it.”

McHale, who is rooting for the Philadelphia Flyers in the Stanley Cup finals, played hockey until he was 14 in his hometown of Hibbing, Minn. He said there are similarities in hockey and basketball.

“You see a lot of passing. The unselfish team is the better team. I always likened the rebounds in basketball to working the corners for the puck,” McHale said. “That basically is where the game is won in hockey. Same thing about basketball. You get enough rebounds and you win the game.”