Still Giving 'Em the Hook

He is taller than you would expect--not your typical basketball analyst. Of course, Tommy Heinsohn is known for more than just his commentary on CBS broadcasts of National Basketball Association games.

Heinsohn is a former NBA player and coach with the Boston Celtics. He is in the NBA Hall of Fame. He is also, most recently, an author. His autobiography, "Give 'Em the Hook," written with Boston Herald sportswriter Joe Fitzgerald, is now in bookstores.

Heinsohn is on a tour to promote his book. His schedule includes stops in Providence, R.I., New York and Philadelphia. Last Thursday he was in Boston and sat down with this reporter to talk about the state of professional and collegiate basketball.

Although an ex-athlete, someone whom you would think would naturally heed the advice of the Surgeon General, Heinsohn frequently reached into his pack of Marlboro cigarettes during the interview. Here, at last, is a real Marlboro man.

Heinsohn, as the blurbs on his book proclaim, is straight forward, unafraid of criticizing even people dear to him--the Celtics, for instance. Heinsohn believes the Celtics will face an uphill fight this season to reclaim their success of past years.

"The new kid, (first-round draft choice) Brian Shaw is a real pleasant surprise," Heinsohn says. "But I don't think people should go overboard about him. He's played well in a few exhibition games but other teams haven't developed a book on him yet."

"The Celtics need to get help from at least two guys on the bench," Heinsohn adds. "If they don't get that, then they'll be in the pack, they'll be fighting and they may not emerge."

Although he respects the Celtics' new coach, former assistant coach Jimmy Rodgers, Heinsohn questions whether Rodgers will be tough on his players, something Heinsohn believes a coach must do in order to be successful.

"He certainly knows the game," Heinsohn says. "But he's such a nice guy. I have two question marks. Being the coach of the Celtics, you need a thick skin. I'm not sure he has a thick skin."

"Second of all," Heinsohn says, "part of the job is really dealing with the players. It's much different than being an assistant coach when you can use a velvet glove on all the players. When you're a head coach, well, that's what I'll be looking at."

Heinsohn thinks a handful of teams are capable of winning the Eastern Division championship. Detroit, he thinks, is the favorite despite center Rick Mahorn's bad back. Cleveland, Chicago and Atlanta should also be tough, Heinsohn says.

The New York Knicks hurt themselves by trading center Bill Cartwright to Chicago for forward Charles Oakley, Heinsohn says.

"In my long association with basketball, you never get rid of a big guy," Heinsohn says.

"I think Chicago could click because they have not had an inside threat," he says. "Cartwright is one of the better players in the league playing with his back to the basket."

Like most basketball fans, Heinsohn followed the United States Olympic basketball team's rise and fall at the Olympics in Seoul. Unlike a number of those fans who blamed U.S. Coach John Thompson for the team's third-place finish, Heinsohn thinks Thompson did a good job. Heinsohn believes Thompson's approach--stressing a pressure defense instead of a high-scoring offense--was correct.

"Thompson was the perfect coach to try to defeat a world-class team with a team that was only together for two months," Heinsohn says. "That Big East defense (which Thompson uses as coach of Georgetown University) is such that whenever Georgetown would play out of conference, no one would know what to do with it."

Heinsohn thinks the U.S. Olympic basketball program should be revised.

"There should be one guy in charge who should coach all international play," he says. "We had Denny Crum coach the Pan Am Games. So some of the players on that team who wound up on the Olympic team had to learn another system."

"I think the coach should be a pro coach because a pro coach can implement things quicker than a college coach," he adds.