Jim Loscutoff: his two pressure-packed free throws pulled the Celtics ahead to stay for Boston's first-ever title

Basketball Digest, March-April, 2004 by Chuck O'Donnell

THE BOSTON CELTICS HAD A great team in the mid-1950s, but it always seemed like we finished second in our division and made an early exit in the playoffs. We were missing one thing. A man in the middle to block shots and get, rebounds.

Before the 1956-57 season, Red Auerbach pulled off a trade with the St. Louis Hawks that would give the Celtics that missing ingredient: He got Bill Russell.

When we dried Russell that year, he was considered an excellent rebounder. The trade really helped both teams a lot. The Hawks were a better team with Cliff Hagan and Easy Ed Macauley. They made themselves into a contender right then and there.

But we were already a contender every year. We were already a good team. Russell made us a great team. There was a lot of anticipation before he came to the team, and it turned out that Russell was the perfect man in the middle. He came in and blocked shots and got rebounds. Plus, he could score points. He averaged in double digits, which was pretty good for a guy who focused so much of his energy on the defensive side of the game. He could be a weapon on offense at times, too.

All of a sudden, we had a terrific team. There was talent everywhere you looked. Bob Cousy and Bill Sharman combined to form, to me, the best backcourt in the game at the time. To go along with Russell on the front line, we had Tommy Heinsohn, Frank Ramsey, and myself. We had a great bench, too.

Red was notorious for bringing in a player that was almost on his way out for his experience and smartness. Andy Phillip, Arnie Risen ... those players were on their way out, but played one or two good years with us and helped us out extremely well. You could really count on them if you had to go to the bench.

When I played my college ball at the University of Oregon, I led the conference in scoring and rebounding. I thought I was a pretty good rebounder, and I played defense. But we had so many scorers on the Celtics that I had to change my game to the point where I just boxed out and helped Russell get rebounds, played defense, and took care of my team. I was considered a role player. Each Celtic had his role and that's the way, more or less, that Auerbach designated us to play the role.

So in 1956-57 we took all this talent and won a lot of games, ending up in the NBA Finals. Who did we face? The Hawks, the same team that we had made the big Russell trade with before the season. When we faced the Hawks in the Finals that year, the trade was a big subplot. We were already rivals, but the trade took all of it up a notch.

We were already big rivals, in fact. We had been fighting for the world championship every year for three or four years, so we already had a rivalry going even before the trade was made.

Before the trade, the Hawks had a lot of good players. Bob Pettit was one of the very best in the league at the time. Then add Slater Martin, Jack Coleman, and Charlie Share, plus Hagan and Macauley. That's a good team right there, with lots of good players.

The 1957 Finals was ferocious, very hard-fought, just like whenever the teams got together. It came down not just to a Game 7, but to a second overtime in Game 7.

The fortunate thing about it was we were playing in Boston Garden. We had a home-court advantage and when you have home-court advantage, luck goes with you. We got a lot of breaks in that series and, hey, that's what you need sometimes.

It was pretty much back-and-forth through the two overtimes. No team could pull away. Here's how we took the lead: We got the ball and brought it down the court. They passed the ball to me, but I got fouled by Macauley. That was it for him, he had fouled out.

Macauley went to the bench and I went to the foul line. That was the kind of moment that athletes dream about, coming into that kind of situation. I was an average foul shooter, 60-65%.

I have to admit that it's been so long ago, I don't remember much about those foul shots except that they both went in. It was easy. What can I say? I made them, What the heck's the difference? I think my hands were shaking, but I made them.

The Hawks were desperate. They had to come up with something and fast. They tried a trick play, throwing it down to the other end of the court and bouncing it off the backboard. Let me tell you, it takes a lot of skill to throw the ball the length of the court and hit the backboard. But foul shots the Hawks did it, and the ball bounced into Pettit's hands. He shot it and as it was in the air, the buzzer blew.

Pettit missed and Hagan tipped it in, but the ballgame was over.

It was a big relief because we had finished second so often and here we had finally broken through. And it was a big relief because it was the first championship for any team in the Boston area for a long time.

Not Just a Bruiser

NOT LONG AGO. WHEN PLAYERS LIKE Kenyon Martin and Danny Fortson were racking up flagrant and technical fouls faster than you could say "forearm shiver talk turned to some of the toughs from NBA history.

Several newspaper and magazine articles conjured up the name Jim Loscutoff the forward with the Boston Celtics from 1955-64. Known as "Jungle Jim." Loscutoff was a tough customer, the original Bad Boy, perhaps like a modern-day Charles Oakley Big, powerful, unrelenting, and unafraid.