It's been interesting to watch the polls regarding the All Time Top Celtics unfold on the front page. They reflect an interesting story, by ignoring it, of a Celtic who was once considered one of the all time great players; a Celtic who was once considered to be the heart and soul of a team that won two championships, established a mini-dynasty, and arguably dominated its decade more than today's Celtics have dominated the last decade; a player who is now considered to be little more than an also ran in NBA history. The first two polls on the front page, regarding all time Celtic greats, didn't even include Dave Cowens as an option, and today's poll included him, but only as a throw-in, with numerous other players. How can this possibly make any sense? Aren't we all about championships? Aren't we the fandom that recognizes that it isn't all about scoring?
Havlicek was never the core guy on a championship team. He was always a key guy, never THE guy. Paul Pierce won only one championship (so far), and wasn't even the key guy on that championship. Garnett was. Robert Parish wasn't necessarily even the third most important guy on the championships of his era. It's between him and Dennis Johnson. How can he even be considered for third place all-time when he wasn't necessarily even third best in his era? Tommy Heinsoh? Kevin Mchale? Does anyone seriously think that those two guys, great as they were, would have been nearly as good if they weren't next to Bill Russell and Larry Bird?
What happened? How did these guys, all of whom were great players, manage to obscure community memory of Dave Cowens? Does anyone seriously think that the seventies Celtics would have accomplished what they did without Big Red? In my opinion, the way the front page poll has been handled, has been disgraceful. How can you exclude/minimize the leader of one of our dynasties? Folks, you do remember, right, that Larry himself only won one more championship than Cowens did, and that was with a lot more help by his side? Who was a better sidekick scorer, Havlicek or Mchale? Who was a better guard, JoJo or DJ? Larry had a better team to work with than Cowens, and played longer, and still only won one more championship than Cowens.
I think the reason for all this is that Cowens was a free spirit, and people just don't like that.