John Havlicek Biography - The Young Ohio Athlete, Wooed By Three Sports, Chronology, Clutch Player, Career Statistics - SELECTED WRITINGS BY HAVLICEK:
basketball nba games celtic
1940-
American basketball player
John "Hondo" Havlicek is considered by some observers to have been the most well-rounded player in the history of professional basketball. Havlicek was never a flashy player. However, his remarkable physical
John Havlicek
conditioning, his careful study of the game of basketball and of opposing players, and his skills at both forward and a guard made him an irreplaceable part of the Boston Celtic dynasty of the 1960s. By the time he retired after sixteen years with the Celtics, he had amassed an impressive body of statistics: 1,270 regularseason games played, 26,395 points scored, 6,114 assists, 13 consecutive National Basketball Association (NBA) All-Star Games, eight NBA championships. In recognition of his contribution to basketball, Havlicek was elected to the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in 1983. He was named to the NBA's 50th Anniversary Team in 1996.
SELECTED WRITINGS BY HAVLICEK:
(With Bob Ryan) Hondo: Celtic Man in Motion, Prentice Hall, 1977.
Sketch by Gerald E. Brennan
Additional Topics
John Havlicek was born in 1940 in Martins Ferry, Ohio. The third child of a Czechoslovakian father and a Croatian mother, Havlicek grew up in Lansing Ohio, a mining and steel mill town near the West Virginia border. Denied a bicycle by his parents—the family house was situated on a dangerous curve in the road—when he was around five-years-old Havlicek took to running, not only to kee…
After he graduated, Havlicek was selected as the first round draft pick of the Boston Celtics. There was high interest from other sports as well. Several baseball organizations, including the New York Yankees, Detroit Tigers, and Pittsburgh Pirates, attempted to sign him. Although Havlicek had chosen not to play college football—despite repeated entreaties of Ohio State's football co…
Havlicek also displayed coolness under pressure and the ability to come through in the clutch. Nothing illustrates this better than a play that has entered the mythology of the NBA. In the last game of the divisional finals in the playoffs in 1965, the Celtics were leading the Philadelphia 76ers by one point. With five seconds left on the clock, the 76ers were bringing the ball inbounds. A basket …
John Havlicek lives with his wife in Columbus, Ohio. He owns three Wendy's Hamburger franchises and is the co-owner of an Ohio-based food company. In his spare time he enjoys hunting, fishing, and golf. When John Havlicek retired he had established himself as one of basketball's all-time greats. Bobby Knight, who played with Havlicek at Ohio State, told Sports Illustrated's Jo…
Fitzgerald, Joe. That Championship Feeling: The Story of the Boston Celtics. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1975. Havlicek, John, with Bob Ryan. Hondo: Celtic Man in Motion. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall, 1977. Ryan, Bob. The Boston Celtics: The History, Legends, and Images of America's Most Celebrated Team. Reading, MA: Addison-Wesley Publishing Company, 1989. Goldaper, Sa…
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