Quintessential Celtic remembered as a champion
Jo Jo White should not vanish quietly in Boston, which can happen if, as you’re drawing your final breath, the Bruins are on fire, the Celts are hobnobbing with the NBA’s elite and the Patriots are tightening their grip on immortality.
Jo Jo, whose 10-year Celtics career landed him in basketball’s Hall of Fame, was always a favorite here, not only because of the classy way he carried himself, but because of the way he dealt with the challenging role fate handed him.
The Celtics have had two great dynasties, one of which was built around the incomparable Bill Russell and the other of which was personified by the indescribable Larry Bird.
If the Celts had their own Mount Rushmore, those two would be shoulder to shoulder on its summit.
But there was a third juggernaut that existed between them, capturing two titles, while in the eyes of many, this writer included, producing some of the most exciting moments in Celtics history, with Tommy Heinsohn as its colorful coach, Dave Cowens as its overachieving center, and a venerable John Havlicek providing unflappable steadiness, letting his smarts make up for what his body was losing.
Paul Silas? A terrific force under the boards. Don Chaney? The second coming of K.C. Jones on defense.
But it was Jo Jo to whom the ball was entrusted as he became a seventime all-star with an inerrant shot from the top of the key.
In a fabulous Game 5 triple-overtime playoff win against Phoenix, he played 60 of the 63 minutes, piling up 33 points and nine assists.
“I was tired,” he told reporters afterward. “But my thinking was that if I was tired, those other guys (Suns) must have been close to death.”
At times like that he was a quintessential Celtic.
Yet this silky smooth backcourtman, who died last week at 71, never seemed to be what others thought he ought to be — an assertive ballhandler, a penetrator, the man to go to in the final seconds, able to draw a foul.
Smooth? Absolutely. Scrappy? Not so much.
So during the twilight of his career he was traded to the Warriors; it was like Bobby Orr becoming a Black Hawk, or Adam Vinatieri becoming a Colt, or Cowens becoming a Milwaukee Buck.
It happens.
In the end he was double-teamed by cancer and dementia. But make no mistake, while Jo Jo was a Celtic he was very much a champion, which is how he’ll always be remembered here.
Goodbye, good friend, and God bless.