Retro POY 1956-57 (Voting Complete)

[Doctor MJ]

In this thread we'll discuss and vote on the top 5 best player seasons of 1956-57.

Schedule will be Mon-Fri, and Thu-Mon. Typically this will be morning to morning.

Some things to start us off:

NBA
The Year in Review http://www.basketball-reference.com/lea ... _1957.html
Playoff Summary http://www.basketball-reference.com/pla ... _1957.html
Award Voting http://www.basketball-reference.com/awa ... _1957.html
Final Box Score http://webuns.chez-alice.fr/playoffs/1957.htm

[JordansBulls]

Cousy will probably be my #1 this year. League MVP and title the same year.

1. Bob Cousy
2. Bob Pettit
3. Paul Arizin
4. Dolph Schayes
5. Bill Sharman


HM: Bill Russell (only played half a year and didn't make any All NBA Team)

[ThaRegul8r]

Cousy will probably be my #1 this year. League MVP and title the same year.

Actual analysis would tell you that Cousy was absolutely horrible in Game 7 of the Finals.

[JordansBulls]

Cousy will probably be my #1 this year. League MVP and title the same year.

Actual analysis would tell you that Cousy was absolutely horrible in Game 7 of the Finals.

You are correct.
http://webuns.chez-alice.fr/finals/1957.htm
Maybe Heinsohn or Pettit should get more love.

[semi-sentient]

Just based on those box scores, Heinsohn and Pettit definitely look like the two best players.

[DumbyTheWizard]

Just based on those box scores, Heinsohn and Pettit definitely look like the two best players.

Well, if they had the best box scores in game 7 of the finals they probably are. I am sure JB agrees. number one is obviously the one that doesnt have HCA.

[bastillon]

Just based on those box scores, Heinsohn and Pettit definitely look like the two best players.

Well, if they had the best box scores in game 7 of the finals they probably are. I am sure JB agrees. number one is obviously the one that doesnt have HCA.

don't forget about the Win Shares.

[JordansBulls]

Just based on those box scores, Heinsohn and Pettit definitely look like the two best players.

Well, if they had the best box scores in game 7 of the finals they probably are. I am sure JB agrees. number one is obviously the one that doesnt have HCA.

[semi-sentient]

Cousy and Sharman were a combined 5-40 in game 7... lol. That's atrocious.

[bastillon]

Cousy always sucked in the playoffs. shouldn't be a big surprise...

[Doctor MJ]

Just based on those box scores, Heinsohn and Pettit definitely look like the two best players.

It's really fascinating how Heinsohn & Russell seemed to be considered pretty equal this year, and how Heinsohn never emerged as even a clear #2 guy after that.

[penbeast0]

Equal? Russell is a 15/20 guy with great defense, Heinsohn is a 16/10 guy with poor defense . . . . in what alternative universe is that equal?

Now, Heinsohn played the whole year while Russell played only half so in terms of regular season value you could make a case for Heinsohn . . . maybe

[Sedale Threatt]

He said, "considered" equal. Big difference. Heinsohn won the Rookie of the Year -- which Russell repeatedly harangued him for -- so some obviously thought he was better.

[Sedale Threatt]

Cousy always sucked in the playoffs. shouldn't be a big surprise...

The fast-breaking Celtics won a then franchise-record 46 games and swept the Syracuse Nationals in two games in the division semifinals. Cousy's dominating performance in Game 2 of that series would be one of the most talked about of his career and would even be compared to Wilt Chamberlain's 100-point game in 1962.

Although hampered by a bad leg, Cousy scored 25 points in regulation, tying the game at 77 on a last-second free throw. In the first overtime Cousy scored 6 of his team's 9 points, including another game-tying free throw in the final seconds. In the second extra period he scored all 4 Celtics points. In the third he scored 8, including a 25-foot, game-tying jumper with three seconds left. With the Celtics down, 104-99, in the fourth overtime, Cousy scored 5 straight points, giving him 9 of the 12 points that Boston scored in the period. The Celtics finally prevailed over the Nationals, 111-105.

By the time the 3-hour, 11-minute game ended, five players on each team had been disqualified. Cousy finished with 50 points, including 30 free throws in 32 attempts.

http://www.nba.com/history/players/cousy_bio.html

[ThaRegul8r]

Work in progress. Storing this here.

In his fourth professional game, Russell scored a team-high 15 points and grabbed 34 rebounds in a 120-97 win over Philadelphia.

BOSTON. Jan. 22. (AP)—Boston owner Walter Brown called Celtics rookie Bill Russell, former All-America and Olympic team star, the greatest drawing attraction in National Basketball association history.

Brown told the weekly basketball luncheon that the 6-10 Russell stands alone “from a gate standpoint.”

“He has broken records or drawn the season’s largest crowds in every city in the league,” Brown said. “Even Minneapolis with six championships and George Mikan never had his gate lure.

“In addition, he has helped us greatly. In (Bob) Cousy we have the greatest little man in basketball, but you can’t win championships without that great big man. Also, the standpoint big man is the top attraction.”
(“Russell Is Tagged Top Drawing Star.” Spokane Daily Chronicle, January 22, 1957.)

BOSTON — (NEA) — In Philadelphia, Eddie Gottlieb would have welcomed the chance to tear at his hair. But he was too busy trying to figure where more people could be placed in Convention Hall.

Finally, the doors had to be shut and cash-carrying people turned away. This was Bill Russell’s first appearance in the city. It also was the first total sellout in Gottlieb’s long history of basketball promoting.

In New York, the Boston Celtics’ game with the Knickerbockers was to be televised. But the best you could get was a dollar balcony seat by game time as 15,000 turned out.

* * *

And in any town the Celtics go these days it is the same. “Mr. Bob Cousy?” the hotel operator will say. “Sorry, that line is busy. And there are several calls waiting. Mr. Bill Russell? He’s busy, too.”

This is how it is as the Celtics—basketball’s new glamour team—make their way around an excited National Basketball Association circuit.

In Cousy, the daring, supremely confident trickster, Boston has probably the most appealing player of modern times. And in Russell, the 6-10 Olympic star who broke all college records at San Francisco, they have the new face everybody wants to see.

“You can’t even compare George Mikan and those Minneapolis Lakers teams of his with this club.” Coach Red Auerbach says. “Mikan as a basketball player was great—don’t even get me wrong. But he was no gate draw. George got his points by using his size. He was so big he’d push everybody out of the way just by moving and then he’d stuff in a layup or a rebound or a hook. Nothing exciting.”

* * *

“But Russell and Cousy—they do things people have never seen before. Who ever saw anybody dribble like Cooz? He’ll dribble behind his back, then take off and go through three, four guys for a shot.”

“And they never saw a guy block shots like Russell. Just to see the guy jump into the air is worth the price of a ticket.”

The story of how the Celtics were put together illustrates the chances you take in sports. Today, Owner Walter Brown has a winning team which could draw close to 500,000 spectators by the end of the 72-game schedule.

Russell and Cousy are responsible. But last winter, Auerbach sat in a side lodge seat at Madison Square Garden, chewed a cigar—and was unimpressed as he watched Russell play for San Francisco.

* * *

Auerbach, however, receiving persistent reports from the west coast on Russell’s talents. “I figured,” he says, “he had to be seen more than once. So I took him in during an All-Star game at New York later in the year.

“He didn’t do anything in the game. If I had just rated him off that he wouldn’t be here today. But I had a saver—I always like to see a kid practice.

“So I went down to an armory a couple of days before and watched him work out. He was just fiddling around on the floor. But he was moving—wonderful moves. The first time I saw him leap to get a rebound I knew he was everything they claimed.”

As for Cousy, the one-man spectacular, that’s an old story. During his senior year at Holy Cross, Cousy was advised by the Boston coach to “change your style. It won’t go with us.”

He didn’t—and Auerbach promptly recruited somebody else. When Cousy’s Tri-Cities team disbanded before the season started, he was placed in an open draft. Owner Brown instructed his coach to get anybody but Cousy.

Picking out of a hat, Auerbach wound up with Cousy.
(Jimmy Breslin. “Cousy, Russell Hop Up Fans Easier Than Auerbach.” The Rock-Hill Herald. February 2, 1957)

PHILADELPHIA, Jan 2 (AP) A Controversy is boiling over some of the tactics used by Bill Russell, rookie sensation of the Boston Celtics in the National Basketball Association.

Some coaches and owners, including Eddie Gottlieb, boss of the champion Philadelphia Warriors, contend that at times Russell is trying to play a one-man zone and is goal tending.

Gottlieb said Wednesday he is going to make an official protest on at least one play of Tuesday night’s Philadelphia-Boston game at Syracuse. Gottlieb said:

“Our Paul Arizin went underneath for a simple backboard layup and as the ball headed down toward the basket, Russell batted it away. If this isn’t goal tending I want somebody to tell me what it is. I’m certainly going to ask Maurice Podoloff (president of the NBA).”

TACTICS HIT

Gottlieb said other coaches and owners were beginning to grumble about Russell’s tactics. He said he was taking nothing away from Russell who, he admitted, makes some wonderful plays.

“But he goal tended Tuesday night on three occasions and was called for it only once. I asked Referee Sid Borgia about the Arizin shot and his only reply was, ‘I didn’t see it,” ” Gottlieb said.

As for the zone defense, which is outlawed in the NBA, Gottlieb says that “at times Russell tries to play a one-man zone. He stands under the basket and waits to try and bat shots out.”

Jocko Collins, supervisor of NBA officials, said he did not think Russell was playing a one-man zone, nor was he goal-tending.

FOLLOWS MAN

“I’ve seen him follow his man in a weave. I’ve seen him come out and pick up players like Neil Johnston and Bob Pettit. He doesn’t stand in one spot. Therefore how can you say he is playing a one-man zone,” said Collins.

Collins said his officials have not been instructed to watch Russell anymore than anyone else. They are supposed to watch all big men in this league for violations of the two rules involved here. The rules are:

1. A zone defense is not permitted in NBA games. If in the opinion of an official a team is guilty of violating this rule, it shall be warned by the official and for every recurrence of the violation a technical foul shall be imposed.

2. A player shall not touch the ball or the opponents basket while the ball is on or within such basket, or touch the ball while the touching hand or arm is also touching the opponents basket. (Space enclosed by an imaginary cylinder having the ring as its lower base.
(The Milwaukee Sentinel, Jan. 3, 1957)

BOSTON (AP)—The Boston Celtics defeated Philadelphia 103-98 in a National Basketball Assn. overtime thriller yesterday on the combined efforts of dynamic Bob Cousy and nerveless Bill Russell.

Cousy scored six of the Celtics’ 10 overtime points and Russell was brilliant in the clutch as the home forces snapped a brief two game losing streak to the enjoyment of a near capacity throng of 13,086 at Boston Garden.

Paul Arizin, the Philadelphia deadeye who shared scoring honors with Cousy at 26 points each, sent the game into extra play with a pair of free throws which tied the score 93-93.

Philadelphia led 96-95, before Cousy took over. The playmaking wizard knotted the count 96-96 on a free throw. Russell, the angular 6-10 rookie, blocked Arizin’s seemingly unstoppable shot and Cousy took the ball downcourt to sink a 20 foot one hander and pull the Celts ahead 98-96.

With 1:02 remaining, Bill Sharman passed to Russell in the key who fed beautifully to Cousy. Bounding Bob canned his set from the back of the foul line and the Celts were out of danger, 100-96.

By winning, the Boston club pushed its Eastern Division lead to eight full games over the second place Philadelphians. (Daytona Beach Morning, Feb. 11, 1957)

After 11 frustrating years, the Eastern Division championship of the National Basketball Assn. Monday belonged to the Boston Celtics—and the other teams will have to concern themselves with the battle for second place.

Boston blasted Rochester, 111-102, Sunday to cop their first division title in 11 years.

Former all-American Bill Russell was the standout performer for the Celts, garnering 30 points and 24 rebounds, but the Boston Garden crowd of 9,852 held back their plaudits for Bob Cousy.

When Coach Red Auerbach finally inserted the injury-ridden star for 90 seconds of the final period, the Boston boosters gave him a standing ovation. In a victory celebration after the game the highly excitable Auerbach was dunked in the shower. (The Deseret News, Mar. 4, 1957)

Eastern Division Finals - Boston Celtics (44-28) vs. Syracuse Nationals (38-34)

Boston won Game 1 108-90. Frank Ramsey led Boston with 29 points, Tom Heinsohn had 19, Bob Cousy 18, and Bill Russell 16. “Wild, disorganized and behind 27-22 at the end of the first period, the Celtics made adjustments which turned the tide of the important contest. In the next 12 minutes, Boston outscored the Nats 31-17” (Sarasota Herald-Tribune, Mar. 22, 1957).

Syracuse led the disorganized Celtics after one period, 27-22, but Bill Russell and Arnie Risen then entered the game and Boston began to click, running up a 54-44 halftime lead, and boosting it to 83-64 after three periods. (The Daily Reporter, Mar. 21, 1957)

Boston won Game 2 120-105, led by Tom Heinsohn, who led Boston with 30 points, Bob Cousy, who had 25 points and 11 assists, and Bill Russell, who had 20 points and 30 rebounds, “more than half of the Celtics’ total of 56” (Reading Eagle, Mar. 24, 1957). “The Celtics were never behind after the first minute, and they led by as much as 13 points before the Nats scrambled back into a pair of third-period ties. After a 66-all deadlock, the division champions spurted ahead again and stayed in front handily the rest of the way.” Dolph Schayes led Syracuse with a game-high 31 points, and Ed Conlin had 22. “Boston’s ability to string together a flock of points whenever the Nats threatened proved decisive. With Cousy doing the quarterbacking, with Russell consistently blocking Syracuse shots the Nats seldom were able to get a real spurt going” (Reading Eagle, Mar. 24, 1957). The Celtics made 43 of 102 from the floor (42.2%), and Syracuse 32 of 91 (35.2%).

Boston won Game 3 83-80. Bill Sharman led Boston with 23 points (The Lewiston Daily Sun, Mar. 23, 1957).

BOSTON (AP)—The rampaging Boston Celtics—blessed with the greatest rookie tandem in National Basketball Assn. history—today eyed favorably the prospect of meeting St. Louis in the playoff finals.

With its pressure-loving first year men Bill Russell and Tommy Heinsohn in key roles, the Celts defeated Syracuse 83-80 yesterday for a three-game sweep of their semifinal series.

It marked another first for the Boston club.

The Celtics, already possessing the Eastern Division crown for the first time, now prepare to make their debut in the playoff finals.

For the sweep, Heinsohn led the scoring with 61 points [20.3 points per game] while Russell hauled in 84 rebounds [28 rebounds per game].

After St. Louis edged Minneapolis 106-104 yesterday on Bob Pettit’s 11 points in the final five minutes to take a commanding 2-0 lead in the best-of-five series, the Celtics were happy. The Hawks and Lakers meet again tonight.

The conversion of brilliant play maker Bob Cousy brought about a unanimous opinion—the Celts would rather play St. Louis than Minneapolis.

“St. Louis has the desire and it’s desire which wins playoffs,” Cousy said. “But the Minneapolis court is bad for our style of play because it is narrower,” he added. “The Lakers have better shooting and more heft.”

“St. Louis is not as strong under the backboards,” chimed in Bill Sharman.

Boston holds a 7-2 margin over St. Louis in regular season play and the losses were by one and two points.

After victories by 18 and 15 point margins, the Celts came through in the clutch yesterday. Sharman hit a long jump shot, Heinsohn made a terrific layup of a missed Cousy try and Russell brought down two rebounds of Syracuse shots in the last minute to salt away the series. (Sarasota Journal, Mar. 22, 1957)

[drza]

I'll be the one to ask...why did Russell play so few games this year? Was it injury?

Also, from those articles, I get some added insight into how a big defender could be a 1-man band back then. I had forgotten how much latitude the refs used to be given for "illegal defense" back before the defensive 3-second violation, and it sounds like both that rule and the goal-tending rule were very liberally interpreted back then.

[ThaRegul8r]

I'll be the one to ask...why did Russell play so few games this year? Was it injury?

“He missed the first 24 games of the season because of the Olympics” (Dallas Morning News).

He was leading the US Men's Olympic basketball team to a Gold medal by the largest margin of victory in Olympic history, 53.5 points per game.

[drza]

I'll be the one to ask...why did Russell play so few games this year? Was it injury?

“He missed the first 24 games of the season because of the Olympics” (Dallas Morning News).

He was leading the US Men's Olympic basketball team to a Gold medal by the largest margin of victory in Olympic history, 53.5 points per game.

Thank you. I had the feeling it was something besides injury, but couldn't remember. Second question: any indication of what the Celtics looked like record-wise before he got there?

[bastillon]

56 Celtics - 23 OWS 14 DWS (37 WS)
57 Celtics - 18.2 OWS 30.4 DWS (48.6 WS)

I think it's clear who was responsible for their improvement (11.6 WS, 4 SRS). Heinsohn's low efficiency high volume scoring didn't help one bit offensively while Russell's defense DOUBLED their DWS. 57 Celtics were once again below average offensive team and dominated with the defense. yeah, Russell missed 24 games but it was still enough for them to dominate their peers defensively.

all-time comparison: Hakeem's teams only twice had more than 30 DWS (in an 82 game schedule, as opposed to 72 like in 57), Kareem's teams had more than 28 DWS three times (in 20 year career, and 82-game schedule, too). extrapolating that to 82-game schedule, Celtics had 34.6 team DWS. that's good enough to be historically great result.

the idea that Heinsohn, a poor man's Toine Walker on a bad day, was even remotely close to Russell in impact doesn't just baffle me, it makes me laugh out loud...

and the guy whom Russell replaced, Ed Macauley, was pretty good himself. he was 7th in the league in OWS in 56 (the last season w/ Celtics) and 10th in OWS in 57. he went to Hawks and they improved from -1.4 SRS to -0.26. Russell wasn't replacing a scrub.

[bastillon]

Thank you. I had the feeling it was something besides injury, but couldn't remember. Second question: any indication of what the Celtics looked like record-wise before he got there?

pts differential
first 24 games +4.54
last 48 games +5.77
10 playoff games +7.20

total w/o Russ +4.54
total w/ Russ +6.01