Nobody has played as many NBA games as Robert Parish. But the center, which spent most of its career with Boston Celtics, was more than just a long runner. With Larry Bird and Kevin McHale, the Chief was probably the best front court trio in history. Today, the Celtics legend is 65 years old. All other stories about the legends of the NBA can be found in our archive.
The atmosphere was heated up in Boston Garden when the Celtics fought the Detroit Pistons for the finals. Even boxing gloves hung from the ranks. The Pistons established their reputation as bad boys in the first four games and played especially in their home Silverdome with hooks and eyelets. Larry Bird seemed unnerved, especially by the hardship of the notorious Pistons Center Bill Laimbeer, and even engaged in a little battle. The reigning champion wobbled after Detroit equalised for 2-2 in the series.
Game 5 was also played hard. Shortly before the break Laimbeer worked with his elbows during boxing out, which Boston’s center Robert Parish did not like at all. The otherwise stoic center struck down his opponent with two targeted blows. Laimbeer was lucky: Because of a tendon injury Parish could not clench his fist, which probably prevented worse. A foul was not indicated, even for the time this was unusual. Probably the Refs were completely perplexed that model boy Parish lost his nerve.
The headlines belonged to others, though. The Pistons blew the win because Bird played one of his most important games of his career. There’s a steal by Bird!’ and the corresponding video are familiar to every League Pass user today.
As always: Bird was in the spotlight and Parish played the supporting role of the man doing the dirty work. It certainly didn’t bother the center. The chief, that was the hard, quiet worker who hardly spoke in the field and showed little emotion.
Parish comes from a sleepy place in Louisiana. Grown up in a time when racism was still ubiquitous in the southern states, the slag had to be persuaded by the coaches to play basketball at all. His high school team had only one jersey left, the one with double-0. She became the constant companion in Parish’s career.
The youngster made a name for himself nationwide, but instead of going to a larger college, he chose the local Centenary College, which accommodated only 700 students and could not cover the cost of the basketball team’s outing. That’s why the chief didn’t record a single official game in his four years at university. He could have switched to the NBA every year, but he didn’t, probably because his mother didn’t allow it. She insisted that her son graduated.
Parish’s reputation did not suffer. His pure presence of 2.13 meters and his ability to influence and block numerous throws led the Golden State Warriors in 1976 to use the eighth pick in the draft for the center.
In addition to his defensive qualities, the chief was also offensively trained. In the post he had good footwork and numerous movements. Everyone in the league knew his Spinmove, but many defenders kept falling for it. As a bonus a good middle distance throw was added, which was almost impossible to block due to its high flight curve.
His later Celtics teammate, Bill Walton, who was also Parish’s Hall of Fame laudatory speech, claimed in the eighties that Parish was probably the best midrange shooter of all the big men in the history of the game.
But the Warriors didn’t get really warm with their Big. Parish often seemed apathetic, Golden State sank into mediocrity after the Rick Barry era and the unhinged center was often the scapegoat. Nevertheless, Parish partially indicated his great potential. Against the New York Knicks he once played 30 points and 32 rebounds.
While the West Coast Big was not appreciated, a team from the East saw the potential value. The Boston Celtics around coach chestnut and former GM Red Auerbach fueled a, in retrospect, scandalous trade in 1980. The third pick of the year and Parish came to New England, the Warriors received the first and 13th pick in 1980, in which the Dubs used their two picks for Joe Barry Carroll and Rickey Brown, while the Celtics voted Kevin McHale (!) in third place.
For Parish this was the turning point of his career, as he later emphasized again and again. “My career really started with the 1980 trade.”
But this is not quite true. At the Dubs he was mostly a backup for Clifford Ray, who gave the youngster some important advice. Parish did yoga, martial arts, went swimming, renounced red meat and finally became a vegetarian. “I never pulled anything, never broke a single bone. I’m living proof of what proper nutrition is. And I owe that to Clifford Ray.”
How else could Parish have survived 21 seasons (record, together with Kevin Garnett, Kevin Willis and soon Dirk Nowitzki and Vince Carter) the bone mill NBA. Parish played against John Havlicek as well as the young Allen Iverson or Kobe Bryant.
Page 1: Southern Child and Problems with the Warriors
Page 2: Celtics legend and record players