The Life and Career Of The Basketball Super Star John Havlicek
John Havlicek was a small forward for one of the most successful NBA teams of all time – the Boston Celtics between 1957 and 1976. Havlicek won the NBA Finals 8 times with the team and did not lose a single NBA Finals match.
Havlicek joined the NBA in 1962 and retired in 1978, after he retired he spent his time as a motivational speaker and running charity events with his wife Beth. Havlicek was diagnosed with Parkinson’s Disease in 2018 and passed away at the age of 79 in 2019.
Today, we are going to take a look at the incredible career and life of John Havlicek.
Before The NBA
Havlicek was born on April 8, 1940 in Martins Ferry, Ohio. At high school Havlicek played football, basketball, and baseball. His childhood best friend, Phil Niekro, went on to be an NBA Hall of Famer.
He ended up going to Ohio State University to play basketball.
Here Havlicek was surrounded by future NBA stars – including coach Bobby Knight, players Larry Siegfried, and he was roommates with 7-time NBA All-Star Jerry Lucas.
He was part of the Buckeyes team that won the 1960 NCAA Title. They knocked out NYU in the semi-finals and then went on to beat California State 75-55 in the finals. Havlicek’s roommate Jerry Lucas was named MOP (most outstanding player) for the tournament.
Havicek also played for the football team at Ohio State University.
The NBA Years
Havlicek left college in 1962 and entered both the NBA and the NHL Drafts.
He was picked by both the Boston Celtics and the Cleveland Browns. He took part in a few training camps with the Browns before deciding to focus on his basketball career. He ended up playing in the NBA for 16 years and spent his entire career with the Celtics.
Havlicek made a huge impact on the team and thanks to his fitness levels he took over the “sixth man” role in the team. It was Havlicek that really showed teams how important this role could be and the sixth men of today owes a lot their role to him.
Havlicek joined a championship winning Celtics team, and they continued to win with him onboard. In fact, Havlicek won the NBA Championships 4 times in the first 4 years of his career – 1962-66.
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Havlicek and Celtics did the double again in 1968 and 1969. They won the NBA Championships again in 1974 and Hevlicek won his last title in 1976. Overall he won 8 titles. This put him at joint 3rd on the All-Time winners list (with Satch Sanders, K. C. Jones, and Tom Heinsohn).
The two players above him on the list, Sam Jones (10 wins) and Bill Russel (11 wins) were also part of this Celtics team, they just started playing for the Celtics before Havlick.
Since retiring Havlicek is considered by many to be the greatest all round ball carrier there ever was. He was named in the NBA 35th, 50th, and 75th Anniversary teams.
He is the 16th all-time points scorer in the NBA, and with 26,395 points (20.8 points per game) he is the all-time points scorer for the Celtics. He was the first player to ever score more than 1000 points in 16 consecutive seasons.
He was called up to the All-Stars 13 times.
Life After The NBA
Havlicek’s no 17 was retired by the Celtics immediately after his last game.
Havlicek was very open about the fact that he did not spend a lot of his NBA earnings while he was playing. Instead, he took the opportunity to invest in an up and coming fast food chain Wendys. Thanks to the success of this investment, he didn’t have to work again after leaving the NBA.
Havlicek met his wife at college and they married in 1967. The pair stayed together until John passed away. They had two children Chris and Jill – Jill is married to Brian Buchanan (an MLB player and coach).
Halvicek spent the majority of his time after retiring working as a corporate and motivational speaker. He was also on the board for the Genesis Foundation. Every year John and Beth would run a fishing tournament at their home to raise money for the foundation.
In 2018, John was diagnosed with Parkison’s disease. He passed away on April 25, 2019 at home with his family just after his 79th birthday.
Havlicek will be remembered for his role in the incredible Celtics team in the 1950s to the late 1970s.
