Bob Cousy on the odd path that brought him to the…

Bob Cousy on the odd path that brought him to the Boston Celtics

Even though he believes he is too old at 95 to make the trek from his home in Worcester, Massachusetts to TD Garden to see the ball club he became a household name playing for in the 1950s and 1960s, Hall of Fame Boston Celtics point guard Bob Cousy remains a devoted Celtics fan.

But the so-called Houdini of the Hardwood could have had a different path in life had another name been pulled out of the hat used to determine which team owners got which players after the now-defunct Chicago Stags went under. Or if he had he simply reported to the team that drafted him out of Holy Cross.

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“I wasn’t going to move my family — I’d just gotten married — and go to somewhere called Tri-Cities,” said Cousy in a recent interview with NBC Sports Boston’s Chris Forsberg. “That’s who drafted me.”

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— The Celtics Wire (@TheCelticsWire) August 15, 2023

“And when they called me and said, ‘Hey, congratulations, No. 1 pick,’ I said, ‘Jesus, I was a pretty good student, what the hell is the Tri-Cities?’” said the Celtics legend.

“And that didn’t endear me to the good folk of Tri-Cities, because the Tri-Cities Bugle had me in the headlines saying, ‘Cousy says, ‘What the hell is the Tri-Cities?'”

Improving his diet and flexibility through eating well and doing yoga — now a staple of athletes in the Association — the Centenary College alum added years to his time in the league. https://t.co/epV8aPbUYc

— The Celtics Wire (@TheCelticsWire) August 16, 2023

“The other two — there were three of us in the hat (for a very low-tech dispersal draft) when they dispersed Chicago when they went bankrupt — Max Zaslofsky, won the scoring championship, and New York wanted a good Jewish player,” recalled Cousy. “Wow, they went and had a party when they got him.”

“And then Andy Phillip, he became a Hall of Famer, point guard, a good one, went second to Philly. And the only thing left in the hat, other than the band, was moi.”

And the rest, as they say, was history.