I had a dream, not unlike MLK, I had a dream that there was no social distancing. Literally, in my dream, we were all free to stand together again. It felt so foreign. I actually said to the participants in my dream, “But wait a minute, you’re not allowed to be here. We’re supposed to be six feet apart.” And then I woke up in this surreal world of ours to realize we are supposed to be together again. The coronavirus is merely teaching us what it feels like to be apart from our fellow brothers and sisters, what MLK was trying to teach us about segregation back in 1968.
So let’s look at MLK, he said it so beautifully.
“I say to you today, my friends, though, even though we face the difficulties of today and tomorrow, I still have a dream. It is a dream deeply rooted in the American dream. I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up, live out the true meaning of its creed: “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal.”
excerpt taken from Martin Luther King “I Have A Dream” Speech
What better way to understand that we are all created equal than to know how horrible it feels to be set apart? Imagine a world where we can be truly united. What will it feel like? If it feels weird to you, let’s live the lessons of the 1968 basketball playoffs for a bit. Maybe we’ll warm up to the idea of it and see things through the eyes of MLK.
Before we can see the world through his lens, to see it without division, we’re led back to explore the opposite: the aggression on and off the court. But this is a bit like the proverbial chicken and the egg question: which came first the basketball rivalry between the 76ers and the Celtics or the egg throwing? And all of this is just in time for Easter Sunday when eggs might be on some of our minds, not to mention the audacity of those fans throwing eggs, do you know how hard they are to come by these days? And don’t get me started on the latest news from the Pennsylvania governor that all school is canceled through the end of the year. We’ve got a lot of emotions to explore this new form of “segregation” we’re all feeling no matter where we are in the world right now, no matter what time period we’re in.
So let’s see how it played out in 1968 with the rivalry between the Philadelphia 76ers and the Boston Celtics, who had won the World Championship eight consecutive years until the 76ers upset them in 1967. Philadelphia was back for a repeat as they geared up for game one of the playoff series, only MLK died the night before, and the 76ers lost their psychological edge. None of those players from either team had it in them to fight, but the 76ers took the toll on their home court.
That one game they did play plagued those teammates their whole lives. See last week’s post if you haven’t read it already. https://stephanieortiz.com/2020/03/27/the-day-of-what-ifs/
The funeral for MLK was held that Tuesday in Atlanta. Player/Coach Bill Russell of the Boston Celtics said to a newspaper reporter that he wanted to go to the funeral, but he wouldn’t have enough time to get there and back for the Wednesday night game in Boston. Coach Hannum did what he could to respect his five African American starters and said that Monday and Tuesday practice was not mandatory.
So game two didn’t happen until Wednesday, April 10, 1968. That was an incredibly long break in an otherwise grueling schedule that flipped back and forth from Philly to Boston to Philly like a game of ping pong. Philadelphia 76ers teammate Wali “Wonder” Jones explained that this was commonplace–they could play three games in three nights.
The 76ers won games two and three, which was played Wednesday and Thursday instead of Good Friday, as it was originally planned because the fans didn’t want to play on a holy day, according to one paper (of course, now I can’t find the source). But the point is, these were the very fans who were throwing eggs.
Regardless of religion, the fans didn’t seem to lose their competitive edge. Boston fans were getting egg-splosive at game three at the Spectrum. The Friday after, in the NBA Notebook reported in the Philadelphia Inquirer, there it was, “The game was stopped four times to clean up eggs thrown on the floor.”
Dad remembers Boston fans throwing raw eggs (would it have been better had they been cooked?) from the top of the stadium and hit one of their own players. And in the second level of Convention Hall in Philadelphia, a fan threw a beer bottle or can, he can’t remember which, and cracked somebody’s skull sitting at the scorer’s table. As Mom pointed out, no matter the sport, those fans were crazy.
Just as aggression was getting played out in the stands so it was playing out on the court. Mom recalls the times when Dad wasn’t sitting out due to his wrist injury coming home with bruises all over his body. He didn’t talk about that.
When I spoke to Mr. Jones about the aggression that I was reading about on the court and how I noticed he was playing those games with an injury of his own, I was surprised that he agreed with me. He said, “We were allowed to put our hands on another player…on the hip. When we were playing we were worse than that. There was no three-point shot. When you have these 6’8″ guys at 240, 250 pounds all boxed in like that, you’re getting hit and bumped…kneed and knocked down. Aggression was the game.” There were torn muscles in the back, stitches in the head, broken clavicle bones in the shoulder, two operations on the knee, once he got hit so hard in his groin he had to go to the hospital.
He said that he’d get shot in his back and in his knees because “they wanted you to play”; a lot of guys are crippled now because of those days. He still ices his knees because they swell up.
And there in the papers, alongside reports of injuries were reports of good health in the papers. Here’s an article after the 76ers finished New York’s chances of going to the playoffs and secured their own destiny to play Boston.
With the exception of forward Billy Cunningham (broken arm),” all of the injured should be healed by Sunday,” said trainer Al Domenico in the jubilant 76ers locker room.
“It’s a good thing too,” said Luke Jackson. “My torn hamstring hurts like hell. It was really cold out there tonight.”
The Philadelphia Inquirer, April 2, 1968 (For the record, my Dad didn’t break his arm, it was his wrist, so you can’t believe everything you read in the papers, lol.
And then after game one, Luke Jackson, “Chamberlain’s chief rebound help,” was still bothered by a bad leg. “Jackson has a lotta guts to play on that leg, ” said Bailey Howell of the Boston Celtics said in the Boston Globe, April 6, 1968 paper. “It obviously hurt him. It’s hard enough to play the game when you’re feeling great. Being hurt makes it a real chore.”
The 76ers entered game four incredibly confident as they were up by two games, even though it seemed to be a side note, even for Wilt Chamberlain, that he sustained an injury in game three that Thursday night.
76ers guard Hal Greer was quoted in The Philadelphia Inquirer article of April 12, 1968, saying game three was one of the most physical games of all the playoffs he’d ever played and it was even rougher than the New York series. And the sportswriter, Roger Keim, explained further: “Wilt Chamberlain couldn’t jump…Chamberlain stretched the hamstring tendon of his right leg where it inserts into the knee. He went out…in the first period and the 76ers trailing… then returned 1:06 later with the leg bandaged above and below the kneecap.”
Since Wilt wasn’t talking, the reporters were having more fun concocting their egg story anyway. That’s the good thing about eggs there are at least a dozen ways to cook them. Plus, the 76ers were headed into game four on Easter Sunday, so Roger Keim made an eggs-pose out of the game in the April 14, 1968 edition of The Philadelphia Inquirer.
Boston, April 13 – The spectacle of a 76ers-Celtics game wouldn’t be the same if chickens went on strike. When Philadelphia and Boston meet in the playoffs, they do more to promote eggs that the National Poultry Foundation
April 14, 1968, Philadelphia Inquirer
Coach Alex Hannum, who Mr. Jones lovingly still refers to as The Sarge, resented the egg-throwing, which escalated after game three.
“This year’s shell war started Wednesday night…in Boston. Hannum was hit on the back as the game ended.
Philadelphia fans escalated the action Thursday night…At one interval, yolk dripped off the lower (“messageboard”) of the Spectrum’s overhanging scoreboard…
Maybe it’s because the Spectrum’s balcony is so far from the court but 76ers’ fans have terrible aim: they hit two Philadelphia sports writers.”
April 14, 1968, Philadelphia Inquirer
By game four, which was played on Easter Sunday, the 76ers had their big two-game lead. Nothing was stopping them. One of the players ate eggs and bacon that morning. And as we learned in the April 15, 1968, Philadelphia Inquirer, Wilt Chamberlain did not receive a shot of pain killer for his injured (torn calf muscle, pulled hamstring tendon) right leg.
“I knew I had to run on it. it wasn’t that hampering, just some pain that’s all,” Chamberlain said. But from the NBA Notebook…”He went the full 48 minutes, which could reduce his efficiency Monday night.”
Philadelphia overlooked Wilt’s injury, too, and confidently reported, “No team in playoff history has ever come back from a 3-1 deficit to win a series.”
It appears everybody was egging everybody on, even the referees got in on the action (but that’s a whole other story). Here’s a picture of the referees, Earl Strom and Norm Drucker, two life-long referees who both have since died. Everyone seemed to be playing the game.
But the 76ers spoke too soon. By game six, the Celtics had evened up the playing field, 3-3, Bill Russell marveled at how they did it in the April 18, 1968, Philadelphia Daily News said, “Psychology? Hell, no, I didn’t try any psychology. You can have your psychology. Give me the horses.” The Philadelphia Daily News went on to say, “Last night Russell had a team of horses, headed by a leaping center named Bill Russell…Then there was John Havlicek…and Sam Jones…and aging Bailey Howell.”
Mr. Jones had mentioned horses, too. “There’s a movie. It’s called “They Shoot Horses, Don’t They?” How weird that Bill Russell had talked about horses way back then, too. “Look at Earl Monroe and how many operations he’s had. https://nypost.com/2016/12/03/47-surgeries-later-earl-monroe-among-nba-legends-receiving-medical-help-from-union/
So we get to Mr. Jones and his injury, which intensified after game six, though he had to press through it. That’s what everybody seemed to be doing.
As we know, Wilt had been playing with an injury of his own, though he admitted after game six to having some sharp pains, he said he didn’t need to talk about it. So Bill Russell of the Celtics explained it for Wilt. “It’s obvious that his leg is hurting him tremendously…A lesser man wouldn’t even be out there.”
Things finally came to a head for the 76ers with so many injuries. They couldn’t push themselves through the pain anymore. The fact that they were not superhuman was revealing itself, yet they pressed on to the final game as if they could.
And that’s how we’ve come to understand the rivalry between the Philadelphia 76ers and the Boston Celtics in a new light. Both teams really respected and loved one another, as Mr. Jones explained last week, while the fans and refs egged everybody on. But even with the brotherhood that the two rival teams felt they had, there was an aggression they had to take to the court…a lot of anxiety, depression, drinking, Mr. Jones said.
With the end of the 1968 NBA season in sight, it’s always a bittersweet ending no matter your team, but maybe now it’s not so hard to imagine what they were going through and the freedom that they tried to seek on and off that court. We come back to the words of MLK.
“When we allow freedom to ring-when we let it ring from every city and every hamlet, from every state and every city, we will be able to speed up that day when all of God’s children, black men and white men, Jews and Gentiles, Protestants and Catholics, will be able to join hands and sing in the words of the old Negro spiritual, ‘Free at last, Free at last, Great God a-mighty, We are free at last.'”
excerpt taken from Martin Luther King “I Have A Dream” Speech
And that brings us back to today. Let’s take this lesson (ironically we still need freedom, even if it’s just from the coronavirus and these restrictions we have on us) and learn what to do when we come together again. Let’s remember the estrangement that we’ve gone through, how horrible it feels, and rejoice when my dream comes true and we can be together again. We were never supposed to be apart.
When we get our lives back, let’s promise not to throw eggs at one another. When we get the chance, when we can join hands with our friends, family, our communities and the world again, may the hardships of today teach us to be “free at last.”
And if we can learn from this, it will be a lesson worth all the suffering that it has entailed.
