SPORTS LEGEND: The Celtics swapped the Ice Capades for future Celtic legend, Bill Russell.

The events that conspired to result in the Boston Celtics acquiring the second draft pick in the 1956 NBA Draft are quite complex, and not all of it is agreed upon today, but what we know for sure is quite interesting.

Reader Jesse wrote in to ask about the following legend:

I believe it involved the owner of the New York Knicks and him trading the player for the rights to host the Ice Capades at the NY Stadium that he owned.

I could not find anything on that specific story, but since Jesse himself mentioned that he is unsure of the specifics, I think he is most likely thinking of the 1956 NBA Draft.

First off, the Boston Celtics waived their first round pick by using their territorial pick. Back in the old days of the NBA Draft, the NBA would allow teams to waive their first round pick before the draft and select any one player who played college ball within a 50-mile radius of the NBA team (this practice ended in 1965). As you might imagine, if a great player was within that radius, teams would snatch them up, so a lot of legendary basketball players were taken as territorial picks, including Wilt Chamberlain (who stretched the rule, as he went to Kansas for college ball, but the Philadelphia Warriors successfully argued that Chamberlain should be eligible as he grew up in Philadelphia and played high school ball there), Oscar Robertson, Jerry Lucas (also a slight stretch, as Ohio State was slightly more than 50 miles from Cincinnati, but since Cincinnati was the only NBA team in Ohio, it was considered close enough), Gail Goodrich, Bill Bradley, Dave DeBusschere and, in the 1956 draft, the Celtics chose Holy Cross star Tom Heinsohn.

So the Celtics did not have a first round draft pick in the 1956 NBA draft of college players, but even if they did, they would be towards the back of the pack, as the Celtics had the second-best record in the league in the 1955-56 season. So they would seemingly not have a chance at getting a center from San Francisco named Bill Rusell, who was just coming off of back to back NCAA Tournament championships.

Russell was born in Lousiana and moved to Oakland when he was a boy, so no NBA team could use their territorial picks on him in 1956. But the Celtics wanted him, and they were going to try to do whatever they could to get him!

Although Russell was well-regarded coming out of college, he was not as highly thought of as you would think for such a great player. Still, under normal circumstances, he would have gone #1 in the draft. The circumstances, though, were NOT normal in 1956. As mentioned in today’s other legend, the NBA was going through some tough times in the mid-50s, and although some of the teams were doing all right, the team picking #1, the Rochester Royals, was most certainly not.

Russell was drawing great interest from the Harlem Globetrotters, the exhibition team that, at the time, was a real threat to the NBA in terms of talent-grabbing, as the Globetrotters were making more money and therefore had more money to spend on talent. What no one knew (but the Celtics had some idea of at the time) was that there was no way that Russell was ever going to play for the Globetrotters, as he was greatly offended when he first met the owner of the Globetrotters (apparently, Abe Saperstein, owner of the Globetrotters, came out to visit Russell in San Francisco before Russell’s graduation and told Russell to bring his college coach along with him for the meeting. Saperstein then apparently spent the whole meeting talking to the coach and had one of his aides pal around with Russell. Russell was not happy). So when Russell came out of college, teams were worried about the Globetrotters sneaking in and stealing Russell with an offer of $50,000, which was more than twice what NBA teams would figure on paying a #1 overall draft pick.

Meanwhile, other events also came together to lower Russell’s marketability. Here are a few…

1. At the time, he was known for defense (the same as he was in the NBA), and defense was not as high of a priority from centers back in the 1950s, when centers were mostly seen as offensive players (The Celtics, though, had a very good offense and a poor defense, so they were most certainly looking for defense).

2. There was no television coverage of college basketball back then, so little was known about college players, especially those who played on the West Coast like Russell.

3. What little scouting there WAS usually took place after the college East vs. West Game at Madison Square Garden, which usually served as the main place where college players burst on to the scene. Russell played poorly in that game (later, some would suggest he was intentionally playing poorly because he did not want to be drafted by the Rochester Royals).

4. Adding to the whole “Russell did not want to be drafted by Rochester” theory, Russell actually told the Royals owner, Les Harrison, that he preferred not to play for them, stating that if they did want him, they’d have to pay him $25,000 (a very large sum at the time).

5. Russell made it clear that he would not sign with any team until the beginning of 1957, because he wanted to represent the United States on the 1956 Olympic Basketball team, and you had to stay an amateur to compete, so he would have to wait to sign until after the games in November.

As you can see, there was a whole pile of reasons why a team would want to steer clear of Russell. But even WITH these reasons, Russell was probably regarded highly enough that the Royals likely WOULD have drafted him ANYways, except that they already HAD a good center named Maurice Stokes. They had a greater need at guard than center.

If you asked Les Harrison, he’d tell you that his main factors were:

1. Russell’s cost
2. Russell did not look good when he saw him.
3. They had a good center already.

So the Royals drafted a cheaper player, a well-regarded Eastern guard (so they knew more about him) named Sihugo Green.

Later on, Harrison would posit that he was suckered by Russell and Celtics GM Auerbach, who he felt conspired to make Russell look unappealing so Auerbach would be able to acquire him.

We’ll get back to the Royals later.

Now on to the SECOND pick, which suddenly looked like it could be used to get Russell.

The St. Louis Hawks owned the second pick, and the Celtics offered them a seemingly great deal – the Celtics’ All-Star Center, Ed Macauley, for the #2 pick. Macauley was a very talented scorer and was only 27 years old, but he was a bit small for center, which is why Auerbach wanted to beef up with a better defender at the position. Even better, Macauley LIVED in St. Louis! Other historians have also pointed out that at the time, the NBA only had seven black players, and three of them played in New York. St. Louis, meanwhile, had an all-white team and some historians have suggested that a black star would not have gone over that well in St. Louis in 1956. I can’t speak to that, but for whatever reason, the Hawks were willing to part with the #2 pick.

At the last moment, the Hawks insisted that the Celtics throw in the rights to the very well-regarded rookie, Cliff Hagan, in as well. Do note that both Macauley and Hagan are in the Basketball Hall of Fame today, so they were very good players – this was quite a risk by the Celtics, but they believed in Russell that much, so they agreed to throw in Hagan.

In the years since, the Hawks general manager, Marty Blake, suggested that they felt that they were trading Sihugo Green, the guard who the Royals would ultimately take with the #1 pick. But that seems unlikely, as there’s no way that the Celtics would be offering up Macauley and Hagan, two very good players, for a guard like Green, who while a fine prospect was not in the same league as Russell. In addition, obtaining a guard would not have matched up with a trade for the Celtics’ star center. It is pretty clear that the Celtics were looking to get Russell with #2.

Okay, so how do the Ice Capades factor in?

As the story goes, the Royals (as noted before) were not doing very well. The basketball team was not drawing a lot of fans, and would, in fact, end up moving the team to Cincinnati in a year or so. One thing that WAS doing well was the Ice Capades, who were controlled by Walter Brown, the owner of the Boston Celtics. In 1956, the city of Rochester, who owned the Edgerton Park Sports Arena (where the Royals played) were giving Les Harrison a hard time over hosting the Ice Capades there. Walter Brown stepped in and smoothed things over, allowing Harrison to make some money. Remember, this was a guy who did not feel that he could pay Russell $25,000 – he needed the money badly. Brown then arranged for Harrison to get a two-week run of the Ice Capades.

So the general manager of the Boston Celtics, Red Auerbach has always claimed that Brown did this as a bit of a quid pro quo, a little extra incentive for Harrison to pass on Russell.

Harrison, though, claims that that was not connected to the draft, but rather just a friend doing a favor for another friend (Brown and Harrison WERE friends).

So, who do we believe?

The timing is awfully convenient, isn’t it? But at the same time, as expressed above, Harrison had plenty of “good” reasons not to draft Russell, so…hmmmm…this is a tough one.

I am going to go with…

STATUS: False, as presented, although it likely was a factor in the decision of the Royals not to draft Russell.

Russell, of course, led the Celtics to the NBA championship in his first season over, of all teams, the Hawks, who did not do too shabby with their end of the deal.

The Hawks, in fact, came back to beat the Celtics the very next season. And, as I mentioned before, both Macauley and Hagan are in the Basketball Hall of Fame. Amusingly enough, the Hawks picked up Sihugo Green from the Royals a few years later, and he had a decent career with the Hawks, as well.

Still, though, when the Celtics were in the midst of winning eight championships in a row in the 60s, I think they were pleased with their drafting of Russell, who was every bit the defensive dynamo he was cracked up to be.

(by the way, in the second round of the 56 Draft, the Celtics took Russell’s San Francisco teammate, KC Jones. Jones, Heinsohn and Russell are all Hall of Famers. So the Celtics drafted three Hall of Famers in the same draft!!!).

Feel free (heck, I implore you!) to write in with your suggestions for future installments! My e-mail address is bcronin@legendsrevealed.com