RIP Dennis Johnson: The Best Player Larry Bird Ever Played With

Celtics 1985-86 championship starters (from left) Larry Bird, Johnson, and Kevin McHale at the Boston Garden.
(Globe File Photo)

Like all basketball fans, I was shocked to hear of Dennis Johnson's untimely death today. I was peripherally aware of Dennis Johnson when the Celtics acquired him in 1983. He had been the NBA Finals MVP in 1979, but I was a new college graduate that year and I don't even think I owned a TV that June. Plus he played in the west, so he only played the east coast teams twice a year. I knew DJ as a tenacious defender, a player who was always on the NBA all-defensive team. He was recognizable with all those freckles.

The Celtics had won the NBA championship in 1981, but Tiny Archibald retired at the end of 1983 season. Danny Ainge and Gerald Henderson were no Tiny Archibald, so Red (Auerbach, also recently RIP) went out and pulled another rabbit out of the hat. DJ arrived in Boston with a mixed reputation. He had been traded twice in three years, and Seattle had traded him the year after he was MVP of the NBA Finals, which was weird in itself, and it was rumored he was a problem in the lockerroom. (David Halberstam painted an unflattering portrait of DJ in Breaks of The Game, the best book ever on basketball, as well.) That's the context in which Larry Bird started talking about DJ as the best teammate he'd ever had. He was telling Celtics fans, this guy is your guy.

And if DJ was Larry's guy, he was our guy. And he played like Bird. They shared that hypercompetitiveness and confidence. If Larry wasn't taking the final shot in a game, you wanted it to be DJ. He could have shot 1 for 12 in the game, but if he took a shot with the game on the line he made it. He wanted to take that final shot. He loved to win, and he hated to lose, and he took the game into his hands in those situations. You had to love a player like that.

DJ had a very distinctive style. He always played low to the ground, and when he went for the ball he went in underhanded. He would put a body on a guy when he did it, but unlike everyone else going in and slapping at the ball overhand, DJ hardly ever got called for fouls no matter how much contact there was.

It's a sad day for Celtics fans, and for basketball fans everywhere. Even those who hated DJ respected him. Thanks for the memories, DJ. We'll never forget you.

NBA.com: Dennis Johnson Career Statistics

Randy Hill, FoxSports: DJ overcame obstacles time and time again

WaPo: Former NBA Star Dennis Johnson Dies

Dennis Johnson Through the Years: Boston Globe Photo Gallery

Yahoo Slide Show: Dennis Johnson

YouTube: The Play Johnny Most: "Now there's a steal by Bird. Underneath to DJ, he lays it in. Right at one second left. What a play by Bird! Bird stole the inbounding pass. Laid it off to DJ, DJ, laid it up and in. And Boston has a one point lead with one second left! Oh, my, this place is going crazy!"

ESPN Page 2: Ex-hoopsters who should be in Hall

2. Dennis Johnson (23 letters)
I hate the Celtics. I drove in Boston once and one rotary was enough to make me eternally despise all things New England. All things, that is, except Dennis Johnson. While Kevin McHale mugged people down low, Larry Bird practiced his career-long imitation of Rick Barry, and Danny Ainge played basketball as well as any other Blue Jay, Dennis Johnson played defense.

The Hall's lack of Dennis Johnson ranks as one more example of non-white Boston athletes screwed by their sports. Rather than whining about Phil Jackson, Red Auerbach should join Page 2 and recognize that Dennis Johnson belongs in the Hall.
Greg Allison
Las Cruces, N.M.

If I may quote Basketball Jesus, "The best player I ever played with was Dennis Johnson." -- Larry Bird. 'Nuff said.

Get DJ in the Hall.
Shane Papatolicas
San Francisco