WINTERSVILLE – The Boston Celtics have been playing professional basketball since 1946.

The organization owns 17 NBA Championships.

Guys like Bill Russell, Bob Cousy, Larry Bird and Paul Pierce have all proudly worn the Green and White and all own at least one championship ring.

None of those guys, however, are the organization’s leading scorer.

With 26,395 points to his credit, that title goes to the one and only John “Hondo” Havlicek. You know, the guy who graduated from Bridgeport High School in 1958.

Think about that for a minute. The all-time leading scorer for the Boston Celtics is a man who grew up in Lansing.

Take it a step farther. When the Celtics were winning title after title with Russell, Havlicek and company leading the way, those squads had upwards of 12 future hall of famers involved, so there were plenty of people to get involved in the offense.

“I played with a lot of great players,” Havlicek said during a brief interview prior to Monday night’s Lou Holtz Upper Ohio Valley Hall of Fame induction at St. Florian Hall.

Havlicek spent all 16 of his professional seasons with the Celtics, which is basically unheard of in today’s professional sports world.

The changes in money, free agency, salary caps and beyond are probably three of the key reasons why Havlicek still has the record. Pierce was seemingly on his way to breaking the mark, but he was traded.

“Pierce may have had a shot at my record, but he went to Brooklyn and then to Washington,” Havlicek said. “He’s probably the best 1-on-1 player you could get.”

One-on-1 was never part of Havlicek’s game, which is almost a necessity in today’s game. Havlicek used an uncanny ability to move without the ball to create offensive chances.

“I was always trying to elude someone,” Havlicek said. “I didn’t like playing 1-on-1 too much.”

The owner of eight NBA championship rings and a spot in Springfield, Mass., that style of play certainly worked out and paid dividends for Havlicek.

With his induction to the Lou Holtz Upper Ohio Valley Hall of Fame on Monday night, Havlicek has basically reached the point in his life where there’s just one more hall of fame – the College Basketball HOF in Kansas City – to go before he’s successfuly been inducted to every one that he’d possibly be eligible.

“In November, I’ll be going out to Kansas for the college basketball one, but I guess I’m running out of them now,” Havlicek said.

Though he’s a member of the Pro Basketball Hall of Fame and was named as one of the NBA’s Top 50 Greatest Players, getting honored in the Ohio Valley is something that Havlicek has always cherished. He was inducted to the OVAC’s Hall of Fame in its inaugural class in 2004.

“It’s always good to come back to your roots,” Havlicek said. “You remember the hard lessons and the people you admired growing up.”

There were many that Havlicek emulated during his adolescent years before he went on to become a star at Bridgeport and then at Ohio State and into the NBA.

“I had some pretty good guys to look at as role models when I was growing up,” Havlicek said. “My brother, Joe Blaha and Tom McConville are some of them. They were ahead of me in school and there were times when I thought about how I’d one day be in their shoes and that would be great.”

Though he currently lives in Cape Cod, Havlicek is still a loyal Ohioan. He was pulling for the Cavaliers during the recent NBA Finals, but called Golden State, “the better team.”

“Being from Ohio, you wanted to see Cleveland get a championship, but Golden State moved the ball so well,” Havlicek said. “That’s what I really liked about them.”

As Havlicek watches basketball – regardless of the level – it doesn’t take him long to recognize the ways the game’s changed over the years.

“There’s no intermediate game because it’s either in close or a 3-point shot,” Havlicek said. “They travel with the ball a lot more than we were allowed; they carry the ball more than we were ever able to do; their travel and hotel accomodations are first-class; their per diem is first class. You name it and it’s first class.”

Based on inflation and the way professional contracts have grown, Havlicek isn’t probably far off when he said tongue in cheek, that he’d probably command $200M today.

And with the way he played on both ends of the floor, that’s certainly not a number that’s too far fetched.

SETH’S SCOOPS

Havlicek doesn’t think much of the change from a 35- to 30-second shot clock at the collegiate level.

“I think they should go to 24,” Havlicek said. “Why not? They’re speeding it up by five seconds. That’s nothing. I think they should get it down to 24 because that’s what they’re going to be playing at the next (level).”

Much of his success and fame was gained in Boston, but it was at Ohio State where Havlicek really learned what it would take to be a successful pro thanks to the coaching of Fred Taylor.

“Fred Taylor allowed me to become a pro because he was very good at teaching and I was all ears when he spoke,” Havlicek said. “He was preaching defense when I got there, so I figured (defense) would be the quickest way for me to make the team. I bought it in and got myself into the lineup.”

Havlicek started every game except the first one of his career as a Buckeye.

ONE OF the most interesting stories that Havlicek shared with the media was about the common bond that he and Bobby Knight shared. Obviously, the two were teammates at Ohio State, but there was more than that.

“We both grew up in similar situations, in small towns and he liked to hunt, fish and that type of thing,” Havlicek said. “I liked the same things. We’d have guns and go rabbit hunting, squirel hunting. There wasn’t any TV back then, so those things were part of our pass time.

A PERFECT example of how different the eras of college sports are from when Havlicek played until now is the 1960 national championship OSU squad. Fourteen of the 15 players were Ohioans. All 15 players earned their degree, seven finished their Masters, two earned doctorates and one became a medical doctor.

Staskey can be reached via email at sstaskey@timesleaderonline.com