The basketball world lost a legend on Monday, following news of the passing of Boston Celtics legend Tommy Heinsohn at the age of 86. Doc Rivers, who himself served as Boston's head coach for nine seasons, recently paid tribute to Heinsohn by sharing his favorite story about the Hall of Famer.
Heinsohn has been long known for his rather harsh criticism of game officials. In this respect, Rivers detailed the one request he'd always get from referees involving Heinsohn:
“Once I took the Celtics job and we would do that preseason where you met all the coaches and the referees came together,” Rivers said, via Celtics on NBC Sports Boston (h/t Lauren Campbell of NESN). “Every single time I would have at least one official come up to me and say, ‘Doc, can you just talk to Tommy and tell him to please just lighten up a little bit?'”
Despite the multiple requests year in and year out, Rivers has the same response every single time:
“I would always look the ref in the eye and say, ‘absolutely not!'” exclaimed the former Celtics coach.
Heinsohn was quite a personality, and Rivers had no intention of getting in his way in terms of his rather cynical relationship with game officials. After all, Doc probably has a few qualms himself.
Heinsohn passed away on Monday in his home in Newton, Mass. Reports confirmed that the six-time All-Star suffered from multiple illnesses, which included diabetes and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). He won eight titles with the Celtics as a player, and bagged another two as the team's head coach.
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