Kevin McHale (basketball)

Kevin McHale

Personal information
Born	December 19, 1957 Hibbing, Minnesota
Nationality	USA
Listed height	6 ft 10 in (2.08 m)
Listed weight	210 lb (95 kg)
Career information
College	University of Minnesota
NBA draft	1980: 1st Round, 3rd overall
Selected by the Boston Celtics
Playing career	1981–1993
Position	Forward/Center
Career highlights and awards
NBA Sixth Man of the Year Award (1984-85)
Stats  at NBA.com
Stats  at Basketball-Reference.com

Kevin Edward McHale (born December 19, 1957) is an American former professional basketball player who starred for thirteen seasons in the NBA for the Boston Celtics. He is currently an executive with the NBA's Minnesota Timberwolves.

Early life

Kevin McHale was born to an Irish father and a Croatian mother in Hibbing, Minnesota. Hockey, not basketball, was McHale's favorite sport as a youngster. But a growth spurt during high school forced McHale to give up hockey and he turned his full attention to basketball. In his senior season at Hibbing High School McHale was named Minnesota's Mr. Basketball of 1976 and led his squad to a runner-up finish in the AA Minnesota State Championship game.

In 1992, McHale was elected to the Minnesota State High School League Hall of Fame.

College

The 209 cm (6 ft 10 in) McHale played basketball at the power forward position for the University of Minnesota from 1976 to 1980, with career averages of 15.2 points and 8.5 rebounds per game.

He was named All-Big Ten in 1979 and 1980 and still ranks second in school history in career points (1704) and rebounds (950).

In 1995, to coincide with the University of Minnesota's 100th anniversary, he was selected as top player in the history of University of Minnesota men's basketball.

NBA highlights

McHale helped form what is considered one of the league's best-ever frontlines with small forward Larry Bird and center Robert Parish. The trio of Hall of Famers became known as "The Big Three" and would lead the Celtics to five NBA Finals appearances and three NBA Championships, in 1981, 1984 and 1986.

Possessing a wide variety of offensive moves close to the basket, the agile, long-armed McHale played in seven National Basketball Association All-Star Games between 1984 and 1991 and lead the NBA in field goal percentage in 1987 and 1988, shooting 60.4 percent each season. Also a standout defensive player, McHale was selected to the NBA All-Defensive First or Second Team six times and twice blocked nine shots in a game, the most ever by a Boston Celtics' player (blocked shots did not become an official NBA statistic until the 1974 season).

For the first five years of his career McHale primarily came off the bench for the Celtics, winning the NBA Sixth Man of the Year Award in 1984 and 1985.

Early professional playing career

Heading into the 1980 NBA Draft the Celtics held the number one overall pick. But in a shrewd pre-draft trade, considered by some to be among the most lopsided in NBA history, Boston Celtics President Red Auerbach dealt the top pick and an additional first-round pick to the Golden State Warriors for Parish and the Warriors' first-round pick, the third overall. With that pick the Celtics chose McHale.

McHale's stay in Boston got off to a rocky start as he held out for a large contract, even threatening to play in Italy, before signing a three-year deal with the Celtics. Backing up Bird and Cedric "Cornbread" Maxwell at forward McHale made an immediate impact and was named to the All-Rookie First Team as Boston finished with the NBA's best record.

In the playoffs the Celtics swept the Chicago Bulls in the first round, but faced a 3-1 deficit in the Eastern Conference Finals versus the Philadelphia 76ers. Boston stunned the 76ers, winning the last three games of the series, including Game 6 on Philadelphia's home court. McHale helped save the Game 6 win by blocking Andrew Toney's shot and corralling the rebound with 16 seconds left in the game and the Celtics leading by a point. In the NBA Finals Boston defeated the Houston Rockets in six games to capture the club's fourteenth championship.

The Celtics failed to advance to the NBA Finals the next two seasons. Philadelphia exacted a measure of revenge in the 1982 Eastern Conference Final, beating Boston at its home arena, the Boston Garden, in a seventh game. In the 1983 Eastern Conference Semi-Finals, the Celtics were swept by the Milwaukee Bucks, leading to the firing of Boston head coach Bill Fitch.

Following the 1982-83 season McHale's contract with the Celtics expired, and the New York Knicks signed him to a contract offer sheet. Auerbach retaliated by signing three of New York's top free agent players to offer sheets. The Knicks elected to re-sign their players and give up their pursuit of McHale. McHale eventually re-signed with Boston, his $1 million a year contract making him the fourth-highest paid player in the NBA.

McHale won the first of his consecutive NBA Sixth Man Awards as Boston won a league-best 62 games in the 1983-84 season. Led by their new head coach, former Celtics' player K.C. Jones, Boston was bolstered by the acquisition of point guard Dennis Johnson from the Phoenix Suns.

After surviving a tough seven-game semi-final battle with the Knicks, the Celtics avenged the previous season's playoff loss to Milwaukee in the Eastern Conference Finals. Boston would face the Los Angeles Lakers in the NBA Finals in a highly-anticipated matchup.

In Game 4 of the finals, with the Celtics trailing in both the game and the series, McHale delivered a hard foul to Kurt Rambis as the Lakers' forward raced to the basket. The physical play touched off a benches-clearing scuffle. McHale's takedown of Rambis slowed the Lakers' fastbreaking "Showtime" offense and changed the complexion of the series. The Celtics prevailed in seven games to win the team's fifteenth championship.

McHale continued to come off of the bench during first half of the 1984-1985 season, but moved into a starting role in February 1985 after Cedric Maxwell injured a knee. On March 3 versus the Detroit Pistons McHale hit 22 of his 28 shots, setting the Celtics' single-game scoring record with 56 points. [1] Two nights later, McHale scored 42 points against the Knicks, the only other time in his career he topped 40 points in a game. The 98 points in consecutive games is still a Celtics' record. On March 12, just nine days after McHale scored 56, Larry Bird established a new Celtics' single-game scoring mark by pouring in 60 points versus the Atlanta Hawks.

Boston captured its second straight Eastern Conference title, but was upended in the NBA Finals in six games by the rival Lakers. McHale led the Celtics in scoring (26.0) and rebounding (10.7) versus the Lakers, including a 32-point, 16-rebound performance in the decisive sixth game.

Sweet Sixteen

The 1985-1986 edition of the Boston Celtics is considered one of the greatest teams in NBA history [2].

The Celtics acquired former NBA Most Valuable Player Bill Walton in a trade from the Los Angeles Clippers in September 1985, and added the 211 cm (6 ft 11 in) center to its already-formidable frontline. Boston sent Cedric Maxwell to the Clippers to complete the trade, clearing the way for McHale to move into a full time starting role. McHale joined starters Larry Bird, Robert Parish, Dennis Johnson and Danny Ainge as the Celtics steamrolled the NBA with a league-best 67-15 record and captured the franchise's sixteenth NBA title.

The team set an NBA record by finishing with an 82-18 win-loss record (including playoffs), breaking the record of 81 victories by the 1971-72 Lakers. Boston also set the NBA mark for most home victories in one season, finishing 50-1 (including playoffs) in 48 games in the Boston Garden and three games in Hartford, Connecticut.

Boston won 41 of its first 50 games, including two victories over the Lakers. In a rout of the Clippers on December 30, 1985, McHale set his single-game high in rebounds with 18 (a mark he tied versus the Pistons in 1989).

An extremely durable player through the first five seasons of his career, McHale missed 14 games in early 1986 due to an injured Achilles tendon in his left ankle, but he was healthy when the playoffs began. Boston rolled through the Eastern Conference, winning 11 of 12 games versus Chicago, Atlanta and Milwaukee.

For the second time in five years the Celtics faced Houston in the NBA Finals, and the result was the same as in 1981, as Boston won the title in six games. McHale averaged 25.8 points per game in the finals to lead all scorers.

"Torture chamber"

"When I was healthy, I always felt I could score," McHale once told reporters. "When it went into what I called 'The torture chamber,' I knew it was in." [3]

By his seventh pro season, McHale had rehearsed and refined his low-post moves and had become one of the NBA's most dominant offensive forces, out-leaping, out-spinning and out-maneuvering defender after defender in his "torture chamber". McHale was never better than the 1986-1987 season, when he set career highs in scoring (26.1) and rebounding (9.9). He also became the first player in NBA history to shoot sixty percent or better from the field (60.4%) and eighty percent or better from the free throw line (83.6%) in the same season. McHale was named to the All-NBA First Team and was named the NBA's best defensive player by the league's coaches.

Late in the 1987 regular season, McHale broke the navicular bone in his right foot. Ignoring doctors' advice that the injury could be career threatening, McHale continued to play. In the playoffs a hobbled McHale averaged 39 minutes per game and connected on 58 percent of his shots as Boston once again won the Eastern Conference title. Boston swept the Bulls in the first round for the second straight year and survived two seven-game series with the Bucks and Pistons. A tired and hurting Celtics team could not defend their championship, losing to the Lakers in six games in the NBA Finals.

Offseason surgery on his injured foot and ankle forced McHale to sit out the first month of the 1987-1988 season. He scored 22 points in 22 minutes of play in his return to the Celtics on December 1, 1987, versus Atlanta.

Teammate Danny Ainge once called McHale "The Black Hole", joking that when the basketball was passed inside to McHale it disappeared, because he rarely passed it back. In a win over the Dallas Mavericks on April 3, 1988, McHale played the role of passer, distributing 10 assists, the only time in his career he reached double-digits in a game.

The Celtics won 57 games and made their fifth straight appearance in the Eastern Conference Finals. McHale shot 60 percent from the field and averaged a career playoff-high 25.4 points per game as Boston defeated the Knicks in four games and the Hawks in a thrilling seven-game semi-final series. But the Celtics were toppled by the Detroit Pistons in six games in the conference finals. Head coach K. C. Jones retired at the end of the season, and the Celtics of the Bird-McHale-Parish era would never again advance past the conference semi-finals.

Later professional playing career

Injuries limited Bird to just six games in the 1988-89, but new head coach Jimmy Rodgers coaxed the Celtics into the playoffs behind the play of McHale and Parish and second-year guard Reggie Lewis. The Celtics faced the Pistons in the playoffs for the third straight year and were swept by Detroit in the first round.

The 1989-90 season marked the last time McHale was healthy enough to play in all 82 regular season games for the Celtics. Bird's return from his injuries moved McHale back into his role as Boston's "sixth man". McHale provided an offensive spark for the Celtics off of the bench, becoming the first player in twenty years to finish in the NBA's top ten in field goal percentage (fifth) and free throw percentage (seventh) in the same season.

The season was one of discontent for Boston. Second-year point guard Brian Shaw left the team to play in Europe after a salary dispute. And Larry Bird was criticized by teammates, including McHale, for taking too many shots and trying to dominate games on his own. The disfunctional Celtics still had enough talent to win 52 games and finish second to Philadelphia in the Atlantic Conference. Boston took the first two games of its first-round playoff series with the Knicks, including a record-setting 157-128 blowout in Game 2. But the Knicks fought back and won the last three games of the series, bouncing the stunned Celtics from the playoffs. Head coach Jimmy Rodgers was fired following the playoff disappointment.

McHale contemplated retirement in the offseason after having another surgery performed on his balky right ankle, but he came back for the 1990-91 season. Boston paired young backcourt players Lewis, Dee Brown and Brian Shaw--back from his year in Europe--with Bird, McHale and Parish and hired Chris Ford, a longtime assistant coach and member of the Celtics' 1981 championship team, to be its head coach.

The season got off to a promising start as Boston sprinted to a 29-5 record, but the Celtics were soon slowed by injuries to McHale (ankle) and Bird (back). McHale missed 14 regular season games and Bird 22, as the Celtics limped to a 27-21 record over the last three months of the season. In the playoffs, Boston defeated the Indiana Pacers in five games in a hotly-contested first round matchup, but for the third time in four years the Celtics were eliminated by Detroit, this time in a six-game semi-final series.

McHale played in a career-low 56 games and Bird played in just 45, as each suffered through an injury-plagued 1991-92 season. Boston struggled for most of the regular season, but got hot as the playoffs approached, winning 15 of its last 16 games and finishing with 51 wins, the third-most in the Eastern Conference.

The Celtics swept the Pacers in the first round, but were defeated in seven games in the conference semi-finals by the younger, quicker Cleveland Cavaliers. Bird retired from the NBA three months later.

The 1992-1993 season was McHale's last in the NBA. Severely hampered by leg and back injuries, he averaged just 10.7 points per game and shot less than 50 percent from the floor (45.9%) for the only time in his career.

In the first round of the NBA playoffs against the Charlotte Hornets, the Celtics were stunned by the loss of Lewis, their leading scorer, who collapsed during Game 1 due to what eventually proved to be a fatal heart condition. McHale performed brilliantly in the series, averaging 19.6 points per game and shooting 58 percent from the field, including 30 points and 10 rebounds in Game 2, but Boston fell to the Hornets in four games.

McHale announced his retirement, without fanfare, while talking with reporters at the scorer's table after the Game 4 loss in Charlotte.

Legacy

In 971 regular season games, McHale averaged 17.9 points and 7.3 rebounds, and in 169 postseason games averaged 18.8 points and 7.4 rebounds.

As of the end of the 2005-2006 season McHale ranked ninth in NBA history in career field goal percentage (55.4%) and he is among the Celtics' career leaders in several categories, including games played, points scored and rebounding [4].

McHale's number 32 jersey was retired by the Celtics on January 30, 1994, during a halftime ceremony at the Boston Garden [5].

He was chosen one of the NBA's fifty greatest players and was named to the NBA's 50th Anniversary All-Time Team in 1996[6].

McHale was elected to the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame in 1999[7].

Post-playing career

Upon his retirement as an NBA player, McHale joined the Minnesota Timberwolves as a television analyst and special assistant. In the summer of 1994, new Timberwolves owner Glen Taylor promoted him to Assistant General Manager. He continued to broadcast Timberwolves games and work as an executive until 1995, when he succeeded Jack McCloskey as Vice President of Basketball Operations, a position he still holds.

One of McHale's first moves was to hire former University of Minnesota teammate Flip Saunders as head coach of the Timberwolves.

The next season, McHale made the decision to draft high school phenom forward Kevin Garnett with the fifth overall pick of the 1996 NBA Draft. Though Garnett developed into one of the NBA's best players, the Timberwolves have advanced past the first round of the Western Conference playoffs only once in Garnett's ten seasons with the team.

It was also during McHale's reign that the Timberwolves were punished by the NBA for making a secret deal with free agent forward Joe Smith to avoid the league's salary cap rules. Before the 1998-1999 season, Smith agreed to sign three one-year contracts with the Timberwolves for less than his market value. In return, Smith received a promise that the Timberwolves would give him a multi-year, multi-million dollar contract before the 2001-2002 season season.

In 2000, after word of the secret agreement got out, NBA commissioner David Stern voided Smith's final one-year contract with the Timberwolves, making Smith a free agent. Stern also took away the Timberwolves' next three first round draft picks and fined the team $3.5 million. Smith signed with Detroit for one season, but came back to Minnesota before the 2001-2002 season as a free agent.

On February 12, 2005, the Timberwolves fired Saunders. McHale took on head coaching duties for the remainder of the 2004-2005 season. He compiled a 19-12 record but had no interest in continuing as head coach, instead moving back into the front office fulltime and hiring Dwane Casey in the offseason of 2005.

Trivia

• McHale is one of five members of the 1985-1986 Celtics' championship team to serve as an NBA head coach (Larry Bird, Danny Ainge, Dennis Johnson and Rick Carlisle are the others).
• McHale twice made guest appearances on the television sitcom Cheers (1990 and 1991).
• McHale's fans in Boston dubbed themselves "McHale's Army", a takeoff on the title of the 1960's sitcom McHale's Navy.