Dave Cowens

• 1. Introduction

  ›

  Dave Cowens stood six feet nine inches tall, which made him one of the shortest centers in the NBA during the 1970s. In an era when rivals like Kareem Abdul-Jabbar towered over almost everyone, that gap in height should have been a problem too large to solve. Instead, Cowens became the 1973 NBA Most Valuable Player, a two-time champion, and a Hall of Famer. How does a man who opponents regard as undersized reach the very top of the sport? The answer, as the people who played alongside and against him would tell you, has almost nothing to do with inches.

• 2. Kentucky Roots

  ›

  David William Cowens was born on the 25th of October, 1948, in Newport, Kentucky, one of six children of Jack and Ruth Cowens. His father was a World War II veteran who later worked as a barber. The family lived in a modest two-story home on Lexington Avenue in East Newport, with extended relatives close by.

  Cowens spent his childhood fishing in the Ohio River and hopping freight trains into Cincinnati, often funding his own adventures through odd jobs. He started playing organized basketball at age eight in the basement gym of St. Anthony's School in Bellevue. He was also a swimmer, a track-and-field athlete, a baseball player, and a football player, which would later help explain his unusual athletic range as a professional.

  At Newport Catholic High School, a conflict with the basketball coach during his freshman year led Cowens to quit the sport entirely and concentrate on swimming and track. He didn't plan to return to basketball at all until a five-inch growth spurt between his sophomore and junior years changed his thinking. He played his junior and senior years and excelled.

• 3. Florida State and the Record Books

  ›

  Florida State head coach Hugh Durham recruited Cowens and personally promised him a starting role by his sophomore year. Cowens honored the commitment and played for Durham from 1967 to 1970.

  He made an immediate impact in his sophomore year, averaging 18.8 points and 16.8 rebounds per game. His best statistical season came as a junior, when he averaged more than 20 points and 17.5 rebounds per game. That 17.5 rebound average for the 1968-1969 season remains a Florida State single-season record. In that same season he grabbed 31 rebounds in a game against LSU, the second-best single-game total in program history.

  Over 78 games at Florida State, Cowens scored 1,479 points at 19.0 points per game and pulled down 1,340 rebounds at 17.2 per game, making him the program's all-time leading rebounder. His number 13 hangs in the rafters of the Donald L. Tucker Center. The Sporting News named him to its All-America second team in 1970, the year he left for the NBA draft.

• 4. Bill Russell's Endorsement

  ›

  The Boston Celtics selected Cowens with the fourth overall pick in the 1970 NBA draft. That choice was shaped in part by former Celtics center Bill Russell, whose recommendation helped push the team toward the young man from Kentucky. When critics argued Cowens was too small to play center, Russell's response was direct: "No one is going to tell that kid he can't play center."

  Cowens wore number 18 in Boston because veteran Jim Loscutoff had declined to have that number retired by the franchise, leaving it available for another player to use.

  In his rookie year Cowens appeared in 81 games, averaged 38 minutes a night, and put up 17.0 points and 15.0 rebounds per game. That rebound average was the highest ever posted by a first-year Celtic not named Bill Russell. He led the entire league in personal fouls that season with 350, and he shared the Rookie of the Year award with Portland's Geoff Petrie. Despite his play, the Celtics missed the postseason for the first time since 1950.

• 5. The MVP Season

  ›

  In the 1972-73 season Cowens played all 82 games, the only time in his career he achieved that mark. He averaged a career-high 20.5 points and 16.2 rebounds per game, the latter figure ranking third in the entire league behind Wilt Chamberlain and Nate Thurmond. The Celtics finished with a league-best 68-14 record.

  One game that season illustrated his all-around ability. Against the Houston Rockets at home, Cowens scored 20 points, grabbed a career-high 32 rebounds, and dished out 9 assists in a single contest. On the 7th of January of that year, he recorded 29 rebounds against the Baltimore Bullets.

  The voters chose Cowens as the 1973 NBA MVP over Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. He was also named MVP of the All-Star Game that season, scoring 15 points and pulling down 13 rebounds. In 1992, he told HOOP magazine: "Being named the MVP by my peers meant a lot to me. I was always out to gain the respect of the players. They are the only ones who understand your work habits."

  He and Bill Russell share an unusual distinction: both were named league MVP without earning a spot on the All-NBA First Team in the same season.

• 6. Two Championships

  ›

  The 1973-74 season brought Cowens to a career-high 41.9 minutes per game and his first NBA championship. He set multiple Celtics single-season records that year, including total defensive rebounds with 993 and a defensive rebound rate of 12.4 per game. He also achieved his first career triple-double on the 25th of November, 1973, against Cleveland, recording 21 points, 18 rebounds, and 11 assists.

  In Game 7 of the 1974 Finals against the Milwaukee Bucks, played in Milwaukee, Cowens posted 28 points and 14 rebounds as Boston claimed its 12th title.

  The 1975-76 season brought a second ring. On the 16th of January, 1976, against the Philadelphia 76ers, Cowens scored a career-high 39 points in a 118-110 Celtics win. When the Finals came down to a pivotal Game 6 against the Phoenix Suns, Cowens picked up the slack for the injured John Havlicek and for Jo Jo White, making multiple defensive plays to close out the series. During that postseason run CBS commentator and still-active player Rick Barry said on air: "There is no player with greater desire than Dave Cowens."

• 7. The Working Class Center

  ›

  Cowens described his own identity in the sport plainly during his Hall of Fame induction speech in 1991: "I never thought of myself as a superstar. I represent the working class of the NBA."

  His former head coach Tom Heinsohn said of him: "If David isn't aggressive almost to the point of being reckless, then he's not Dave Cowens. It's the competitiveness that enables him to play center at 6-foot-9." Knicks Hall of Fame center Willis Reed offered his own reading: "He was quick, fast, strong and skilled, and played hard." Clyde Lee put it more bluntly: "I'd describe Cowens as a guy who, if he had to run through a brick wall to win, he would do it."

  Cowens himself explained his philosophy in his own words: "I never regarded myself as a shooter until the 1972-73 season. I concentrate on defensive play and let the points fall where they may. Rebounding and blocking out are the guts of the game. The fans don't always know what you're doing, but the players on both teams do."

  Over 766 career NBA games he averaged 17.6 points and 13.6 rebounds with 3.8 assists and 1.1 steals per game. In the 1977-78 season he became the first player in NBA history to lead his team in all five major statistical categories: points, rebounds, assists, blocks, and steals. As of the end of the 2018-19 season, only five other players in NBA history had matched that feat: Scottie Pippen, Kevin Garnett, LeBron James, Giannis Antetokounmpo, and Nikola Jokic.

• 8. Life Beyond Playing

  ›

  In 1977, while still an active player, Cowens spent a day driving a taxi for the Independent Taxi Operators Association in Boston. He put on a cap, drove fares around the city, and told ESPN years later: "Nobody even knew who I was. I got decent tips, though."

  After Coach Satch Sanders was fired during the 1978-79 season following a 2-12 start, Cowens became the team's player-coach for the rest of the year. In a 2019 interview he described the split experience: when playing, he handed coaching duties to Bob MacKinnon and K.C. Jones; when he came to the bench, he had to find his way back into the coaching mindset while the game was ongoing. He holds the distinction of being the last player-coach in NBA history.

  His head coaching career spanned the Charlotte Hornets, the Golden State Warriors, and the Chicago Sky of the WNBA, where he served as the franchise's first head coach and general manager. He resigned from Charlotte on the 8th of March, 1999, citing his salary as one of the lowest among head coaches in the league.

  In 1992, Cowens joined Dave DeBusschere, Dave Bing, Oscar Robertson, and Archie Clark in founding the National Basketball Retired Players Association, the official alumni organization for the NBA, ABA, Harlem Globetrotters, and WNBA. John Havlicek, his longtime Celtic teammate, placed Cowens in the highest company: "No one ever did more for the Celtics than Dave did."

  The Dave Cowens Achievement Award is presented each year to the top high school senior basketball players in Southeastern Massachusetts, a concrete reminder that the working-class center from Newport, Kentucky never entirely left the gym.