How to watch John Havlicek’s final interview
Bob Cousy said the interview, conducted by Fox News' Ed Henry, was the last time the Celtics legend spoke to the press.
What is believed to be John Havlicek’s final interview is available on Fox’s “Fox Nation” on-demand streaming service, but there are no plans to air it on the television network in full.
Havlicek, the classy Celtics legend who died April 25 at age 79, was part of an interview Fox host Ed Henry conducted in Florida in February.
In his later years, Havlicek would meet regularly on Thursdays at an Italian restaurant in West Palm Beach with former teammate Bob Cousy and fellow basketball great Richie Guerin to, as Cousy told Globe columnist Dan Shaughnessy, “solve the problems of the world.”
Henry, who hosts the show “Front Row Seat” on the Fox Nation streaming service, joined them for an interview. Cousy told the Globe he believed it was the last time Havlicek was interviewed.
Havlicek, who was suffering from Parkinson’s disease, spoke softly during the interview, but his recollections, particularly of his famous steal in Game 7 of the 1965 Eastern Conference finals, were sharp.
“Red [Auerbach] always said, ‘Try to find an edge, whatever you’re doing,’’ said Havlicek, recalling the steal. “And I’m thinking, ‘What can I do to get an edge in this situation?’ So I said the only thing I can do is, when they give Hal Greer the ball to inbound it, I’m going to count to five: ‘One-thousand one, one-thousand two, one-thousand three …
“The ball had still not broken the plane to play,” said Havlicek. “So on one-thousand four I had my eye on the ball and on Hal Greer. But at one-thousand four I took a bigger peek and it was coming through the air, and I knew I could get a hand on it.”
Havlicek of course got a hand on it, sparking Celtics broadcaster Johnny Most’s unforgettable call: “Havlicek stole the ball! It’s all over! It’s all over!”
“It’s one of the ones that sort of still lives on,” Havlickek told Henry, “even 52 years later.”
The episode of the show is available to members of Fox Nation (subscribers to the streaming programming on the website). A free trial is available at nation.foxnews.com, and clips can be found here.
