Bob Cousy Books

A fantastic biography of the legendary NBA star. More players today should learn and understand the style and tactics employed by Bob Cousy. This book is now long out of print and has become quite a sought after item among basketball collectible enthusiasts and game historians.

From the first time Bob Cousy picked up a basketball he fell in love with the game. He played all day and night and mastered his craft until he became great. Little did he know that all this practice would eventually lead him to a professional basketball career after college and make him a lot wealthier in the future.
Bob Cousy played college basketball at Holy Cross where he was a star point guard. After spending four years there he went on to be drafted by the Boston Celtics of the NBA. There he, alongside Coach Red Auerbach and all-star Bill Russell, won 8 championship titles in a row during his long career. After retirement he came back briefly as a coach for the Kansas City/Omaha Royals. With all the failure he had there he decided to resign and become a GM. Both jobs gave him a lot of income and he lived happily with his family.
Cousy on the Celtic Mystique was an interesting autobiography on the life and opinions of Bob Cousy. One of the good features was the action depicted through the detailed writing. In addition, the book was very elaborate. A lot of personal memories from Cousy's life were used to let the reader really get to know Cousy. Also various statistics from his basketball career were used to describe the way he played, once again letting the reader know a lot about Cousy, Another good feature was along that with telling the events in his life he also wrote about other players who, at the time of writing, were currently stars of the league. These things together provide for a detailed, action-packed story that no reader will want to miss out on.

The action-packed writing was the main thing that kept me reading the book. There was a few times where Cousy would recall upon game situations and describe them vividly so that I could picture them in my head. For example, in one of them he describes how his defenders were positioned on the court and how he had dribbled through them and around them in almost every aspect you could think of.
This kind of elaboration was another reason I enjoyed the book. Not only were Cousy's memories detailed but also were his stats were which enabled the reader to have a clear impression of who he was and how he lived.
These memories coupled with his personal opinions lets the reader really get to know Bob Cousy. For example, while discussing his time as head coach of the Kings he tells about how miserable he felt through the multiple losing seasons and how he felt his star player, Nate Archibald, needed more support players to help him win games.

As you can tell, all of the strengths of the book either connect or complement each other which makes it a very good book overall that will appeal to a wide fan-base. The basketball fans will enjoy the basketball action and opinions, while the book fans will enjoy the description and vivid writing. Together these components make Cousy on the Celtic Mystique an interesting read for whoever picks it up.

-C. Duncan

After reading 75% of this book (258 of 342 pages), I am putting it down. Why? It's boring and, inasmuch as I'm reading much of the same "information" three or sometimes four times, now a waste of time.
The best point about the book is that it is very breezy: an average reader can probably finish it within four hours of reading time and will not have to worry about being taxed intellectually in any way (except perhaps trying to figure out what word the author was actually searching for upon encountering one of the many usage problems herein). Well, the cover looks nice, too.
You can read about Auerbach's treatment of players at least four times, this being useful, I guess, in case you've forgotten what was written in the previous chapter.
Much of the time, actually, the book does not have much to do with Cousy or with the NBA or "big-time basketball" per se. The author summarizes what (from the list of sources in the aftermatter) seems to be mostly a bunch of other second- or third-hand hackwork (ghostwritten sports accounts, magazine puff pieces, and the like) from roughly the times Cousy was an active player. If you're younger than 40, this stuff will bore you (as there is given no context in which to place the information); if you're older than 40, this stuff will bore you (because you'll know it already, probably better than the author).
I cannot think of any reason to recommend this book.

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

It may be that you've got to be at least 50 years old to appreciate this book fully. Why? Because Cousy reflects on a game that doesn't exist anymore. It was a time when people did not take three steps to the basket, when palming the ball was a turnover, and when good sportsmanship was the standard. It was also a time, and this is what is so hard to believe, when a guy like Cousy, who came along just in time to save the financially failing NBA, worried each and every year about making the team. It was a time when a hard nosed Red Auerbach, who didn't even want Cousy because he thought him a showoff, coupled Cousy's playmaking with Russell's defense to make a team, the only team in fact, that dominated its sport as the Yankees did in baseball. Cousy was Auerbach's first big hitter, and despite his success as a player, coach and university president, Cousy remains humble, reflective, and self effacing. Cousy is a we guy, not an I guy. Refreshing.

Reynolds tells a wonderful story about an interesting person. Initially, the story was supposed to be about the pioneering era of basketball, but he decided since Cousy was such a focal point on this era and professional basketball's climb to greatness, that he would write about Cousy himself. Cousy, a private man, agreed through mutual acquaintances to go along and provided information and interviews.

The story starts with Cousy's young life during the depression in a New York ghetto, and his life in a dysfunctional home. He used basketball as a means of acceptance and eventually as a means to greatness. Ironically, he was cut by his high school team in his freshman and sophomore seasons, which drove him and spurred on his killer instinct. When he made the team, he went on to become the captain of the all-city team.

Then, Reynolds describes how Cousy picked Holy Cross for his college education, and how, contrary to the myth, he did not "lead" Holy Cross to the NCAA Championship his first year. He goes through his spats with his first head coach in college "Doggie Julian", and his great respect for his successor, "Buster" Sheary. He also covers how Cousy wound up on a Boston Celtics team that didn't want him and how legendary Celtics coach Red Auerbach took jabs in the press at Cousy, so that he would know who was in charge, despite the press' love of Cousy.

He goes through the hard years of success without championships and then the great championship run that came after the Celtics drafted Bill Russell. He also covers Cousy's business ventures off of the court and his life after basketball.

What sets this book apart from a simple factoid book of the 1950s was how Reynolds digs past the surface to show how Cousy's upbringing created an irrational fear of failure and an unhealthy competitive streak that Cousy had to learn to deal with throughout his life. Depsite his success, Cousy was in many ways a tortured soul, feeling like he had to do all he could to provide for his family, yet regretting the time he spent away from home and the sleepwalking and nervousness he felt as he went through his career, trying to satisfy his competitive urges.

Why 4 stars? I rate basketball books agaisnt each other. 5 stars is the top 1/5 of books. This is a very good book, and 4 stars is a high compliment.

You can be either a casual or even a non-fan of professional basketball and still enjoy Bill Reynolds's book on Bob Cousy. He will take you back to a time in the late 1940's and early 1950's when professional basketball was merely a filler sport between football and baseball. I feel the book is really two stories told in one book, the life of Bob Cousy and the role he played in professional basketball's beginnings and also the birth of the struggling NBA when they played in minor league cities such as Syracuse, New York, and Fort Wayne, Indiana. It is also the story of early NBA superstars from other teams such as George Mikan of the Minneapolis Lakers, Bob Pettit of the St. Louis Hawks, and Oscar Robertson of the Cincinnati Royals. Cousy also tells of his childhood insecurities while growing up in New York City, his decision to attend Holy Cross College in Worcester, Massachusetts, after playing only one and one half years of high school basketball, and how he became a Boston Celtic when coach Arnold "Red" Auerbach preferred to have two other players which were chosen in a dispersal draft. The Celtics weren't able to become the NBA champs until they added Bill Russell, a big man to play center. How the Celtics managed to draft Russell with the third pick is an interesting story in itself. NBA fan or not! Boston Celtic fan or not! You will enjoy this book.