Cousy on the Celtic Mystique [Hardcover]

Bob Cousy (Author), Bob Ryan (Author)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Publishers' searchand readers' demandfor sports books result here in the autobiography of the Boston Celtics' star of the 1950s and '60s, now a TV commentator. Writing with the Boston Globe 's Ryan ( 48 Minutes ), Cousy does not stay mired in the past, although there are thorough analyses of Red Auerbach and Bill Russell. The authors cover the entire range of the game, often with winning candorthey call college basketball a cesspool, and Bobby Knight an immature bully. There are encomia, too, to Magic Johnson, Mo Cheekswho "has no visible weaknesses" and Larry Bird, "the best player who's played the game up to now." Photos not seen by PW.
Copyright 1988 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal

Two retired NBA stars reminisce about their respective teams. Frazier was last heard from in Rockin' Steady ( LJ 5/15/74), a look at the life and playing style of the New York Knick guard. This time Frazier recalls the 1969-70 championship season when Dave DeBusschere, Bill Bradley, and Willis Reed electrified the game of pro basketball for New York fans. This detailed account will be of interest primarily to those Knick fans who remember that "magic season." Cousy takes a broader view of the Boston Celtics as he attempts to explain the team's phenomenal popularity and success. Rather than focusing on a particular season, he concentrates on key individuals, like coach Red Auerbach, Bill Russell, and Larry Bird, as well as the style of play that brought the Celtics 16 championships. The trends and problems of the "modern" game are also addressed, adding a dimension missing in Frazier's book. For regional collections. Jo DeLapo, Queens Lib., New York
Copyright 1989 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 202 pages
• Publisher: Mcgraw-Hill; 1ST edition (December 1988)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0070133328
• ISBN-13: 978-0070133327
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6.2 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,864,120 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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5.0 out of 5 stars C. Duncan on the Cousy Mystique, January 23, 2006

A Kid's Review

This review is from: Cousy on the Celtic Mystique (Hardcover)

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