Satch

Bob Ryan of the Boston Globe says it better than anyone.  It is my pleasure to congratulate my friend and former co-worker at the NBA, Tom "Satch" Sanders on his induction to the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame.

Here is Ryan's tribute to Satch via a Boston Globe column today:

Satch Sanders Induction, A Nod to the Working Man:

HOUSTON — You had to feel sorry for Dennis Rodman, still desperate for attention five weeks shy of his 50th birthday.

There he stood yesterday, a newly elected member of the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame. He had the baseball cap on tilt, the shades, the earrings, the lip piercings, the garish shirt, and an indescribable vest with some scarf-like thing draped around his neck.

And directly next to him stood Thomas “Satch’’ Sanders, The Coolest Man In the World. Talk about a mismatch.

Satch, as always, exuded class. He had on a dark suit, and he was wearing his trademark bow tie. It goes without saying that, at 72, he looks as if he could step on the court tonight and hold Kevin Durant to 10.

But Satch, ever gracious, paid tribute to Rodman as someone he could relate to — on the court. Were they not both members of the same hoop fraternity?

“Dennis Rodman is a man who did all the quote-unquote dirty work, did he not?’’ Satch pointed out. “And all he did was win.’’

Satch Sanders likewise did the dirty work for the Celtics. What Red Auerbach, Bill Russell, and Tom Heinsohn wanted out of him was to guard the other team’s high-scoring forward, hit the boards, set picks, and snack on a few offensive crumbs here and there. Somebody had to do it, and Sanders did it well enough to help those ’60s Celtics teams win eight championships.

No man could be more comfortable in his own skin or be more realistic about just where he fits into the Big Scheme Of Things in both Celtics and NBA history. He was not a star. He never even had a faint sniff of an All-Star appearance. He was a worker bee, and he was, well, cool with that.

That’s why this Hall of Fame thing will take a while to settle in.

“I never expected this,’’ he said. “Not after all those years went by and all the others went in. I figured the time had certainly passed for me. The reality is that I’m catching up to the other guys again. That’s the truth of it.’’

By “the others’’ he means the 11 teammates of the ’60s and ’70s (he played from 1960-73) who have preceded him in Springfield. The only prominent members of the bunch that won every available title in the ’60s, except for 1967, who do not reside in the Hall of Fame are Jim Loscutoff and Don Nelson (who may yet be enshrined as a coach).

The only catch is that Satch officially will be enshrined as a “contributor’’ in recognition of his postcareer accomplishments, which include his service to the NBA (where he ran the rookie transition program for many years) and his work with such entities as the Center for the Study of Sport in Society at Northeastern. He already has been given the Hall’s John Bunn Lifetime Achievement Award. Now he gets the full treatment.

Satch and quasi-soulmate Rodman are two of a 10-member class that will be inducted Aug. 12. The others: University of Georgia, WNBA, and Olympic great Teresa Edwards; Stanford and Olympic coach Tara VanDerveer; Lithuanian stalwart Arvydas Sabonis; renowned coach and innovator Tex Winter; Harlem Globetrotter clown prince Reece “Goose’’ Tatum; ABA and NBA great Artis Gilmore (who had a brief stint with the Celtics); Philadelphia University coaching legend (winner of more than 900 games) and famed shooting instructor Herb Magee; and St. John’s star, NBA great, and Dream Teamer Chris Mullin.Now they can call Sanders a “contributor,’’ but once you’re in, you’re in, and Satch is going to be in there as an inspiration to all those dirty-work guys at every level. Let the world know that Sanders was a player of true distinction.

When he came to the Celtics as their first-round pick in 1960, he was jumping onto a very fast-moving train. The Celtics had just won their third title in four years. No rookie had made an impact the year before. It was not like he was made to feel, you know, needed.

He had been an offensive star as a 6-foot-6-inch center at New York University, but he quickly surmised that defense would provide the key to Auerbach’s heart. And so he outfitted himself with elbow pads and a pair of foam rubber knee pads he fashioned himself, the better to protect his body once he began the dives on the floor he was sure would win over his new coach.

“Red took one look at my elbow pads and knee pads and screamed, ‘Hey! I don’t want guys like you on the team. You’re soft. A pansy. Get rid of ’em,’ ’’ Satch recalled.

He didn’t have to. “Jungle Jim Loscutoff took them and hid them somewhere at Babson Institute, where we trained,’’ Satch explained.

The story eventually culminated in a you-can’t-make-this-stuff-up development. A number of years ago Satch was back at Babson, and he was overwhelmed with curiosity. He poked around in the ceiling ducts and guess what he found? No, really.

“They hadn’t held up too well over the years,’’ Satch said of the elbow and knee pads that had spent more than three decades hidden at Babson.

The pads might not have held up well, but Satch has. My unsolicited advice to the other inductees concerning the night of Aug. 12: don’t stand too close to Satch Sanders. For you, too, will be involved in a mismatch.

Tribute to Satch ...

This is getting to be a nice tradition. 

Here's another Bob Ryan/Boston.com column that calls attention to a special person in the basketball world as Tom "Satch" Sanders will be honored by a wonderful group of people at Northeastern University's Sport in Society.

Honoring Satch — that’s cool

Sanders credited for lifelong assists

By Bob Ryan, Globe Columnist  |  April 15, 2010

There is cool, there is beyond cool, and then there is Satch Sanders.

Did he really exit a 1963 White House visit with President John F. Kennedy by saying, “Take it easy, baby?’’ Yes, he did. Is he always impeccably dressed, often complete with bow tie? Yes, he is. Does he have a polysyllabic response to any question, delivered in a perfectly modulated late-night DJ voice? Yes, he does.

Some people try so hard to be cool, and are never able to pull it off. Satch accomplishes this simply by getting out of bed. He may have had his share of unpleasant moments, but he’s never had an uncool one.

Or perhaps you want to call it style. Fine. Sammy Cahn wrote the lyrics for Sinatra: “You’ve either got, or you haven’t got, style. If you’ve got it, it stands out a mile.’’ Could be Satch’s theme song.

But don’t confuse having inherent cool and obvious style for being frivolous. When Sport in Society honors someone, it’s not because he or she is merely likeable. It’s because that person has had a positive impact on the lives of his fellow citizens. Dour folk who don’t know how to dress can be exemplary human beings, too.

Tonight is the 25th annual Sport in Society’s True Heroes of Sport Awards. We will gather at Northeastern’s Matthews Arena to honor the late Eunice Shriver, Josh Trautwein, Peter Roby, Bob Ley, and our own Bob Hohler; and we also will pay tribute to Thomas “Satch’’ Sanders, who will be the Lenny Zakim Hall of Fame inductee.

Just as Lenny Zakim dedicated his life to helping others, so, too, did Satch Sanders play 13 years with the Celtics in the shadow of more celebrated players, 11 of whom are enshrined in the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame. If you were to ask every one of the Hall of Famers which teammate regularly, and uncomplainingly, did the most dirty work on the team, the unanimous answer would be “Satch.’’

That’s because his primary job was to play defense against some of the great scoring machines of the day. The most notable, of course, was the incomparable Elgin Baylor, the man who most created modern basketball when he took a game that had been horizontal and only occasionally vertical and made it diagonal with his superb body control, variety of shot-release points, and amazing combination of strength and speed.

Guarding Baylor in his prime was a thankless and, for most people, impossible task. No one made life more difficult for Baylor than the 6-foot-6-inch Sanders. I still can hear Red Auerbach praising Satch to his summer campers because “he never lets Elgin get the second shot.’’ Both Auerbach and Bob Cousy swore that on the night Baylor scored 61 points against the Celtics in a playoff game, the only reason he didn’t get 75 or 80 was Satch, who made him work for every last point.

But Satch, who played on eight championship teams, was more than just a dogged guy who guarded people and grabbed rebounds. He was, in fact, an accomplished offensive player who had a nine-year stretch in which he averaged between 10.2 and 12.6 points a game. Twice he averaged in excess of 13 during the playoffs. He had individual game highs of 30 points and 22 rebounds. He did all this on his own, because there is no doubt that not once during his combined 25,213 regular-season and playoff minutes was there ever a play run for him.

There was only one Satch, whether it was his incessant reading of paperbacks, even while having his ankles taped — he said he had to do all his reading on the road because he was too busy when he got home — or the legendary taping jobs themselves. Satch Sanders may personally have created millionaires out of Johnson & Johnson stockholders because he had trainers Buddy LeRoux, Joe DeLauri, and Frank Challant wrap each ankle in two pounds of tape for every game and every practice. Yes, you read that correctly.

Satch the Player recognized his role on a team and maximized his potential. Satch the Person similarly has recognized his role in society as an educated and compassionate man whose solemn duty is to share his knowledge and expertise with those who need a boost in life.

Satch never has forgotten that without the encouragement and efforts of a pair of neighborhood friends named Cecil and Crawford, he would not have left his home on 116th Street in Harlem to attend a better high school, Seward Park, in Lower Manhattan. He never has just talked about “giving back.’’ He has gone out and done it, as a speaker, clinician, and adviser to youth and as the longtime director of the NBA Rookie Transition Program and the Vice President and Director of Player Programs.

He always has been a man for all the people, black, white, Asian, or anything else. In addition to making a dollar or two, his stated intention when he opened his Stanhope Street restaurant many years ago was to have a place where blacks and whites could meet and mingle.

In 2007, the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame conferred on him its John Bunn Lifetime Achievement Award, and now Sport in Society will place him in its own Hall of Fame, recognizing him “for his lifelong commitment for civil rights, having sacrificed on and off the court for a greater good. His continuing ambassadorship of goodwill epitomizes the intersection of humanity and sport at its best.’’

How’d they leave out the bow ties? Sometimes these academics overlook the obvious.

From St. Bonnie's, Standing 6-11, the one, the only ...

Clarence Cleamons of the E Street Band has the greatest nickname. It is simply, "The Big Man." Well, Clarence, let me introduce you to the first real, "Big Man" in my life. The one, the only.... Big Bob Lanier.....

I remember Bob Lanier and his great St. Bonaventure team marching to the national semifinals of the 1970 NCAA Championship and Lanier being forced to sit while Artis Gilmour lead Jacksonville to the national championship. My heart went out to "Big Bob" that night, and years later, I couldn't believe I was working alongside of him at the NBA office.

Bob Lanier, along with Satch Sanders, Mike Bantom, Rory Sparrow, Randy Smith, Mel Davis and yes, even Rod Thorn, were my "Fave 7" of former players at the NBA. (I reserve the right to change and add to that list at any time iof day or night!)

Here's a story about Lanier:


Lanier now known for his big feats

He is Bob “Less Filling” Lanier and Bob “Size 22 Sneakers” Lanier.

“People still point and say, ‘Those are some big feet,’ ” Lanier said. He’s one of the guys Kareem Abdul-Jabbar had to drag “up and down the court for 48 minutes,” and he is a member of the Basketball Hall of Fame.

Fans remind Lanier of those all the time, those old Miller Lite “Tastes Great, Less Filling” commercials, his ridiculously large feet and Abdul-Jabbar’s famous line from the movie “Airplane,” and Lanier is grateful to be remembered.

But what really knocks the former NBA center for a loop is when he’s asked to autograph one of the four books he wrote for children or when someone tells him that he — Bob Lanier — is the reason they stayed in school.

“That blows my mind,” Lanier said.

Funny how a few words can ring louder than the loudest ovation.

“We all have, because of our celebrity, a platform to influence, to make a difference,” Lanier said.

Lanier used to run basketball camps with Dick Vitale, his old coach with the Detroit Pistons. They remain close. That’s why Lanier will be one of the many basketball legends to descend Friday night on the Ritz-Carlton in Sarasota for the annual Dick Vitale Gala for Cancer Research. Lanier is more than willing to lend his name to a great cause.

“I think it’s pretty phenomenal what he’s doing,” Lanier said.

It was called the Bob Lanier/Dick Vitale Basketball Camp.

The carrot, Lanier said, was basketball. The objective was teaching kids about life.

“Attitide determines altitude in life,” the 6-foot-11 Lanier said.

They taught campers the value in earning and giving respect. They taught campers the importance of making good decisions at critical times. Vitale tells Lanier that if they ran the camp today it would be called the Vitale/Lanier Basketball Camp.

Lanier laughed at the thought: “Dick says some funny things.”

After his playing days ended, Lanier became chairman of the NBA’s “Stay in School Program,” which became the “Read to Achieve” program. He wrote “Hey L’il D,” a four-book series about his childhood. The carrot, as always, is basketball. The goal is get kids ages 6 to 9 hooked on reading and teach a few lessons about life.

When you get older, Lanier said, you become concerned about legacies. He played 14 years in the NBA and made six All-Star teams but never played for a championship. Big deal.

Lanier helped teach kids to read and convinced them to stay in school. Now those are some pretty big feats.

Celtics Blog - Live .... Post (5)

General Notes:

Quiet crowd at the TD Banknorth Garden. Might be time to wander up to the Sam Adams upper deck to get some 'flavour" from this game.

It was great to catch up with Celtics legend Tom "Satch" Sanders, radio commentator Cedric Maxwell, the MVP of the 1981 NBA Finals and one of the all-time great Celtics in TV colour man, Tommy Heinsohn. Tommy was heading out to courtside, but Cedric and Satch had time to chat for a bit.

I look forward to attending a game with Satch some night soon and maybe doing a special column for Basketball 24/7 on the great Satch Sanders. I often thought to myself - "Just how amazing is it to be working a few office doors down from the one and only Satch Sanders whose #16 hangs from the rafters in his honour.

NJ Nets 34, Boston Celtics 30 at the 7:30 mark in the second quarter.

Please post your comments on the LIVE Blog @ terry lyons .com to let me know if you are 'feelin' this concept or not.."