Effortless Age

They were pro basketball's old men, the team the experts wrote off as has-beens after they lost to the Philadelphia 76ers in the National Basketball Association play-offs last year and finished a distant second to the 76ers in the N.B.A.'s Eastern Division this season. Over the long haul, the Boston Celtics might be the most successful team in the history of pro sport, but now they were over the hill. Their coach and center, Bill Russell, was 34. So was Guard Sam Jones. Forward Bailey Howell was 31; Captain John Havlicek was a youngster at 28. It sounded mostly like pride talking when one Boston player said: "What difference does it make if you are 90, as long as you can play basketball?"

None, apparently. Last month the Celtics spotted Wilt ("The Stilt") Chamberlain and his heavily-favored 76ers a 3-1 lead in the best-of-seven Eastern Division playoffs, then ran away with three straight games--two of which were played in unfriendly Philadelphia. Last week they capped that performance by trouncing the Western champion Los Angeles Lakers 124-109 on the Lakers' home court, to capture the final playoffs by four games to two, and win their tenth N.B.A. championship in the past twelve years.

The Celtics' final victory was as complete as it was effortless: the old pros beat the young pretenders at their own game. A fast-breaking team that depends heavily on the accurate shooting of its "hot hands," Elgin Baylor and Jerry West, the Lakers were both outrun and outshot. Baylor scored 28 points and West accounted for 22, but Boston's Havlicek dropped in 40 and Howell hit for 30. The Celtics opened up a 70-50 half-time lead, and after that the Lakers never really came close. One big reason: 6-ft. 10-in. Center Russell

played as if he were 24 instead of 34

grabbing 19 rebounds, scoring 12 points, blocking several shots and intimidating the Lakers with his ferocity under the basket. On one incredible play, as Lakers Guard Archie Clark was driving in all alone for a layup, Russell roared out of nowhere, making up fully five strides in a single bound, leaped high, and clamped a huge hand over the ball before Clark could drop it into the hoop. "Russell," acknowledged Los Angeles' West afterward, "is the best basketball player I've ever seen. They talk about Wilt Chamberlain, but Russell always rises to the occasion. He is really the most valuable player."

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