Like many of us, Boston Celtics point guard luminary Bob Cousy was watching television at home in the midst of the coronavirus pandemic, and noticed something was off.
Watching a show on Fox News, the former Celtic noticed one of the hosts — Dana Perino — made an error, reports the Boston Herald’s Tom Keegan.
Perino suggested a prominent physician who has been working with the Trump administration on the pandemic ought to receive the Presidential Medal of Freedom.
A lightbulb went off in Cousy’s head (a Medal of Freedom recipient himself), and the Hall of Famer rifled through his phone book, contacting another one of the show’s hosts, friend Juan Williams, leaving a message.
William quickly returned the call on commercial break, and Cousy said, “[t]ell Dana off air that I love her dearly, but she has to do better research … Tony Fauci already has won the Medal of Freedom.”
Celtics great Bob Cousy calls Dr. Anthony Fauci ‘my hero’ https://t.co/2OZ81DoRPd
— Boston Herald (@bostonherald) March 22, 2020
That previously-awarded Medal of Freedom put Cousy and Fauci in a very small club — Holy Cross graduates who have been granted the honor of the Medal — so it was immediately evident when he heard the mistake.
Fauci has actually had quite a storied history as an expert on public health, starting with the Tylenol poisoning scare of the early 1980s and soon after, as a senior advisor to the H.I.V. epidemic.
He has been the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases since 1984, and headed the U.S. efforts against the Ebola epidemic in 2014 as well.
“He deserved his medal because he has saved so many lives even before now,” Cousy said. ” … And now of course, he’s Trump’s favorite talking head. He doesn’t leave Trump’s side and he’s playing a gigantic role.”
Cousy has met Dr. Fauci several times due to their Holy Cross connections, and is very happy to have such a person at the helm in such trying times.
The Boston legend related he has been his “hero” since the pair met 30 years ago in Washington D.C.
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