Tag: M.L. Carr

On this day: former Boston player, coach, GM Carr waived; Heinsohn, Sharman jerseys retired

On this day in Celtics history, ML Carr was waived, and Tommy Heinsohn and Bill Sharman had their jerseys retired.

On this day in Boston Celtics history, Celtics small forward and later head coach and general manager Michael Leon Carr (more often known as “M.L.”) was waived by the team he would one day head — but not on that day in 1974.

Carr, a native of Wallace, North Carolina, would play his college ball with the Guilford College Quakers, a Division III program in Greensboro, North Carolina. Despite the Division III status of his school, Carr managed to get selected 76th overall (there were several more rounds to the NBA draft in that era) by the then-Kansas City/Omaha Kings (now, Sacramento) in the 1973 NBA draft.

But, Carr fared better in the rival American Basketball Association (ABA) draft of that same year.

On this day: M.L. Carr signs; Rick Fox, Harry Boykoff, Don Eliason born

On this day, M.L. Carr signed with the Celtics, and former Boston players Rick Fox, Harry Boykoff and Don Eliason were born.

On this day in 1979, former Boston Celtics small forward M.L. Carr joined the Celtics for the second time as a free agent.

The first time Carr signed with Boston was in 1974, and he did not make the team, instead going overseas to play in Israel, and then the American Basketball Association’s (ABA) Spirit of St. Louis.

After the ABA merged with the NBA and the Spirit of St. Louis did not, Carr joined the Detroit Pistons under Dick Vitale, and then the Celtics afterwards.

“The whole country is looking for answers to the energy crisis; we found ours,” said Boston head coach Bill Fitch at the time (via the Washington Post’s Ron Rosen).

“This is a Carr that is energy efficient and gets plenty of miles to the gallon.”

Carr would play six seasons with the Celtics, averaging 6.3 points, 2.3 rebounds and 1.3 assists per game with the Celtics, and would later coach and be the general manager of the team as well.

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On this day: Bias dies; Carlisle drafted; Carr hired as coach

On this day, vaunted Boston Celtics draftee Len Bias passed away, Rick Carlisle was drafted, and M.L. Carr was hired as head coach.

On this day in 1986, Len Bias, the Boston Celtics selection for the No. 2 pick of the 1986 NBA Draft, died unexpectedly just two days after his selection by the franchise.

Bias, a highly-rated 6-foot-8 small forward out of the University of Maryland, returned home from the June 17th draft in New York City, and went to a party at his alma mater, after which he and several friends used cocaine for several hours, which triggered a fatal arrhythmia in Bias.

The loss devastated the family, friends, Celtics and wider basketball world, and was a major cause of a near three-decades long decline for the Celtics, who did not win another championship after Bias’ death until 2008.

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Before ‘The Last Dance,’ Michael Jordan could have joined the Celtics

While few today likely recall a moment in time where the Boston Celtics hoped to sign Michael Jordan, it really did occur.

It would have been the kind of move legendary Boston Celtics team president Red Auerbach was known for — and the opposite of what the man who tried to pull it off is remembered as.

In 1995, while Michael Jordan was out of the NBA playing minor-league baseball, newly-hired Celtics head honcho M.L. Carr attempted a power play that would have transformed the fortunes of the Massachusetts franchise that instead famously fell into a tailspin under his tenure.

To be fair, what Carr did was intentional — that the losses continued many season beyond when they should have ceased, less so.

But that version of Celtics history very possibly could have gone quite different, though the moves which preceded it did bring one Boston veteran another ring as a result, ironically.

Signing Wilkins made a return for team stalwart Robert Parish impossible, and after a stint with the Charlotte Hornets, he would win one more ring with Jordan in Chicago in 1997.

Carr, shortly after securing the services of an aging Dominique Wilkins as one of his first acts as team president, made a call to Chicago Bulls vice president Jerry Krause, and asked permission to speak to Jordan about signing with the Celtics.

“I was dead serious,” said Carr via the New York Times. “I don’t know how serious Krause was. But if I had a chance to talk with Michael Jordan, I’d give up a first-round draft choice … I just threw the idea up one time on the phone. He probably thought I was crazy. The offer is out there. I’d like him to call and tell me I could talk to Jordan.”

Alas, history has since demonstrated conclusively that whatever happened behind the scenes, it did not turn out in Boston’s favor.

“You may think it’s far-fetched but you don’t know what he’s thinking,” said the then-Celtics GM. “I’ll shag balls for him. I’ll do anything. Please, Michael, come to Boston.”

We still don’t know what he thought of the proposal. We may never.

But oh, how the 1990s (and most of the 2000s) might have been.

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