Cover Image: Wish It Lasted Forever

Wish It Lasted Forever

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Subtitled: Life With the Larry Bird Celtics

I received an advance reader copy of this book from the publisher through Net Galley in exchange for an honest review.

I was in my early-to mid 20s when it seemed like every year that the NBA Finals came down to Magic Johnson and the Lakers against Larry Bird and the Celtics. While I was definitely a Lakers fan, when I saw this book available on Net Galley I immediately knew I had to read it. Author Dan Shaughnessy covered the Celtics for three-plus years for the Boston Globe during a time when sports reporters travelled with their teams, sharing flights and hotels with the players and coaches.


To me, the most interesting parts of the book concerned Shaughnessy’s relationships with players and coaches, often made awkward by the writer’s publishing stories that the players would rather have been ignored, such as the time Larry Bird was injured in a bar fight during the NBA playoffs. As a journalism school graduate who never worked in the field afterward, I was fascinated to read about how he managed to walk the very thin line between reporting unpleasant facts and maintaining a working relationship with the Celtic players.

I gave Wish It Lasted Forever five stars on Goodreads despite my lack of appreciate of the Celtics because of the way Shaughnessy brought out the personalities of players such as Larry Bird, Kevin McHale, Danny Ainge, Cedric Maxwell, and Bill Walton. While he definitely couldn’t be considered close friends with any of them, Shaughnessy got to know each of them quite well and was able to convey that knowledge to this reader through his writing.

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It’s easy to forget, in this world of commonplace multimillion-dollar contracts across the professional sports landscape, that it wasn’t always about the money. Well, not entirely about the money anyway.

Take the NBA, for example. Today, the league is a global powerhouse, a corporate machine featuring massive television contracts and marketing deals and individual teams worth literal billions of dollars. But it wasn’t so long ago that pro basketball was a good living, but far from providing the generational wealth it does today.

It was a different time. A time worth remembering.

“Wish It Lasted Forever: Life with the Larry Bird Celtics” takes a look at an iconic team in the days just before everything changed. Written by Dan Shaughnessy about his time covering the Celtics beat for the Boston Globe (1982-86), it’s an up-close-and-personal look at a time that simply doesn’t exist anymore. It’s a book packed with the sorts of stories that could never happen today, tales from the road when everyone – players, coaches and media – traveled together and dined together, staying in the same hotels and generally being a constant presence in one another’s lives.

These stories – stories about what the players were really like in the locker room and at the bar after the game as well as about their performance on the court – are a fascinating snapshot of a bygone era, featuring compelling and thoughtful looks at some of the greatest to ever play the game. Rendered with the standard self-deprecatory wit and good humor by Shaughnessy, it’s a book that any Celtics fan – any NBA fan, really – will find to be fascinating reading.

The Boston Celtics had a long and storied history long before Larry Bird showed up. This is a team that utterly dominated the early days of the NBA – they won two titles in the late ‘50s (1957 and 1959) and two in the ‘70s (1974 and 1976) … and NINE in the ‘60s (every season but 1967). One might think there’d be some sort of downswing, but then, in the 1979-80 season, here comes Larry Bird, the Indiana standout whose game – along with that of cross-continent rival Magic Johnson – would play a major part in catapulting the league into the stratosphere.

Imagine, then, that you are Dan Shaughnessy. You’re a young up-and-comer of a sportswriter. All of a sudden, you’re tasked with covering a team that is starting to look like one of the greatest ever, all while replacing an icon on the beat in Bob Ryan. That is a one-two punch of pressure, to be sure, but one that Shaughessy weathered.

Shaughessy came into the picture on the heels of yet another title in 1981 – the first for Bird. He would be there for everything that would come over the next few years. He would be there to see the team grow and thrive around the incredible skill set that Bird brought to the table. From exceptional shooting to needle-threading passing to fundamental rebounding to joyously confrontational trash talk, Larry Bird could do anything that needed doing on a basketball court.

(Bird led the way in the team’s eventual agreement to refer to Shaughnessy as “Scoop,” ostensibly to recognize his dogged reporting abilities, but really just some not-quite-totally-friendly ball-busting. This was an era where writers and athletes were very much mutual backscratchers – a game that Shaughnessy wasn’t interested in playing.)

The general attitude around those Celtics teams – initiated from the top down by the legendary Red Auerbach – was that basketball is a team game, a game built around contributions from everyone on the roster. A noble notion, to be sure, but when the roster looks like that one did, what you get is something transcends a mere team-first ethos.

We talked about Bird, of course, but one can’t discuss this era of Celtics basketball without talking about Kevin McHale – who made his debut with the Celtics as a rookie in 1980 – and Robert Parish, who arrived that same year via a trade with the Golden State Warriors. Shaughnessy watched as this trio came together as one of the most impactful groupings in the history of professional basketball, three all-timers, Hall of Famers all.

A big highlight is the arrival of Bill Walton, whose contributions to that 1985-86 squad – considered by some to be the greatest team ever assembled – were vital. It was a quote from Walton that lent itself to this book’s title, an acknowledgment that he would never be so blessed as to be part of that phenomenal a team again.

Shaughnessy divides his time pretty equally between behind-the-scenes stories and on-court action. There’s some great stuff here about the burgeoning disdain he inspired in Robert Parish, who eventually flat-out refused to speak to him (even now – he did not participate in interviews for this book). Maybe the best of the bunch, however, is when Bird was suffering from an injury to his shooting hand and Shaughnessy wound up in a free throw shooting contest with him. Taped hand or no, you can probably make a pretty good guess how it played out.

And when Shaughnessy puts you there on the parquet floor … man. Spectacular stuff, sweeping the reader up into the moment with an immediacy that makes it easy to forget you’re reading about events from nearly 40 years ago. The dripping sweat of the overheated Garden, the squeak of the sneakers on the floor, the titanic clashes between teams battling not just for the championship, but for dominance of the era. But while the title fights are key, so too are the accounts of moments during small, seemingly inconsequential regular season contests – no matter what the stakes, Shaughnessy finds ways to bring the game to vivid life.

“Wish It Lasted Forever” is a remarkable, close-up account of one of the most iconic teams in the history of one of the NBA’s most iconic franchises. It was a special time for the Boston Celtics, featuring a handful of guys who to this day are among the greatest to ever play the game. And thanks to Dan Shaughnessy, even those who weren’t there in the moment are gifted with an intimate portrait of that team.

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Back in the 1970s and 1980s, NBA basketball wasn't what it is today - multi-million dollar contracts and primetime coverage. Players traveled on commercial flights, stayed in low-budget hotels, and took public transportation to their own home games. At this time, local media members also traveled with the team, flying on the same planes and riding team buses. This gave The Boston Globe reporter Dan Shaughnessy an insight into the game that few reporters get access to today, when he covered the Celtics from 1982 to 1986. In this book he covers not only the games, but - more importantly - the behind the scenes stories about the coaches and the players that made up one of the greatest teams in NBA history.

Disclaimer: I live just outside of Boston and am a Celtics fan.

I was born in the early 1980s, so while I’ve been aware of the Celtics and their greatest players, I never saw Larry Bird play. My knowledge of the great teams of the 1980s are what I’ve seen in clips and documentaries or heard about in stories. So that’s where I’m coming from. But I honestly believe that this book has things for people like me and for people who sat in the Garden and watched every game Bird played.

While this book covers the games a little and gave background info on the players and coaches of the time, the majority of the book is behind-the-scenes stories. And because it’s told from the point of view of a reporter, who traveled with the team but was still seen as an outsider by the players, as I reader I could believe that all of the stories were more or less true. (Unlike in a player memoir, where the author might embellish or leave out details to make himself look good.)

My biggest takeaway from this book is how much I wish that I had been there to see it in person. These players seemed amazing and played the game in a way that we don’t see anymore. It also made me appreciate some of the other players more than I ever did before. (I’ve decided that I absolutely love Bill Walton and M.L. Carr seemed like such a great guy).

I recommend this for anyone who enjoys basketball. Will Celtics fans appreciate it more than others? Of course. But I think the “inside the NBA” stuff will appeal to everyone. And it’s Larry Bird. It’s kind of like The Last Dance documentary - you don’t have to be a Bulls fan to watch a documentary on Michael Jordan, because he’s Michael Jordan, and the appeal goes farther than just a team.

My only complains were the somewhat abrupt endings to some of the chapters, and I wish that we were able to get more stories on Robert Parish (there was very little in the book on Parish, because he apparently hated Shaughnessy and refused to ever speak to him.)

Overall, a really fun and educational read that I think basketball fans will enjoy.

Rating: 4.5/5 stars

Trigger warning: Mention of drug overdose, mention of spouse abuse

A special thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for an advanced copy of this book.

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Like a time machine, this book took me back to reading, watching, and basically consuming everything about this team. Back then, I was naive enough to believe it would last forever. Unfortunately, it didn't but I'm so grateful this book gave me a trip back to those magical times.

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Professional basketball in the early and mid-1980’s were defined by two teams and two players. One of them was the Los Angeles Lakers, led by Magic Johnson. The other one was the Boston Celtics and their superstar, Larry Bird. The latter were the subject of this terrific book by the reporter who was a beat writer for the Boston Globe during that time, Dan Shaughnessy. He covered the team between 1981 and 1986, leaving the team’s beat midway through that season, which was the third one for the Celtics during this time, to become the beat writer for the Boston Red Sox. While he didn’t regret his decision to cover baseball, it is clear that Shaughnessy truly enjoyed his time covering this all-time great team.

More than just writing about the team’s accomplishments, in both this book and his articles and columns for the Globe, Shaughnessy’s best work comes when he writes about the players, their stories and their personalities. One great story is when Bird had his right hand taped in a practice due to an injury, Shaughnessy decided to try to win a bet with him by challenging him to a free throw contest – 100 shots for each one with Bird’s hand remaining taped. Without giving away any more, just assume that it finished the way the reader will think it will.

The excellent prose on players is especially brought out in later chapters for the 1985-86 season when Bill Walton joined the team. It almost felt like that team was all about a backup center instead of one of the best frontcourts in NBA history with Bird, Robert Parish and Kevin McHale. That is quickly forgotten when the reader learn just how happy Walton was to be part of the team and how upset he was with himself when he felt responsible for the first loss of the season by the Celtics. Bird immediately told him to forget about it and then told “Scoop” Shaughnessy that he didn’t think that he could endure that for a full season.

“Scoop” was a nickname given to the author by the team, not necessarily a term of endearment as Shaughnessy was not only a new writer for the Globe but he was also among the first sportswriters who would be more than just a buddy with the players who would write only fluff pieces or game recaps. Some of the players, most notably Parish, would freeze Shaughnessy out or shun him on the buses or planes (at the time, media covering the team would travel with them).

However, this book is not just about the player’s lives or the social issues of the time – it is also a very good account of some of the basketball played as well, especially the two times during this time when the Celtics faced the Lakers in the NBA finals. For readers who enjoyed professional basketball during this era will love reading about those epic finals when the two main figures in the sport met to decide the championship. As one of those readers that fall into this category, I believe that the title apply to both the book and that era of Celtics basketball – wish it lasted forever.

I wish to thank Scribner Books for providing a copy of the book via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

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WISH IT LASTED FOREVER: LIFE WITH THE LARRY BIRD CELTICS
By Dan Shaughnessy
Scribner, 256 pages.
★★★★

Were the 1985-86 Boston Celtics the greatest team in National Basketball Association history? Such questions are pointless because sports–rules, equipment, players–evolve. Few analysts, though, take umbrage with saying that the Celtics front court of Larry Bird, Kevin McHale, and Robert Parrish–with Bill Walton coming off the bench–defined the adjective dominant.

Boston Globe sportswriter Dan Shaughnessy revives memories of the 1980s. He was a newbie at Globe in 1981, the year after Larry Joe Bird was the NBA’s 1980 Rookie of the Year. The epic battles between Bird’s Celtics and Magic Johnson’s Los Angeles Lakers in the years 1980-87 redefined the NBA and brought it into national prominence.

Perhaps you wonder about the showdowns in the 1950s and early 1960s between the Bill Russell-led Celtics and Wilt Chamberlain’s Philadelphia Warriors? Today, the NBA is a global product and the second-most popular team sport in North America. When Russell was a rookie in 1956, he and Chamberlain shed light on a 10-year-old league that played in crummy gyms and had franchises in places like Cincinnati, Fort Wayne, Rochester, and Syracuse. The Lakers were in Minneapolis and the Warriors in Philly. Russell helped define the NBA. It grew from the mid-60s on, but didn’t become a media-fueled juggernaut until Bird, Magic, Kareem Abdul Jabbar, Julius Erving, and others broadened TV viewership and won sponsorships.

The best parts of Shaughnessy’s book deal with change, not just in the game but also in the media and social mores. Shaughnessy was dubbed “Scoop” by Celtics players and it wasn’t endearing. He was part of a new wave of sportswriters whose perspective was investigative and (in many cases) combative. Consider, for example, that Boston Herald writer Mike Carey had been so chummy with players that he lent them his car and acted as their agents. Today that would be conflict of interest. Bloody on-court fisticuffs would yield lengthy suspensions; in the 1980s, they didn’t always lead to technical fouls. Bill Walton reveals that he knew he loved new coach when K. C. Jones when he put the Lakers’ James Worthy into a headlock during a melee.

Shaughnessy was in the seam between the chummy old-style NBA and the emergent; he wanted access to players, but it was not his job to write fluff. His style ruffled feathers. He had a hot/cold relationship with Bird and Parrish refused to talk to him at all. Diehard basketball fans might wish to skim the parts of the book that rehash the long familiar: Red Auerbach’s iron-fisted management style, coach Bill Fitch’s abrasive egoism, Parrish’s sullenness, and Bird’s cockiness. (Bird took trash-talk to the next level. He once defended BYU grad/teammates Danny Ainge and Greg Kite by saying nobody would have heard of Utah without them–and murderer Gary Gilmore!)

Bird was the pivot piece, but Auerbach’s unsentimental roster retooling was the lever. During Bird’s peak years he was league MVP three years in a row and the Celtics won the NBA title in 1980-81 and 1983-84, lost the finals in 1984-85, and won again in 1985-86. Auerbach had no problem jettisoning popular players he felt were no longer useful, such as Cedric Maxwell, Quinn Buckner, or Rick Robey. (He robbed Seattle by trading Gerald Henderson for Dennis Johnson.) He also felt (rightly) that the Celtics lost in 1984-85 because the players despised Fitch. Enter K. C. Jones and a magical season.

You may never see another team like it. The roster had eight white players, just four African Americans, a black coach, and not a hint of racial tension. (Bird called Jones “the nicest man I ever met.”) Walton claimed that coming to Boston saved his life. That’s hyperbolic, but the Celtics played with infectious joy. McHale set a team record by scoring 58 points, which fell the very next game when Bird poured in 60. They were so cohesive that they went 37-1 at home, wrapped up their division so early they didn’t bother to try for an NBA victory record, and won their final game by playing only the bench. There was no partying when they won the conference title; as Bird insisted, celebrations only came after titles. He also proved that a slow white dude who didn’t jump well could become a hoop god through hard work and a high court IQ. (Shaughnessy advises skepticism re: the “Hick from French Lick” guise; Bird knew how to conjugate verbs!)

Wish It Lasted Forever has eyeopeners, including pranks that wouldn’t fly today, like putting an M. L. Carr jersey on a car lot’s advertising gorilla. Casual sexism was also a thing. We laugh when Shaughnessy loses $160 in a free throw challenge with Bird, who taped his entire hand and thumb. Shaughnessy also gets another booby prize for leaving the basketball beat in the spring to cover the Red Sox, then the city’s biggest sports attraction. (Today, they might be number four.) We appreciate Bird’s color-blind judgments, including his prediction that Michael Jordan would become the NBA’s greatest player. (M.J. transformed the game a third time.) Alas, nothing lasts forever. Injuries took their toll and it would be 22 years before the Celtics hoisted another championship banner.

Rob Weir

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NBA teams make for the best subjects for sports books. The palace intrigue is hilarious. The melodrama is always very funny. I only wish the book was written right after the author left the beat.

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OMG,!!!! This book took me back!!!! I was. a HUGE fan of the Celtics during the time that this book was written about. It brought back memories. I learned a lot about the going on within the team. This book was like visiting an old friend. I recommend this book to any Celtic fan or basketball fan in general. Thanks to Netgalley, the author and the publisher for the arc of this book in return for my honest review. Receiving this book in this manner had no bearing on this review.

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