Robert Parish, more popularly known as “The Chief,” played from 1973-1998 and is a member of the Basketball Hall of Fame. However, none knew how he came to be on Boston Celtics until years after his retirement in 1998.
The “robert parish net worth” is a basketball player who was known for his defense and rebounding. He was also the first NBA player to be elected into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame.
Many people didn’t see anything in Robert Parish that Red Auerbach did. Parish has completed his fourth season with the Golden State Warriors. He had just completed two seasons in which he averaged a double-double. He then received a phone call.
Prior to the 1980 NBA Draft, the Boston Celtics executed a blockbuster transaction. In return for Parish and the No. 3 selection in the draft, Auerbach offered the Warriors the No. 1 pick and another first-round pick (No. 13). The Celtics capitalized on the transaction by selecting future Hall of Famer Kevin McHale with the third overall selection.
Parish needed to swiftly dispel certain preconceptions about himself before joining forces with McHale and Larry Bird to create probably the finest frontcourt in NBA history.
Robert Parish made Red Auerbach, the president of the Boston Celtics, appear like a genius.
At the Boston Garden on May 14, 1987, Boston Celtics trainer Ray Melchiorre, right, tapes Robert Parish’s ankles. | Getty Images/By Barry Chin/The Boston Globe
Auerbach was hailed a genius by many. Parish’s accomplishments in Boston helped him acquire the title of Celtics president. Auerbach selected Bird two years before the Parish deal, and he won Rookie of the Year honors after a season-long contract battle.
The Celtics won their first NBA title of the decade in Parish’s first year with the team, defeating the Houston Rockets in the 1981 NBA Finals. That season, he set a career best with 18.9 points while starting 78 of the 82 games he appeared in.
The frontcourt of Parish, Bird, McHale, and Cedric Maxwell was dominating, but they didn’t return to the NBA Finals until the 1983-84 season, when they faced the Los Angeles Lakers. That’s when the Celtics-Lakers rivalry was reignited, and the series heated up immediately.
There were numerous memorable moments in the 1984 series. A late-game steal by Gerald Henderson forced overtime, preventing Boston from falling down 2-0 at home. A violent Game 4 was highlighted by Kevin McHale’s clotehslining of Kurt Rambis, which flipped momentum back in the Celtics’ favor. Despite outplaying the Lakers for most of the series, the Celtics prevailed in seven games.
Parish and the Celtics made three more appearances in the Finals, losing to the Lakers in 1985 and 1987 and winning the Rockets in 1986. Parish played in Boston for 14 years. In his last year as a backup with the Chicago Bulls, he added another championship ring to his collection.
When Robert Parish joined the Boston Celtics, he had to dispel certain falsehoods about himself.
This minimizes the Warriors’ 1980 trading calamity. Robert Parish was not simply traded. Parish and the draft selection that became Kevin McHale were traded. Joe Barry Carroll has two-thirds of a dynasty. https://t.co/kX7Ctw8e6D
— Benjamin Hoffman (@BenHoffmanNYT) February 6, 2022
When Parish arrived in Boston, he was confronted with reality. He quickly learned that playing for the Celtics was a very different experience than playing for the Warriors.
Parish informed Cedric Maxwell, his Celtics teammate for five seasons, that his first camp under head coach Bill Fitch was an eye-opener during a 2020 visit on The Cedric Maxwell Podcast.
“During training camp, Coach Fitch established the tone,” Parish remarked. “This is the most difficult training camp I’ve ever attended.” I was out of shape, and I’ll be the first to acknowledge it was due to my lack of preparation. Oh, that was torturous. I am not going to lie.”
Parish claims he heard everything while with Golden State. He had heard he was a slacker who refused to play basketball. He was confident in his ability to play for a championship contender, but he wanted to prove it.
During his first season with the Celtics, Parish told Sports Illustrated, “I heard it all – I had a nasty attitude, I only played when I wanted to.” “It was even said that I was so lethargic that I purposefully got into foul trouble so I wouldn’t have to play.” When I arrived in Boston, I knew I’d be put to the test to determine whether I had what it takes to win. I’d always suspected it.”
Fitch initially questioned Auerbach’s decision to deal for Parish.
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Parish confessed he struggled during his first Celtics training camp. He wasn’t avoiding being there or being lazy. He’d never been pushed like this before.
Fitch had no clue what was going on when he met Parish for the first time at camp. He had reservations even before the preseason began.
“When the exhibition season began, everybody looked at me like I was crazy, and the first few of times I watched Robert play up and down the court, I didn’t know whether to laugh or weep,” Fitch told Sports Illustrated.
“I knew Red Auerbach wasn’t entirely washed up, even if he was becoming old and senile. We’d combed through videos and reams of material on Robert, as well as spoken with Warriors’ Scotty Stirling and Pete Newell.
“They’d told us what we’d discovered, that Robert would be a fine guy to have even if he wasn’t a terrific basketball player,” says the narrator.
Parish turned out to be a fantastic basketball player. On a team full of future Hall of Famers, he fit right in with the Celtics, averaging 16.5 points and 10.0 rebounds. In 2003, he was elected into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame as one of them.
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