Episode 20: 1969 NBA Finals and Leigh Montville

NBA finals, 1969. Boston Celtics vs. Los Angeles Lakers.

Seven games for the title.

This episode is a championship story wrapped within another. It's about the Celtics and Lakers in 1969. About Bill Russell and Wilt Chamberlain, Sam Jones and Elgin Baylor, John Havlicek and Jerry West.

It's also about a reporter, Leigh Montville, 25 years old, at the start of his career. A guy who finds sports ripe for storytelling, who identifies with the new journalism of the 60s, who glories in his first California assignment and his first look at the Pacific Ocean.

A guy who appreciates the parochial customs of Boston, and is reviled by its tribal racism. A writer with a genius for anecdote, and a bemused ironic voice not unlike that of Mark Twain

So 25-year-old Leigh Montville covers the ‘69 finals. The Celts and Lakers have been down this road -- they had met in the finals 5 times -- the Celtics had won all five. A year earlier the Celtics had won their 10th title in 12 years against -- who else -- the Lakers. Red Auerbach sits atop their dynasty.

But in ‘69 the Celtics are in decline. With future Hall of Famers Sam Jones and Bill Russell worn down by age, both in their final season, the Celtics finish fourth in the eastern division. They finish fourth even with first-team All-Star John Havlicek in the lineup.

The Lakers easily win their division with Wilt Chamberlain. Wilt the Stilt was the 1968 MVP with the Philadelphia 76ers, but he wanted out, and threatened to jump to the new ABA. So the Sixers trade him to the Lakers, where he gets big money and joins Hall of Famers Elgin Baylor and Jerry West.

Leigh Montville covers the ‘69 finals for the Boston Globe. Fifty-two years later, in 2021, his book “Tall Men, Short Shorts” is published, an account of that series, his experience covering it as a young reporter, and a whole lot more.

Montville, now 78, joins us for this episode.