muted

green stuff

around 5pm last night, i pulled my phone from my pocket as i was walking back to my desk from the printers at work. i didn't expect to have any messages so i was surprised to see this text from johnnie waiting for me:

"DJ died 2day! He was playing basketball in Texas. He was 52."

it took me a few seconds to figure out what he meant.

dj? dj? dj who? oh shit - dennis johnson!

dennis johnson was the point guard for the last two boston celtics championship teams (1984 and 1986). i remember watching those amazing celtics teams in the playoffs with my family and screaming at the tv when we weren't jumping up and down clapping. johnnie and i would go out to the hoop in the driveway after the games (and sometimes before they'd even concluded!) and try to emulate our heroes in green. i'd be dj and he'd be larry bird and we'd pretend we were about to defeat the (invisible) los angeles lakers with a last second shot. or he'd be kevin mchale and i'd be danny ainge and the houston rockets were dead meat.

the play that was probably the most fun to recreate happened in 1987. from boston.com:

"In Game 5 of the Eastern Conference finals with the Celtics trailing Detroit by a point and four seconds remaining, Larry Bird stole Isiah Thomas's lazy inbounds pass. (Dennis) Johnson, at midcourt when the play began, made a cut to the basket and scored the winning hoop. The Celtics went on to win the series in seven games..."

having seen this play a million times on the local news, johnnie and i had it down to a science. it didn't matter who played whom - we could interchange the roles. for authenticity's sake, whoever was playing dj had to make the layup on the left side of the basket but using his right hand. it was imperative that whoever played the larry role switched over to jerry sichting after the pass because one of our favorite parts of the play is where jerry jumps up and down after dj makes the shot. all you could see was his back (#12) and he was standing near the spot where larry stole the ball. plus, he had absolutely nothing to do with the play but was the most enthusiastic about its outcome.

oh yeah, we also would re-enact the calling of the play by legendary celtics commentator johnny most:

"Aaaaaaaannddd...Now there's a steal by Bird!! Underneath to DJ, lays it in! Right at one second left!! What a play by Bird!!"

thinking about dj on the ride to work this morning, i was reminded of a celtics poster johnnie and i had on our wall for a while. i believe it was of that 1986-1987 celtics team. the poster featured a picture of each of the 12 players and i always found it weird that dj's name was written as "d.j. johnson." no one ever called him that. he was dj or he was dennis johnson but never d.j. johnson.

while thinking of that poster, the name "david thirdkill" popped into my head for the first time in decades. he was the 12th man of that team which meant he really only saw action near the end of the game and only then if the celtics were ahead by 40 or losing by 40. when johnnie and i were feeling crazy, we'd yell out "thirdkill for three!!" while playing in the driveway and start laughing. good times.

rest in peace, dj.