McHale was a latecomer as a rookie, having threatened to play in Italy if team president Red Auerbach didn't meet his financial needs. But Parish needed him badly.
"(Coach) Bill Fitch was on me all the time, and I needed another big man out there for him to yell at," says Parish. "Kevin never took him seriously, which infuriated Bill. He'd be up there in Kevin's face, shouting at him, and Kevin would just be laughing right back."



Needless to say, Fitch was not impressed with McHale's behavior and tried to make him into his next whipping boy. He didn't like the fact that a rookie held out, and he told the Boston press that McHale could eat pasta for all he cared. When McHale finally arrived, Fitch had serious problems with McHale's and attitude. But little else.



"It took a little bit, but Bill saw how good McHale was and there was never any problem with how hard Kevin worked," Parish said. "He made our team so much better. Plus, he was good for us because he was loose, easygoing."



For the next 13 years, McHale epitomized team play. His moves around the basket offensively were arguably the best the game has seen, Chamberlain and Abdul-Jabbar notwithstanding. He made the NBA all-defensive first team three times and second team three more. He made the all-star team seven times and won the NBA Sixth Man Award twice. This from a guy who didn't start until his sixth season in the league and from someone who filled the "Tommy Heinsohn" role in Boston, namely, playing second (and sometimes third and fourth) fiddle to Larry Bird, Parish, Nate Archibald, Dennis Johnson, et al.



"The numbers I put up and coming off the bench were never an issue," says McHale, whose career 55.4 field goal percentage was better than Wilt Chamberlain's mark of 54 percent.



"I played with such great players. We played the game the way it was supposed to be played. I wouldn't change any of it except to have been healthier at the end of my career. The last few year, I missed winning 60 games, winning championships, playing with the (Danny) Ainges, Birds, Parishes and DJs. We just weren't the team we were, and I wasn't the player I was."



In his prime, McHale was held in high esteem around the league. When he prepared for playing the Celtics, then-76ers coach Billy Cunningham said that McHale was the player who caused him to lose sleep at night.



"Believe it or not, we felt we had a game plan with Bird, as good as he was you could only stop him so much," Cunningham says. "But we didn't know how to match up with McHale. We were stuck between a rock and a hard place. He had the best post moves probably of any player I can remember.



The people who miss McHale the most today are probably coaches at the professional, college, high school and grade school levels who could teach by telling their pupils to watch how McHale used fundamentals. McHale mastered protecting the ball after a rebound or post entry pass by keeping it above his head. He was a tenacious rebounder and blocked shots with both hands, depending on the circumstances, to avoid fouls and start fast breaks.



"I once heard Wilt Chamberlain say that you should always tip the ball to yourself and your teammates," McHale says. "A shot block doesn't mean much when you give it back to the other team."



Offensively, McHale possessed all the moves. He had duckunders, spot-up bank shots, finger rolls, reverse spins, baseline dunks. He arguably made better usage of his pivot foot than anyone who has played the game. You name the move, he could do it.
"When I was healthy, I always felt I could score," says McHale. "When it went into what I called 'The torture chamber,' I knew it was in."



So did his opponents. "He owned me," says A.C. Green, who played against McHale with the Lakers. "I was fortunate to play against him in those great Lakers-Celtics series but he owned me." Especially in 1986-87, when McHale played much of the regular season and playoffs on a broken foot but managed to average 26.1 and 21.1 points respectively.



It was his mother Josie, who predicted her son's basketball career but never told him until the day of his retirement in 1993.



"We were watching Kevin in a tournament when he was in the eighth grade," she recalls. "And I told my husband, Paul, right there that Kevin was going to make the pros. Paul looked t me and said, 'Josie, don't ever repeat that to anyone or people will think we're crazy.'"



Turns out Mom couldn't have been more right.

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