Lakers Are Messin’ With Garden Mystique

It was not a pretty picture. The Lakers had just stunned the Celtics with a maniacal comeback charge and a 107-106 win in Tuesday night’s Game 4.

And there was Arnold (Red) Auerbach, the Celtics’ venerable president, reacting by . . . Hey, sports fan, see if you can guess.

When the game ended, Red:

1. Congratulated Magic Johnson on a magnificent performance.

2. Quietly commiserated with his players and coach in their time of need.

3. Leaped out of his seat, cigar in hand, and barked at the heels of referee Earl Strom, then, as Strom ducked into the officials’ dressing room, screamed: “You got no (courage)! You got no (courage)!” to which Strom calmly replied, “Arnold, you’re showing as much class as ever.”

Did you guess No. 3? Very good. Consider yourself a student of the game.

But hey, that’s just Red. What about classy K. C. Jones, the Boston coach? Surely even in his acute anguish over the loss, K. C. wouldn’t tarnish the beauty of this contest by whimpering about the officiating.

“I’m disappointed in Earl Strom,” he whimpered. “I thought he had a Lakers’ uniform on. He really did a job on us. I’m totally disappointed in his non-calls on Larry (Bird) under the basket.”

That deafening roar you now hear is the laughter of players and coaches throughout the National Basketball Assn., to whom the concept of the Boston Celtics getting jobbed by the refs in Boston Garden is, well, real funny.

If the Lakers hadn’t managed to win a couple of games in the Garden the last few years, proving that such a feat is, indeed, possible, the rest of the league would have chipped in to have the old barn nuked.

For decades, the whisper around the league has been that you can’t get a crucial call in the Garden. Former NBA official Mendy Rudolph was looked upon by many non-Bostonians as the truest Celtic of them all.

The other, opposing view of the world is held by the Boston Celtics, to wit: “Let’s see, we’ve won 16 NBA championships. That means we’ve been cheated out of the title 30 or so times by thieving, incompetent, no-(courage) officials.”

That’s the Celtic style, at least as defined by Auerbach. Look up smug in the dictionary and you’ll see a picture of Red Auerbach lighting a victory cigar.

When the Celtics beat the Lakers in the 1984 finals, Red accepted the trophy on TV and his first smirking words were: “Whatever happened to that Laker dynasty I’ve been hearing so much about?”

After the Lakers had won the title in ‘85, Red railed at the press and stormed out of the Garden.

Whatta guy!

That overbearing sense of superiority has been his trademark since Red hit town. Maybe if you live next door to him, he’s a sweetheart. Pets your dog, waters your zinnias. But to those of us who know him only from what he says and does around the Garden, Auerbach is almost a cartoon character.

There’s no denying that Red’s superiority complex has trickled down and been adopted very effectively by several generations of Celtic players. How humble was Bill Russell? But most of the players, thank heaven, haven’t had Red’s total lack of graciousness.

In fact, the current Celtics, although a supremely confident bunch, seem to be decent guys. There were no complaints by Boston players after Game 4 about the officiating.

“The thang is, if you lose, you’re always gonna complain about the officiating,” Larry Bird said. “These are the playoffs, and you’ve got the best officials in the world out there.”

In other words, you’ve got the officials with the most (courage). Earl Strom has the rep of being the most (courageous) of all, the ref least likely to cave in under the immense pressure of a frenzied Garden mob . . . er, throng.

Incidentally, whatever potential there is for ugliness in the Boston Garden crowd is sure to be lifted closer to the surface by the whining of Red and K. C. It’s fortunate for us all that Bird and the Celtic players declined to be part of such silliness.

In fact, to the disgust of Rambo and Conan fans, this series has been remarkably sportsmanlike. The players truly seem to respect one another.

There has been none of the thuggery, cheap-shooting and constant bitching that marred the recent Boston-Detroit series, for one.

Here is a tiny incident from Game 4:

Magic Johnson bumps knees with Dennis Johnson and is carried to the Laker bench in obvious pain. A minute later, limping and grimacing, he checks back into the game.

Time is out and Laker-killer Kevin McHale is at the free throw line, waiting to shoot a pair. As Magic hobbles past, McHale, who is playing on a broken foot, turns to Magic, raises his eyebrows and asks quietly, “You all right?”

Magic nods.