Ha! Today is Tommy Heinsohn's birthday!

As NBPA president, he was the lead instigator of the 1964 All-Star Game strike. Celtics owner Walter Brown never forgave him for pulling that labor stoppage at the Boston Garden.

Brown was one of the "good owners" and felt betrayed by Heinsohn. And Brown was probably the best owner in the league all things considered.

But Heinsohn was looking out for all the players and all their labor rights. Can't rely on benevolence. Need that shit put on paper.

In other words...

Heinsohn was trying to change SYSTEMIC labor abuses. It wasn't just "one bad apple" like Fred Zollner, who never met a labor union he didn't hate. Even the good owners still used the tools of labor abuse even if they did so with a smile.

*smug academic voice*

As I write about in my dissertation, Heinsohn's other great act was passing NBPA leadership off to Oscar Robertson in 1965.

Not trying to make Heinsohn out to be some Great White Savior, but this was 1965 and the NBA was still majority white and it's not like the other sports league unions had black leaders.

Woulda been easy to find an excuse to install some white successor.

But Heinsohn had some basic, non-racist decency that wasn't followed by enough people then and now. The best dude to do the job after him was black... and he chose that black man to do the job instead of weaseling out.

And Oscar (with the help of many) kicked the NBA's ass.

And not to leave out anyone from the '64 ASG Strike... from what I've been able to gather the core agitators with Heinsohn were:

Elgin Baylor
Bill Russell
Lenny Wilkens
Bob Pettit

Oh and obviously Oscar Robertson. Duh.