1. Robert Joseph Cousy is an American former professional basketball player.
64 Facts About Bob Cousy
2.
Bob Cousy is regarded as the first great point guard of the NBA, and was the first to reach the 4,000,5,000, and 6,000 career assists milestones.
3.
Bob Cousy entered the 1950 NBA draft and was initially drafted by the Tri-Cities Blackhawks as the third overall pick in the first round, but after he refused to report he was picked up by Boston.
4.
Bob Cousy was named to the NBA 25th Anniversary Team in 1971, the NBA 35th Anniversary Team in 1981, the NBA 50th Anniversary All-Time Team in 1996, and the NBA 75th Anniversary Team in 2021 making him one of only four players that were selected to each of those teams.
5.
Bob Cousy is one of only two of these players who is still alive with Bob Pettit as of 2025 and the older of the two living members.
6.
Bob Cousy was the first president of the National Basketball Players Association.
7.
Bob Cousy was the only son of poor French immigrants living in New York City.
8.
Bob Cousy grew up in the Yorkville neighborhood of Manhattan's East Side, in the midst of the Great Depression.
9.
Bob Cousy's father Joseph was a cab driver, who earned extra income by moonlighting.
10.
Bob Cousy married Juliette Corlet, a secretary and French teacher from Dijon.
11.
The younger Bob Cousy spoke French for the first 5 years of his life, and started to speak English only after entering primary school.
12.
Bob Cousy spent his early days playing stickball in a multicultural environment, regularly playing with Black, Jewish and other ethnic minority children.
13.
That summer, the elder Bob Cousy put a $500 down payment for a $4,500 house four blocks away.
14.
Bob Cousy rented out the bottom two floors of the three-story building to tenants to help make his mortgage payments on time.
15.
Bob Cousy took up basketball at the age of 13 as a student at St Pascal's elementary school, and was "immediately hooked".
16.
Bob Cousy was impressed by the budding star's two-handed ability and invited Cousy to come to practice the following day to try out for the junior varsity team.
17.
Bob Cousy did well enough to become a permanent member of the JV squad.
18.
Bob Cousy continued to practice day and night, and by his junior year was sure he was going to be promoted to the varsity; but failing his citizenship course made him ineligible for the first semester.
19.
Bob Cousy joined the varsity squad midway through the season scoring 28 points in his first game.
20.
Bob Cousy had no intention of attending college, but after he started to make a name for himself on the basketball court he started to focus on improving in both academics and basketball skills to make it easier for him to get into college.
21.
Bob Cousy again excelled in basketball his senior year, leading his team to the Queens divisional championship and amassing more points than any other New York City high school basketball player.
22.
Bob Cousy was even named captain of the Journal-American All-Scholastic team.
23.
Bob Cousy's family had wanted him to attend a Catholic school, and he wanted to go somewhere outside New York City.
24.
Bob Cousy was impressed by the school, and accepted the basketball scholarship it offered him.
25.
Bob Cousy spent the summer before matriculating working at Tamarack Lodge in the Catskill Mountains and playing in a local basketball league along with a number of established college players.
26.
Bob Cousy played poorly scoring only four points on 2-for-13 shots.
27.
Bob Cousy wrote a letter to coach Joe Lapchick of St John's University in New York, informing him that he was considering a transfer there.
28.
Bob Cousy told Cousy that Julian would use him more often during his later years with the team.
29.
Lapchick alerted Bob Cousy that transferring was a very risky move: according to NCAA rules, the player would be required to sit out a year before becoming eligible to play for the school to which he transferred.
30.
Bob Cousy still managed to lead the Crusaders in scoring and was an AP Third Team All American.
31.
Bob Cousy again led the team in scoring in his junior year, and was named a Second Team All American by multiple services, including the AP.
32.
Bob Cousy was a consensus First Team All-American, and led the team in scoring for the third straight season with 19.4 points per game.
33.
Bob Cousy turned pro and made himself available for the 1950 NBA draft.
34.
Bob Cousy was trying to establish a driving school in Worcester, Massachusetts and did not want to relocate to the Midwestern triangle of the three small towns of Moline, Rock Island and Davenport.
35.
When Kerner offered him only $6,000, Bob Cousy refused to report.
36.
Bob Cousy was then picked up by the Chicago Stags, but when they folded, league Commissioner Maurice Podoloff declared three Stags available for a dispersal draft: team scoring leader Max Zaslofsky, Andy Phillip and Bob Cousy.
37.
Bob Cousy later made it clear that he was hoping for Zaslofsky, would have tolerated Phillip, and did not want Cousy.
38.
Bob Cousy scored 8 more points in the third overtime, among them a 25-ft.
39.
Bob Cousy played 66 minutes, and scored 50 points after making a still-standing record of 30 free throws in 32 attempts.
40.
In terms of playing style, Bob Cousy introduced an array of visually attractive street basketball moves, described by the NBA as a mix of ambidextrous, behind-the-back dribbling and "no-look passes, behind-the-back feeds or half-court fastbreak launches".
41.
Bob Cousy's crowd-pleasing and effective play drew the crowd into the Boston Garden and won over coach Auerbach, who no longer saw him as a liability, but as an essential building block for the future.
42.
Bob Cousy attributed the shortcomings to fatigue, stating: "We would get tired in the end and could not get the ball".
43.
Late in the season, Bob Cousy reasserted his playmaking dominance by setting an NBA record with 28 assists in a game against the Minneapolis Lakers.
44.
The game ended with Bob Cousy throwing the ball into the rafters.
45.
At age 34, Bob Cousy held his retirement ceremony on March 17,1963, in a packed Boston Garden.
46.
The event became known as the Boston Tear Party, when the crowd's response overwhelmed Bob Cousy, left him speechless, and caused his planned 7-minute farewell to go on for 20.
47.
Bob Cousy averaged 0.7 points per game for the now Sacramento Kings.
48.
Bob Cousy led the Eagles to three NIT appearances, including a berth in the 1969 NIT Championship and two National Collegiate Athletic Association tournaments, including the 1967 Eastern Regional Finals.
49.
Bob Cousy grew bored with college basketball and returned to the NBA as coach of the Cincinnati Royals, team of fellow Hall-of-Fame point guard Oscar Robertson.
50.
Bob Cousy was regarded as the first great point guard of the NBA, winning eight of the first 11 assist titles in the league, all of them en bloc, and had a highly successful career, winning six NBA titles, one MVP award, 13 All-Star appearances, 12 All-NBA First and Second Team call-ups, and two All-Star Game MVP awards.
51.
Bob Cousy's fast-paced playing style was later emulated by the likes of Pete Maravich and Magic Johnson.
52.
In recognition of his feats, Bob Cousy was inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in 1971 and in 1963, the Celtics retired his uniform number, 14, the first of two numbers retired.
53.
On July 1,2019, Bob Cousy informed The Boston Globe that he had received an official letter notifying him that he would receive the Presidential Medal of Freedom from President Donald Trump on August 22,2019.
54.
Bob Cousy received the medal at a ceremony in the Oval Office.
55.
Bob Cousy has been the recipient of several basketball awards being named after him.
56.
The Bob Cousy Award has been presented annually since 2004 by the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame to the top men's collegiate point guard.
57.
Bob Cousy was relieved of his duties on December 1,1979.
58.
Bob Cousy married his college sweetheart, Missie Ritterbusch, in December 1950, six months after he graduated from Holy Cross.
59.
Bob Cousy's wife died on September 20,2013, after suffering from dementia for several years.
60.
Bob Cousy was well-known, both on and off the court, for his public stance against racism, a result of his upbringing in a multicultural environment.
61.
Bob Cousy sympathized with the plight of black Celtics star Bill Russell, who was frequently a victim of racism.
62.
Bob Cousy was close to his Celtics mentor, head coach Red Auerbach, and was one of the few permitted to call him "Arnold," his given name, instead of his nickname "Red".
63.
Bob Cousy was a color analyst on Celtics telecasts during the 1980s.
64.
Bob Cousy is currently a marketing consultant for the Celtics, and occasionally makes broadcast appearances with Mike Gorman.