Kevin Edward McHale (born December 19, 1957) is an American former professional basketball player, coach and analyst who played his entire professional career for the Boston Celtics. He earned the nickname "the Torture Chamber" for his exceptional footwork and wide array of post moves which made him nearly impossible to guard one-on-one. Dominique Wilkins famously called him "A Man With a Thousand Moves." He is a Basketball Hall of Fame inductee and widely considered one of the greatest power forwards of all time.
After a high school career in which he was named Minnesota Mr. Basketball, he attended the University of Minnesota, where he was named to two first-team All Conference teams and set many team records that still stand today. He was then selected third overall in the 1980 NBA Draft by the Boston Celtics. Spending his first five seasons as the sixth man, he was named the NBA's Sixth Man of the Year in 1984 and 1985. After Cedric Maxwell was traded prior to the 1985–1986 season, McHale became a full-time starter alongside Larry Bird and center Robert Parish, where the three formed what is arguably the greatest frontcourt in NBA history. He won three NBA championships in 1981, 1984 and 1986. After earning his first All-Star selection as the Celtics’ sixth man, he went on to make six more All-Star teams as a starter for the Celtics, while also being named to six NBA All-Defensive Teams. After injuries forced his retirement following the 1992–1993 season, he was later named to both the NBA’s 50th and 75th Anniversary Teams.
McHale began working for the Minnesota Timberwolves immediately following his retirement in 1993 (until 2009) and at times as a TV analyst, general manager and head coach. He was head coach of the Houston Rockets from 2011 to 2015 until being fired following a 4–7 start to the 2015–16 season.
Early life McHale was born to Paul Austin McHale and Josephine Patricia Starcevic in Hibbing, Minnesota. In his senior season at Hibbing High School, he was named Minnesota Mr. Basketball in 1976 and led his team to a runner-up finish in the AA Minnesota State Championship game.
He is of Croatian descent on his mother's side and Irish on his father's.Croatian Chronicle Network 35 Pacific Northwest Croatian Athletes
College career The 6 ft 10 in (2.08 m) McHale played basketball at the power forward position for the University of Minnesota (the Golden Gophers) from 1976 to 1980, with career averages of 15.2 points and 8.5 rebounds per game.
He was named All-Big Ten in 1979 and 1980 and still ranks second in school history in career points (1704) and rebounds (950).
In 1995, to coincide with the University of Minnesota basketball's 100th anniversary, he was selected as the top player in the history of University of Minnesota men's basketball.
McHale had an encounter with Chuck Foreman in the Gopher locker room. Foreman, a famous Minnesota Viking at the time, was congratulating the Gophers on a hard-fought victory. As Foreman was shaking all the players' hands, when he arrived at the then-unknown power forward, McHale displayed his comic wit: "Nice to meet you, Mr. Foreman. What do you do for a living?"Sadly, this isn't the Kevin McHale we used to know . Retrieved on June 18, 2009.
NBA playing career
Coming off the bench, the "Sixth Man" (1980–1985)
Entering the 1980 NBA draft, the Celtics held the number one overall pick, but in a pre-draft trade, considered by many to be among the most lopsided in NBA history, Celtics president Red Auerbach dealt the pick and an additional first-round pick to the Golden State Warriors for center Robert Parish and the Warriors' first-round pick, the third overall, which the Celtics used to draft McHale. McHale's stay in Boston got off to a rocky start as he held out for a large contract, even threatening to play in Italy, before signing a three-year deal with the Celtics. Backing up Cedric Maxwell at forward, McHale made an immediate impact and was named to the NBA's All-Rookie First Team. Boston finished McHale's rookie season with a league-leading record of 62–20.
In the playoffs, the Celtics swept the Chicago Bulls in the first round. In the Eastern Conference finals, the Celtics faced a 3–1 deficit against the Philadelphia 76ers; but Boston won the last three games of the series, including Game 6 on Philadelphia's home court. McHale helped save the Game 6 win by rejecting an Andrew Toney shot and corralling the rebound with 16 seconds left to protect the Celtics' one-point lead. In the NBA Finals, Boston defeated the Houston Rockets in six games to capture the team's 14th championship.
The Celtics would not advance to the NBA Finals in the next two seasons. Philadelphia exacted a measure of revenge in the 1982 Eastern Conference final, beating Boston at home in the seventh game. In the 1983 Eastern Conference semifinals, the Celtics were swept by the Milwaukee Bucks. This embarrassing defeat led to the firing of head coach Bill Fitch and a temporarily unhappy McHale.
Following the 1982–83 season, McHale's contract with the Celtics expired, and the New York Knicks signed him to a contract offer sheet. Auerbach retaliated by signing three of New York's top free-agent players to offer sheets. The Knicks elected to re-sign their players and give up their pursuit of McHale. McHale eventually re-signed with Boston, his $1 million per season contract making him the fourth-highest paid player in the NBA.
McHale won the first of his consecutive NBA Sixth Man Awards as Boston won a league-best 62 games in the 1983–84 season. With the hiring of new head coach, former Celtic KC Jones and the acquisition of Phoenix Suns guard Dennis Johnson, Boston seemed primed to make yet another run at a 15th championship.
After surviving a seven-game semifinal battle with the Knicks, the Celtics avenged the previous season's playoff loss to Milwaukee in the Eastern Conference Finals. Boston would face the Los Angeles Lakers in the NBA Finals in a highly anticipated matchup.
In Game 4 of the finals, with the Celtics trailing in both the game and the series, McHale delivered a hard foul to Kurt Rambis as the Lakers' forward raced to the basket. The physical play touched off a bench-clearing scuffle. Boston came back to win the game in overtime and tie the series at two games apiece. They eventually prevailed in seven games to win the franchise's 15th championship.
McHale continued to come off the bench during the first half of the 1984–1985 season, but moved into a starting role in February 1985 after Cedric Maxwell suffered a knee injury. On March 3 versus the Detroit Pistons McHale enjoyed his greatest scoring night, setting the Celtics' single-game scoring record with 56 points. Two nights later McHale scored 42 points against the Knicks, the only other time in his career he topped 40 points in a game. The 98 points in consecutive games is still a Celtics' record. Nine days after McHale had scored 56 points, Larry Bird established a new Celtics' single-game scoring mark by pouring in 60 points versus the Atlanta Hawks.
Boston captured its second straight Eastern Conference title but was upended in the NBA Finals in six games by the rival Lakers. McHale led the Celtics in scoring (26.0) and rebounding (10.7) versus the Lakers, including an impressive outing in the series's sixth game, scoring 32 points and grabbing 16 rebounds in defeat.
As a full-time starter, the "Torture Chamber" (1985–1988)
The 1985–1986 edition of the Boston Celtics won the franchise's 16th NBA championship and is considered one of the greatest teams in NBA history.
The Celtics acquired former NBA Most Valuable Player Bill Walton in a trade from the Los Angeles Clippers (formerly the San Diego Clippers) in September 1985, and added the 6 ft 11 in (211 cm) center to its already-formidable frontline. Boston sent Cedric Maxwell to the Clippers to complete the trade, clearing the way for McHale to move into a full-time starting role. McHale averaged better than 20 points per game for the first time in his career (21.3) and finished 13th in the NBA Most Valuable Player voting.
He joined starters Bird, Parish, Johnson and Danny Ainge as the Celtics steamrolled the NBA with a league-best 67–15 record. The team set a then-NBA record by finishing with an 82–18 win–loss record (including playoffs), breaking the record of 81 victories by the 1971–72 Lakers.
Boston also set the NBA mark for most home victories in one season, finishing 50–1 (including playoffs) in 48 games in the Boston Garden and three games in Hartford, Connecticut. The Portland Trail Blazers were the only team to beat Boston at home, winning 121–103 in Boston Garden on December 6, 1985. The Celtics did not lose again at home until more than a year later, when the Lakers beat them 117–110 on December 12, 1986.
Boston won 41 of its first 50 games, including two victories over the Lakers. In a rout of the Clippers on December 30, 1985, McHale set his single-game high in rebounds with 18 (a mark he tied against the Pistons in 1989).
An extremely durable player through the first five seasons of his career, McHale missed 14 games in early 1986 due to an injured Achilles tendon in his left ankle, but was healthy in time for the playoffs. Boston rolled through the Eastern Conference, winning 11 of 12 games versus Chicago, Atlanta and Milwaukee.
For the second time in five years, the Celtics faced Houston in the NBA Finals, and Boston won the championship in six games. McHale averaged 25.8 points per game in the finals to lead all scorers.
By his seventh pro season, McHale had rehearsed and refined his low-post moves and had become one of the NBA's most dominant offensive forces, out-leaping, out-spinning and outmaneuvering defender after defender in his "torture chamber". McHale was never better than in the 1986–1987 season, setting career highs in scoring (26.1) and rebounding (9.9). He also became the first player in NBA history to shoot 60 percent or better from the field (60.4%) and 80 percent or better from the free-throw line (83.6%) in the same season. McHale was named to the All-NBA First Team, was named the NBA's best defensive player by the league's coaches, and finished fourth in the Most Valuable Player voting behind Magic Johnson, Michael Jordan, and teammate Larry Bird.
In nine games from February 23 through March 13, 1987, McHale averaged 30.7 points and 10 rebounds per game while shooting 71.7 percent from the floor. During this stretch, McHale scored his season-high in points, 38 versus the Pistons on March 1.
In a win at Chicago on March 27, McHale broke the navicular bone in his right foot. He ignored doctors' advice that the injury could be career-threatening and continued to play. In the playoffs, a hobbled McHale averaged 39 minutes per game and connected on 58 percent of his shots as Boston again won the Eastern Conference title. Boston swept the Bulls in the first round for the second straight year and survived two epic but bruising seven-game series with the Bucks and Pistons. The battered and fatigued Celtics - with not only McHale, but also Parish (two sprained ankles), Ainge (leg injury) and Walton (broken foot) playing hurt - then lost to the Lakers in six games in the 1987 NBA Finals.
Off-season surgery on his injured right foot and ankle forced McHale to sit out the first month of the 1987–1988 season. He scored 22 points in 22 minutes of play in his return to the Celtics on December 1, 1987, versus Atlanta.
Teammate Danny Ainge once called McHale "The Black Hole of the low post", joking that when the basketball was passed inside to McHale it disappeared because he rarely passed it back out to the perimeter. But in a win over the Dallas Mavericks on April 3, 1988, McHale played the role of passer, distributing a career-high 10 assists.