Bobby Jones was the best member of the Sixers off the bench.
The Celtics countered with Kevin McHale. Jones won the first Sixth Man of The Year award in 1983. McHale countered by winning the next two Sixth Man awards.
Eventually of course McHale would earn a starting position with the Celtics. He would go on to become one of the most creative low-post offensive players in league history. Utilizing his long arms and broad shoulders McHale's arsenal featured numerous ball and head fakes all designed to get his defender off balance and open a small space for McHale to get the ball into the basket.
In 1982, he was the first man off the bench for Boston and was the team's third leading scorer in the postseason.
In retirement McHale has remained heavily involved in NBA Basketball.
First he returned to his home state of Minnesota and was hired by the Timberwolves as a special assistant and television analyst.
That eventually led to a string of promotions. McHale eventually would ascend to president of Basketball Operations. When the Timberwolves head coaching position was vacant in 2005 he stepped in as interim head coach. McHale would go back to his VP of Basketball Operations role but eventually would return to the bench as head coach for most of the 2008-09 season.
McHale's Timberwolves teams never played great basketball. Part of that was of course limited talent. That didn't change the way that McHale was evaluated by owner Glen Taylor. Taylor let McHale go following the 2008-09 season. McHale took a job as a television analyst for TNT often appearing in the studio to offer up his insight.
The temptation to coach in the NBA was too strong to keep McHale on the sidelines for too long. On June 1, 2011 McHale became head coach of the Houston Rockets. They currently sport a 21-17 record and in the playoffs were to begin today the Rockets would claim the No. 8 seed in the Western Conference.
