Today is Day 17 of the Omer. Tife’ret sheb’tif’eret. Balance & beauty.

Today’s player is an 8x NBA Champion, 8x member of the All-Defensive team, and 13x All-Star. John “Hondo” Havlicek was a well-rounded Hall of Famer, who grew from a rookie hanging his hat on defense to retiring as the Boston Celtics all-time leading scorer at 26,395 points (a record he still holds to this day). 

Hondo played 16 years, averaging 20.8 points, 6.3 rebounds, and 4.8 assists and in Game 7 of the 1965 Eastern Conference Finals, he stole the ball and ended the game and series.

Havlicek went from being the 6th man on the great Celtics title teams in the 60’s, to one of its stars, in the 1970s. In 1973-74, he averaged 26.4 points and 7.7 rebounds to become Finals MVP as the Celtics brought home their first championship since the retirement of Bill Russell. Havlicek is the choice on Day 17, tif’eret sheb’tif’eret, because his balance manifested in balance. In the words of Celtic great Bill Russell (Day 6: The Tzadik), Havlicek was “the best all-around player I ever saw.”

Take some time and listen to the Legend, Tommy Heinsohn, reflecting on Josh Havlicek.