A biography for John Havlicekhasn’t been written yet.
“During the first years of my life, I've been told, I was not a very pleasant child. Crying and sickness were my trademarks. A combination of whooping cough and measles at the same time were almost my downfall.”
“I've played on seven championship teams. That's quite a few considering that some never play on any.”
“I think I could've been successful in most any sport I put my mind to. But I've never regretted playing only basketball.”
“I felt if you were going to play the game, you should be good at all phases.”
“I try to make the best out of every possible situation. Also, I'm an eternal optimist.”
“I know the toughest person in the world to watch is one on the move.”
“The more I move around, usually the better I've felt.”
“Without Fred Taylor I would never have become the player I became. Because he was selling defense and I bought it.”
“Basketball's taken everything out of me and everything given me.”
“It's easy to win a championship but very difficult to defend.”
“For the first few days of my life, I had an identity crisis, because my parents, Frank and Mandy Havlicek, could not decide on a name for me.”
“I never get tired of running. But sometimes I can lose the rhythm on my shots and it will fail short. That's a different type of tiredness. And sometimes I feel loggy at the start of a game and have to work it out, like a sluggish car on the cold morning that has to be warmed up.”
“I have no desire at all to become a head coach.”
“I played 16 years. Not too many people play that long.”
“I don't want to hang around and end up some old geezer who's getting 15 to 18 minutes of playing time with most of that being charity.”
“I couldn't beat anyone one-on-one.”
“The rich don't get richer; the smart get richer. And Red Auerbach is smart.”
“Players often got hung up on being the sixth man because they wanted to start. But it never mattered to me whether I started or not, because minutes and finishing were the most important things.”
“Shooting and playing defense are two entirely different things. If the ball goes in, you're a hero, if it doesn't, well, you're not doing the job.”
“I started hunting with my high school basketball coach.”