Bob Cousy Wants to See Celtics Win NBA Finals Before He Dies: '1 Foot in the Grave'

Bob Cousy has been alive for all 17 of the Boston Celtics' NBA championships and says he does not want to die without seeing No. 18.

"I'm 95 [expletive] years old with one foot in the grave and I can barely move," Cousy told Dan Shaughnessy of the Boston Globe. "I know I'm in overtime. So everything in your life becomes more meaningful. And one of the last things I want to be able to see is for the Celtics to hang up banner No. 18."

The Celtics hold a 2-0 lead over the Dallas Mavericks heading into Wednesday night's Game 3 matchup. Two more wins, and Boston would break a tie with the Los Angeles Lakers for the most titles in NBA history.

"I will take great pride in seeing this," Cousy said. "This puts us back ahead of the Lakers. To have been a part of that is as good a legacy as I could hope for."

Cousy said the Celtics' key to beating the Mavericks has been exposing Kyrie Irving's fall from superstar status.

"The Celtics have exposed Kyrie Irving as not quite a superstar," said Cousy. "He has been severely subdued. They're not even trapping him a lot. They're doing it one-on-one. Kyrie's working his ass off and they're still stopping most of his stuff. He's no longer in the superstar category. You've got to function in the playoffs to determine where you are in the hierarchy."

Irving has scored just 28 points through the first two games of the Finals, shooting a ghastly 13-of-37 from the field. He was coming off a stellar conference finals performance that saw him score 30 points in three of five games against the Minnesota Timberwolves.

Of course, a Celtics lifer like Cousy almost certainly has no love lost for Irving, who spent two seasons in Boston from 2017 to 2019.