Michael Connelly has Boston in his blood. Born and raised in West Roxbury – where he still lives – the former Bentley baseball player also carries sports close to his heart. These twin passions jump off the pages of his two books: the marathon chronicle 26 Miles to Boston (1998) and Rebound! Basketball, Busing, Larry Bird, and the Rebirth of Boston, which hit bookshelves in December 2008. The latter chronicles life on and off the parquet during the 1970s, when court-mandated busing of Boston public schoolchildren polarized the city.
Q: When did you start writing?
I was a business communication major at Bentley, so there was some writing involved with that. [Professor or English] Barbara Paul-Emile was one of my favorite teachers. But the passion didn’t really bubble up until after college, when I got into writing and did my first book – which got my foot in the door of the publishing world. I also do some blogging for the Boston Herald.
Q: But you also have a “regular” job?
I’m a vice president at Stoneham Bank in Stoneham, Mass. I got a foundation in business and numbers from Bentley. That’s the day job, while writing is a lot of fun and a passion of mine. I’m very fortunate to be able to do both.
Q: Your new book opens by describing an incident on the subway, when you were caught in the middle of a racial exchange and had a gun pointed at you. What did that moment mean for you?
I went to a parochial school, so my family was pretty much insulated from what was going on. When you saw racial incidents or buses being stoned, it seemed like any other event on the news – no different from Lebanon and other problems going on in the world at that time. The subway incident was tangible evidence that busing was affecting everyone who lived in Boston. It brought the issues home for me and for the Connelly household.
Q: What’s the connection between busing and the Celtics?
The crux of the book is that Bostonians look to the Celtics as an outlet: a symbol of why they’re special. During the Seventies, not only did you have the busing crisis embarrassing the city, but later in the decade the Celtics weren’t winning. Even though the team had only three or four years of decline, it hurt that much more, because people were desperate for an outlet and the Celtics didn’t provide it.
Q: Why did busing encounter such resistance?
Busing was viewed by some as an extreme remedy for the racial imbalance of Boston Public Schools. The schools were in violation of both the Massachusetts 1965 Racial Imbalance Act and the Supreme Court’s 1954 Brown v. Board of Education ruling, which held that “separate educational facilities are inherently unequal.” When the Boston School Committee and city politicians failed to comply with these rulings, the task of finding a solution fell to the courts and one federal judge. That solution -- mandated busing of students to achieve integration – was seen as violating the natural right of parents to protect and choose what’s best for their children.
Q: Bill Russell had a rocky off-the-court experience while playing for the Celtics. Has the climate for African American players in Boston changed since then?
Tom Heinsohn’s quote on the back of my book says it all: “A nearly all-black Celtic team just won a championship, and all of Boston cheered.” Boston is forever a blue-collar town, and people will embrace anyone who is sincere and works hard, whether that’s Mo Vaughn, David Ortiz, or Larry Bird. Kevin Garnett is a love affair right now. Russell went through a very difficult time here. He suffered a lot of the consequences of a city that was struggling to find its identity. You don’t have to look any further than the last presidential election to see that Boston and the country continue to evolve.
Q: What are some of your memories of Larry Bird’s arrival in Boston?
Seeing him play for Indiana State on national television – his passing work, his team spirit, his dives on the floor – I thought he really embodied what we love in Boston. Then he arrived and rescued the Celtics with the greatest turnaround in NBA history in 1979-1980, and it’s the same thing: He makes people around him better, pushes himself, and exceeds what he should be able to do. He can’t run, he can’t jump – but he’s got double-digit rebounds and steals. So Bird, for me, was idol worship at its best or worst, however you want to put it.
Q: You interviewed around 50 people for this book. Are there a few who stand out as especially memorable?
[Former Celtic] Gerald Henderson was great. I tell the story in the book’s preface of how I conducted the entire interview with him while standing at an ATM in a bank lobby, transcribing the discussion on the back of deposit envelopes with a pen chained to the countertop. Henderson heard all of those beeps in the background from people using the machines. I also had a breakfast with four prominent black leaders – Deputy Mayor Clarence “Jeep” Jones, the Reverend Michael Haynes, civic leader Paul Parks, and South Boston High School Assistant Headmaster Al Holland – that was spectacular. For a white Irish kid from West Roxbury to sit and get a perspective that I didn’t fully understand was really special.
Q: Has the experience of going to a Celtics game changed for you over the years?
When I talked to Pat Williams, the general manager of the 76ers, he said you could smell the passion coming out of the parquet floor at the old Boston Garden. It was old and grungy and didn’t have any of today’s luxuries, but there was something special and community-like about the building. To sit in the first balcony and look over the floor . . . there were no better seats in sports. Now we’ve gone to a somewhat sterile arena where only the highest level of winning brings passion to the space. Fortunately, we got this gift of last year. It’s the second resurrection of the Celtics or maybe the third. Auerbach took over in the 1950s and brought the team back to life, then Bird showed up in 1979, and now here we are with Kevin Garnett and Ray Allen and Paul Pierce.
Q: Do you like the team’s chances for a repeat championship this season?
I did wonder if veterans, after winning their rings, could keep up the intensity. But it appears that they’re going to compete again. We could have another Celtics–Lakers three- or four-year period of competition, which would be great.