When we were in elementary school, recess was the focal point of the day. (Which, years later, may explain a lot of things.) As soon as the bell rang, off to the basketball court we would go. Teams were often pre-picked, so as to not waste any valuable time before we had to go back and learn about phonics.

When we were on the concrete slab outdoor court at St. Joseph School in the early 1970s, we would often pick an NBA player to model after. There were three great NBA teams at the time. One of us was Jerry West because of the Lakers. Another was Walt Frazier, because of the Knicks.

And I was John Havlicek, because of the Celtics. We’d argue about which team was better and which player was better. If one of them had a bad game the night before, we knew that we’d catch grief the next day at school. Havlicek wasn’t as talented as West or Frazier, but he came to play every night and never stopped until it was over.

Seventeen was my favorite number growing up for two reasons — Don Meredith and John Havlicek.

My guy Havlicek died last week and that hurt more than a little bit. In our minds, our childhood heroes never grow old. He’s still wearing #17, running around the Boston Garden. But in reality, he was 79 and had Parkinson’s Disease.

That just doesn’t seem possible.

John Havlicek was a great player in two different Celtic eras. He was a member of the Bill Russell Celtics in the 1960s and when all those players moved on, there was Havlicek still going strong alongside Jo Jo White and Dave Cowens. He was an eight-time NBA champion, one of only four players to win as many. He led the Celtics to the 1976 title when he was 36. To this day, he is still the all-time leading scorer in Boston history.

The Celtics had great players before John Havlicek and had great players after John Havlicek.

But there were none like him.