Dave Cowens’ 1980 Retirement and 1982 Comeback
I subscribe to Bob Kuska’s From Way Downtown website in my feed reader. The site re-prints old NBA and basketball articles, usually with a brief introduction by Mr. Kuska. On February 15, 2026, he re-printed the retirement article of NBA great and Baskteball Hall of Fame inductee Dave Cowens, which had been published by several Boston newspapers in October 1980. Mr. Cowens had played for the Celtics for 11 seasons, winning the 1972-73 NBA MVP award, making seven NBA All Star teams, and helping lead the Celtics to the 1973-74 and 1975-76 NBA championships.1
Mr. Cowens, who turned 32 in October 1980, decided to retire before the 1980-81 season after concluding that years of foot, ankle, and leg injuries rendered him unable to perform at the level he expected of himself. He was coming off a solid 1979-80 campaign in which he averaged 14 points and 8 rebounds in 66 games and was named to the NBA All Star Team and All NBA Defense Second Team for a 61-21 Celtics squad.2
As it turned out, Mr. Cowens’ playing career did not conclude in October 1980. As Mr. Kuska writes, “Cowens, of course, came out of retirement to play one season (1982-83) for the Bucks.” Regular New Leaf Journal readers may already be aware of Mr. Cowens’ brief comeback with the Milwaukee Bucks. On January 27, 2026, I published an article listing every instance wherein an NBA player won a regular season MVP award or made an All NBA Team with one franchise, and was active in the NBA playing for a different franchise when the franchise he or she won MVP or made an All NBA Team with won a championship (see NBA Champions After Losing MVPs/All NBA Players). As I noted, Mr. Cowens won the 1972-73 NBA MVP award with the Celtics. The Celtics won the 1980-81 championship. But as I explained, I would not count Mr. Cowens in my survey:
Dave Cowens won the 1972-73 NBA MVP award, also with the Boston Celtics (curiously he was only named to the All NBA Second Team while winning MVP). Mr. Cowens spent ten seasons with the Celtics from 1970-71 through 1979-80 before retiring at age 31. In 1982-83, Mr. Cowens returned from a two year retirement, appearing in 40 games and starting 34 for the Milwaukee Bucks before retiring for the second time after the season. The Celtics won the 1980-81 Championship after Mr. Cowens’ first retirement, but they were eliminated by Mr. Cowens’ Bucks in the first round of the 1982-83 playoffs (Mr. Cowens did not play in the playoffs due to injury)…
While I had already known before writing my recent NBA survey that Mr. Cowens came out of retirement to play one season for the Milwaukee Bucks (meaning you will not find this fact on my year-end list of things I learned in 2026), I did not know much about the brief comeback. Having recently referenced it in my article and seen it referenced in an external article, I decided to read up on Mr. Cowens’ Milwaukee Bucks tenure.
I found exactly the article I was looking for by “Professor Parquet” for Celtics Blog. Published on September 5, 2015, The unusual 1982 trade of the retired Dave Cowens is a long-form look at Mr. Cowens’ 1980 retirement and 1982 comeback, complete with an assessment of how it ended up affecting both the Celtics and the Bucks. But I would not be writing this article to go over the Cowens comeback that was, for that is covered well elsewhere.
Dave Cowens Apparently Considered Returning to the NBA in 1995
I share with you something new I learned in Professor Parquet’s history: A Cowens comeback that almost was:
Cowens retired for good after the 1982-83 season. However, as an assistant with the injury-riddled Spurs a dozen years later, Dave almost made another comeback, but decided against it at the last minute.
I knew about the Cowens comeback with Milwaukee. I also knew that Mr. Cowens had been a coach (he was the Head Coach of the Charlotte Hornets (today’s New Orleans Pelicans) when I first started following the NBA in 1997). But I had never read that he thought about coming back as a player for the San Antonio Spurs in 1995.
Now here is a story that warrants an investigation. While I did not doubt Professor Parquet, the Cowens essay did not include a source for the assertion that he considered playing in 1995.
As a threshold matter, the Spurs had hired Bob Hill as their head coach in the 1994 off-season, and he remained their Coach until early in the 1996-97 season.3 Mr. Hill filled out his staff with three assistants. One of those assistants was Dave Cowens. UPI reported on the Spurs’ assistant coach hires on August 31, 1994.
I tried some different search queries on DuckDuckGo and came across a March 15, 1995 report by the Associated Press, syndicated to the Seattle Times. The report, headlined Cowens Considering Comeback With Spurs, had the story:
Hall of Fame center Dave Cowens may make another comeback from retirement and join the San Antonio Spur roster for the playoffs, Spur Coach Bob Hill says.
As the AP noted, the Spurs were, as of March 15, 1995, clearly playoff-bound. They had defeated the Minnesota Timberwolves the night before and had a strong 42-18 record. The Spurs were led by David Robinson, who would go on to win his one and only NBA MVP award, just like Spurs assistant coach Dave Cowens had 22 years prior. But if things were going so well for the Spurs, why would their Head Coach be kicking around the idea of having Mr. Cowens trade his suit for a jersey 12 years after he had last appeared in an NBA game? Let us return to the AP report:
Cowens, 46, is an assistant coach for the Spurs and said he does not expect to play this season but acknowledged it is possible if injured backup center Moses Malone remains on the injured list with a ruptured tendon.
Moses Malone is another name we have seen in some of my NBA research articles. While Mr. Cowens just missed appearing in my article of players who won the NBA MVP award for one franchise and were active for a different franchise when the won the original team won a championship, Malone was one of just four MVPs to make the list. Clipping from my NBA MVP survey:
The late Moses Malone won the 1978-78 and 1981-82 NBA MVPs with the Houston Rockets … Mr. Malone remained a starter in the NBA through 1990-91, and he played through the 1994-95 season (19 NBA seasons and 21 between the NBA and former ABA). The Houston Rockets won the 1993-94 and 1994-95 NBA Championships while Malone was a member of the 76ers (second stint) in 93-94 and of the San Antonio Spurs in 94-95…
Malone was playing in his 21st professional season in 1994-95, and, as I noted, his first MVP season coincided with Mr. Cowens’ penultimate (and player-coach) season with the Celtics. At the time, Malone was also just one of five active players who had been active when Mr. Cowens played his last game with the Celtics in 1980.4 Suffice it to say, Malone, who the Spurs had intended to back up David Robinson, was in the twilight of his Hall of Fame career. As the AP noted, Malone was out with an injury as of March 15, 1995. I decided to investigate the injury. To that effect, I found a January 12, 1995 report in UPI:5
Jan. 12 — San Antonio Spurs veteran center Moses Malone may need surgery to repair a ruptured tendon in his right leg. ‘It’s hard to say how long he will be out,’ said Spurs coach Bob Hill.
According to UPI, Malone had most recently suited up on December 27, 1994, when he scored six points coming off the bench, “including a shot from well beyond half court as the quarter buzzer went off” (his eighth career three-pointer). In those 17 games, “Malone is averaging 2.9 points and 2.7 rebounds in 17 games with the Spurs this year while serving as a backup to All-Star David Robinson.” We know that Malone had not returned to the floor as of March 15, 1995, although the report implies that Coach Bob Hill had some hope that Malone could make it back for the playoffs. Alas, that hope was not to be. As Malone’s 1994-95 game log reveals, he did not play again after December 27, 1994, and that proved to be the final game of his Hall of Fame NBA career.
As we know looking back, Mr. Cowens did not in fact suit up for the Spurs. But I was curious if I could find any additional information about the Cowens comeback idea, especially anything that would support “Professor Parquet’s” assertion that Mr. Cowens was actually close to coming back and only decided against it at the last minute. Unfortunately, there does not seem to be much out there that is accessible through regular web searches.
Mr. Hill’s suggestion that Mr. Cowens may return to the NBA to replace Moses Malone was also noted in the March 15, 1995 edition of The New York Times, but the Times merely referenced the same AP report we already examined.
The most interesting reference I found was in a March 22, 1995 report in the Herald-Journal headlined NBA veteran Parish quiet leader of the hive. Mr. Parish was the second longest-tenured NBA player in the 1994-95 season behind Mr. Malone, having joined the NBA in 1976-77. He was serving as backup to star Hornets center Alonzo Mourning. While this article is about Mr. Parish, it included an aside about Mr. Cowens just one week after the AP report:
If 46-year-old Dave Cowens doesn’t make good on his vow to play for the San Antonio Spurs down the stretch, one appearance next season will make Parish the oldest man ever to play in the NBA.6
It is unclear from the articles I found whether anything happened between Bob Hill’s suggesting on March 15, 1995, that Mr. Cowens might come out of retirement, and the assertion in the March 22, 1995 article that Mr. Cowens had indicated that he intended to play.
By April 20, 1995, we can safely infer that whatever plans may have been in the works for Mr. Cowens had been forgotten. Tom Friend of The New York Times authored a report headlined A Nonconformist in a League of His Own, which covered Dennis Rodman’s tumultuous relationship with the Spurs and his return from injury as the playoffs approached.7 From Mr. Friend’s report:
They need [Rodman] so dearly, that Popovich asked Rodman on March 19 whether Cowens, an old biker from the 1960’s, could ride with Rodman and his motorcycle gang. The Spurs were in search of communication, at any level, but Cowens ended up communicating only with an ambulance after Rodman was injured with a separated shoulder.
Mr. Cowens acknowledged that Mr. Rodman was difficult from the Spurs’ perspective:
He’s back and he’s a great player, but he’s a pain. I mean, we’re thinking, ‘Does he like us?’ It just brings that tension which to me is unnecessary.
But while this article referenced Mr. Cowens’ motorcycle outing with Mr. Rodman8 and his thoughts on the Spurs’ eccentric power forward, we find no reference to the possibility of Mr. Cowens joining Mr. Rodman on the court with the playoffs fast-approaching.
The Spurs entered the playoffs with a league-best 62-20 record, ensuring that they would have home court advantage in every series. They defeated the Denver Nuggets and Los Angeles Lakers (the Lakers series came up in my article on negative-SRS playoff teams) in the first two rounds before being upset by the defending and eventual champion Houston Rockets in the Western Conference Finals.
Assessing the Story
I found corroboration for Professor Parquet’s assertion that Mr. Cowens discussed returning to the NBA with the Spurs in 1995. However, I was not able to find any concrete evidence that he actually came close to making a comeback. As reported on March 15, 1995, Coach Bob Hill broached the idea and Mr. Cowens did not rule it out while leaving open the possibility. While I did find a March 22, 1995 article published one week later stating that Mr. Cowens had “vowed” to return, it is unclear whether Mr. Cowens had said anything between March 15 and March 22 to support that strong statement.
Based on what I was able to find and my own intuition, I find it unlikely that Mr. Cowens came close to returning to the NBA in 1995. I present my reasoning for your consideration:
- As reported by the AP, Mr. Cowens himself said he did not expect to play.
- Coach Hill apparently suggested that Mr. Cowens could return to replace Moses Malone. As of March 15, 1995, Moses Malone had been out of action for more than two months. He had only played 149 minutes in the 17 games, topping out at 21 minutes in a November 26, 1995 loss to the Suns.
- One could fairly argue that the Spurs should have signed additional backup center, but the only roster move the Spurs made after Moses Malone’s final game was signing point guard Howard Eisely (who went on to have a long career) to two ten-day contracts (first on February 26, 1995) before signing him for the rest of the season on March 18, 1995.
- Mr. Cowens had initially retired in the 1980-81 preseason due to the effects of injuries and general wear and tear. In his comeback season in 1982-83, he put up decent numbers while starting 34 out of 40 games, but he declined in all statistical metrics compared to 1979-80, much less his peak in the early-to-mid 70s. Mr. Cowens missed half of the regular season and all of the playoffs in 1982-83, recalling his reasoning for retiring in in 1980, and prompting his second retirement.
- It seems not only likely, but wholly implausible, that Mr. Cowens would have been able to make a positive on-court contribution to the Spurs, even in limited backup minutes. He was 46 years old and more than a decade removed from his most recent game. He missed more than half of his his age-34 final season with injuries, and he performed at what could be described statistically at a borderline starter level in that season.
Note that my assessment that Mr. Cowens would not have been able to help the Spurs on the court is no slight to Mr. Cowens. I am inclined to doubt that there are any examples of NBA players who would have been able to be productive, even in limited minutes, at age-46.9 But to the extent such rare cases may exist or have existed, someone who determined that he had nothing physically more to give at 34 would not be my most likely candidate. As I once recalled Charles Barkely having said about the prospect of Scottie Pippen making an NBA comeback in 2006 or 2007, “you retired ‘cause you can’t play no more!”
Suffice it to say, assuming Mr. Cowens seriously considered a comeback, I think he made the right call in staying on the sidelines and working toward his first non-player head coaching job, which came with the Hornets in 1996-97. But just for fun, I looked for any stories I could find about Mr. Cowens engaging in any activities in 1994-95 that would have suggested a possible NBA comeback. The closest I could find was September 24, 1994 reference to a Jackie MacMullan report on Dave Cowens running an optional off-season camp for Spurs players as an assistant coach:
David Robinson missed out because he was in Mexico filming a commercial, and Dennis Rodman wasn’t there because he was on Mars.
Jackie MacMullan
Dave Cowens stayed on the sidelines and missed out on an unprecedented return to the hardwood.
Concluding Note
If anyone is aware of any other news or anecdotes about the 1995 Dave Cowens return chatter, please send me an email or drop a comment in the Guestbook. I would be happy to credit any tips in an addendum or follow-up post.
Footnotes
1. Mr. Cowens served as player-coach for 68 games in the 1978-79 season. To date, he is the last NBA player-coach (I suspect he will hold that distinction for the foreseeable future).
2. That Celtics squad was led by the NBA’s 1979-80 Rookie of the Year, Larry Bird (talk about a one-hit wonder).
3. Spurs General Manager Gregg Popovich, who had assumed that role beginning with the 1994-95 season, fired Mr. Hill after a 3-15 start in the 1996-97 season. To be fair to Mr. Hill, the Spurs had been without their superstar center and 1994-95 NBA MVP David Robinson for the entirety of their 3-15 start. Gregg Popovich decided to hire himself as Coach. Mr. Robinson appeared in Mr. Popovich’s first six games (Spurs went 3-3) before not playing again that season. The Spurs finished 20-62, won the NBA Draft Lottery, and selected Tim Duncan with the first overall pick in the 1997 NBA Draft.
4. The others (according to my manual, team-by-team search) were Bill Cartwright, James Edwards, Robert Parish, and Tree Rollins. Mr. Parish is notable (and will appear later in this article) because he replaced Mr. Cowens as the Celtics’ starting center in 1980-81, and spent most of his Hall of Fame career with the Celtics (1980-81 through 1993-94).
5. If you read the UPI article, you will see that it refers to Malone as “19-year veteran.” I said he was in his 21st professional season. We are both right. He was playing in his 19thNBA season, but prior to joining the NBA he had played two seasons in the defunct ABA. As UPI noted, Malone was the last former ABA player in the NBA.
6. Mr. Parish would play two more seasons, appearing in his final game on May 11, 1997, at 43 years and 254 days. While that was the NBA record, it is worth noting that Nat Hickey appeared in two BAA games in 1948, being 45 years and 363 days in his second and final appearance on January 28 (the BAA, which was active from 1946-47 through 1948-49, was one of the two predecessor leagues to the NBA and the NBA was formed by the merger of the BAA and NBL (the Boston Celtics, New York Knicks, and Philadelphia (now Golden State) Warriors were all inaugural season BAA teams). Limiting ourselves to NBA only, Mr. Parish’s record was broken by Kevin Willis, who appeared in 5 games for the Dallas Mavericks in 2006-07 (the 2006-07 Mavericks featured in my article on record vs scoring margin) and was 44 years and 224 days old in his final appearance on April 18, 2007. Thus, Mr. Cowens would have been the record-holder had he appeared in a game in 1995. See list of oldest NBA players on Wikipedia.
7. I referenced the events which led to Mr. Rodman being traded to the Spurs in a prior article.
8. See an April 27, 2020 article titled Dave Cowens: When Dennis Rodman ‘hit’ the road for a more detailed account of the time Mr. Cowens joined Mr. Rodman for an ill-fated motorcycle adventure.
9. The late great Wilt Chamberlain floated comeback ideas throughout his 40s and even as he approached age 50. The Nets apparently made an offer when Chamberlain was 49. Chamberlain was still an elite player in his age-36 final season in 1972-73, continued his athletic and body-building endeavors in retirement, and was still very big. But even there I am inclined to doubt he would have had much to offer an NBA team in his mid-to-late 40s.
