Robert Parish on why his sacrifice helped make the Boston Celtics champs

Much like the Boston Celtics of today, the "Original Big Three" era of the Celtics also had to have some of their best players make sacrifices on their individual games to reach their highest heights. And for that era, the man who took the proverbial shortest straw was Hall of Fame Boston big man Robert Parish.

Chief opened up about that dynamic in an interview with HoopsHype reporter Sam Yip. Asked if he had a problem with sacrificing some of his game for the good of the Celtics, Parish gave a qualified reply. "I would have had a problem with it had we not been winning," he answered. "The formula was not a successful formula had we been struggling."

"The inconsistencies and a lot of locker room in-fighting, I would not have been happy and content with my role because I didn't have to take less," he continued. "I chose to take less for my teammates, DJ (Dennis Johnson) and Danny Ainge wanted to be a more important and significant part of the team."

"And so in order for that to happen, one of us - between the three of us, Larry (Bird), Kevin (McHale), and myself - somebody had to make some sacrifices."

"And Larry and Kevin, I knew it wasn't going to come from them. There was no way that was happening. So I had the lesser of the three egos. And so, it turned out to be a good thing because we were very successful. And we didn't have any malcontents on the team. And I think that would have created tension in the locker room had I not taken this."

"I don't think we would have been as successful because we wouldn't have been a close unit," suggested Parish.

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This article originally appeared on Celtics Wire: Robert Parish on why his sacrifice helped make the Boston Celtics champs