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The Basketball Robber. Donovan wasted little time putting Snyder's frozen-food fortune (Freezer Queen Foods Inc.) to work. During his first three years he drafted, and quickly signed to contracts each worth $2 million plus, Elmore Smith, McAdoo and DiGregorio. With McAdoo out of position his first year as a forward, Donovan traded Smith to the Lakers in exchange for McMillian. Subsequently, McAdoo blossomed into a topflight, mobile center. Heard, also picked up in a trade, gave the Braves the third member of a whippet-quick front line. Yet Donovan was still not satisfied. In January, "the basketball robber," as Donovan is called by envious competitors, traded for Marin and Matt Goukas.
Jack Ramsay turned Donovan's raw material into a contender. The offensive firepower of the Braves persuaded Ramsay to set aside any notions of turning his team into a top defensive club. "I've had to alter my theories on defense," he says. "To be defensive, you need a physically tough center and toughness at other positions. We can't be tough with DiGregorio at guard and McAdoo at center. Instead, we outrun and outshoot our opponents." When that is not working, Ramsay outyells them. He is the champion head rubber and tantrum thrower in the N.B.A., collecting. an average of one technical foul every other game.
In the first round of the playoffs, the Braves will face the best running team in basketball, the Boston Celtics. Until last month, Buffalo had lost 22 straight games to Boston. But that was before the pivotal trade for Marin and Goukas. Since then the Braves have defeated the Celtics two out of three times, taken two of three from New York, and stunned Milwaukee 145-109. "We can play anybody," boasts the bullish Ramsay, "and beat anybody." Besides, if the Braves fail this year, there is no telling whom Eddie Donovan will add to the lineup next fall.