Robert Parish is an American retired basketball center. He was known for his strong defense, his high arcing jump shooting, and his clutch rebounding late in games. He was elected to the Basketball Hall of Fame in 2003. In 1996, Parish was also named as one of the 50 Greatest Players in NBA History. His nickname was The Chief, after the fictitious Chief Bromden, a silent, giant Native American character in the film One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest. According to Parish, former Celtics forward Cedric Maxwell gave him this nickname because of his stoic nature. He played an NBA-record 1,611 regular season games in his career.
"One-on-One with Robert Parish" https://web.archive.org/web/19990508215339/http://www.nba.com/history/parish_chat_060396.html, NBA.com (1998).
Quoted in Trust Your Next Shot: A Guide to a Life of Joy by Meadowlark Lemon (Ascend Books, 2010), p. III https://books.google.it/books?id=_UT_2hRSc9wC&pg=PR3.
