The Ever Elusive, Always Inscrutable And Still Incomparable Bobby Orr

For press and public, Eagleson's crime against Orr was best summed up by the pair's final contract negotiation with the Bruins in 1976. Boston offered a multiyear deal that included an 18.5% ownership stake in the team, worth an estimated $49 million today. Though Eagleson made that offer public, Orr insisted that he didn't know about it until years later and, more to the point, believed Eagleson when he said there was a better deal to be gotten with the Chicago Blackhawks—owned, it just so happened, by Eagleson's close friend Bill Wirtz. Such obliviousness seems incredible, but then Orr had known Eagleson for 15 years. "He had total control," Orr said in '90. "He said we were brothers. And I trusted him like a brother."

For his part, Eagleson won't talk about specifics and says, "I wouldn't do anything differently. That's how I was and that's how it is, and in the long haul of life the truth will eventually out."

What's not in dispute is the depth of Orr's trust. Esposito didn't like Eagleson, but Orr wouldn't hear a harsh word against him, and the tension between the teammates became palpable anytime his name came up. One day in the spring of '76, with negotiations at an impasse—Orr would eventually sign a five-year contract with the Blackhawks, but injuries limited him to just 26 games in two seasons—Cherry was alone at one end of the Boston Garden dressing room, fixing a stick for his son, when he noticed Bruins president Paul Mooney walk in and approach Orr as he sat pedaling on an exercise bike.

"Bobby, can I speak to you a minute?" Mooney said, puffing on a pipe.

"F--- off, Paul," Orr replied. "You're trying to drive a wedge between Al and I."

"Just let me talk to you for 30 seconds."

"F--- off. Don't talk to me."

Mooney shook his head and walked out.

"They were going to offer Bobby all that money, 18 percent," Cherry says. "Nope: 'F--- off.' That's how loyal he was to Eagleson. You couldn't convince him. Once he made up his mind? Forget it."

RICK CURRAN first heard the question six years ago, after he became Bobby Orr's business partner. Does Bobby participate? He's got the name, and you guys do all the work, right? Come on, Rick: Is he involved?