He entered public consciousness as a high school basketball star and has created a brand that, in his 90s, has included the awarding of the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the placing of a statue outside Worcester’s DCU Center, and the naming of a public thoroughfare in his honor. With the full blessing of Governor Maura Healey, a fully paid-up member of the Bob Cousy Fan Club, you can now go to Worcester and put yourself on “Bob Cousy Pass.”

Get Starting Point

A guide through the most important stories of the morning, delivered Monday through Friday.

In July, a ceremony, attended by Governor Maura Healey, was held at Holy Cross to dedicate “Bob Cousy Pass” to the Celtics legend.John Tlumacki/Globe Staff

You also can have a toast in his honor because on Sunday Bob Cousy turns 98.

“I’m in double overtime,” he jokes.

The good news is that, though he is wheelchair-bound, he is in full command of his mental powers. He is as irreverent and funny as ever.

“The fact is he keeps up to date with just about every development, whether it’s politics or the Celtics,” says former Suffolk University men’s basketball coach and athletic director Jim Nelson, an early Cousy Boston College recruit who is one of the many Cousy players to have kept close touch over the years.

Cousy spent six seasons coaching BC after retiring from the Celtics in 1963. His record was 114-38 and he took the Eagles to two NCAA Tournaments, and two NITs when that still meant something. It’s where a certain awestruck student radio play-by-play broadcaster from New Jersey first established a relationship with a legitimate idol. But we digress.

You can’t exaggerate Cousy’s role in basketball history. He was a freshman bench player for a Holy Cross NCAA championship team in 1946-47. He then became a national sensation who electrified basketball fans with a flamboyant — but always efficient — style of play. If he didn’t introduce the behind-the-back dribble and behind-the-back pass, he perfected them and became synonymous with them.

Says Nelson, “You’d be in a pickup game and if you threw a behind-the-back pass, someone would yell, ‘Who do you think you are? Cousy?’ ” I can assure you that the same things were taking place in Trenton, Toledo, Tulsa, and Tacoma. Everyone knew who Bob Cousy was in the 1950s and ’60s.

Bob Cousy was the godfather of all modern point guards. He led the NBA in assists eight consecutive seasons. Keep in mind that in his day there were no bogus assists on 25-foot 3-pointers. An “assist” was something leading to a layup. And no one was his equal in the matter of long, lead “touchdown” passes. He was the maestro in running a fast break.

Oh, and he’d stick his 20 points a night, too.

All this led to 13 All-Star Game appearances, two All-Star Game MVPs, and the 1956-57 MVP award. But these accolades aren’t what mean the most to him.

Among his many awards, Bob Cousy twice was named MVP of the NBA All-Star Game.John M. Hurley/Globe Staff

“Winning six championships is right up there,” he asserts.

The Cooz is neither vain nor naive. He knows who was most responsible for his six and the Celtics’ first 11 titles. There was this guy named Russell . . .

“The Boston Celtics were known all over the world,” Cousy says. “We were accepted as the gold standard of the sport. And all that is because of a guy named Bill Russell. There’s no question about that.”

There also is no question that the pre-Russell Celtics were struggling in a hockey town and were being kept afloat by their point guard by the time Russell arrived in 1956. ”The Celtics wouldn’t be here without him,” team owner Walter Brown said at the time.

The ultimate Cousy legacy will reflect a man with a great social conscience, who, as Healey says, “has handed out many metaphorical assists along the way.” This would include staunch support of Black teammate Chuck Cooper, when the latter encountered classic Southern segregation problems during an exhibition season. It also would include his going to bat for all his contemporaries by becoming the first president of the National Basketball Players Association. And among his charitable endeavors was his long-standing fight to combat cystic fibrosis.

You might legitimately include “International Ambassador of Basketball” to his honorary titles. He and Red Auerbach made multiple trips abroad to spread the hoop gospel, one result being that he and Auerbach became more than just coach and point guard. “Those trips changed our relationship,” Cousy acknowledges.

It must be pointed out that Cousy invariably referred to Auerbach as “Arnold,” Red’s wife, Dot, being the only other person to do so. But that was just Cousy being Cousy.

Don’t forget Cousy’s Celtics announcing career. His banter with Gil Santos was priceless. My favorite moments came when the Celtics were playing any team employing journeyman center Benoit Benjamin. The Cooz would tap into his French heritage and regale us with his evaluation of “Ben-Wah” Benjamin.

Another endearing Cousy legacy is his 80-year love affair with the city of Worcester. He entered Holy Cross in 1946 and he has never lived anywhere else. He has lived in the same house now for many decades. That made for many pre-turnpike trips on Route 9 with fellow Crusader and Celtic Tom Heinsohn, for one thing. The city earned his gratitude, among other things, “by protecting my two daughters and not making them be ‘Bob Cousy’s daughters’ in school.”

That the Cooz is the NBA’s longest-living icon is downright symbolic. It has certainly not gone unnoticed in the league office.

Closing honors go to NBA commissioner Adam Silver: “Bob Cousy represents the foundation of NBA basketball and is one of the true pioneers of our league. He has the unique perspective of someone who has witnessed the NBA’s evolution from its earliest days into the global game it is. From a personal standpoint I cherish our friendship and how engaged he has remained with our league. There are very few people in the basketball community who are as universally respected and admired as Bob.”

So there you go. All together now, “We love ya, Cooz!”

Bob Ryan can be reached at robert.ryan@globe.com.