For more than five decades, Boston has taken pride in its NBA team, symbolized by the color green and a winking leprechaun. With more title banners hanging from its rafters than any other team in the NBA, fans have often had a good reason to take pride. With its ups and downs, disappointments, dramas and emotionally-charged comebacks, the history of the Boston Celtics has been a ride to remember.
Beginnings
The Boston Celtics were born on June 6, 1946 as part of the Basketball Association of America. Original owner Walter Brown hired John "Honey" Russell as the team's first coach, and the first game played out on November 5th of that same year, featuring a 57 to 55 loss to the Chicago Stags and the first broken backboard in the professional history of the game (courtesy of Boston's own Chuck Connors). Its first four seasons were a losing struggle which saw league's 1949 merger with its rival league, the National Basketball League, to become one of the first 17 teams in the National Basketball Association. The fist six seasons of the league's history, new coach Red Auerbach led the team consistently towards the top of the NBA's Eastern Division, but they fell short of the title each year.
The First Dynasty
Soon after Auerbach's acquisition of Bob Cousy, he sent off All-Star Ed Macauley to acquire Tommy Heinsohn and the legendary Bill Russell. They won their first title by beating the St. Louis Hawks in seven games in 1957. They lost the next year's NBA Finals to the same team, then proceeded to win eight championships in a row, many of which were played against their new rivals, the Minneapolis Lakers. Other prominent Celtics members in this period included John Havlicek, Sam Jones and Bill Sharman. When Auerbach's retired after the 1966 season and became the team's General Manager, Russell took over both on the court and as the first African American coach in any professional sport, and proceeded to win two more titles before retiring in 1969, signaling an end to the NBA's most dominant dynasty.
The Second Dynasty
After several rebuilding years, the Celtics, coached by Tommy Heinsohn, were back on top again when they won the 1974 NBA Finals, beating Kareem Abdul-Jabbar's Milwaukee Bucks for their twelfth title. Two years later, another title was won in a legendary triple-overtime defeat of the Phoenix Suns in the 1976 NBA Finals. The seasons immediately before, between and after the two championship years were also successful, but felt short of the title. The end of the second dynasty coincided with the retirement of John Havlicek, the team's All-Time leading scorer, in 1978.
The Larry Bird Era
After several years of rebuilding and weathering a stormy dispute between Auerbach and new owner John Y. Brown, Larry Bird arrived on the Celtics roster in the 1979-80 season, leading the team to a record 32-game improvement on the season (ending 61-21 before losing in the Eastern Conference Finals). With the help of new recruits Robert Parish, M.L. Carr, Gerald Henderson, Rick Robey, Chris Ford, Nate Archibald, and the coaching of Bill Fitch, named NBA Coach of the Year in 1980, the Celtics rose again, beating both Julius Erving's Philadelphia team and Moses Malone's Houston crew to take home the 1981 championship banner. K.C. Jones took over as head coach in 1983. After a frustrating three-year hiatus from the Finals, the Celtics returned against the Lakers in 1984 and won their fifteenth title, then again against the Houston Rockets in 1986 as Larry Bird took home his third straight MVP award. After the subsequent losses of second-round draft pick Len Bias to a cocaine overdose, Bill Walton to a foot injury, the 1987 Finals to an impressible Lose Angleles Lakers team and the 1988 Conference Finals to the Detroit Pistons, the Celtics appeared to be on the downslide. K.C. Jones retired, replaced by Jimmy Rodgers. Injuries and aging for Bird (bone spurs in both feet), Parish and McHale, translated to the team never passing the Conference Semi-Finals until Bird's retirement in 1992 due to back injuries.
A Decade of Struggle
Reggie Lewis, the team's hopeful heir-apparent to Bird, died just a year later due to heart problems. Soon after the Celtics were minus all members of their former "Big Three" when Kevin McHale retired and Robert Parish joined the Hornets. Despite M.L. Carr, the team's new GM, selecting first-round draft pick Eric Montross and signing on Dominique Wilkins in 1994, the team barely made the playoffs that year. After increasingly poor seasons, Rick Pitino was hired as head coach and team president, selecting Chauncey Billups and Ron Mercer in 1997, as well as Paul Pierce in 1998. Rick Pitino's teams did not improve significantly, but when Jim O'Brien took the reigns in 2001, the Celtics began to make progress again before more dismantling and rebuilding in the Danny Ainge years that followed. Soon after Doc Rivers became head coach in 2004, things were looking up with a roster that included rookie Al Jefferson, a healthy Paul Pierce, Raef LaFrentz, Ricky Davis, and subsequently re-acquired Antoine Walker. The 2006 to 2007 season was a dire era for the Celtics, as Red Auerbach died at 89 and the season began 2-22 after a Pierce injury.
Return of the "Big Three"
Trading a fifth draft selection along with Wally Szczerbiakand Delonte West to Seattle SuperSonics to obtain All-Star 3-point master Ray Allen. Then, in the largest trade ever for one NBA player, Boston traded Al Jefferson, Ryan Gomes, Theo Ratliff, Gerald Green, Sebastian Telfair and their 2009 first-round draft pick for Kevin Garnett. Adding Rajon Rondo, Eddie House and Jackie Manuel, P.J. Brown and Sam Cassell for depth, the Celtics had set the stage for a dramatic comeback. They went on to defeat the Los Angeles Lakers in the 2008 NBA Finals to bring home the team's seventeenth championship title.
Tags: Boston Celtics, draft pick, head coach, Larry Bird, Soon after