Boston Celtics field two rosters among most expensive in NBA history

You might be surprised by the seasons they happened in.

Outlandish, perhaps even out-of-control spending has become such a problem for NBA payrolls that the league went out of its way to penalize the most egregious ball clubs which spend more than $17.5 million over the league’s luxury tax line in the new collective bargaining agreement recently agreed to by the Association and the Players’ Union.

And with a total of 17 championships to their name over the history of the league, you would think that the Boston Celtics would be among the franchises with some of the most expensive payrolls over that stretch. But in a new analysis of such clubs compared to the spending in the rest of the league put together by our friends at Hoops Hype, the Celtics have only landed in the 30 most expensive teams in history twice. You might be surprised which years it was so, as well.

Let’s take a look at both.