On this day, the Boston Celtics first coach, Alvin “Doggie” Julian, was born in 1901 in Reading, Pennsylvania.
Before landing the job as head coach of the nascent Celtics franchise, Julian would play football, baseball and basketball at Bucknell, having a four-year pro career playing baseball for various teams between 1922 and 1926.
At various points in his life, he’d coach all three sports at the collegiate and high school levels, but began coaching basketball at Muhlenberg College in 1936.
In 1945, Julian started coaching at Holy Cross, winning an NCAA Championship there with future Celtic Bob Cousy, who would later join him on the Celtics in 1950.
Stevens is first C's coach hired from college with no NBA experience since Doggie Julian hired from Holy Cross in 1948. Julian went 47-81.
— Bill Doyle (@BillDoyle15) July 3, 2013
The Reading native would of course leave Holy Cross for Boston in 1948, and would leave the pro ranks at the end of Cousy’s rookie season.
It is also the birthday of former Celtic center George Nostrand, who played for the team under Julian in 1949.
Nostrand was born in Uniondale, New York in 1924, and would play two seasons for Boston after his college ball at High Point and Wyoming, and several professional teams afterwards.
In those two seasons with the Celtics, Nostrand averaged 8.3 points and 1.2 assists plus an unknown number of rebounds per game — they had not yet begun tracking the statistic.
#DidYouKnow at the NBA's first game in 1946, any fan taller than Toronto's 6-8 center George Nostrand got in free?!
— Basketball HOF (@Hoophall) November 1, 2016
It is also the birthday of ex-Boston guard Shammond Williams, who was born on this day in 1975 in the Bronx. He happens to be the cousin of recent Hall of Fame electee Kevin Garnett, and played his collegiate basketball for the UNC Tarheels.
After being drafted 34th overall by the Chicago Bulls in the 1998 NBA Draft and traded the same night to the Atlanta Hawks, Williams would play for the Seattle Supersonics.
He would come to Boston as part of the trade sending Vin Baker to Boston in exchange for Kenny Anderson, Joseph Forte and Vitaly Potapenko in the summer of 2002.
Williams would play less than a full season before being traded again, this time to the Denver Nuggets for Mark Blount and Mark Bryant, and averaged 7.3 points, 2.2 boards and 2.5 assists in his sole season as a Celtic.
It is the anniversary of three wins since the season Boston won their last championship in 2007-08 as well.
The first was a 101-78 victory over the Charlotte then-Bobcats that cemented the team’s record as the greatest single-season turnaround in league history, breaking their tie with the San Antonio Spurs set earlier in the month.
On this day: Celtics tie greatest single-season turnaround in history https://t.co/WZLe4hYtFE
— The Celtics Wire (@TheCelticsWire) April 2, 2020
The Celtics also clinched home-court advantage for the duration of the postseason with the win.
They did all this while resting their best players, too — Garnett, Paul Pierce and Ray Allen sat for the contest, with forward Leon Powe leading the way with 22 points and 9 boards.
“If you could write a script on the way to clinch home-court, this would probably be it,” opined head coach Doc Rivers at the time (via ESPN).
Boston also blew out the Philadelphia 76ers 99-82 in 2011, as point guard Paul Pierce led the Celtics with 18 points and 7 rebounds. Rajon Rondo also had a 16-point, 13-assist night.
It gave the Celtics the second-place position in the East heading into the playoffs as well, tying the 54-23 Miami Heat’s record with a 3-0 record against Miami that season.
“We want all these games,” said KG via the Associated Press. “Playoffs is like the main course. This will definitely be an appetizer.”
Finally, the Celtics crushed the Indiana Pacers a year ago today, taking the fourth seed after a stellar performance from All-Star forward Gordon Hayward.
The Butler product became the first Boston player since Kevin McHale to score at least 20 points without a missed shot, going for 21 points on 9-of-9 shooting.
Forward Jayson Tatum had 22 points and 7 rebounds, and point guard Kyrie Irving 17 points and 6 assists as the Celtics clinched home court advantage in the first round of the playoffs with the win.
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