On this day, the Boston Celtics won their 15th championship against the Los Angeles Lakers in 1984 and hired former player Chris Ford as coach in 1990.
On this day in Boston Celtics history, the team won their 15th championship with a 111-102 victory over the Los Angeles Lakers in Game 7 of the 1984 NBA Finals, despite a push that got Los Angeles within three points late in the final frame.
Forward Cedric Maxwell led Boston with 24 points, 8 rebounds, and 8 assists, point guard Dennis Johnson added 22 points and 6 boards, forward Larry Bird 20 points, and 12 rebounds, and center Robert Parish 14 points and 16 rebounds. Shooting guard Danny Ainge and forward Kevin McHale chipped in 10 points each off the bench.
Bird would be named Finals Most Valuable Player of the eighth Finals meeting between the two teams, all of which had been won by Boston. It was also the first title the Celtics had won at home since 1966.
On this day, point guard Gerald Henderson stole the ball to secure a critical Game 2 win vs. the Los Angeles Lakers in the 1984 NBA Finals.
On this day in Boston Celtics history, champion Boston point guard Gerald Henderson stole a pass lobbed across the court by forward James Worthy of the Los Angeles Lakers.
With 13 seconds left on the clock in Game 2 of the 1984 NBA Finals and the Celtics down, 113-111, Henderson stole a pass and ended up scoring on a layup. The basket ultimately sent the game into overtime when legendary forward Magic Johnson inexplicably dribbled out the game’s final seconds. The historic steal ignited the Celtics’ critical, 124-121, win after they had dropped Game 1 of the series at home.
Forward Larry Bird later said the team might have been swept by Los Angeles if not for the timely steal. While Boston lost Game 3 of the series, it won the series in seven games to secure its 15th banner, then the most in league history.
On this day, point guard Gerald Henderson stole the ball to secure a critical Game 2 win vs. the Los Angeles Lakers in the 1984 NBA Finals.
On this day in Boston Celtics history, champion Boston point guard Gerald Henderson stole a pass lobbed across the court by forward James Worthy of the Los Angeles Lakers.
With just 13 seconds left on the clock in Game 2 of the 1984 NBA Finals and the Celtics down, 113-111, Henderson stole a pass and ended up scoring on a layup. The basket ultimately sent the game into overtime when legendary forward Magic Johnson inexplicably dribbled out the game’s final seconds. The historic steal ignited the Celtics’ critical 124-121 win after they had dropped Game 1 of the series at home.
Forward Larry Bird later said the team might have been swept by Los Angeles if not for the timely steal. While Boston lost Game 3 of the series, it won the series in seven games to secure its 15th banner, then the most in league history.
On this day, the Boston Celtics won their 15th championship against the Los Angeles Lakers in 1984, and hired former player Chris Ford as coach in 1990.
On this day in 1984, the Boston Celtics won their 15th championship with a 111-102 victory over the Los Angeles Lakers in Game 7 of the series, despite a push that got Los Angeles within three points late in the final frame.
Forward Cedric Maxwell led Boston with 24 points, 8 rebounds and 8 assists, point guard Dennis Johnson added 22 points and 6 boards, forward Larry Bird 20 points and 12 rebounds, and center Robert Parish 14 points and 16 rebounds.
Shooting guard Danny Ainge and forward Kevin McHale chipped in 10 points each off the bench.
Bird would be named Finals Most Valuable Player of the eighth Finals meeting between the two teams, all of which had been won by Boston.
It was also the first title the Celtics had won at home since 1966.
Boston Celtics team president and former guard Danny Ainge thinks Gerald Henderson’s steal in 1984 was a bigger deal than Hondo’s iconic theft.
To Danny Ainge, Gerald Henderson stealing the ball was an even bigger deal than when Hondo did it.
The iconic play by Boston Celtics forward luminary John Havlicek is one of the most well-known plays in NBA history, but to Ainge, its impact was far smaller than then-teammate Gerald Henderson’s late robbery of Los Angeles Laker forward James Worthy in Game 2 on the 1984 NBA Finals.
The steal and subsequent layup would give Boston life, sending the game to overtime and an eventual win that likely saved the series.
Havlicek’s theft did secure a series win, but the Celtics held the lead already in a lower-stakes Eastern Conference championship series against the Philadelphia 76ers.
Appearing on the “Locked On Celtics Podcast” Monday, current Celtics team president and former guard Ainge related his opinion on the gravity of that play.
“Henderson’s steal in Game 2 [of the 1984 Finals], that might have been one of the biggest plays, right there with Larry Bird’s steal of Isaiah [Thomas] in Detroit [against the Pistons in Game 5 of the 1987 East Conference Finals]” opined Ainge via MassLive’s Karalis. “That steal from Henderson was better than the Havlicek stole the ball play.”
“If we don’t get that steal and win that Game 2 in Boston, we probably don’t win the series,” added the team’s president. Henderson would relate in a 2014 interview that without that play, the Celtics might even have been swept, with many viewing L.A. as the better team that season.
To hear more about that fateful play, other critical pick-pocketing in Boston’s past and many other aspects of Ainge’s tenure with the team throughout the 1980s, listen to the podcast embedded above.
It’s a treasure of all sort of little-known nuggets from that glorious era of Celtics history, and more than worth the listen.
