On this day, the Celtics won Banner 16 by defeating the Rockets in Game 6 of the 1986 NBA Finals; they also signed Larry Bird in 1979.
On this day in Boston Celtics history, the storied franchise won its 16th banner in 1986 as it defeated the Houston Rockets in six games. It would be the third title for the trio of small forward Larry Bird, big man Robert Parish and power forward Kevin McHale, and the last for Boston until 2008.
The collection of talent on the roster is nearly unparalleled, with four first-ballot Hall of Famers: Bird, McHale, Parish, and super sixth man Bill Walton. The team also had veteran point guard Dennis Johnson and shooting guard (and future team president) Danny Ainge on the roster.
The Celtics finished the season 67-15 record and one home loss — one of the most dominant teams in all of NBA history.
The title, Boston’s 16th and their penultimate at the time of writing, capped off among the most impressive full-season displays of dominance seen in NBA history.
Were the 1986 Boston Celtics the greatest team ever? According to a number of their peers and legends in their own right, they were indeed, or at least they ought to be counted among them.
That team, coached by Boston legend KC Jones, was helmed by the “Big Three” of Hall of Famers: Larry Bird, Robert Parish and Kevin McHale. Bill Walton, Dennis Johnson and Danny Ainge were on it as well.
The Celtics won 67 games (Boston’s second-best regular season record ever) while Bird picked up his third and final Most Valuable Player award. Walton earned his Sixth Man of the Year award for his elite play off the bench.
The title, Boston’s 16th, capped one of the most impressive full-season displays of dominance in NBA history.
To hear the peers of this team talk about just how good it was, take a look at the clip embedded above put together by the folks at the “Basketball Time Machine” podcast.
Paying tribute to the 1986 Celtics – the beautiful game
The 1986 Boston Celtics are widely considered one of the greatest teams ever assembled in the history of basketball, never mind the NBA. In the 40th season of the storied franchise, the Celtics went 67-15 — the best record in the league — and 40-1 at home on their way to the team’s record 16th title. The crown came one season after Boston lost the NBA Finals to its longtime rivals, the Los Angeles Lakers, for the first time.
Boston’s roster was filled with Hall of Fame players, including Larry Bird, Robert Parish, Kevin McHale, Dennis Johnson and Bill Walton. Even the non-Hall of Famers were an impressive lot that included Danny Ainge, Jerry Sichting, David Thirdkill, Sam Vincent and Rick Carlisle.
The Book of Basketball YouTube channel put together a clip commemorating their greatness we have embedded below.
Take a look at it to get a better idea of why the 1986 title team is so highly regarded.
The backstory behind one of the most important games of Larry Bird’s career.
Larry Joe Bird peaked as a basketball player on June 8, 1986, according to the folks behind the “Book of Basketball” YouTube channel.
“I should have quit right there,” offered the Hick From French Lick of the game in question, in which Bird won his third and final NBA championship with the Boston Celtics, joining those earned in 1981 and 1984.
The game in question was a 114-97 victory over the Houston Rockets in Game 6 of that season’s finals. Larry Legend hung 29 points, 11 rebounds, 12 assists and 3 steals in his 46 minutes of game time. Bird rested for a total of two minutes of game time that night.
Take a look at the clip embedded below for an in-depth account of the people who made that game happen with their own play recounting one of Bird’s most complete — and important — games.
Donovan Mitchell channeled his inner ‘Michael Jordan vs. the 1986 Celtics’ with his 57-point game in a loss to the Denver Nuggets.
With Donovan Mitchell starting to pop up in their conversations about the 1986 Boston Celtics, fans of the Massachusetts franchise are beginning to understand why Celtics shooting guard Jaylen Brown used him as an example of ubiquity.
If the reference isn’t clear, let us spell it out to you — in today’s loss to the Denver Nuggets, the Utah Jazz’ Mitchell dropped 57 points.
Nobody — and we do mean no one — has done that since Michael Jordan dropped 63 points on current team president and former shooting guard Danny Ainge’s Celtics in the first round of the 1986 NBA Playoffs, per ESPN’s Tim McMahon.
Mitchell's 57 points are the third-most in NBA playoff history behind Michael Jordan (63) and Elgin Baylor (61) https://t.co/Mn1Hr4Bk6S
In fact, it’s the third-most ever scored by anyone in the playoffs of any year, ever — trailing only Elgin Baylor (61 points) and His Airness’ assault on Boston 34 years ago (again, 63 points), according to USA TODAY’s Matt Eppers.
Now we aren’t saying that Spida is the second coming of MJ or even Elgin Baylor, but when you put up those kinds of points in the loss, it tends to elicit a certain kind of a response.
No, not that one — we were thinking more of the ‘lavish praise’ variety, even if you can’t help but blame people for wanting more for such a dynamic player.
On this day, the Celtics won Banner 16 by defeating the Rockets in Game 6 of the 1986 NBA Finals; they also signed Larry Bird in 1979.
On this day, the Boston Celtics won their 16th banner as they defeated the Houston Rockets in six games.
It was the third title for the trio of forward Larry Bird, center Robert Parish and forward Kevin McHale, and the last for Boston until 2008.
The Celtics would finish with a 67-15 record and only one home loss, one of the most dominant teams in all of NBA history.
The collection of talent on the roster is nearly unparalleled, with four first-ballot Hall of Famers in Bird, McHale, Parish and big man Bill Walton as well as point guard Dennis Johnson and shooting guard Danny Ainge.
Watch the full Game 2 meeting in the first round of the 1986 NBA Playoffs where Michael Jordan dropped a record 63 points — but still lost to the Boston Celtics.
It was a game for the ages, arguably the greatest team, player and postseason performance all rolled into one spectacle of an almost-unimaginable scale.
Featured in the second episode of ESPN’s “The Last Dance”, the 1986 Boston Celtics faced off with Jordan’s Chicago Bulls, and while the latter team lost, MJ’s performance was enough to elicit comparisons with god himself by Boston’s Larry Bird.
Jordan scored 63 points that game without a single 3-pointer and many of his shots coming from the midrange. The North Carolina product shot 22-of-41 for 53.7 % overall, setting an NBA postseason record that stands to this day despite losing the game 135-131 in the end.
Watch the video above to catch the epic contest from start to finish while we wait for more episodes of “The Last Dance” — and the 2019-20 NBA season while we’re at it.
While there may not be much Boston Celtics lore in The Last Dance, the Chicago Bulls’ 1986 first round series against them in Episode 2 was the stuff of legends.
While the Boston Celtics were not exactly at the height of relevancy for much of the time period being discussed in the Michael Jordan/Chicago Bulls ESPN documentary The Last Dance, the second episode brought up one especially important moment in the history of the NBA.
The greatest NBA team of all time by many accounts faced one of if not the greatest playoff performances of all time as Jordan’s Bulls squared off with the 1985-86 Celtics in the first round of the 1986 Playoffs on today, April 20th, of that year.
Jordan’s 63-point explosion has never been paralleled since, the record remaining in place more than three decades later.
It seems unlikely any but one of the all-time greatest teams could withstand such an onslaught — Jordan hit that record without a single 3-pointer, after all — but withstand it the Celtics did.
To this day, it has left an indelible impression on the players who witnessed it, Larry Bird famously going as far as saying it wasn’t MJ who dropped that 63 points on Boston but “God disguised as Michael Jordan“.
