Tag: Bennie Swain

On this day: Walker triple-doubles vs Hornets; Newlin hangs 52 on Celtics; Benny Swain born

On this day, former Celtic forward Antoine Walker scored a triple-double against Charlotte, and Net Mike Newlin hung 52 points on Boston.

On this day in Boston Celtics history, forward Antoine Walker scored a triple-double in a 99-87 loss to the Charlotte Hornets back in 2000. The Kentucky product put up 20 points, 11 rebounds, and 10 assists with 1 foul and 6 turnovers in a little under 45 minutes of playing time in the losing effort by Boston.

He would hit a mere 7 of his 20 field goal attempts that evening and just one of his seven 3-point attempts, a likely significant factor in the loss — though Walker did connect on 5 of his 6 trips to the charity stripe that night.

Teammate Paul Pierce added 19 points and 5 rebounds and Bryant Stith chipped in another 14, but it wasn’t enough to secure the win for Boston.

On this day: Cowens, Langford born; Ford cut; Green, Swain, Jones debut; Sharman passes

On this day in Celtics history, Dave Cowens and Romeo Langford were born, Chris Ford was cut, a number of players made their debut and Bill Sharman left us.

On this day in Boston Celtics history, in Newport, Kentucky, Celtics champion center Dave Cowens was born in 1948. Cowens played collegiately with the Florida State Seminoles and would be taken by the Celtics fourth overall in the 1970 NBA draft on the advice of big man legend Bill Russell despite the fact that the Florida State product stood only 6-foot-9.

It didn’t matter much that he was undersized, as he averaged 17 points and 15 rebounds a game in his rookie season, earning All-Rookie First Team honors in the process. It’s a good thing the Celtics took Russell’s endorsement to heart.

Cowens would go on to have a Hall of Fame career with the team, proving Russell right and then some.

Who are the 10 WORST draft picks in Boston Celtics history?

Plenty of ink has been spilled about the worst draft picks made by the Celtics — this is our view.

Plenty of ink has been spilled about the best draft picks made by the Boston Celtics, and more than a few Monday morning quarterbacks have dissected the selections made by a given Celtics GM over the decades. Our task here is to make a case for the latter, but also doing it while avoiding the usual use of hindsight that tends to use contemporary knowledge of how the players who were drafted later turned out.

While the urge to use that awareness is strong, often there are too many factors to consider to blame the front office for not knowing how other prospects were going to pan out. Another criterion is that we are only focusing on players taken in the modern lottery range of picks 1 through 14; it’s rare to find high-value players outside that range.

So, with that in mind, what were the 10 worst draft picks in Celtics history?

Every player in Boston Celtics history who wore No. 16

Today’s installment focuses on the seven players who wore No. 16 over the years as of September 2023.

The Boston Celtics have more retired jerseys than any other team in the NBA, but that doesn’t mean the rest of their jerseys have little history of interest tied to them.

In fact, with 17 titles to their name and decades of competitive basketball, their unretired jersey numbers pack some of the most history not hanging from the rafters of any team in the league. To that end, we have launched our accounting of that history with every player in every jersey worn by more than one Celtics player in the storied franchise’s history accounted for.

Today’s installment focuses on the seven players who wore No. 16 over the years as of September 2023.

On this day: Walker triple-doubles vs Hornets; Newlin hangs 52 on Celtics

On this day, former Celtic forward Antoine Walker scored a triple-double against Charlotte, and Net Mike Newlin hung 52 points on Boston.

On this day in Boston Celtics history, forward Antoine Walker scored a triple-double in a 99-87 loss to the Charlotte Hornets back in 2000. The Kentucky product put up 20 points, 11 rebounds, and 10 assists with 1 foul and 6 turnovers in a little under 45 minutes of playing time in the losing effort by Boston.

He would hit a mere 7 of his 20 field goal attempts that evening and just one of his seven 3-point attempts, a likely significant factor in the loss — though Walker did connect on 5 of his 6 trips to the charity stripe that night.

Teammate Paul Pierce added 19 points and 5 rebounds and Bryant Stith chipped in another 14, but it wasn’t enough to secure the win for Boston.