Tag: Bill Sharman

Every Boston Celtics All-Star for each season the game was played

Every single Boston Celtics All-Star in franchise history.

The 2024 NBA All-Star Game is set to kick off in Indianapolis, Indiana. A pair of Boston Celtics will be part of the action for the third year in a row as Jayson Tatum plays as a starter and Jaylen Brown a reserve for the Eastern Conference All-Stars.

Tatum and Brown join a long list of Celtics stars who have participated in the event, now entering its 73rd year of existence, which actually got its start in the old Boston Garden. Initially created to improve the image of professional basketball after a point-shaving scandal in NCAA ball besmirched the sport in the eyes of the public, the event has taken on a life of its own as one of the league’s most anticipated events.

Let’s take a look at all the Celtics who have taken part.

On this day: Bird gets dual honor; Naismith publishes 1st rules

On this day in Celtics history, Larry Bird won two prestigious media awards, and basketball inventor James Naismith published the sport’s original 13 rules.

On this day in Boston Celtics history, legendary small forward Larry Bird was honored with being awarded both Man of the Year by the Sporting News and Athlete of the Year by the Associated Press in 1987.

It was the first time in history that any athlete of any sport had won both awards at the same time in the same year. The honor for the Hick from French Lick (as Bird was sometimes called) happened at the apex of his prime years. It may even have been a bit of a jinx if you believe in that sort of thing.

The dual honor ended up being the first time in 5 seasons the Celtics did not make it to the NBA Finals in the Playoffs.

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.

On this day: former Boston player, coach, GM Carr waived; Heinsohn, Sharman jerseys retired

On this day in Celtics history, ML Carr was waived, and Tommy Heinsohn and Bill Sharman had their jerseys retired.

On this day in Boston Celtics history, Celtics small forward and later head coach and general manager Michael Leon Carr (more often known as “M.L.”) was waived by the team he would one day head — but not on that day in 1974.

Carr, a native of Wallace, North Carolina, would play his college ball with the Guilford College Quakers, a Division III program in Greensboro, North Carolina. Despite the Division III status of his school, Carr managed to get selected 76th overall (there were several more rounds to the NBA draft in that era) by the then-Kansas City/Omaha Kings (now, Sacramento) in the 1973 NBA draft.

But, Carr fared better in the rival American Basketball Association (ABA) draft of that same year.

How many of the NBA’s official 50 greatest in 1996 were Boston Celtics?

In 1996, the NBA released a list of its 50 greatest players up to that year to celebrate as many years of play as a league. Can you guess how many were Celtics? Better yet, who they were?

In 1996, the NBA decided to assemble a panel of 50 players, media members, and team representatives in total to select the 50 greatest players of the league’s first 50 years on the anniversary of the NBA’s first season of 1946-47.

The league again plans to assemble a similar list to honor the 75th anniversary of its foundation in 2021, but before we begin to recount which alumni of the Boston Celtics were added to the list, let’s take a look at the old one. Dominated by names once populating the championship eras of the team from the 1960s, 1970s, and 1980s, a total of 14 of the NBA’s 50 greatest players once donned the green and white.

Let’s review who made the cut, and when they were Celtics.

How many Boston Celtics are in the Naismith Memorial Hall of Fame?

No team in NBA history has produced more. How many can you name?

With Boston Celtics Hall of Fame Paul Pierce officially part of the incoming 2021 class and big man Kevin Garnett getting his formal induction into the Naismith Memorial Hall of Fame in May 2021 — nearly a year after getting the nod due to the pandemic — all three members of the so-called “new Big Three” of KG, Pierce and Ray Allen have been ensconced in what serves as the Valhalla of basketball.

But they are far from the only Celtics so honored. In fact, there is a veritable host of Boston legends populating the Hoop Hall in Springfield, Massachusetts, just a short drive away from the NBA’s titletown. The Celtics have more players than any other team in league history.

Let’s take a look at the 40 Celtics who have been honored with a Hall of Fame induction.

Complete list of Boston Celtics in the Basketball Hall of Fame

Celtics Wire celebrates the 48 members of the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame with ties to the Boston Celtics franchise.

The Boston Celtics are one of the bedrock franchises in professional sports. Legends such as Bill Russell, Bob Cousy, Tommy Heinsohn, Larry Bird, Robert Parish, Paul Pierce, Ray Allen, and Kevin Garnett dazzled fans with their athletic exploits and won the NBA championship in Boston.

A couple of hours down the Mass Pike in Springfield, no fewer than four dozen players, coaches, and contributors with ties to the Celtics franchise have been inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame over the years, spanning the decades from the first years of the storied ball club’s existence up to the team’s last era of contention.

Below, Celtics Wire celebrates the 49 members of the Hall of Fame with Celtics connections in a photo gallery.

The Boston Celtics have retired 24 jersey numbers – these are the players so honored

It’s no coincidence this team has the most retired jersey numbers with 17 banners hanging alongside them as of Oct. 2023.

There are no teams in the history of the NBA to have more titles than the Boston Celtics — at least not yet — so it makes sense there are no other franchises with more retired numbers to honor the players over the decades who earned and hung those banners.

In fact, there are no teams in any sport with more retired jersey numbers at 24 overall, a reflection of the excellence behind the Celtics mystique built by franchise architect Red Auerbach. From his signing with the team as coach and general manager onward, Boston became one of the premier teams of the greatest basketball league on the planet.

But who were the players for which those jerseys were retired? Let’s take a look at them all as of Oct. 2022.

Every player in Boston Celtics history who wore No. 21

Today’s installment focuses on the nine players who wore No. 21 over the years as of August 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 nine players who wore No. 21 over the years as of August 2023.

On this day: Jones, Sharman born; Pierce leads 21-point rally vs. Nets

On this day, Boston Celtics guard legends KC Jones and Bill Sharman were born, and Paul Pierce almost single-handedly beat the Nets in 2002.

On this day in Boston Celtics history, point guard legend KC Jones was born in 1932 in Taylor, Texas. Jones played his college ball with fellow Celtics legend Bill Russell at the University of San Francisco and was taken in the same draft class as Russell by the Celtics with the 13th overall pick of the 1956 NBA draft.

The Texan guard would go on to win eight titles with Boston, the only club he played for over a nine-season career in the NBA. He would average 7.4 points, 3.5 rebounds, and 4.3 assists per game with the Celtics. He would also win two titles with the team as a head coach in the 1980s.

Jones would be inducted into the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame as a player in 1989.