Tag: celtics history

WATCH: Reggie Lewis’ jersey retirement ceremony in the old Boston Garden

In memory of his passing, watch this video of Reggie Lewis’ posthumous jersey retirement.

In the offseason of 1993, rising Boston Celtics star small forward Reggie Lewis collapsed on a basketball court at Brandeis during offseason practice play and passed away after repeated attempts to revive the former Northeastern standout failed.

Seen by many fans as the heir apparent to Larry Bird and the bridge to a post-original “big three” era of Bird, Robert Parish, and Kevin McHale, the Celtics instead found themselves reeling from the loss of a franchise cornerstone player for the second time in less than a decade. In honor of Lewis’ life and contributions to the team, the franchise retired his No. 35 jersey to the rafters in 1995.

To honor his passing on the day of that jersey retirement, watch the ceremony in its entirety held in the old Boston Garden to a packed house with Celtics alumni who were teammates, legends, or both in attendance.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vG5ZQoigqXg

Rest in Peace, Reggie.

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WATCH: Boston Celtics legend Bill Russell talks Lexington player strike for civil rights

The Celtics legend tells the story of how the Black players of the Celtics sat out a game after being refused service at the hotel cafe.

Amid the celebration of the NBA’s storied history over the decades, the harsh reality of players of color is sometimes forgotten. But for players like Boston Celtics legends Bill Russell, Sam Jones, and Thomas “Satch” Sanders, such memories are an indelible relic of an era where casual racism was far more institutionalized and even accepted.

In fact, when the latter two were denied service at the cafe of the team hotel in the 1960s, Russell, Jones, and Sanders all elected to sit out the game in protest. The fellow Black players on the Celtics and then those on the opposing team — the (then) St. Louis (now, Atlanta) Hawks — joined them as well.

Hear the story told by one of its protagonists, Bill Russell himself, in the video embedded below, courtesy of CLNS Media via their “NBA History & Legends on CLNS” YouTube channel.

It’s a story that should not be forgotten among the many happy ones more commonly recounted from that era, and one that still bears telling today.

This post originally appeared on Celtics Wire. Follow us on Facebook!

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The Celtics fall flat in their home opener, lose 115-83 to the Raptors

The Celtics fall flat in their home opener as Scottie Barnes and the Raptors cruise

The first third quarter of the regular season at TD Garden saw boos raining down from the Boston crowd as the Toronto Raptors pulled away from the Celtics in a 115-83 blowout victory.

Coming off of am emotionally taxing double overtime loss to the Knicks, the Celtics let the game slip away from them in the second half. Jayson Tatum started strong after a poor shooting night in New York, but it was Raptors rookie Scottie Barnes who stole the show in a breakout evening for the former Florida State star.

Boston stayed even with Toronto early behind a scoring flurry from Tatum, and the Raptors carried a four point lead into the halftime break. Oftentimes in 2021 NBA blowouts, you can run to the box score and see a definitive disparity in three-point shooting. That wasn’t the case on Friday night, and that was arguably an even more worrisome sign for Boston and first-year head coach Ime Udoka. The Celtics actually shot better from three than Toronto, making 11 of their 34 tries to Toronto’s 10-35.

Instead, it was the length of Toronto defensively and the Raptors’ rebounding prowess that proved to be the difference. After being blown out by Washington in their opener, the Raptors’ young pieces came to play in game two. Precious Achiuwa led the contest with 15 rebounds to go along with his 15 points. Toronto outrebounded Boston 60 to 42 on the night and turned the Celtics over 25 times.

Toronto won the third quarter 33-17 behind lockdown team defense and a scoring surge from Gary Trent Jr., who finished with 20 points on the night. Barnes was exceptional on both ends, answering predraft questions in real time about his shooting, offensive playmaking, and on-ball decisions. He seamlessly hit mid-range jumpers, attacked the glass, and used his 6-foot-9 frame to cause problems defensively. The fourth overall pick in the 2021 NBA draft finished with a game-high 25 points, 13 rebounds, and a pair of assists.

When the third quarter buzzer sounded, the Raptors led 84-64 and had all but put the game away.

It was unsurprisingly a bounce back shooting night for Tatum, who went 8-14 from the field for a team-high 18 points. On the other side of the coin, Marcus Smart and Jaylen Brown combined to go just 3-19 from the field.

The Celtics fell to 0-2 on the year as Toronto evened their record up to 1-1. Boston travels to Houston on Sunday to take on the Rockets, as they look for their first win of the season.

WATCH: Are Kyrie Irving and Kevin Garnett the most talented to play for the Boston Celtics?

What about Bill Russell, or Larry Bird?

The Boston Celtics measure greatness primarily in banners and other accolades, but that is not the only way to measure the greatness of an individual player. The Celtics have been graced with some of the most skilled talents to ever pick up the game throughout their seven and half decades of existence, and as the NBA celebrates its own players’ greatness, sooner or later one may find the question of which players were the most skilled to play for the Celtics in the storied franchise’s history.

In a recent episode of the CLNS Media podcast “Celtics Beat,” hosts Evan Valenti and Adam Kaufman discussed this particular question with a Boston great in his own right, Hall of Fame forward Cedric Maxwell.

The trio debate whether Kevin Garnett and Kyrie Irving were the most talented Celtics to play for Boston, as well as some of the thornier issues related to that discussion.

Watch the video embedded above to hear their takes on this potentially contentious issue.

This post originally appeared on Celtics Wire. Follow us on Facebook!

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On this day: Stevens born; Brooks, McCarty trades; Timelord, Sam Jones, Tom Sanders debuts; Murphy passes

On this date, team president Brad Stevens was born, Scott Brooks and Walter McCarty were traded to the team and a number of Celtics made their debuts.

On this day in Boston Celtics history, current Boston Celtics team president Brad Stevens was born in Zionsville, Indiana in 1976. Stevens played collegiately for DePauw University while earning a degree in economics, earning Academic All-America honors three times and the All-Conference team as many times as well.

Stevens spent some time working as a pharmacy representative after college, then moved into coaching as a volunteer assistant with the Butler University men’s basketball program. It got him the job as a full-time assistant coach the next season, and he would be promoted to head coach of the Bulldogs in 2007.

Stevens quickly garnered national attention for the work he was doing at Butler, breaking the NCAA record for wins by a coach in their first three seasons while making the NCAA title game two seasons running in 2010 and 2011.

NBA continues reveal of 75 greatest player list; 7 Boston Celtics represented

The storied franchise is well-represented on the 75th-anniversary list.

The Boston Celtics continue among the best-represented teams on the NBA’s commemorative list of the 75 greatest players in as many years. The league is publishing the list as part of the hype of it reaching the three-quarter century mark, and it is doing so in three 25-player bursts.

On the second day of the league’s celebratory listmaking reveal, the Celtics find themselves with seven players selected from their historic rosters. Boston dominated the 50th-anniversary list a quarter-century ago and seems poised to have a similar proportion of players once the whole list has been released.

Let’s take a look at which Celtics made the second 25-player list.

WATCH: NBA releases behind-the-scenes clip of video recreating league’s iconic moments with today’s stars, including Jayson Tatum

Tatum is of course cast as his idol and mentor Kobe Bryant, but there are plenty more Celtics involved.

As part of its extensive, ongoing projects for the NBA’s 75th-anniversary celebrations, the league is teaming with broadcaster TNT and the brightest stars of today to recreate some of the most iconic moments of the last seven-and-a-half decades of NBA excellence in a new video short.

As you might expect, there are a host of recreated Boston Celtics moments in the video (and some modern-day faces that look awfully … off in Celtics uniforms). There also is Celtics All-Star forward Jayson Tatum filling in for his childhood idol and later mentor and friend Kobe Bryant. The video is a brilliant window into the best talent of the NBA both then and now.

Watch it for yourself to see Tatum and too many other stars to name paying homage to the reasons we have tuned in to see history in the making all these years in the video embedded below.

This post originally appeared on Celtics Wire. Follow us on Facebook!

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On this day: Hondo, Yabu, Swartz, Minor debut; Mikan born; Reed passes; Antoine Walker, Paul Silas trades

On this day in Celtics history, John Havlicek, Dan Swartz, Mark Minor, and Guerschon Yabusele debuted, Antoine Walker and Paul Silas were traded, Ed Mikan was born, and Justin Reed left us.

On this day in Boston Celtics history, legendary Celtics small forward and future Hall of Famer John Havlicek played the very first game of his storied career with Boston in 1962.

A product of the Ohio State’s Buckeyes men’s basketball program, Hondo — as Havlicek was sometimes called — had been selected ninth overall in that year’s NBA draft, and played a major role for the team from the very first moment he played in the league, gracing the floor for 25 minutes of game time in his inaugural performance. That game happened to be a 149 – 116 obliteration of the New York Knicks, though Havlicek had a modest stat line in it.

The Martin’s Ferry native logged 6 points and 4 assists in the win.

WATCH: Which Boston Celtics are among the top-15 all-time?

For such a storied franchise, the potential for debate is considerable.

Who are the top 15 Boston Celtics of all time? With the arrival of the NBA’s 75th anniversary, lists upon lists upon lists highlighting, projecting and rejecting players as among the NBA’s and its component teams’ best players abound, but yet the interest seems to continue in sussing out who ranks what amongst who continues unabated.

So don’t expect a reprieve from the Celtics media sphere any more than the national, and such an exercise was the focus of our friends at the CLNS Media podcast “Celtics Beat,” where hosts Evan Valenti and Adam Kaufman debated with Hall of Famer (and top-15 prospect himself) Cedric Maxwell on who ought to populate such a list.

The crew also talk on Maxwell’s new book, “If These Walls Could Talk: Boston Celtics: Stories from the Boston Celtics Sideline, Locker Room, and Press Box,” so be sure to check it out!

Check out the clip embedded above to hear what Celtics make the cut, what’s in the book, and much, much more.

This post originally appeared on Celtics Wire. Follow us on Facebook!

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WATCH: Boston Celtics 75th birthday video montage ahead of the start of the NBA’s 75th season

On the precipice of the NBA’s 75th anniversary season, check out this montage produced by Boston that is full of historic Easter eggs.

With the arrival of the 2021-22 NBA season, the NBA (at least by its own accounting) turns 75 years old, and the Boston Celtics will hit the three-quarters century mark with it, having been with the league since before it adopted its current name. It was known as the Basketball Association of America (BAA).

While some may take umbrage with the decision to make this the Association’s 75th birthday, we will focus our attention on the enduring partnership between the NBA and the Celtics that has seen Boston win a league-tying 17 titles, 16 of them within the first half-century of the founding of the league.

To that end, our friends over at CLNS Media’s “NBA History & Legends on CLNS” YouTube channel dug up this gem of a promotional spot produced by the team in 2019 in honor of the Celtics’ “City Edition” jerseys, themselves emblematic of that partnership mentioned above.

Watch the video embedded above celebrating the deep and rich history of the Celtics and the NBA as we embark on what so many fans and teams have 74 times (at least) before.

This post originally appeared on Celtics Wire. Follow us on Facebook!

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