Tag: celtics history

WATCH: NBA TV’s ‘Basketballography’ documentary on Boston’s Red Auerbach

Check out this documentary highlighting the legendary Celtics coach and team president.

On Oct. 18, 1950, Arnold “Red” Auerbach coached his first preseason game for a club he helmed in some capacity until his death in 2006. And it is no coincidence Auerbach was tied to the Boston Celtics for the better part of six decades either.

Among the winningest coaches and general managers in sports history, 16 of Boston’s 17 NBA titles have Auerbach’s fingerprints on them. In celebration of the legacy he helped set in motion, the folks at NBA TV dedicated an entire episode of their “Basketballography” show to Auerbach and his career at the helm of the Celtics.

Watch the video embedded below hosted by Basketballography’s Andre Aldridge to catch the full documentary on the legendary Auerbach for yourself, courtesy of YouTuber ginoongkamote’s channel.

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

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Boston Celtics announce activities to celebrate NBA’s 75th anniversary season

The team is unfurling the original banners, electing an all-time Cs team and rocking new (and old)

The Boston Celtics announced via press release Thursday a number of activities to celebrate the team in the context of the NBA’s 75th anniversary celebrations, with the Celtics being one of a handful of teams in the NBA from its inception.

Chief among the changes will be the Celtics putting their original championship banners and retired jersey numbers on display in Boston Public library. Originally hung in the old Boston Garden up until 1995, they have since been in storage for some years. Now, you can see them for yourself if you are in the area of BPL’s Central Library in Copley Square through January 30, 2022.

The team also plans their own all-time list of Celtics greats mirroring the NBA’s 75 greatest players list.

WATCH: NBA legends on Boston Celtics Hall of Fame forward Larry Bird’s basketball instincts

What made the Hick From French Lick so good? Several NBA giants weigh in.

When asked about his style of play, Boston Celtics Hall of Fame small forward Larry Bird said, “I just shoot any kind of shot. I’m not afraid to take an off-balance shot or a 3-point shot. I just get in one of them grooves, and I don’t know what makes it go in.”

But his peers and basketball legends in their own right Bob Cousy, Oscar Robertson, Wilt Chamberlain and more offered their takes on what made Larry the Legend (as Bird is sometimes called as a nickname) such a great player in a video from the 1980s produced by CBS and hosted by “voice of the NBA” Pat O’Brien.

To hear what these NBA icons had to say about what was then the next generational mega-talent, check out the clip embedded below via CLNS Media’s “NBA History & Legends on CLNS” YouTube channel.

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

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On this day: Siegfried inked; Brown, Schintzius, Williams born

On this day, former Celtics champ Larry Siegfried signed with the team, and PJ Brown, Dwayne Schintzius, and Ray Williams were born.

On this day in Boston Celtics history, former Boston point and shooting guard Larry Siegfried was signed by the Boston Celtics as an unrestricted free agent. It is also the day he passed away in 2010 (rest in peace).

Siegfried was born in Shelby, Ohio in 1939 and would play collegiately at Ohio State with the Buckeyes, and would be taken by the (then) Cincinnati Royals (now, Sacramento Kings) with the third overall pick of the 1961 NBA draft. Siegfried would instead elect to play for the Pittsburgh Pipers of the American Basketball League (ABL — a competing league at that time) due to the sting of losing to the Cincinnati Bearcats while a Buckeye.

Quirky? Sure — but it worked out for the Celtics, with whom he would win five titles between 1963 and 1969.

Showtime Sports to release ‘Kevin Garnett: Anything is Possible’ documentary on Nov.14

The Big Ticket gets a documentary treatment for all our enjoyment, debuting next month.

While we aren’t quite certain whether or not this was what Boston Celtics Hall of Fame small forward Paul Pierce was tweeting about the other day, it does seem probable that he will play a major role in an exciting new project being released in a month’s time by Showtime Sports.

Fellow Celtics Hall of Famer and co-winner of Banner 17 in Boston Kevin Garnett will be the subject of a new documentary produced by Showtime, appropriately entitled “Kevin Garnett: Anything is Possible”. The film will tell the tale of the legendary forward’s career, which of course will reach its zenith in Boston as the Celtics secured the first title in three decades on Garnett’s watch.

Due out on November 12th, the Showtime Sports documentary is sure to be a must-watch event. Stay tuned for more details, video teasers and the like as that date draws closer; we’ll have our eyes peeled for any updates on the release.

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

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WATCH: The 34 best plays of legendary Boston Celtics small forward Paul Pierce

The Truth could not be handled in his prime.

On October 13, 1977, a Hall of Fame player was born in Oakland, California. And while that player grew up to be a fan of the Los Angeles Lakers as he grew up in Inglewood California, fate would make that future University of Kansas star a Boston Celtics legend.

If you have not yet guessed who we are speaking of, it is of course iconic Celtics small forward Paul Pierce, recently admitted to the Naismith Memorial Hall of Fame on his first ballot. To celebrate the career of The Truth (as Pierce is often called), we present to you this collection of the 34 best plays of his career — one for every number of his jersey with Boston.

And while some are not with the Celtics given he played with the Brooklyn Nets, Washington Wizards, and Los Angeles Clippers after winning a title in Boston with Kevin Garnett and Ray Allen, all of them are worth a watch, courtesy of the NBA’s YouTube channel.

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

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WATCH: Boston Celtics legend John Havlicek’s 1978 jersey retirement ceremony

Hondo had his jersey lifted to the Garden’s rafters immediately after retiring from the sport.

At the start of the first season (1978-79) the Boston Celtics were to play without Hall of Fame small forward John Havlicek since drafting him out of Ohio State in 1962, the team honored the Bridgeport, Ohio, native by retiring his No. 17 jersey to the Boston Garden rafters.

Hondo — as Havlicek was sometimes called as a nickname — was the NBA’s third-leading all-time scorer and had played more games than any player in league history, racking up 8 titles, 13 All-Star bids, 11 All-NBA elections and 8 All-Defensive team nods. He was one of the greatest players to ever play for Boston or in the NBA.

To see that historic moment where Havlicek’s jersey was forever immortalized at the old Boston Garden, watch the video embedded below, courtesy of YouTube channel Classic Sports.

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

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Which Boston Celtics who missed the NBA’s 50th-anniversary greatest players list might make the 75th?

There are several potential additions from the ranks of past Celtics rosters.

It seems as if a fever for projecting the players who will make the list of the NBA’s 75 greatest to play the game in honor of hitting the three-quarter century mark this season is spreading across the wider NBA media sphere.

With everyone — including USA TODAY — attempting to prognosticate which players will be added to the league’s 50-man 50th-anniversary list as well as those who will be cut from that earlier take, there’s been plenty of speculation on which players may be elevated to that list of honor. Here at the Celtics Wire, we’ve already dipped our toes in, guessing which former Boston Celtics might not make it from the first list to the second.

But there’s also a number of Celtics who may well join the new list who were omitted from the version created 25 years ago, or rose to prominence since. Let’s take a look at who might make the new list.

LISTEN: Iconic Celtics announcer Johnny Most calling Boston legend Larry Bird’s debut NBA game

Hear every play from Larry Legend’s debut game in the association in this clip.

The same game on October 12, 1979 saw the debut of the 3-point shot in NBA history and the first game of iconic Boston Celtics small forward Larry Bird, among the greatest to ever play the game.

So much so that Chris Ford’s historic shot is more of an asterisk to the debut contest played by Bird that day. And while we unfortunately do not have more than some clips culled from the game in its entirety to look back on, we do have the entire audio play-by-play of legendary Celtics broadcaster Johnny Most detailing the action of both historic events happening in an otherwise unremarkable season-opening contest.

Listen to the Hick From French Lick (as Bird was sometimes called) score 14 points, 10 rebounds, and 5 assists in 28 minutes of play via the video embedded below, courtesy of YouTuber “Larry Legend Full Games”.

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

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SI’s Jack McCallum lists two Celtics legends among his 10 greatest ‘what-ifs’ of NBA history

Both were key figures to the team’s legacy of historic dominance – but very plausibly might not have been.

Legendary Sports Illustrated sportswriter Jack McCallum is feeling the celebratory vibes of the NBA’s 75th anniversary, and put together a list of his 10 greatest “what if” moments in league history, interrogating the possibility of what it would mean had critical events in NBA history not played out as they did.

Some of them are so critical they affected the entire league’s history (imagine what might have happened if the sport — on life support in its early years of the NBA — had not adopted the shot clock, for example), but others focus on some critical events more germane to specific teams, two of which directly touch on the Boston Celtics.

Let’s look at McCallum’s questioning the potential for counterfactual histories, and how things might have been different had they come to pass.