Celtics Wire compiles the highest salary on Boston’s roster for each season since 1993-94.
The Boston Celtics rank among the most storied professional sports franchises in the world. With 17 NBA championships, the Celtics also have carved out a distinct place in the annals of basketball history.
Larry Bird, Robert Parish, Paul Pierce, Kevin Garnett, and Jayson Tatum are some of the franchise’s most notable players in recent decades, and it’s intriguing to look back at the Celtics’ year-by-year salary history to see how those players were valued financially in their prime.
Below, we identify the highest-paid player on the Celtics roster for each season since 1990-91.
Boston Celtics co-owner Steve Pagliuca is not the only person connected to the storied ball club who has had an interest in purchasing a soccer team. https://t.co/HmhksyKduM
Today’s installment focuses on the 14 players who wore No. 42 over the years as of Aug. 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 played in them, their unretired jersey numbers pack in 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 14 players who wore No. 42 over the years as of Aug. 2023.
How many of the Celtics on the list of the most decorated NBA champions can you name? https://t.co/NP7Ag6Hdkv
On this day in 2015, the Boston Celtics signed Amir Johnson and Jonas Jerebko and traded for David Lee.
On this date in Boston Celtics history, the team signed big man Amir Johnson to a two-year, $24 million contract. The Los Angeles native had previously played for the Toronto Raptors for the previous six seasons before decamping to the Celtics, and the Detroit Pistons for four more before that after being drafted directly out of high school by that team 56th overall in the 2005 NBA draft.
Johnson was a key part of the franchise’s post-Banner 17 rebuild, anchoring the team’s interior as a veteran presence while averaging 6.9 points, 5.5 rebounds, 1.7 assists, and 0.9 blocks per game.
Johnson would leave the team in free agency to join the Philadelphia 76ers in the summer of 2017.
But in a Vogue piece that dropped, she revealed she was coming back after a three-year hiatus an would play at the 2023 U.S. Open. She also got some encouragement from her husband, former NBA player David Lee, whom she married and had two kids with.
So as we get ready to see the former world No. 1 play competitive tennis again, let’s look back at some snaps of the pair over the years they’ve been together as a couple:
The 2005 class features a healthy cohort of players who would go on to play for the Boston Celtics,
Hoops Hype’s dynamic NBA redraft duo of Frank Urbina and Raul Barrigon are back at their craft. This time they put the magnifying glass to the 2005 class that featured a healthy cohort of players who went on to play for the Boston Celtics, albeit a few only briefly.
With the 2023 NBA draft not far off now, the storied ball club’s front office is doing its best to assess talent in the incoming class of prospective players in the same sort of way Urbina and Barrigon have done with several such drafts, though of course with the invaluable benefit of hindsight.
Let’s take a look at which former Celtics landed where in this revisionist assessment.
A pair of Celtics alumni clocked in as among the oldest to ever play the game. https://t.co/CIrlLzwvYS
On this day, construction began on the building that would replace the old Boston Garden.
On this day in Boston Celtics history, in 1993, ground was broken on what would become the team’s home in the modern era, the so-called “new” Boston Garden currently referred to as TD Garden.
Boston had previously played in the building built in 1928 that began its life as the “Boston Madison Square Garden” (it had been designed by boxing promoter Tex Rickard, the intellectual author of the third iteration of the New York City arena of the same name sans ‘Boston,’ thus the name later shortened to ‘Boston Garden’) from its founding in 1946 as one of the premier teams of the Basketball Association of America (BAA – a precursor league of the NBA) up until 1995.
The Celtics had been looking for a new arena back into the 1970s, nearly moving to Revere, Massachusetts before Delaware North — the company that owns the building and the NHL team the Boston Bruins — secured permission and funding for building TD Garden.
Former Buffalo Bills quarterbacks coach claims he wanted the team to draft Russell Wilson and Dak Prescott.
The jury is still out on Buffalo Bills quarterback Josh Allen, but he has instilled some confidence in the organization and its fans that he could finally be a long-term answer for the team at his position.
But one former Bills coach has revealed, or claimed, that he wanted the team to end their post-Jim Kelly drought for a franchise quarterback much sooner than (potentially) Allen. Former Bills quarterbacks coach David Lee told TheAthletic.com that he suggested to the coaching staffs and front offices he worked with in Buffalo that he wanted the team drafted two guys: Russell Wilson and Dak Prescott.
The two claims connected to quarterbacks are a bit different, though. In Wilson, he was selected in the third round of the 2012 draft with the No. 75 overall pick. Lee and then-Buffalo general manager Buddy Nix maintain the team planned to draft him, but not until the fourth round. He was already off the board.
Wilson is probably the best player that was selected in that entire draft, but at the time, the NFL wasn’t as open to the idea of smaller QBs like it is today. The now 31-year-old, 5-foot-11 QB has a Super Bowl title and seven Pro Bowls, including one just last season.
In Prescott, Lee suggested he and the front office at that time, led by then-GM Doug Whaley, were not on the same page. Lee liked Prescott, who was a fourth-round pick in 2016 and went on to be a two-time Pro Bowler most-recently in 2018. Whaley evidently liked Cardale Jones more, who ended up being the QB the Bills took in that year’s fourth round just a few picks after Prescott. Jones last played a football game in the XFL.
Hindsight is very 20/20 here for the Bills and Lee here. By comparison, Wilson would’ve been the total game-changing pick. Prescott might not be at that elite level, but you can’t argue he isn’t good. Only supreme talents get the franchise tag placed on them, and that’s exactly the contract Prescott is playing under in 2020.
By now, the question “what could have been?” is likely being pondered, but hopefully Allen puts any of these concerns to rest in 2020 and who knows what could’ve happen if Wilson or Prescott ended up in Buffalo. Would they have succeed to the levels they have? We can only wonder, but it is worth mentioning how different circumstances can be from team-to-team.
On this day in 2015, the Boston Celtics signed Amir Johnson and Jonas Jerebko, and traded for David Lee.
On this day in 2015, the Boston Celtics signed big man Amir Johnson to a two-year, $24 million contract.
The Los Angeles native had previously played for the Toronto Raptors for the previous six seasons, and the Detroit Pistons for four more before that after being drafted directly out of high school by that team 56th overall in the 2005 NBA Draft.
Johnson was a key part of Boston’s rebuild, anchoring the team’s interior as a veteran presence while averaging 6.9 points, 5.5 rebounds, 1.7 assists and 0.9 blocks per game before leaving the team in free agency to join the Philadelphia 76ers in the summer of 2017.
In 2010, the Golden State Warriors traded Anthony Randolph, Ronny Turiaf and Kelenna Azubuike to the New York Knicks for forward David Lee.
When the calendar flips to July, the NBA offseason usually takes centerstage. Trades, the draft and free agency, cause a storm of news. However, with the NBA’s stretch run still on the docket in the Orlando Bubble, offseason action will be put on hold until October.
With no hoops on the slate, Warriors Wire is rewinding through Golden State’s offseason history to highlight draft sleepers, memorable trades, standout free agent signings and everything in between.
In 2010, former Golden State general manager Larry Riley acquired a future All-Star with an early July sign-and-trade.
July 8, 2010
Coming off an All-Star season averaging a double-double with 20.2 points and 11.7 rebounds per game for the New York Knicks, David Lee became an unrestricted free agent in the summer of 2010.
On July 8, 2010, the Golden State Warriors traded former first-rounder Anthony Randolph, Ronny Turiaf, Kelenna Azubuike and a second-round pick to the New York Knicks for Lee.
In his first season in the Bay Area, the Florida Gators product averaged 16.5 points, 9.8 rebounds and 3.2 assists per game. In 2012-13, Lee returned to his double-double average with 18.5 points and 11.2 rebounds per contest. Lee’s performance alongside a young Stephen Curry was strong enough to earn the power forward a spot on the All-Star team. Lee became the first member of the Golden State Warriors to receive an All-Star nod since Latrell Sprewell in 1997.
Watch highlights from Lee’s trip to the 2013 All-Star game via YouTube:
Although injuries limited his playing time, the two-time All-Star played a reserve role in Golden State’s run to the 2015 NBA Championship. Over 10 minutes per game, Lee added 5.5 points, and 2.5 rebounds against LeBron James and the Cleveland Cavaliers.
Although he won’t get credit like Curry, Klay Thompson, Andre Iguodala, Draymond Green and Kevin Durant, the two-time All-Star played a significant role on and off the court in Golden State’s leap to consistent playoff contenders.
29-year-old tennis star Caroline Wozniacki will retire in 2020.
29-year-old Danish tennis star Caroline Wozniacki wrote in an Instagram post on Friday that she wants to start a family with her husband, former NBA player David Lee, and work to raise awareness about rheumatoid arthritis, and plans to call it a career after the 2020 Australian Open.
At 19, Wozniacki was the runner-up to Kim Clijsters at the 2009 U.S. Open, then again was the runner-up at Flushing Meadows in 2014 to her good friend Serena Williams. Wozniacki became the No. 1 player in the world in October of 2010, and has one career Grand Slam win, which came at the 2018 Australian Open.
When she carried the flag for Denmark at the opening ceremony for the 2016 Rio Olympic Games, Wozniacki said, “I’ve accomplished everything I could ever dream of on the court.”
