Tag: Dennis Johnson

Celtics announce all 15 members of All-Celtics roster for NBA’s 75th anniversary celebration

The Celtics released all 15 players for their all-time great Celtics list in honor of the league’s 75th-birthday celebrations.

The Boston Celtics are a founding member of the Basketball Association of America (BAA), the league that would one day call itself the NBA of today, and have thus been a prominent franchise in the league’s 75th-anniversary celebrations throughout the 2021-22 NBA season so far.

One of several such ways the Celtics have helped commemorate the league reaching its’ three-quarter century mark has been their slow reveal of their 15-man all-time team of the greatest players to don the green and white for Boston, done in three installments of five players each over the course of the last two weeks.

Selected by a panel of experts and historians, the Celtics released the final, full 15-player roster on Thursday afternoon along with a press release detailing all aspects of the team.

Six Boston Celtics alumni make The Athletic’s John Hollinger’s 25 greatest NBA defenders list

A solid representation from the storied franchise.

The Athletic’s John Hollinger cut his front office teeth with the “grit and grind” Memphis Grizzlies, so it is safe to say that he knows a little bit about what makes a great defense exceptional compared to a good one.

So his new article highlighting (in his estimation) the 25 greatest defenders at any position in the 75-year history of the league, his assessment is probably a better one than most despite his effusive self-deprecation on the subject. And as one might expect with a franchise as storied as the Boston Celtics, there is a string Boston alumni contingent to be found populating his list — 6 of the 25, in fact.

Let’s take a look at the six Celtics alumni who made Hollinger’s top-25 all-time NBA defenders.

Celtics announce first five names of All-Celtics roster for NBA’s 75th anniversary celebration

The Boston Celtics have announced the first of three waves of its All-Celtics team, including five of the best players in franchise history.

The Boston Celtics have announced the first wave of five players in its 75th Anniversary All-Celtics team. This team will feature basketball legends and some of the best players to ever wear the Celtics green. These are going to be players who have been a part of the team’s 17 total championships, who have established league records, are fixtures within Celtics lore and have their jerseys in the rafters at TD Garden.

There will be another group of five announced on Jan. 31 and a final group on Feb. 3, to be released on a special broadcast. In total, the three groupings will name 15 total players to the All-Celtics team, announced in no particular order. The All-Celtics team has been selected through a voting process consisting of a large-scale fan vote and a voting panel made up of media and team historians, according to the team.

Here are the first five players announced.

On this day: Rondo traded for Crowder; most team assists in ’85

On this day, the Celtics traded Rajon Rondo to the Mavericks for Jae Crowder, and Boston logged 46 assists against Dallas, their most ever.

On this day in Boston Celtics history, the storied franchise traded champion point guard Rajon Rondo and center Dwight Powell to the Dallas Mavericks in 2014 in exchange for small forward Jae Crowder, point guard Jameer Nelson, big man Brandan Wright, draft assets, and a $13 million trade exception.

The move finally brought to an end the last remaining player from the team’s 2008 NBA title’s tenure with the franchise, Rondo having been with the Celtics since the Phoenix Suns drafted him out of Kentucky with the 21st overall pick of the 2006 NBA draft and dealt him to Boston on draft night.

Powell was a more recent arrival, having come over in the deal with the Cleveland Cavaliers for Keith Bogans in September of that year.

On this day: Dennis Johnson jersey retired; Kendrick Perkins debut; Charles Claxton, Andre Turner born; Woody Sauldsberry signed

On this day, the Celtics retired DJ’s number, Perk played his first game for them, and Charles Claxton and Andre Turner were born.

On this day in Boston Celtics history, the Celtics raised champion point guard Dennis Johnson’s jersey to the rafters, honoring the two titles and seven seasons the San Pedro, California native played for Boston. A product of both Los Angeles Harbor College and Pepperdine — Johnson matriculated from the former, a junior college, to the latter — the point and shooting guard was picked up with the 29th overall pick of the 1976 NBA draft by the (then) Seattle SuperSonics (now, Oklahoma City Thunder).

DJ — as he was often called as a nickname — would play for that team and the Phoenix Suns before being dealt to Boston in 1983, winning a title with the Sonics in 1979.

The Celtics acquired Johnson for Rick Robey and draft assets, quite a steal in retrospect.

WATCH: Boston Celtics greatest duos: Larry Bird and Dennis Johnson

Get to know this killer tandem from Boston’s rich history of them.

The Boston Celtics have had a host of player duos use their personal chemistry to great success over the decades, from Jaylen Brown and Jayson Tatum back to Bob Cousy and Bill Russell.

The championship years of the mid-1980s were certainly no exception. Iconic forward Larry Bird and champion point guard Dennis Johnson put together truly transcendent play on a consistent basis based on their personal connection as players. Contemporary fans ought to do themselves a favor and get up to speed on how the dynamic between these two dynamos functioned to produce the two titles.

Watch the clip embedded below to hear about how these two meshed to form one of Boston’s best duos on the court, courtesy of CLNS Media’s “NBA History & Legends on CLNS” YouTube channel.

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

[lawrence-related id=62632,62616,62609,62607]

[listicle id=62597]

Boston Celtics all-time roster: See which legends made the cut

In honor of the NBA’s 75th anniversary, we present the best rosters in Celtics history drawn from every era.

In honor of the 75 years the Boston Celtics have been a foundational part of the league they helped shepherd from its days as the Basketball Association of America, the predecessor league it was formed from, we at the Celtics Wire decided to try our own hand at the many lists of players being commemorated as part of the Association hitting the three-quarters century mark.

To that end, we have put together not just one but four all-time Celtics teams, featuring our Honorable Mention team along with First, Second, and Third team honors. It is a veritable ‘who’s who’ of iconic Boston players — and each team has a head coach drawn from the greatest the Celtics have to offer in that regard.

The criteria for ranking is a subjective mixture of what each player did as a Celtic and how good of a player they were in their era. With this in mind, if you disagree with our rankings, that’s likely why. So without further ado — here are our teams.

On this day: Radja, Johnson, Brown drafted; Dennis Johnson traded for

On this day, the Boston Celtics drafted Dino Radja, Joe Johnson and Dee Brown; they also traded for Dennis Johnson.

On this day in Boston Celtics history, the 2001 NBA draft was held in Madison Square Garden in New York City, New York, and the Celtics took three players of note in the draft.

The first of the three was small forward Joe Johnson, taken with the 10th overall pick out of the University of Arkansas. The Little Rock native only had one incomplete season with the Celtics. He played in 48 total games and recorded an average of 6.3 points, 2.9 rebounds and 1.5 assists per game, shooting 43% overall from the field in that stretch with the team.

In February of his inaugural season in the league, he would be dealt with Randy Brown, Milt Palacio and draft assets to the Phoenix Suns for Tony Delk and Rodney Rogers.

On this day: Pitino hired; DJ retired; 1968 expansion draft takes 3 Cs

On this day, Rick Pitino was hired as head coach and team president of the Boston Celtics, Dennis Johnson retired, and 3 Cs were taken in the ’68 expansion draft.

On this day in Boston Celtics history, former head coach and team president Rick Pitino was hired as head coach and general manager of the team in 1997. He had previously coached at the NBA level as a moderately successful head coach of the New York Knicks between 1987 and 1989, and most recently at Kentucky in the NCAA ranks.

His tenure with the Celtics went considerably worse, with the pressure to return to greatness after the longest losing streak in team history undoubtedly a factor in the several questionable ‘win-now’ decisions made by Pitino.The New Yorker would throw in the towel after four seasons with the franchise, amassing a 102 – 146 record in the regular season, good for a .411 winning percentage.

He never made the postseason in his role as team president and head coach.

21 Nov 1997: Head coach Rick Pitino of the Boston Celtics (left) talks to his guard Ron Mercer during a game against the New Jersey Nets at the Fleet Center in Boston, Massachusetts. The Celtics won the game 101-93. Mandatory Credit: Jamie Squire /Allsport

On this day: Pitino hired; DJ retired; 1968 expansion draft takes 3 Cs

On this day, Rick Pitino was hired as head coach and team president of the Boston Celtics, Dennis Johnson retired, and 3 Cs were taken in the ’68 expansion draft.

On this day in 1997, former Boston Celtics head coach and team president Rick Pitino was hired as head coach and general manager of the team.

He had previously coached at the NBA level as a moderately successful head coach of the New York Knicks between 1987 and 1989, and most recently at Kentucky in the NCAA ranks.

His tenure with the Celtics went considerably worse, with the pressure to return to greatness after the longest losing streak in team history undoubtedly a factor in the several questionable ‘win-now’ decisions made by Pitino.

The New Yorker would throw in the towel after four seasons with the franchise, amassing a 102-146 record in the regular season, good for a .411 winning percentage.

He never made the postseason in his role as team president and head coach.

Pages: Page 1, Page 2, Page 3, Page 4, Page 5, Page 6, Page 7, Page 8, Page 9, Page 10, Page 11