Tag: dermie o’connell

On this day: Celtics McCarty, DeClercq born; Saunders traded; Kite cut

On this day in Boston Celtics history, Walter McCarty and Andrew DeClercq were born, Fred Saunders was traded and Greg Kite was waived.

On this day in Boston Celtics history, former Celtics forward Walter Lee McCarty was born in Evansville, Indiana back in 1974. McCarty played collegiately for the University of Kentucky under future Celtics coach and President of Basketball Operations Rick Pitino before being picked up with the 19th overall selection of the 1996 NBA draft by the New York Knicks.

He played 35 games there before being traded to the Celtics with Scott Brooks, Dontae’ Jones, and John Thomas in October 1997 for Chris Mills and draft assets, where he played for a total of eight seasons before being traded to the Phoenix Suns for a 2007 second-round draft pick.

The Kentucky alum would average 5.7 points and 2.8 boards per game in his time in green and white as a player, and would later return to serve as an assistant coach with Boston from 2013 to 2018.

On this day: Boston icon Bob Cousy selected in Chicago Stags dispersal draft; John Bagley trade; Dermie O’Connell passes

On this day in 1950, future Hall of Fame point guard Bob Cousy was drafted by the Boston Celtics in the NBA’s Chicago Stags dispersal draft, John Bagley was traded for and Dermie O’Connell passed away.

On this day in Boston Celtics history, the team selected future Hall of Fame point guard Bob Cousy in 1950. An alum of Holy Cross — where he won an NCAA title in 1947 — Cousy would be passed over by Celtics coach and general manager Red Auerbach in the 1950 NBA draft, only to end up stuck with the player in the 1950 NBA dispersal draft for the defunct Chicago Stags, with whom Cousy had since signed.

The future Hall of Fame floor general would make his first of 13 All-Star Games in 1951, six NBA titles between 1957 and 1963, a league Most Valuable Player (MVP) award, two All-Star MVPs, a dozen All-NBA nods, and many other honors before his retirement in 1963.

It would turn out to be one of the most fortunate breaks in franchise history.

Every player in Boston Celtics history who wore No. 7

Today’s installment focuses on the 20 players who wore No. 7 over the years as of September 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 20 players who wore No. 7 over the years as of September 2023.

On this day: Celtics win first title; Loscutoff drafted; Barnes, O’Connell, Kappen, Barros, Olowokandi born

On this day, Boston won their 1st of a league-best 17 banners in 1957, 2 years to the date they drafted ex-Celtic forward Jim Loscutoff.

On this day in Boston Celtics history, the Boston Celtics won the first of their 17 championships in 1957, a 125-123 double-overtime thriller at the Boston Garden against the (then) St. Louis (now, Atlanta) Hawks.

The Hawks and Celtics had been tied three games to three heading into the critical Game 7 contest and saw rookie and future legendary big man Bill Russell grab a record 32 rebounds, the most ever for a rookie in any NBA Finals game up to that point. It also saw one-day Hall of Famer Tommy Heinsohn, a 6-foot-7 rookie forward, scored 37 points and 23 rebounds in the win.

The victory sparked a short-lived rivalry between the two clubs that would end in the early 1960s, supplanted by the Los Angeles Lakers.