Every player in Boston Celtics history who wore No. 44

Today’s installment focuses on the dozen players who wore No. 44 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 dozen players who wore No. 44 over the years as of Aug. 2023.

On this day: Hank Beenders, Eric Riley, Dontae Jones born

On this day, former Boston Celtics Hank Beenders, Eric Riley, and Dontae Jones were born.

On this day, former Boston Celtics big man Hank Beenders was born in Haarlem, Netherlands in 1916.

Beenders would emigrate to the U.S. at age eight, and won an NIT championship with Long Island University in 1942 before joining the Providence Steamrollers as one of the first international players of the the Basketball Association of America (BAA), a precursor league to the NBA.

He would be traded to the then-Philadelphia Warriors in 1948, who would turn around and deal him to the Celtics in that same year with center Chick Halbert for big man Ed Sadowski.

The Haarlem native would play just 8 games for Boston in 1948-49, his last stop in the BAA.

He averaged 2.4 points and 0.4 assists per games — rebounds were not yet being recorded.