Every player in Boston Celtics history who wore No. 55

This is every player in Boston’s history who wore the Celtics’ No. 55 jersey for at least one game as of October 2022.

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 13 players who wore No. 55 over the years as of October 2022.

On this day: Pierce, Jefferson, Allen, Bradley drafted; Jones born

On this day, the Boston Celtics drafted Paul Pierce, Al Jefferson, Tony Allen, and Avery Bradley; it is also the birthday of Celtics legend Sam Jones.

On this day in Boston Celtics history, the 1998 NBA draft was held in General Motors Place in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, and in it, the Celtics took only one player of note. The Celtics selected forward Paul Pierce out of Kansas with the 10th overall pick of the draft, a team the Californian was no fan of as a youth.

Even casual fans know the legacy of “the Truth” — as he was dubbed by future teammate Shaquille O’Neal in 2001 — has had on the franchise. An instrumental part of the 2008 title that brought Boston its league-record 17th championship, the Oakland native racked up a finals MVP for that series as well.

Over the course of his career with the Celtics, Pierce amassed 10 All-Star and four All-NBA elections, All-Rookie First Team, election to the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame, and several other honors

On this day: Celtic center Luke Harangody born; Wallace-Hoefer trade

On this day, former Celtic center Luke Harangody was born, and Boston traded Red Wallace for Charlie Hoefer.

On this day in 1988, former Boston Celtics big man Luke Cameron Harangody was born in Decatur, Illinois.

Harongody would play his college ball with the Notre Dame Fighting Irish, where he won three consecutive Second Team All-American honors between 2008 and 2010, winning Big East Player of the Year in 2008 before being selected 52nd overall by the Celtics in the 2010 NBA draft, signing a two-year deal with the team in August of that year. He would debut against the Detroit Pistons in November, playing 49 games for the team before being traded to the Cleveland Cavaliers along with center Semih Erden for draft assets.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3lqmpKjus3U

Ranking every No. 52 pick made in the NBA draft by the Boston Celtics

Our sixth installment of ranking every pick from Nos. 1 to 60, we compare the seven picks the Boston Celtics have made 52nd overall.

Now on our seventh installment of ranking each Boston Celtics draft pick by the pick number they were drafted Nos. 1 through 60, we land at No. 52, which the Celtics have drafted at seven times in their seven-decade history.

The picks made at this number began in 1962 and continued until 2010, the most recent draft Boston selected 52nd overall.

As one might be assume this late in the draft, there were no stars to be found.

But there is a two-time NBA champion to speak of, an (American Basketball Association) All-Star and at least one player that might be familiar to relatively newer fans of the Celtics.

As we have done in previous editions of this series, we use a rubric valuing contributions while with the Celtics as our main focus, with the achievements garnered before or after as a secondary means of ranking these players when the race is close.

All that explained, who are the greatest Celtics to be drafted 52nd overall?

Notre Dame 15 Years Tournament: ’07-08 Irish Win Title vs. ’06-07 Team

The Notre Dame 15 Years Tournament was filled with close games and come-from-behind wins.

The Notre Dame 15 Years Tournament was filled with close games and come-from-behind wins. It only seemed fitting that the championship feature both of those. The 2007-08 Irish won the tournament title after defeating the 2006-07 Irish, 85-81, in a game they had to fight for.

The ’07-08 Irish coughed up a six-point first-half lead and trailed by three at the break. The ’06-07 Irish led by as much as 12 midway through the second half and still held a nine-point lead with six-and-a-half minutes left. That’s when the ’07-08 Irish went on a 13-2 run to take a two-point lead. From there, the teams battled back and forth until it came down to the final minute, which the ’06-07 Irish entered with a 78-76 lead.

With 38 seconds left, Luke Zeller hit a 3 on a nice pass from Jonathan Peoples to give the ’07-08 Irish a 79-78 lead. Colin Falls was unable to answer with his own 3, and Rob Kurz got the rebound before being fouled and hitting two free throws to make it 81-78. After the ’06-07 iteration of Kurz missed a shot, the ’07-08 Zach Hillesland cleared the rebound and got it to Zeller, who made two more free throws to put his team up five and ice the game. The points scored in the final 12 seconds made no difference.

The ’07-08 Luke Harangody wrapped up the tournament’s Most Outstanding Player honor with his best performance yet of 27 points and 19 rebounds. In three games, he averaged 22.3 points and 16.3 boards. Kyle McAlarney scored 25 points, including five 3-pointers, to wrap up an equally impressive tournament in which he had a 22.0 scoring average. Kurz scored 10 and joined Harangody and McAlarney in accounting for 19 of the ’07-08 Irish’s 25 free-throw attempts, all of which they made.

Falls and Kurz scored 19 points apiece to pace the ’06-07 Irish. Russell Carter achieved a double-double of 16 points and 12 rebounds. Tory Jackson scored 10, and their iteration of Harangody grabbed 10 boards off the bench.

Notre Dame 15 Years Tournament: ’06-07 Irish Topple ’14-15 Irish

In a Notre Dame 15 Years Tournament that’s had some surprises, perhaps the biggest one just happened.

In a Notre Dame 15 Years Tournament that’s had some surprises, perhaps the biggest one just happened. That surprise is the field’s top seed won’t play in the final. The fourth-seeded 2006-07 Irish convincingly upset the 2014-15 Irish, 97-83, in the first semifinal.

After falling behind by six early in the first half, the ’06-07 Irish went on a 10-0 and never trailed again. That first half saw the ’14-15 Irish cut a nine-point deficit to two before the ’06-07 Irish built their lead back up to 14, though they had to settle for an 11-point halftime lead after Jerian Grant hit a 3-pointer at the buzzer. In the second half, they led by as much as 19, and the ’14-15 Irish never got closer than nine. To say the least, this game played out in a way few could have expected not only in terms of the outcome, but also how it happened.

Russell Carter led all scorers and the ’06-07 Irish with 20 points. Luke Harangody had another quality game off the bench and scored 18 while shooting 8 of 11 from the field. Rob Kurz was 5 of 7 from the field and 6 of 7 from the free-throw line to score 16. Colin Falls scored 12, and Kyle McAlarney had 10 off the bench.

Demetrius Jackson paced the ’14-15 Irish with 19 points. Grant was close behind with 17 points while also dishing out a game-high eight assists. Steve Vasturia had 12, and Zach Auguste came close to a double-double with 10 points and eight rebounds. Pat Connaughton was held in check with only nine points on 4-of-7 shooting.

Notre Dame 15 Years Tournament: ’07-08 Irish Squeak Past ’13-14 Irish

We no longer have a double-digit seed in the Notre Dame 15 Years Tournament, but oh Lord, was the last quarterfinal game exciting.

We no longer have a double-digit seed in the Notre Dame 15 Years Tournament, but oh Lord, was the last quarterfinal game exciting. There’s nothing more exciting than a Cinderella team giving a superior team all it can handle. In the end, the third-seeded 2007-08 Irish barely defeated the 14th-seeded 2013-14 Irish, 87-86, with a buzzer beater.

The ’13-14 Irish led by as much as 10 in the first half before the ’07-08 Irish bounced back and took a one-point halftime lead on a Luke Zeller 3-pointer at the buzzer. With just under seven minutes left in regulation, the ’07-08 Irish had built that lead up to 11, but a 15-3 run by the ’13-14 Irish put them up one with two-and-a-half minutes to go. They briefly lost the lead before going up four. A Kyle McAlarney 3 cut the lead to 82-81 going into the final minute.

Pat Connaughton got to the free-throw line with 18 seconds left and made two shots to give the ’13-14 Irish an 84-81 lead. Rob Kurz quickly tied it at 84 with a 3-pointer five seconds later. Connaughton put his team up two with an open fadeaway jumper with two seconds left. That was just enough time for Ryan Ayers to hit his only field goal of the game: a buzzer-beating 3 to send the ’07-08 Irish to the semifinals.

McAlarney led the ’07-08 Irish with 21 points, including five 3-pointers, and four steals. Kurz was just behind with 20 points while shooting 6 of 12 from the field and making all five of his free throws. Luke Harangody did his part with a double-double of 16 points and 15 rebounds.

Eric Atkins had 19 points, seven rebounds and a game-high eight assists for the ’13-14 Irish. Jerian Grant came off the bench and scored 18 on 7-of-9 shooting from the field. Connaughton scored 14, and Demetrius Jackson and Zach Auguste had 10 apiece.

Notre Dame 15 Years Tournament: ’06-07 Irish Defeat ’05-06 Irish

The first of our two Cinderella teams in the quarterfinals of the Notre Dame 15 Years Tournament and the oldest in the field has fallen.

The first of our two Cinderella teams in the quarterfinals of the Notre Dame 15 Years Tournament and the oldest in the field has fallen. It had to happen against a heavy hitter sooner or later. Though the 13th-seeded 2005-06 Irish didn’t go down without a fight, it was the 2006-07 Irish that emerged victorious, 87-78.

The ’06-07 Irish got off to a fast start and were up by as much as 11 in the first half, but the ’05-06 Irish roared back and took their first lead right before halftime on a 3-pointer from their iteration of Colin Falls. The second half was close almost throughout with the ’06-07 Irish leading most of the time until the game was tied at 70 with four minutes to go. Then, led by their iteration of Rob Kurz, the ’06-07 Irish went on a 9-1 run that put the game out of reach with a minute-and-a-half left. All the ’05-06 Irish could do from there was keep the deficit close to where it was at that moment.

Kurz was the hero for the ’06-07 Irish with a double-double of 19 points and 13 rebounds. Luke Harangody came off the bench to score 14 points and have himself an 8-of-10 showing at the free-throw line. Russell Carter scored 12 despite shooting 4 of 15 from the field, and Falls added 11 before fouling out. Tory Jackson also fouled out, but not before scoring 10 points and dishing out seven assists.

Chris Quinn led the ’05-06 Irish with 22 points and seven assists. Torin Francis wasn’t far behind with 20 points and six rebounds, but he fouled out before he could catch Quinn on the scoresheet. Carter scored 12 points, and Falls added 10.

Notre Dame 15 Years Tournament: No. 3 Seed – 2007-08 Irish

We round out our profiles for the Notre Dame 15 Years Tournament field with a look at the 2007-08 Irish.

We round out our profiles for the Notre Dame 15 Years Tournament field with a look at the 2007-08 Irish. They went 10-2 in nonconference play with their only two losses coming in the Paradise Jam Tournament just before Thanksgiving. The goodness continued during a 14-4 Big East showing, which tied them for second in the conference and left them one game back for the title. They also ran the table for the conference home schedule, becoming the first Big East team to do so in back-to-back years, and it helped Mike Brey defend his conference coach of the year award.

The Irish were one-and-done in the Big East tournament, but they still earned a fifth seed in the NCAA tourney. At that time, they were their season-high ranking of 14th. March Madness didn’t go how they had hoped as they cruised over George Mason in the first round before getting blown out by Washington State in the second. They ultimately finished 15th in the final poll.

Luke Harangody was named Big East Player of the Year after averaging a double-double of 20.4 points and 10.6 rebounds a game. Kyle McAlarney joined Harangody on the all-conference first team thanks to 15.1 points a game. Rob Kurz averaged 12.5 points and 1.5 blocks a game, and Tory Jackson paced the team in assists with 5.8 a game.

As a team, the Irish ranked eighth nationally in 3-point percentage (.405) and ninth in assists (608).

Notre Dame 15 Years Tournament: No. 4 Seed – 2006-07 Irish

Towards the end of their nonconference schedule, the 2006-07 Irish had an incident that could have derailed their entire season.

Towards the end of their nonconference schedule, during which they went 12-1 and upset fourth-ranked Alabama, the 2006-07 Irish had an incident that could have derailed their entire season. Hours after a win over Rider, starting point guard Kyle McAlarney was arrested for marijuana possession, and he subsequently was suspended from Notre Dame. Rather than let losing such a prominent player become the turning point, the Irish continued to win games and ultimately finished with a 24-8 record and the 17th spot in the final rankings.

At first, the Irish kept their overall record respectable with a 6-5 start to Big East play. Then, they got hot, winning their final five games of the regular season to earn an 11-5 record in conference play, good for fourth in the standings and enough to make Mike Brey the Big East Coach of the Year. After picking up a win in the Big East tournament, the Irish went to March Madness as a sixth seed. That was as far as they got as they were upended by 11th-seeded Winthrop in the first round.

Russell Carter paced the Irish with 17.1 points a game. Colin Falls averaged 15.3 points a game, and Rob Kurz was a threat on both ends with 12.6 points and a team-high 8.0 rebounds and 1.5 blocks a game. Luke Harangody ended with an 11.2 scoring average, and McAlarney’s 5.4 assists a game remained the team high at season’s end, although replacement Tory Jackson wasn’t far off with 4.3.