Tag: Robert Parish

Iconic Celtics center Robert Parish hated playing basketball as a teen

The Hall of Fame Celtic started out hating the sport he’d become famous for playing.

It might sound hard to believe, but as a kid, Hall of Fame Boston Celtics big man Robert Parish was very much not a fan of playing the sport of basketball. Given that he would become among the longest-tenured players in the history of the NBA and a winner of 4 NBA championships across his 21-season career, one would be forgiven if the notion that Chief began playing the game reluctantly sounded spurious.

But the man himself attested to as much on a recent appearance on the “Players’ Own Voice” podcast in a wide-ranging interview you should listen to in its entirety if you are a fan of the Celtics legend’s game.

As for his awkward start with the sport, Parish related that he “didn’t like it” at first.

On this day: Red’s jersey retired; Parish 2000th block; Jefferson, Kreklow, Kleine born

On this day, iconic Celtic GM and coach Red Auerbach’s jersey was retired, Robert Parish made his 2000th career block, and Al Jefferson was born.

On this day in Boston Celtics history, the storied franchise retired legendary head coach and team president Arnold Jacob “Red” Auerbach’s jersey number in 1986.

Of course, Auerbach had given up the sport as a player long before becoming part of the Celtics organization, having played collegiately for George Washington University before the Second World War began. Rather, it was in recognition for building the NBA behemoth that won an unprecedented total of 16 titles in his lifetime as either head coach or general manager of the Celtics in a span of years stretching from 1957 all the way to 1986.

His career as an executive was and remains unparalleled in basketball and in professional sports more generally.

Robert Parish credits team-first play with the Boston Celtics of his era having so many Hall of Famers

‘I think that’s one of the reasons why I’m in the Hall of Fame today-it is not so much my individual talent, but the team talent,’ said Parish.

While Hall of Fame Boston Celtics big man Robert Parish was a rising talent before he was traded from the Golden State Warriors to the Celtics, and won an NBA title after leaving Boston, the three titles with the Celts that the Louisiana native won in the 1980s have stuck with Parish over all of these years.

The Centenary College alum opened up about his time with Boston during their championship runs with Larry Bird, Kevin McHale, and Danny Ainge in a recent interview with the “Players’ Own Voice” podcast. Asked how he would describe his glory days with the Celtics, Chief had a quick, brief reply followed by a long one.

“Sweet,” he began. “I always consider myself to be lucky to play with the talent that I played with.”

Robert Parish on how fellow iconic Celtics big man Bill Russell prepared him to play in Boston

‘I was really leery and hesitant of the city,’ shared Parish, who’d had a negative experience with Celtics fans his rookie season with the Warriors.

The Boston Celtics seem to have a soft spot for big men from northern Louisiana, and it has paid off on the court for the storied franchise over the decades, whether we are talking Robert Williams III today, or Hall of Famers like Bill Russell and Robert Parish.

The latter of the trio was recently asked about Russell’s impact on the game, and Parish opened up with a tale not only about the 11-time champion but how he himself saw the city of Boston after a distasteful interaction with some misguided locals early in his career on an episode of the “Players’ Own Voice” podcast.

“Mr. Russell should be revered,” said Chief when asked whether he had any memories of Russell talking about some of the things that were important to him off the court.

Robert Parish on his initial impression of the Toronto Raptors mascot in the mid-90s

The Celtics great weighed in on the purple dinosaur being the choice for Toronto’s mascot back in the day.

Not a lot of people realize the dinosaur behind the Toronto Raptors name and mascot comes from the popular “Jurassic Park” film, but Boston Celtics Hall of Fame big man Robert Parish was in the league when the Raptors were founded in 1995.

Asked what his initial response to such an unusual mascot was the first time he crossed paths with the then-new Canadian expansion team’s distinctive purple mascot on the Canadian “Player’s Own Voice” podcast, Parish replied it “made you look twice.” Taken a bit aback by the idea of a dinosaur for a mascot, the Celtics legend said he did a double-take.

“Oh, like, really? OK,” he laughed. “(The) Phoenix Suns mascot used to be a rooster and I used to think, Oh, that’s odd. So it made me do a double take”.

“Whenever I saw that dinosaur, that’s the first thing I thought about was the Phoenix Suns mascot was the rooster,” related Parish. As to which of the two avian mascots separated by millions of years of evolution was tougher, it wasn’t much of a contest for the Louisiana native.

“If it were the real dinosaur and rooster?” asked Parish rhetorically. “Wouldn’t be a contest.”

Fair enough.

Listen to the “Celtics Lab” podcast on:

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Spotify: https://spoti.fi/3GfUPFi

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Celtics Hall of Fame center Robert Parish wore No. 00…because of how bad he was

Trust us, there’s more to this story.

It might be hard to believe, but the reason the No. 00 Boston Celtics jersey is hanging in the rafters is because of how bad Hall of Fame Celtics big man Robert Parish was.

If you are confused by that sentence, we understand. After all, it was Parish’s rock-steady excellence that helped propel Boston to three titles in the 1980s.

But per the man himself, he would never have elected to wear 00 had he not been such a poor prospect in junior high school.

“My junior high school team gave out jersey numbers to the players (given) the scale of talent,” said Parish on an episode of the “In the Post with Elvin Hayes” podcast.

“The best players got their jerseys first,” explained Chief, “and then, the players that wasn’t as good as the starting five, that’s who got the remaining jerseys.”

“Being that I was the worst player on the team at the time, 00 was the last jersey. So that’s how I got the No. 00,” explained Parish, noting the number followed him the rest of his career.

Until, that is, it was hung in Boston Celtics Valhalla, never to be worn again by any player — and rightfully so.

Listen to the “Celtics Lab” podcast on:

Apple Podcasts: https://apple.co/3zBKQY6

Spotify: https://spoti.fi/3GfUPFi

YouTube: https://bit.ly/3F9DvjQ

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What Boston Celtics legends got no Rookie of the Year votes their first season in the NBA?

Five Boston alumni got no love whatever as rookies in the league — can you guess which ones?

As one of the cornerstone franchises of the NBA as well as its winningest in terms of titles, the Boston Celtics have had a number of NBA legends pass through the organization. Out of those iconic players, some rose to prominence in Boston, others came to the Celtics in the prime of their careers, and still others at the end of their time in the Association.

And of those legends, more than a few got precisely zero votes for rookie of the year in their respective first seasons in the league despite the greatness they would later show on the court, a fact recently documented by the folks at HoopsHype.

Let’s see which Celtics alumni got no love as rookies.

Drafting an all-time Boston Celtics roster is harder than you might think

With Hall of Fame greats like Larry Bird, Bill Russell, Kevin Garnett, Bob Cousy, Kevin McHale, Dave Cowens, Robert Parish, John Havlicek, Paul Pierce, and so, so many others to choose from, building an all-time Boston Celtics squad is easier said than done.

With Hall of Fame greats like Larry Bird, Bill Russell, Kevin Garnett, Bob Cousy, Kevin McHale, Dave Cowens, Robert Parish, John Havlicek, Paul Pierce, and so, so many others to choose from, building an all-time Boston Celtics squad is easier said than done. Mix in the availability of players from today as well, and it becomes a tough out for anyone.

But that is exactly what the hosts of the CLNS Media “Garden Report” podcast set out to try to do on a recent segment filmed at TD Garden, with hosts Bobby Manning and Josue Pavon taking turns putting together the best team they can draw from the ranks of Celtics greats both present and past.

Take a look at the clip embedded below to see who the pair think ought to represent the storied ball club as the five best players one can draft.

Listen to the “Celtics Lab” podcast on:

Apple Podcasts: https://apple.co/3zBKQY6

Spotify: https://spoti.fi/3GfUPFi

YouTube: https://bit.ly/3F9DvjQ

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Boston Celtics place 17 alumni on the ‘Bill Russell Scale’

Yahoo Sports’ Ben Rohrbach named a metric designed specifically to measure Russell’s sort of greatness.

The greatest winner of all time, Boston Celtics Hall of Fame big man Bill Russell, had such a profound impact on the sport of basketball that Yahoo Sports’ Ben Rohrbach named a metric designed specifically to measure Russell’s sort of greatness.

Updating it for the second straight year since its creation in 2021, Rohrbach recently released the 2022 version of what he has dubbed the predictably-titled “Bill Russell Scale” to help us take stock of how greats across eras are currently stacking up against one another. “Russell’s accomplishments also do not fit neatly into a statistical box,” writes Rohrbach. “He was not an all-time great scorer, and PER fails to properly capture the impact he clearly had.”

“This is why setting him as the gold standard makes so much sense,” adds the Yahoo analyst — and with that, let’s see where Celtics alumni stack up in 2022.

On this day: Boston sees the Grateful Dead in concert; Shaw, Hunter debut

On this day, several Boston Celtics accompanied resident Deadhead and Celtics center Bill Walton to see the Grateful Dead in concert in 1985.

On this day in Boston Celtics history, several members of the storied franchise went to see the Grateful Dead in concert in Worcester, Massachusetts in 1985. Not all the Celtics went, but after recent arrival Bill Walton had managed to pique the interest of a few of his teammates, a significant portion of the team decided to attend the concert.

A few days ahead of the planned concert, Hall of Fame teammates Larry Bird and Kevin McHale had noticed some hippie-ish looking people wearing funky clothes arriving in town, and made the connection it must have something to do with their hippie-ish teammate.

Walton had himself previously met the band after sticking out like a sore thumb as a 7-footer at one of their concerts, catching the eye of drummer Mickey Hart, who called him on stage after learning who he was.