Lex Nihil Novi - Did The Boston Celtics Really Win Their Last 4 Titles?

Did the Boston Celtics Really Win their Last Four Titles?








May 22, 2012




The Los Angeles Clippers are the successor team to the Boston Celtics. The Celtics? They are a successor to the Buffalo Braves. It's easy -- if you follow the fine print.


Cheer up, Clippers fans! It's no disgrace to lose to the Spurs. You have a promising future with Chris Paul and Blake Griffin anchoring the team.

Here's something else you have you might know: you also have a championship pedigree.

That's because, in the strictest of strictest interpretations of the law -- not to be confused with what actually goes on in the N.B.A. -- the Clippers are, in reality, the Boston Celtics. The owner, Donald Sterling, longed to model his franchise after the Celtics (even though every move he made basically killed that plan). Well, he got his wish.

We're talking legalese and very fine print here, and the story goes all the way back to 1978. That year, the owner of the Celtics was a Hollywood guy by the name of Irv Levin. He wanted to move the team to southern California, but he knew the N.B.A. would never allow that to happen.

So Levin did the next best thing. He convinced the owner of the Buffalo Braves, the Kentucky Fried Chicken magnate John Y. Brown, to swap franchises.

"My understanding, as best as I can remember, is that the current Celtics team is a successor to the Buffalo Braves,'' Russ Granik, former deputy commissioner of the N.B.A., said in a telephone conversation on Tuesday. He was the N.B.A.'s assistant general counsel in 1978.

And that would mean that the current Clippers team is the successor to the Boston Celtics?

"Yes,'' Granik said. "In a strictly legal sense."

But in the N.B.A. world, none of that legal mumbo-jumbo matters. The swap merely meant that the Celtics were now in the hands of a new owner.

The franchise swap was approved by the N.B.A.'s Board of Governors by a 21-1 vote. The teams swapped rosters, but not before Brown and Levin completed a trade that involved several players, including future Hall of Famer Nate Archibald. Levin moved the Braves to San Diego, where they became the Clippers.

The business entity that owned the Boston Celtics in 1978 moved to San Diego and became the business entity that owned the Clippers. When deferred compensation checks were mailed out to the likes of former Celtics player and coach Tom Heinsohn and others, they were from the Clippers' bank account.

Levin later sold the team to Sterling, who moved the team to Los Angeles in 1984.

Levin and Brown did their negotiating without consulting anyone in Celtics' management. Red Auerbach, then the team's president and general manager, knew nothing of the franchise swap. He and the Celtics' assistant general manager, Jan Volk, had gone to Washington, D.C., at the end of June to sign deals for Kevin Kunnert, a free agent, and Kermit Washington, whom the Celtics had acquired from the Lakers the previous December.

Little did the two men realize that the deals were the final step in the franchise swap process. They triggered the swap. In an interview in the early 1990s, Volk said, "The next morning I woke up and found out the franchise had been sold. We had done their dirty work for them. I felt like the Japanese ambassador in Washington, D.C., going to the White House on Dec. 7, 1941."

Kunnert and Washington went to San Diego along with Sidney Wicks and the draft rights to Freeman Williams, whom the Celtics had picked No. 8 in the 1978 draft. The Celtics received Archibald, Marvin Barnes and Billy Knight.

In a still-amazing 'what if,' the name of Larry Bird surfaced in the talks when Brown and Levin were going over their respective rosters. Bird had been drafted by the Celtics in June 1978 as what was known as a "junior eligible," but had decided to return to Indiana State for his senior year. Under N.B.A. rules at the time, Boston had until the 1979 draft to sign Bird or he would re-enter the draft. That is why several teams shied away from drafting Bird in the first place.

Levin died in 1996, but a few years before his death, he said he easily could have included Bird in the player exchange and would have done so had he been convinced that Bird would have signed with the Clippers.

"I absolutely could have had Larry Bird if I wanted. No question about it,'' Levin said. "But I knew Red was very high on the kid and I felt if I took Bird to San Diego, Red would in some way make sure that he never signed with me. It was too risky. We were starting a new franchise. Of course, had I known then what I know now, I would have taken that risk."

Granik said that the teams swapped rosters immediately after the franchise swap. So, for one brief shining moment, the Clippers did indeed own the rights to Larry Bird before they were sent back to Boston. The same applies to Dave Cowens and Cedric Maxwell, the latter of whom actually became a Clipper in 1985 when he was traded for Bill Walton.

Walton always said he wanted to bring a championship to the Clippers when he signed with them as a free agent in 1979. He did, in a roundabout way. He was a big part of the 1986 Celtics'championship, the Celtics' 16th. Or was it really the Clippers' third? Either way, Walton could say he pleased both masters.



bob
MY NOTE:  Holy Crapoly!  I had never heard this before!


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gyso wrote:I had heard of this, somewhere along the line.  Details like this certainly weaken the occasional argument about the true amount of Laker titles.  At least the movement of the Lakers from Minny to LA involved the same franchise.  

In 1978, the Celtics franchise moved to San Diego (it could be argued along with their titles), the Braves franchise moved to Boston (again, it could be argued along with their titles, if they had they won any titles).  Then the names changed from the Celtics to the Clippers and from the Braves to the Celtics.

Just something to think about the next time someone gets all hot and bothered about the true count of Laker titles.

gyso

gyso,

I, for one, never questioned how many titles the Lakers franchise should lay claim to. My beef is that they think it's all about LA. Speaking as someone who has lived in the SF bay area for 24 years it's irritating listening to the puffed up egos of Hollywood (yes, there is a rivalry between NorCal and SoCal, as we refer to ourselves). If you want to take credit for those 5 Minny Laker titles, and I'm ok with that, then respect the players who got them for you. Retire George Mikan's 99 and Slater Martin's 23 just as you have retired Magic's 32 and James Worthy's 42. James Worthy, as great a player as he was, has not been inducted into the HOF. Mikan and Martin were. Gail Goodrich's 25 was retired by the Lakers. How many championships did he bring them? 1. But it was in LA so ooh la la...

The USMC takes pride in their history and heritage. They celebrate their "birthday" every November 10th, dating back to 1775. If today's Marines didn't respect and honor the "leathernecks" of old, who spent virtually all their time on ships, fighting from the crosstops of masts and going ashore only for a quick in-out operation and not extended land-based operations like Iwo jima and Guadalcanal and Fallujah, fine, but then don't claim 11/10/1775 as the birth date of the Marines, make it later, when you do feel the Marines were "worthy". The Marine Corp DOES honor those founding marines, I'm just using this as an example of consistency and intellectual integrity.

Regardless of whether it was the Celtics or the Braves, all of OUR titles are embraced and fully honored by Boston sports fans. I had mad respect for Dr. Jerry Buss. He was a self-made billionaire who did wonders with that franchise. Jeannie Buss nailed it, when her father died, and she said they "lost the best player on their team". This is my one unending grudge against him. He should have done right for those Minny Lakers by treating them just like his LA players.


bob


.

bobheckler wrote:

gyso wrote:I had heard of this, somewhere along the line.  Details like this certainly weaken the occasional argument about the true amount of Laker titles.  At least the movement of the Lakers from Minny to LA involved the same franchise.  

In 1978, the Celtics franchise moved to San Diego (it could be argued along with their titles), the Braves franchise moved to Boston (again, it could be argued along with their titles, if they had they won any titles).  Then the names changed from the Celtics to the Clippers and from the Braves to the Celtics.

Just something to think about the next time someone gets all hot and bothered about the true count of Laker titles.

gyso

gyso,

I, for one, never questioned how many titles the Lakers franchise should lay claim to.  My beef is that they think it's all about LA.  Speaking as someone who has lived in the SF bay area for 24 years it's irritating listening to the puffed up egos of Hollywood (yes, there is a rivalry between NorCal and SoCal, as we refer to ourselves).  If you want to take credit for those 5 Minny Laker titles, and I'm ok with that, then respect the players who got them for you.  Retire George Mikan's 99 and Slater Martin's 23 just as you have retired Magic's 32 and James Worthy's 42.  James Worthy, as great a player as he was, has not been inducted into the HOF.  Mikan and Martin were.  Gail Goodrich's 25 was retired by the Lakers.  How many championships did he bring them?  1.  But it was in LA so ooh la la...

The USMC takes pride in their history and heritage.  They celebrate their "birthday" every November 10th, dating back to 1775.  If today's Marines didn't respect and honor the "leathernecks" of old, who spent virtually all their time on ships, fighting from the crosstops of masts and going ashore only for a quick in-out operation and not extended land-based operations like Iwo jima and Guadalcanal and Fallujah, fine, but then don't claim 11/10/1775 as the birth date of the Marines, make it later, when you do feel the Marines were "worthy".  The Marine Corp DOES honor those founding marines, I'm just using this as an example of consistency and intellectual integrity.  

Regardless of whether it was the Celtics or the Braves, all of OUR titles are embraced and fully honored by Boston sports fans.  I had mad respect for Dr. Jerry Buss.  He was a self-made billionaire who did wonders with that franchise.  Jeannie Buss nailed it, when her father died, and she said they "lost the best player on their team".  This is my one unending grudge against him.  He should have done right for those Minny Lakers by treating them just like his LA players.


bob


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"James Worthy, as great a player as he was, has not been inducted into the HOF."

Worthy is indeed in the HOF. He got in in 2003, the same year as Robert Parish and Meadowlark Lemon:

http://www.basketball-reference.com/awards/hof.html