Celtics announce first five names of All-Celtics roster for NBA's 75th anniversary celebration

Celtics announce first five names of All-Celtics roster for NBA's 75th anniversary celebration  

Mike Mavredakis
January 24, 2022 5:16 pm ET

The Boston Celtics have announced the first wave of five players for their 75th Anniversary All-Celtics team. This team will feature basketball legends and some of the best players to ever wear the Celtics green. These are going to be players who have been a part of the team’s 17 total championships, who have established league records, who have been fixtures in Celtics lore, and have their jerseys in the rafters at TD Garden.

A second group of five is scheduled to be announced on Jan. 31. The final group, on Feb. 3, is planned to be released on a special broadcast. In total, 15 players will be named to the All-Celtics team, and they will be announced in no particular order. The All-Celtics team has been selected through a voting process consisting of a large-scale fan vote and a voting panel made up of media and team historians, according to the team.


Here are the first five players announced:

Larry Bird

Kevin Garnett

Kevin McHale

Sam Jones

Dennis Johnson

https://celticswire.usatoday.com/lists/nba-boston-celtics-all-time-team-75th-anniversary-larry-bird-kevin-garnett/

Is this being done in any particular order??? Bird on a third team???????? Russ must be on the first. Just wondering

I'll take a stab at the rest...

Bill Russell (not too sure about this one!! haha Surprised he's not on the first list!)
Robert Parish
Bob Cousy
K.C. Jones
John Havicek
Paul Pierce
Dave Cowens
JoJo White
Tom Heinsohn
Satch Sanders
Ray Allen

Ray is #16 on this list. That's going to be tough to get the list to 15. Someone is not going to be happy. Like the idea though. Anyone else want to speculate?!

In order:

Russell
Bird
McHale
Sam Jones
John Havlicek
Dave Cowens
JoJo White
Tom Heinsohn
Bob Cousy
Paul Pierce
Kevin Garnett
KC Jones
Dennis Johnson
Bill Sharman
Frank Ramsey

RosalieTCeltics wrote:Is this being done in any particular order???  Bird on a third team????????  Russ must be on the first.  Just wondering

The article said, "no particular order". It's a hard task to pick just 15, impossible to rank them. Like dbrown said, "Someone is not going to be happy."

20 would be more reasonable.  Just IMHBAO.  Sounds better than 15 anyway.  At least 1 for each championship plus 3!  

db

P.S. Rosalie, yeah hard to leave off Ramsey and Sharman. We both agree Ray is on the hot seat, though! He did his job and then some after he got out of Seattle.

We could probably start a list of honorable mentions. Bill Walton would be a sentimental fave.

db

Come on, dboss and Ktron! Pony up!!

db

Rajon Rondo is  missing from the list.  Next to Cousy he remains the best PG ever to play for the Celtics.  As a matter of fact Rondo has the highest assist average of any player in Celtics history at 8.5 per game.  And he is currently ranked #14 of all NBA players in assists.  And he has a ring. His #9 should hang in the rafters one day to be sure.

dboss has spoken

dbrown4 wrote:Come on, dboss and Ktron!  Pony up!!

db

I would agree with the first 5 and everyone on your list for the other 10 in no particular order.  I don't think Ray will make it because he deserted us. Rondo should take his spot. (Ray would love that) I also don't think the Walton deserves an honorable mention. Dr. Scholl’s was always hurt and he didn’t play enough.

Honorable Mention: Sihugo Green :>)

I have to say it is really hard to choose from a collection of so many truly great players.

For example I see that Robert Parish is not on the list but his 14 years with Boston is easily comparable to that of Kevin Mchale's 13 years who is on the list.

RP  16.5 PPG an 10 Rebounds
KM  17.9 PPG and 7.3 rebounds

I would kick DJ off the list and put Parish there.  RP was on all 3 championship teams along with Bird and McHale.

Not here to quibble with anybody's choices. This kind of cross-generational comparison tends to give me heartburn. The first debate I , more or less, participated in ,on this forum, was a debate between swish and somebody else about Cousy vs. Archibald.My take was that they were using different standards, and could never be reconciled. I loved Rondo, but I would take Tiny over him every day, and twice on Sunday. Rondo defended better ---until he didn't. IMO, Archibald was better than Rondo( or Cousy) in every other facet of the game. Admittedly Couz was a ground breaker--- but give me Nate.

jrleftfoot wrote:Not here to quibble with anybody's choices. This kind of  cross-generational comparison tends to give me heartburn. The first debate I , more or less, participated in ,on this forum, was a debate between swish and somebody else about Cousy vs. Archibald.My take was that they were using different standards, and could never be reconciled. I loved Rondo, but I would take Tiny over him every day, and twice on Sunday. Rondo defended better ---until he didn't. IMO, Archibald was better than Rondo( or Cousy) in every other facet of the game. Admittedly Couz was a ground breaker--- but give me Nate.

leftfoot,

That's one of the things that makes these debates impossible, but in my opinion, entertaining. Cross-generational comparisons, as you point out, are problematic.

I remember a few years back, on this forum, we were having a debate on Bill Russell; would he be a Center or Power Forward in today's NBA. My take on it, at the time, was he would be a Power Forward. My reasoning? You wouldn't ask a 77-year old man to play Center.

Without intending to, you may have introduced another factor; performance over time. Some, including myself, might argue that for a two-year time frame, Rondo was the best point guard the Celtics ever had. But does two years worth of performance make the list? Not usually.

Regards

dboss wrote:I have to say it is really hard to choose from a collection of so many truly great players.

For example I see that Robert Parish is not on the list but his 14 years with Boston is easily comparable to that of Kevin Mchale's 13 years who is on the list.

RP  16.5 PPG an 10 Rebounds
KM  17.9 PPG and 7.3 rebounds

I would kick DJ off the list and put Parish there.  RP was on all 3 championship teams along with Bird and McHale.

You and I gonna throw hands over DJ. DJ’s my second fave behind Sam Jones. DJ stays!! Thats an order::>)

Well if you have 3 from the Bird teams in the mix I am going with Robert Parish, consistency, longevity and 3 rings.

One may want to dig a little deeper into what all these players actually did.

Ktron wrote:

dboss wrote:I have to say it is really hard to choose from a collection of so many truly great players.

For example I see that Robert Parish is not on the list but his 14 years with Boston is easily comparable to that of Kevin Mchale's 13 years who is on the list.

RP  16.5 PPG an 10 Rebounds
KM  17.9 PPG and 7.3 rebounds

I would kick DJ off the list and put Parish there.  RP was on all 3 championship teams along with Bird and McHale.

You and I gonna throw hands over DJ. DJ’s my second fave behind Sam Jones. DJ stays!! Thats an order::>)

OK. No one try’s to get DJ off the list. Ktron might explode!

You are right there, because there are players who I watched and saw what they did that generations after me had little idea of what they did. I am not a Rondo lover, he was great during that two year stretch, but if this is a Celtics list, he is not on it for me. I will say, you could remove Sharman, but I will not give up Ramsey. He was the first real 6th man and was smooth. Parish does belong on this list.I agree there

dboss wrote:I have to say it is really hard to choose from a collection of so many truly great players.

For example I see that Robert Parish is not on the list but his 14 years with Boston is easily comparable to that of Kevin Mchale's 13 years who is on the list.

RP  16.5 PPG an 10 Rebounds
KM  17.9 PPG and 7.3 rebounds

I would kick DJ off the list and put Parish there.  RP was on all 3 championship teams along with Bird and McHale.

Parish is one of the most under appreciated great players of all time. Never a spectacular player, he just knew how to use his length and skill to clog the lane and protect the rim. We needed him to go at Kareem and Moses and we never would have won without him.

dboss,

I like your Rondo tilt.  He really understood his role from the get-go, essentially being a rookie in the league.  He checked his ego at the door with the Big 3.  I'm still pissed and will always be pissed about 2010.  That should have been a Banner 18 season.  Hands down.  The Lakers knew it going into Game 5.  They needed a Kevin McHale clothesline-like moment to change the momentum.  And they got it with Perk's injury.  But I digress.

I'd definitely have him in the 16-20 range.  And with your argument have him move into the top 15.  

Per Larry Bird, DJ was his favorite player to play with.  That alone is probably enough to keep him Top 15.  

I'm going to posit that this committee that is drawing up this Top 15 list comes back here soon and expands it to 20.  Not a wife's paycheck bet, but they have to see the error of their initial ways and be experiencing what we are all voicing on this thread.  Someone's going to be pissed keeping the list at 15.    

Ktron, I'll give you that on Walton.  How about best cheerleader?!!  He speaks the most fondly of being a Boston Celtic more than anyone except Russell.  And given what Russell in his era was going through at that time in US history and in Boston, Walton filled the role of cheerleader to a "T" in the 80's era when he couldn't play anymore and had to watch from the bench. Russell left behind some ridiculously big shoes to fill that no one ever will.    

db

NYCelt wrote:

Ktron wrote:

dboss wrote:I have to say it is really hard to choose from a collection of so many truly great players.

For example I see that Robert Parish is not on the list but his 14 years with Boston is easily comparable to that of Kevin Mchale's 13 years who is on the list.

RP  16.5 PPG an 10 Rebounds
KM  17.9 PPG and 7.3 rebounds

I would kick DJ off the list and put Parish there.  RP was on all 3 championship teams along with Bird and McHale.

You and I gonna throw hands over DJ. DJ’s my second fave behind Sam Jones. DJ stays!! Thats an order::>)

OK. No one try’s to get DJ off the list. Ktron might explode!

And I’m out of Xanex so whatchoutdernow! :>)

dbrown4 wrote:dboss,

I like your Rondo tilt.  He really understood his role from the get-go, essentially being a rookie in the league.  He checked his ego at the door with the Big 3.  I'm still pissed and will always be pissed about 2010.  That should have been a Banner 18 season.  Hands down.  The Lakers knew it going into Game 5.  They needed a Kevin McHale clothesline-like moment to change the momentum.  And they got it with Perk's injury.  But I digress.

I'd definitely have him in the 16-20 range.  And with your argument have him move into the top 15.  

Per Larry Bird, DJ was his favorite player to play with.  That alone is probably enough to keep him Top 15.  

I'm going to posit that this committee that is drawing up this Top 15 list comes back here soon and expands it to 20.  Not a wife's paycheck bet, but they have to see the error of their initial ways and be experiencing what we are all voicing on this thread.  Someone's going to be pissed keeping the list at 15.    

Ktron, I'll give you that on Walton.  How about best cheerleader?!!  He speaks the most fondly of being a Boston Celtic more than anyone except Russell.  And given what Russell in his era was going through at that time in US history and in Boston, Walton filled the role of cheerleader to a "T" in the 80's era when he couldn't play anymore and had to watch from the bench.  Russell left behind some ridiculously big shoes to fill that no one ever will.      

db

Walton will have to arm wrestle ML Carr for “Best Cheerleader”. My money is on Carr. :>)

Just curious with ASG weekend upon us, whatever happened with this?! Per the dates at the top of the thread, this should have been completed by February 3rd.

db

Wow!!!! Found this.

https://www.nba.com/celtics/75team

Fans have a grudge against K.C. Jones?!!! WTH, Bo?!!! I had to check the list several times to make sure my eyes weren't deceiving me!!

Rosalie, good pick on Sharman!

db

I pretty much agree with all the picks, Tiny was on the tail end with us. Rondo was more a role player, needed 3 HoFers to compensate for his lack of offense. Never saw Ramsey play. Have read Sharman was the best marksman of his day, Cooz used to lead the league is assists and Sharman in FT shooting every year. Great to see JoJo White and Dennis Johnson made it.