Being Black and rooting for the Celtics is not hard, Once you take the time to study it’s history..

COMMENTARY
Why Black folks can root for the Celtics
Boston’s history makes it hard for some to get behind the Celtics, but the team’s progressive past should also come into play

Marcus Smart of the Boston Celtics reacts to a play in the fourth quarter against the Golden State Warriors during Game 3 of the 2022 NBA Finals at TD Garden on June 8 in Boston. Maddie Meyer/Getty Images

By Dart Adams

June 10, 2022

One of the frustrating things about being a Black Bostonian and a Boston Celtics fan is dealing with flat-out hatred from my own people toward the franchise and anyone who roots for the team. The stereotype of a Celtics fan — white, racist and obnoxiously loud — is a far cry from the actual fan base.
One reason to root for the Celtics is that, unlike other teams who’ve tried to buy their way to a title, this team’s core was drafted and developed by the organization. NBA Defensive Player of the Year and starting point guard Marcus Smart was drafted in 2014. Jaylen Brown was the third pick in the 2016 draft and has become one of the NBA’s most prominent voices on social justice, racism and inequity. After striking gold with Brown, the Celtics drafted Jayson Tatum in 2017.
Tatum is the product of a teen mom and a young father, and he never shies away from the bright lights or the hard questions. When paired with Rob “Time Lord” Williams III and Al Horford, son of Tito Horford, the first Dominican player to make it to the NBA, the Celtics’ starting lineup became one of the most formidable in the league after turning their season around in late January. They added Derrick White from the San Antonio Spurs at the trade deadline and became the top defense in the league under first-time head coach Ime Udoka.
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Still, fans and pundits just can’t help themselves from making lazy generalizations about the city of Boston and the team’s fans. 
This has been an issue since MCA Records decided to have Roxbury’s very own, New Edition — who were all Celtics fans, by the way — make a video for “My Secret (Didja Gitit Yet?)” in Los Angeles with the Lakers in 1985. Though the Lakers would go on to beat the Celtics in Boston to clinch the NBA title that year, Black Bostonians wondered why New Edition filmed a video with the Celtics’ bitter rivals in the first place.
The first reason was that MCA was based in LA, had a partnership with Lakers ownership and knew that Black America was pulling for the Lakers and hated the Celtics. So it didn’t matter where New Edition was from, they were trying to sell records. The second? When most people think of Black culture and history, they tend to overlook Boston — which is not only a mistake, but erases the city’s history and the Black folks who call it home.
The Celtics franchise has been incredibly progressive when it comes to race. It was the first NBA franchise to draft a Black player in 1950, and the first NBA team to have an all-Black starting lineup in December 1964, which inspired Don Haskins to start five Black players at Texas Western during the 1965-66 season after the Celtics won the 1965 NBA title. Texas Western then beat a heavily favored and all-white Kentucky team in the 1966 NCAA championship, changing college sports forever.
The Celtics were also the first NBA team to hire a Black head coach when it named Bill Russell to the top spot in October 1966. They’re the only NBA franchise to have had more than five Black head coaches (Udoka is the sixth), and the only one to have three Black head coaches who’ve won NBA titles. Through the Boston Shootout tournament, which began in 1972, the Celtics also introduced some of the first Black referees to the NBA ranks.
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Not only that, Russell and Red Auerbach mentored backup center John Thompson between the 1964-65 and 1965-66 seasons, encouraging him to leave pro basketball after being picked by the Chicago Bulls in the 1966 expansion draft to pursue a career in coaching. Thompson went on to become one of the all-time great college coaches, spending 27 seasons at Georgetown before retiring in 1999.
However, the poor image of Boston among Black folks nationwide due to decades of notable racist incidents (such as the fight over school desegregation and busing in the 1970s or disrespectful Boston Red Sox fans) damaged the city’s reputation. Those ugly moments fly in the face of Boston insisting it’s a progressive and liberal town. They also overshadow why many Black and Latino basketball fans in Massachusetts are die-hard Celtics fans.
Growing up, every summer was about the Boston Neighborhood Basketball League, which was founded in 1969, making it America’s oldest continuously running municipal league; and the Boston Shootout tournament, which drew top high school and prep talent from across the country between 1972 and 1999, before the AAU circuit — and local AAU juggernaut Boston Amateur Basketball Club (BABC) — took precedence in 2000. The BABC has won a number of national championships and tournaments and the list of BABC alumni who’ve gone on to play professionally in the NBA, overseas and enter the coaching ranks is long and impressive, including Patrick Ewing, Dana Barros, Rumeal Robinson, Rick Brunson, Wayne Turner, Michael Carter-Williams, Bruce Brown, Nerlens Noel and Terance Mann.
None of these entities could have existed without the support of the Celtics organization. For all of the stories people outside of Boston recount about the racism Russell faced moving into the formerly all-white suburb of Reading, Massachusetts, in 1963, or his disinterest in being celebrated in any way while a Celtic, few talk about the love he and his teammates had for Boston’s South End, Lower Roxbury, Roxbury or Dorchester neighborhoods.
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Jokes about Boston’s racist past have circulated widely during this year’s playoffs — one Twitter user even photoshopped Celtics jerseys on the neo-Nazi protesters from 2017’s Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville, Virginia — but I never see stories shared of Russell and Satch Sanders owning successful restaurants in the city for decades. I also never hear about all the neighborhood kids and young adults they’ve mentored throughout the city. Most famously, Sam Jones, who lived in Roxbury with Sanders, directed two young Boston Trade High School students to Laurinburg Prep in South Carolina — one was the legendary Willis “Spider” Bennett, and the other was the greatest player to ever emerge from Roxbury, pioneer of the crossover and spin move, Jimmy Walker. After a dominant college career at nearby Providence, Walker became the No. 1 pick in the 1967 NBA draft. He eventually became the father of former Fab Five member and NBA player Jalen Rose.
You never hear these things because the people talking about Boston have rarely spent any time in the city. Instead, they regurgitate decades-old information they’ve read or seen in a documentary.
While the Celtics could — and should — be one of the “teams of the culture” that Black folks can root for, many can’t, simply because they’re from Boston, despite the entire nation having its own ugly and complicated racist past.
I know there are plenty of people who will never pull for any team from Boston. But if you like hard-nosed basketball by a tough and dynamic team that has a long history of supporting Black folks, the Celtics might just be for you.
Dart Adams is a historian, journalist, lecturer, and author who was born, raised and resides in Boston. His work has appeared in Complex, NPR, Mass Appeal, Okayplayer, Ebony, Boston Globe Magazine, and Boston Magazine. His book “Instead We Became Evil: A True Story Of Survival & Perseverance” will be released on July 26, 2022.

Good posts, Ktron. I am barely old enough to remember the headlines and TV news reporting on the Boston school busing/desegregation in the early 70's. Unfortunately, a negative outweighs and covers about 10 very good positives. And you know from being in the media profession along with advertising, the negative sells and sells and sells like sex far better than anything positive ever will. It's just a fact of human nature. And thus, Boston continues to get the perceived bad wrap far more than the positives despite the progressivity mentioned above.

The reason I love the Celtics is not because I came into them in the 80's with the rival Showtime Lakers and loved the competition. I liked them because of what they did during the 50's and 60's regardless of what was going on in the world at that time. They put the best talent on the court regardless of their skin color. And I'll be danged if that thought alone didn't win championship after championship after championship. Red showed that Russell, Sam Jones, K.C. Jones, Satch Sanders and Willie Nauls were the best players in a very white league at the time. And he was right. Red didn't care about skin color. Are you the best person to help us win? Then get on the dang court and win. And win they did.

Similarly, Bill Russell, when asked about having a gay player in the NBA and whether that would effect the league, drag it down, etc. reflected that thinking with his answer as a true student of Auerbach and said, "Can he play basketball?! Then who cares."

So love Boston or hate them. Think the town is racist or not. IMHBAO, there is far more positive racial evidence than negative and this article hopefully and fortunately exposes the ignorance of those who choose to only look at one side of the story in an attempt to make Boston look like a place that it isn't. Are there racial issues there still? Of course there are. Do these negatives make the news far more than the "forgotten" extremely positive racial developments over the years in Boston mentioned in the articles above? Absolutely. At least this author put everything side by side and let the reader decide for themselves. Both positive and negative sides and events are very important to and for progress. But if all one is going to look at is one side in order just to support an agenda and not look at and acknowledge the full picture, you deserve what you get and get what you deserve...an uninformed populous and no progress, perhaps and more than likely a step or two backwards. Hence the need for articles like this to remind us there's always two sides/multiple sides to every story. Get and know ALL the facts. Acknowledge all before engaging one's mouth and removing all doubt about your competence.

MLK got it right the first time. No further questions, Your Honor.

Real Boston fans and residents know the whole story. And as Ktron quickly points out to me on numerous occasions, you see and hear what you want to see and hear. You must be astute at discernment.

db

P.S. Board, if you so deem, do what you think is best with the above. As always, I'll respect your decision either way.

DB, I grew up in Boston and didn’t leave until 1975. I became a Celtics fan when I was 12 and the inner workings of this team has always been far ahead of other teams. The article points out most of it. Also, in order to familiarize themselves to others culture and way of life Red arranged for Black players to room with White players. His book “On and Off the Court”is an amazing read.
I shut people down pretty quickly when they  claim that the city is racist and not a great place to live for African Americans. Like any city,  It has its problems but,
Again I didn’t leave until I was 25 and have lived in 14 different cities. I can speak first hand on places to avoid and Boston is not one of them.
Folks saw on the national news the black guy getting beat with an American Flag and the horrible busing situations and based on that an opinion was formed.  I get it and people don’t take the time to dig for the truth. Ignorance can be improved. Willful ignorance and inaction is inexcusable

Thank you so much for sharing that, Ktron.  You are a fascinating person, a great American, and a really cool Bostonian!

Our annual family beach trip is coming up at the end of July and goes into the first week in August.  I take time to just sit on the beach and read.  Being a math major, I came up with a mathematical theme. Last year's theme was literary classics with numerical titles.  So I read 1984, Fahrenheit 451 and Catch 22.  Left off the list 2001 A Space Odyssey and Slaughter House 5 and will hopefully have those completed before I get to the beach this year as the next theme is Celtic biographies/Celtics historical accounts books!  You just gave me a title that I will put at the top of the list as well as any other ones you and other posters on this site recommend as must reads!!  Can't wait!!  

db

P.S.  Which Russell book should I read first?!

dbrown4 wrote:Thank you so much for sharing that, Ktron.  You are a fascinating person, a great American, and a really cool Bostonian!

Our annual family beach trip is coming up at the end of July and goes into the first week in August.  I take time to just sit on the beach and read.  Being a math major, I came up with a mathematical theme.  Last year's theme was literary classics with numerical titles.  So I read 1984, Fahrenheit 451 and Catch 22.  Left off the list 2001 A Space Odyssey and Slaughter House 5 and will hopefully have those completed before I get to the beach this year as the next theme is Celtic biographies/Celtics historical accounts books!  You just gave me a title that I will put at the top of the list as well as any other ones you and other posters on this site recommend as must reads!!  Can't wait!!  

db

P.S.  Which Russell book should I read first?!

“Second Wind” is one of my favorites.