our personal top ten celtics

cowens/oldschool wrote:Here goes

1. Dave Cowens
2. John Havlicek/Paul Pierce
3. Larry Bird
4. Kevin Garnett/Bill Russell
5. Kendrick Perkins
6. Paul Silas
7. Rajon Rondo
8. Kevin McHale/Robert Parish
9. JoJo White/Tiny Archibald
10.Satch Saunders/Don Channey/Ray Allen

Hi Cow,

Who knew? Cowens is your personal favorite!

My list is "The Unsung Hero List" where I enjoyed what they delivered to the team beyond the obvious choices.
1) Wayne Embry - Best hatchet centerman in the NBA - Kept other centers honest with Russell
2) Satch Sanders - Great defensive player. Always there to make the big stop
3) Danny Ainge - Got his nose into everyone's face
4) Jim Loscutoff - Hatchet Man, and his defense and strength were part of the defensive greatness
5) Larry Siegfried - Key off the bench who blended defense and scoring into his game
6) Greg Kite - Never a starter, never an All Star - pushed Parrish & McHale to player harder through his tough work ethic in practices
7) Don Nelson - One of the best 6th man ever in NBA
Don Chaney - Great defense off the bench and could score when need
9) Paul Silas - Great shooting and rebounding skills, but was a great defensive player and could mix it up on the inside with anyone
10) ML Carr - Great physical ball player, knew when to pick his spot to get tough

112288

steve3344 wrote:

cowens/oldschool wrote:Here goes

1. Dave Cowens
2. John Havlicek/Paul Pierce
3. Larry Bird
4. Kevin Garnett/Bill Russell
5. Kendrick Perkins
6. Paul Silas
7. Rajon Rondo
8. Kevin McHale/Robert Parish
9. JoJo White/Tiny Archibald
10.Satch Saunders/Don Channey/Ray Allen

There you cow, bending the rules again - your top ten is 16 players!

now I'm torn didn't add the Cooz,Sam Jones and DJ

Man I wish I had seen this Loscutoff guy play...must have been tough as a railroad spike.

1122...I like that spin on the list...really nice one.

jeb65 wrote:ya cow! nice one on the top 16

I'd love to go to war with them!!!

cow

did you see this loscutoff cat?

cowens/oldschool wrote:

steve3344 wrote:

cowens/oldschool wrote:Here goes

1. Dave Cowens
2. John Havlicek/Paul Pierce
3. Larry Bird
4. Kevin Garnett/Bill Russell
5. Kendrick Perkins
6. Paul Silas
7. Rajon Rondo
8. Kevin McHale/Robert Parish
9. JoJo White/Tiny Archibald
10.Satch Saunders/Don Channey/Ray Allen

There you cow, bending the rules again - your top ten is 16 players!

now I'm torn didn't add the Cooz,Sam Jones and DJ

Cow,

Wanted to get away from the All Stars and pick some of the men with hard hats that contributed in ways we never read in the box score or headlines!
112288

jeb65 wrote:Man I wish I had seen this Loscutoff guy play...must have been tough as a railroad spike.

1122...I like that spin on the list...really nice one.

He was great! You would have enjoyed him. They wanted to retire his number but he gave it up to Cowans.

112288

cant find any youtube of loscutoff. Damn!

bobc33 wrote:

cowens/oldschool wrote:Here goes

1. Dave Cowens
2. John Havlicek/Paul Pierce
3. Larry Bird
4. Kevin Garnett/Bill Russell
5. Kendrick Perkins
6. Paul Silas
7. Rajon Rondo
8. Kevin McHale/Robert Parish
9. JoJo White/Tiny Archibald
10.Satch Saunders/Don Channey/Ray Allen

Hi Cow,

Who knew? Cowens is your personal favorite!

he was a true scrapper,even Barkley gave him his due recently.....how'd you like to have McHale,Cowens and KG at the 4 with Russell,Parish,Walton and Perk to further pound someone,as your pieces at the 4-5?

jeb65 wrote:cow

did you see this loscutoff cat?

nope buddy before my time,I envision him as a Leon Powe/Paul Silas hybrid that set the mold.

*) Russ (he retired when I was 10, I started watching along with my folks when I was 7 or 8 and didn't really fully understand/appreciate what I was seeing)

1) Bird
2) Hondo
3) Pierce
4) Cowens
5) McHale
6) Chief
7) Jo Jo
Tiny
9) KG
10) Ray Allen

High honorable mention; Waltah & Kuberski

I also have no idea why the smiley with the shades keeps appearing instead of an 8 by Tiny. I suspect he would like it though.

cowens/oldschool wrote:

steve3344 wrote:

cowens/oldschool wrote:Here goes

1. Dave Cowens
2. John Havlicek/Paul Pierce
3. Larry Bird
4. Kevin Garnett/Bill Russell
5. Kendrick Perkins
6. Paul Silas
7. Rajon Rondo
8. Kevin McHale/Robert Parish
9. JoJo White/Tiny Archibald
10.Satch Saunders/Don Channey/Ray Allen

There you cow, bending the rules again - your top ten is 16 players!

now I'm torn didn't add the Cooz,Sam Jones and DJ

cow - what the Hell, make yours a top 19!

steve3344 wrote:

cowens/oldschool wrote:

steve3344 wrote:

cowens/oldschool wrote:Here goes

1. Dave Cowens
2. John Havlicek/Paul Pierce
3. Larry Bird
4. Kevin Garnett/Bill Russell
5. Kendrick Perkins
6. Paul Silas
7. Rajon Rondo
8. Kevin McHale/Robert Parish
9. JoJo White/Tiny Archibald
10.Satch Saunders/Don Channey/Ray Allen

There you cow, bending the rules again - your top ten is 16 players!

now I'm torn didn't add the Cooz,Sam Jones and DJ

cow - what the Hell, make yours a top 19!

shit I gotta add Bill Walton,your fav too

swedeinestonia wrote:

gyso wrote:

swedeinestonia wrote:

gyso wrote:Here is my top 10:

01. John Havlicek
02. Dave Cowens
03. Jo Jo White

04. Larry Bird
05. Dennis Johnson
06. Kevin McHale
07. Robert Parish
08. Danny Ainge

09. Rajon Rondo
10. Ray Allen

Here is a nice little site that has links to team rosters and pictures for each championship year:

http://www.nba.com/celtics/history/ChampionshipWins.html

gyso

Hows come you leave KG/Pierce out?

Because they weren't one of my personal top ten celtics.

Did not mean to call you out or anything, was just wondering why. I can totally see how Ray is a "class act" but I dunno what you would exclude Pierce/Garnett. But hey like you said. Your personal Celtics

swede,

The list is "favorite Celtics" not "best Celtics" and the limit was 10. I stayed within the limits and definition of the list. My list didn't include any of the 60's guys for a couple reasons:

1. My heroes were in order: Yaz (1967-xxxx), Orr (1970's) and Havlicek (mid '70s on).
2. My fav sports then were baseball, hockey and then basketball, in that order, in the late '60s & early '70s.
3. I was aware of the Celtics and their winning ways, but I wasn't "aware" of the ins and outs of the sport.

The 70's guys made the list because, by that time I was in high school and they were the all-stars. They were the ones that stood out. I don't even remember many of the other players during the '70s, but I was a fan and remembered very well the sad times late in the decade (pre-Bird).

My coming of age, after college, coincided with the Bird years and that is why I included those five in my list. Personal list and all, they carried the most weight. They also took up half of my choices. I really liked Danny. He didn't back down to anyone.

That brings us to now. Pierce and KG might make my top 15 list, but I have minor issues with both of them. I didn't care for the Pierce and Walker show that much, plus the fact that Pierce wanted to bolt. I hold grudges for things like that. I still don't like Max because of his holdout (imagine, holding out on the C's for $$$) and for some other things. He wouldn't make my top infinity fav Celtics list.

I didn't care much for KG (pre-Celtic) either, but I will admit that I didn't really know much about him. But Rondo, something about his game agrees with me. Ray is class, he goes about his business, never complaining about taking a back seat to the other two. Whatever, Rondo and Ray made my list, Paul and KG didn't.

It is all about life experiences. I didn't live in Boston. The advent of cable TV, for instance, affected my early sport choices. In the early stages of my life, all TV came across the air. Cable TV came to my home town in the early '70s. That was when channel 38 and 56 made the scene. With them came the Big Bad Bruins. They ruled in my life for many years. I played hockey on the ice and when it melted, I played street hockey. I was able to watch most if not all Bruins games at night, but the Celtics played on TV mostly on Sunday afternoon. They didn't have their own channel. I spent most of the daylight hours of my youth outside. If I was caught inside during the day, my Dad would find some chores for me to do.

I hope that satisfies your curiosity.

gyso

I don’t see how people are leaving Paul Pierce off of their lists. By any measure of the statistics, he is clearly a top 10 Celtic of all time.

He is 3rd all time in scoring, 2nd all time scoring average, 9th in rebounding, 7th in assists, 2nd in steals, 5th in blocks - and this is all with him being 10th on the all time games played list. The guy is a machine by any definition.

As for my list:

1. Bill Russell
2. Larry Bird
3. Tom Heinsohn
4. John Havlicek
5. Kevin McHale
6. Bob Cousy
7. Paul Pierce
8. Dave Cowens
9. Sam Jones
10. Robert Parrish

I don’t think you can put KG or Ray Allen on any “Greatest Celtics” list – but if you made a Top NBA players that ever played for the Celitcs – they would both be on it, along with Nate Archibald, Bill Walton, and Pete Maravich

mrkleen,

It is a personal top ten list and not meant to be a greatest list. You miss the point entirely.

It is about personal favorites, it has nothing to do with statistics, championships, length of service or any other criteria you feel the need to superimpose.

You can argue top 10 greatest (if that were the intent of this thread, it's not!), but you can't argue personal preferences. If someone were too young to even watch the Celtics in the 60's, how could anyone from that time frame be your favorite player?

gyso

112288 wrote:

cowens/oldschool wrote:

steve3344 wrote:

cowens/oldschool wrote:Here goes

1. Dave Cowens
2. John Havlicek/Paul Pierce
3. Larry Bird
4. Kevin Garnett/Bill Russell
5. Kendrick Perkins
6. Paul Silas
7. Rajon Rondo
8. Kevin McHale/Robert Parish
9. JoJo White/Tiny Archibald
10.Satch Saunders/Don Channey/Ray Allen

There you cow, bending the rules again - your top ten is 16 players!

now I'm torn didn't add the Cooz,Sam Jones and DJ

Cow,

Wanted to get away from the All Stars and pick some of the men with hard hats that contributed in ways we never read in the box score or headlines!
112288

were in agreement in our version of the game,love the guys with the hard hats,thats why had to include Perk and Silas on my list and ofcourse my namesake Cowens,didn't know Wayne Embry was such an enforcer....good to know.

gyso wrote:mrkleen,

It is a personal top ten list and not meant to be a greatest list. You miss the point entirely.

It is about personal favorites, it has nothing to do with statistics, championships, length of service or any other criteria you feel the need to superimpose.

You can argue top 10 greatest (if that were the intent of this thread, it's not!), but you can't argue personal preferences. If someone were too young to even watch the Celtics in the 60's, how could anyone from that time frame be your favorite player?

gyso

Fair point, I missed that in the title.

I would amend my favorites list to include

-Scott Wedman
-Reggie Lewis
-Al Jefferson

If it were about guys I liked to watch and personally liked.

112288

you stated

Don Chaney - Great defense off the bench and could score when need


Not to be picky but I remember the 70's pretty well and from 72-75 Chaney started alongside Jo Jo.

Tried to find stats that show games started but as of yet can't locate any but I am reasonably sure he started most of the games he played in, in his first stint with the C's.

beat

Mrkleen

Even if i were to include the curent team as part of the pool of favorites, to watch, Pierce would not make my top 10. Now once his career is over talk to me again. Perhaps he might edge in at that time.

And again we are talking my favorite Cetic players to watch of all time.

Cowens and Hondo will always be slightly above Bird.

beat

beat wrote:Mrkleen

Even if i were to include the curent team as part of the pool of favorites, to watch, Pierce would not make my top 10. Now once his career is over talk to me again. Perhaps he might edge in at that time.

And again we are talking my favorite Cetic players to watch of all time.

Cowens and Hondo will always be slightly above Bird.

beat

Kevin McHale is my all time favorite. I have an autographed #32 hanging on the wall in my office. He was a beast on the court, and when he appeared on Cheers - it sealed the deal as my favorite Celtic of all time.

mrkleen

McHale was a warrior. If the Bias mess hadn't happened it certainly "could" have prolonged his (and Birds) effective years. Played his last couple of years on ankles of mush.

He had so many moves and even later in his career developed a three point shot too.

Certainly in my top 10

beat

Beat

You pump bias into that 86 teams you got 5 for bird. And another guy to get us BACK to the promised land.

It's been interesting to note the reasons why certain players became favorites. I realized I hadn't explained my reasoning.

So I went back over the list I selected to see if there was a common link between all of them. And there was. If I were compiling a list of the finest team players...those with whom it was easiest for teammates to succeed...those who did the best jobs of enabling those around them...those who would be supporting gap-fillers or whatever it took to win, it would be just about the same.

And, since "greatness" in my eyes means ability to contribute seamlessly to a team whose total is more than the sum of its parts, my list of the "greatest" Celtics players would be substantially the same.

I almost didn't post this because it could be construed as off-topic through the mention of "greatest" players. But then I realized that the very factor that made these guys my favorites was their greatness as team players in successful joint enterprises. I will always believe that it's all about the team.

Sam