80 Fun Facts About Boston Celtics

How many NBA championships had the Boston Celtics won as of their 2024 title?

Banner 18 came in 2024 and broke a tie with the Lakers, who sat on 17.

Which Boston Garden-Arena Corporation president founded the Celtics in 1946?

Brown was so unimpressed by the Cousy pick a few years later that he said he 'could have fallen to the floor.'

In 1950 the Celtics became the first NBA franchise to draft a Black player. Who was he?

Cooper, a forward from Duquesne, was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 2019.

Which future star of the TV western The Rifleman was an original member of the 1946 Celtics?

Connors also played Major League Baseball for the Dodgers and Cubs before turning to acting.

Cousy landed in Boston through a 1950 dispersal draft after which franchise went bankrupt?

Auerbach had passed on the local Holy Cross star in the draft, calling him 'too flashy.'

To get the 1956 pick used on Russell, the Celtics traded Ed Macauley and Cliff Hagan's rights to which team?

The Hawks got their revenge briefly, beating Boston in the 1958 Finals before losing to them in 1957, 1960 and 1961.

What did the Celtics owner reportedly promise Rochester so Russell would slide to No. 2 in 1956?

Walter Brown also owned the Ice Capades, so a lucrative skating booking was his to give.

Which Celtic won the 1957 NBA Rookie of the Year award over teammate Bill Russell?

Heinsohn capped his rookie year with 37 points and 23 rebounds in the double-overtime Game 7 of the Finals.

How many consecutive NBA championships did the Celtics win from 1959 to 1966?

No other team in the four major U.S. pro leagues has matched the streak.

The Celtics' 1959 title came via the first sweep in NBA Finals history, over which team?

Cousy predicted the sweep and delivered 51 assists, still a record for a four-game Finals.

When Russell succeeded Auerbach on the bench in 1966, what milestone did he set?

Auerbach reportedly made him player-coach partly as a ploy to keep the restless star interested.

Who filled in on December 26, 1964, giving the Celtics the NBA's first all-Black starting five?

Boston won that game 97-84 over St. Louis and then won 11 more in a row with Naulls starting.

Whose 1965 radio call 'Havlicek stole the ball!' did the NBA dub the best-known in basketball?

Most called Celtics games on radio for 37 years and won the Hall of Fame's Curt Gowdy Media Award in 1993.

Who is the Celtics' all-time leading regular-season scorer?

Havlicek's 26,395 points came over 16 seasons, many of them as the league's most famous sixth man.

Which NFL team drafted Celtics swingman Havlicek in 1962 and briefly tried him at wide receiver?

He was also drafted by the ABL's Cleveland Pipers, so all three of his 1962 suitors were on Lake Erie or Boston.

Which Celtics center spent a day in 1977 driving a Boston taxi cab, going largely unrecognized?

The 1973 MVP said he got decent tips; nobody knew who he was once the cap went on.

The triple-overtime Game 5 of the 1976 Finals at Boston Garden came against which team?

Gar Heard's turnaround jumper forced the third overtime before Boston finally pulled away.

With which overall pick did the Celtics select Larry Bird in 1978, a full year before he suited up?

Auerbach gambled that Bird's potential was worth waiting a year while he finished at Indiana State.

Bird's then-franchise-record 60-point game in March 1985 came against which opponent?

The mark stood alone until Jayson Tatum tied it with 60 against San Antonio in 2021.

Nine days before Bird's 60, which teammate had set the Celtics single-game scoring record with 56 points?

McHale's record lasted just over a week before Bird passed it.

The 1980 draft-day trade that brought Parish and the pick used on McHale to Boston was with which team?

Boston gave up two first-round picks and got two Hall of Famers, one of the most lopsided deals ever.

Who was named Finals MVP when the Celtics beat Houston for the 1981 championship?

'Cornbread' Maxwell was later traded for Bill Walton and became a Celtics radio broadcaster.

Roughly how hot was it inside Boston Garden during the 1984 Finals 'Heat Game'?

Oxygen tanks were provided to exhausted Lakers players; Bird scored 34 anyway.

The 'Beat L.A.!' chant began in 1982 when Boston fans urged which team, about to eliminate the Celtics, to win it all?

The 76ers lost that Finals to the Lakers anyway, but the chant spread to arenas across every sport.

Which Celtics reserve went 11-for-11 in the 1985 'Memorial Day Massacre' win over the Lakers?

Boston won 148-114, then lost four of the next five games and the series.

The 1985-86 Celtics set an NBA record, later tied by the Spurs, with how many regular-season home wins?

That team went 67-15 overall and is often called the best in franchise history.

Which former league MVP won Sixth Man of the Year with the 1986 champion Celtics?

He is the only player to own a regular-season MVP, a Finals MVP and a Sixth Man award.

Len Bias, Boston's No. 2 pick in 1986, starred at which university before dying two days after the draft?

Celtics scout Ed Badger had compared the two-time ACC Player of the Year to Michael Jordan.

The pick used on Bias had come from Seattle in a 1984 trade for which Celtics guard?

Henderson's steal in Game 2 of the 1984 Finals had helped win a title just weeks before he was dealt.

Reggie Lewis, whose No. 35 was retired after his 1993 death, played college ball at which Boston school?

Northeastern's Matthews Arena was also the Celtics' first home in 1946.

How many games did the Celtics win in their franchise-worst 1996-97 season?

They also won just once against Atlantic Division rivals all year, an unwanted NBA record.

Rick Pitino's 1997 ten-year deal as Celtics president and coach was reportedly worth how much?

Auerbach, who had held the president title for over 25 years, learned of the change from the local media.

Pitino's 'walking through that door' speech followed a March 2000 buzzer-beater by whom?

Pitino invoked Bird, McHale and Parish to tell fans the glory days were not coming back.

Paul Pierce fell to the Celtics at which overall pick in the 1998 draft?

Pierce grew up in Inglewood as a Lakers fan and admitted he had 'despised' the Celtics.

Who gave Pierce the nickname 'the Truth' in 2001?

Pierce would later beat O'Neal's Lakers in the 2008 Finals and be teammates with him in Boston in 2010-11.

Which player did Seattle take with the No. 5 pick the Celtics sent in the 2007 Ray Allen trade?

Green later returned to Boston in the 2011 Kendrick Perkins trade.

Garnett wore No. 5 in Boston because his Minnesota number, 21, had been retired for which Celtic?

Sharman, a Hall of Fame guard, also spent five seasons in the Brooklyn Dodgers farm system.

The 2007-08 Celtics went 66-16, improving by how many wins, the largest single-season turnaround in NBA history?

The year before, they had lost 18 straight games and finished 24-58.

How many points did the Celtics come back from in Game 4 of the 2008 Finals, then the largest Finals comeback?

The Lakers led 35-14 after one quarter, the biggest first-quarter lead the Finals had ever seen.

Which Celtics starting center's knee injury in Game 6 of the 2010 Finals preceded the loss to the Lakers?

Boston led the series 3-2 heading to Los Angeles and lost the last two games.

In Game 2 of the 2010 Finals, Ray Allen set a then-Finals record by making how many three-pointers?

He hit seven of them in the first half alone, breaking Michael Jordan's half record of six.

Whose career three-point record did Ray Allen pass as a Celtic in February 2011?

Allen hit No. 2,562 against the Lakers; Stephen Curry has since passed them both.

In 2013 the Celtics traded Garnett and Pierce to which team for future first-round picks?

Two of those picks became Jaylen Brown and Jayson Tatum.

Brad Stevens was hired as Celtics head coach in 2013 from which college program?

He had taken Butler to back-to-back national title games in 2010 and 2011.

Isaiah Thomas, fifth in MVP voting for the 2016-17 Celtics, was drafted at which overall pick in 2011?

The 5-foot-9 guard was the last player chosen in the entire draft.

In 2017 the Celtics traded the No. 1 pick to Philadelphia and took which player at No. 3?

Philadelphia took Fultz first; Boston also collected a future first-rounder in the swap.

Which player did the Celtics select third overall in 2016, a year before Tatum arrived?

Brown had played one season at California and was Pac-12 Freshman of the Year.

Which Celtics signing fractured his tibia and dislocated his ankle minutes into opening night in 2017?

Boston reeled off a 16-game winning streak anyway and finished 55-27.

The largest margin of victory in Celtics history, a 56-point rout in 2018, came against which team?

The 133-77 win also tied the NBA record for the largest road victory margin.

Marcus Smart's 2022 Defensive Player of the Year award was the first for a point guard since whom?

Payton won it in 1996 with Seattle; Smart was traded to Memphis a year after his award.

Joe Mazzulla became interim head coach in September 2022 after which coach was suspended for the season?

Mazzulla was 34 and had the team at a league-best 42-17 when the interim tag was removed.

The 2023 three-team deal that brought Kristaps Porziņģis to Boston sent Marcus Smart to which team?

Grant Williams went to Dallas in the same transaction, and Boston beat the Mavericks in the Finals a year later.

What was the Celtics' league-best regular-season record in 2023-24?

They won their first 20 home games and posted the highest offensive rating in NBA history at 123.2.

The Celtics clinched title No. 18 in 2024 by beating which team in five games?

It was the first playoff meeting ever between Boston and Dallas in any of the four major leagues.

Whose half-court buzzer-beater closed the first half of the 2024 title-clinching Game 5?

It was the longest made field goal in the Finals since at least 1998.

Which member of the 2024 champions was the only Celtic who had previously won an NBA title?

Holiday won with Milwaukee in 2021, then added Olympic gold in Paris weeks after the 2024 Finals.

Al Horford holds the record for most playoff games before a first title. How many had he played by his 2024 win?

Only Karl Malone, with 193, has played more postseason games without ever winning a ring.

How many jersey numbers have the Celtics retired, more than any other North American franchise?

One of the banners is not a number at all: Jim Loscutoff is honored by the nickname 'LOSCY.'

Loscutoff's Celtics banner shows a nickname, not his number, which was later retired for Cowens. What number was it?

Cowens, the 1973 MVP, wore it through the 1974 and 1976 title runs.

Bill Russell became the third North American athlete with a league-wide retired number, after Jackie Robinson and whom?

Every NBA team wore a black No. 6 patch during the 2022-23 season in his memory.

The Lucky the Leprechaun logo was originally drawn by Zang Auerbach, who was Red's what?

The logo stayed strictly green, white and black until a full-color version arrived for the 50th anniversary in 1996-97.

How many NBA titles did Auerbach win as Celtics head coach before handing the job to Russell?

Counting his years as general manager and president, he was part of 16 Boston championships in all.

What is the name of the Celtics' practice facility and headquarters, opened in June 2018?

It sits in Boston's Brighton neighborhood and replaced the old training site in Waltham.

TD Garden opened as the FleetCenter but was slated to carry which bank's name before a merger?

Every seat had already been stamped with the Shawmut logo and had to be replaced.

Besides TD Garden, which is the only other NBA arena with a parquet floor?

Boston's parquet tradition began after World War II, when lumber was scarce and expensive.

Where was the Celtics' original parquet floor first laid before moving to the Garden in 1952?

Legend held that Celtics players knew exactly how the ball would bounce off each dead spot.

Which boxing promoter designed Boston Garden, opened in 1928, and also built Madison Square Garden?

Rickard wanted every seat close enough to see the sweat on the boxers' brows, which gave the Celtics a famously intimate home court.

How many times have the Celtics and Lakers met in the NBA Finals, a record for any two teams?

Boston won the first eight meetings and nine overall, most recently in 2008.

Before joining the Celtics in 1981, Danny Ainge played parts of three MLB seasons with which team?

Boston had to buy out his baseball contract after a legal battle before he could suit up.

Which Celtics guard of the 1980s had already won a Finals MVP with the Seattle SuperSonics in 1979?

'DJ' arrived from Phoenix in 1983 and started at point guard on the 1984 and 1986 champions.

Which Celtics guard, later a two-time title-winning coach, tried out for the Rams in 1958?

He and Russell had won two NCAA titles together at San Francisco and Olympic gold in 1956.

Tatum's record 55 points in the 2023 All-Star Game broke a mark held by which player?

Tatum also took home the game's MVP award, the first Celtic to do so since Bird in 1982.

How many different Celtics players have won the NBA Most Valuable Player award?

Cousy, Russell, Cowens and Bird account for a league-record 10 MVP trophies between them.

The 2017 trade that brought Kyrie Irving to Boston sent Isaiah Thomas to which team?

Boston also gave up Jae Crowder, Ante Zizic and the Nets' 2018 first-round pick.

For approximately how much were the Celtics sold to William Chisholm in 2025?

The record lasted only months before a Lakers stake sale valued that franchise near $10 billion.

Besides Boston's Irish population, the team name honours which early-20th-century barnstorming club?

Lucky the Leprechaun is a nod to the same heritage; the Celtics' 12 Finals meetings with the Lakers are an NBA record.

Which 1979 trade, made without consulting Red Auerbach, nearly drove him to take a job with the Knicks?

Owner John Y. Brown gave up three first-round picks Auerbach had planned to rebuild with; public support kept Red in Boston.

What was the 2008–09 Celtics' record after 29 games, then the best start in NBA history?

The run included a franchise-record 19-game winning streak before Garnett's knee injury derailed the title defence.

Which team have the Celtics met in a record 22 NBA playoff series?

Boston has won 15 of them, and the Sixers are still considered the Celtics' biggest rival in the East.

According to legend, why did Red Auerbach insist the Celtics wear black sneakers?

The team switched to green sneakers in the early 1970s, went back to black by 1985, and only adopted white before 2003–04 at Ainge and Pierce's urging.