Boston Celtics Tickets

Boston Celtics

The Boston Celtics is a name of an American professional basketball team, being based in the city of Boston. They play for the Atlantic Division of the Eastern Conference in the National Basketball Association (NBA). Wycliffe Grousbeck has the ownership of the team, and it is being coached by Doc Rivers. The team was incepted in the year of 1946. They had participated in 17 NBA Championships, while the 1959-to-1966 domination of the NBA Championship. They have also the eight straight titles, which is itself the longest consecutive championship winning streak of any North American professional sports team to date. They are playing their home games at TD Banknorth Garden, these days.

The Celtics had a clear domination in the league and they had played a large part in the playoffs of the late 1950s through the mid 1980s. The team had seen a bad phase right after the death of their top draft pick Len Bias. They could only make the playoffs for four times from 1996 to 2007. The franchise has acquired the momentum in the recent past; with the addition of power forward Kevin Garnett and shooting guard Ray Allen during the 2007 off-season. The Boston Celtics have won their 17th championship, by beating the Los Angeles Lakers 4–2 in the 2008 NBA Finals, on June 17, 2008.

Boston Celtics have been representing Boston, Massachusetts since 1946 on the basket ball court. Initially when the franchise was formed up in 1946, it played as a member of Basketball Association of America. Currently team is a member of National Basketball Association, and that happened after the NBA was resulted from the merger of both Basketball Association of America (BAA) and the National Basketball League (NBL).

The team’s first coach was Honey Russell, who led the team for their first two seasons, and after those two seasons, Russell was replaced by Doggie Julian who took the team’s lead as the head coach on April 11, 1948. Julian also remained the head coach of the team for next 2 seasons. During the reign of its first two coaches the team didn’t really perform that well and merely struggled, however as soon as the team went under the leadership of its third coach Red Auerbach, the team started to rise up. Auerbach took charge on April 27, 1950 and remained the team’s head coach for next 16 seasons. During the reign of Auerbach; Bob Cousy, Bill Russell and Tommy Heinsohn were among the major players that were drafted to the Celtics roster. The trio had a major impact on the team, as team’s performance on the whole, was improved.

As of today, Celtics have an amazing total of 17 NBA Championships. The first one came to them in 1957, after the team made its way to the finals and claimed its victory over St. Louis Hawks in seven games. The tables, however, were turned in the following year, as Celtics once again made it into the NBA finals but only this time they were defeated by St. Louis Hawks in 6 games. Celtics next NBA Championship win came the following year in 1959 as the team rushed its way in to the finals and claimed the championship after defeating Minneapolis Lakers. From 1959 till 1966, Celtics made a record after winning 8 Championships in a row.

In 1966, after Celtics claimed their eighth championship victory, Auerbach retired as the head coach of the team and Bill Russell took the charge of the team as its new head coach. Celtics NBA Championship winning was ended in 1970, as they were defeated by Philadelphia 76ers in Eastern Conference Finals. Even though Auerbach retired as the coach of the team, but he still remained the General Manager of the team, and maintained his position till 1980s. Russell’s reign as the head coach was short lived as well, as he retired after the 1969 season.

After few years of disappointment, Celtics made their partial comeback in 1973 season when the team was able to fetch 68-14 regular season record, but unfortunately wasn’t able to make it to NBA finals. So what was considered to be Celtics complete comeback after their 8 consecutive championships was in 1974, when the team made its way in to the finals yet again and after defeating Milwaukee Bucks, claimed their 12th NBA Championship.

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About the Author:
Peter Cohen calls Boston home and graduated from Brandeis University. He considers travel to be the love of his life and has already traveled to 5 different continents. He also has a passion for languages and has studied Arabic, German and Russian. While devoting his working life to writing for lifestyle magazines, he also takes out time for occasional event reviews.