Book Description

Celtics Legends is the story of the legendary Boston Celtics basketball franchise, including the famous tales and the little-known ones. The 18-time world champions have a history jammed with legendary players and NBA lore, from Bob Cousy to Bill Russell and John Havlicek to Larry Bird, from present-day stars Jayson Tatum to Jaylen Brown. No sports team was more deserving of the Dynasty label than the Celtics who won 11 crowns in 13 years in the 1950s and 1960s and stamped the Celtic green and white colors in the minds of basketball fans everywhere under famed coach Red Auerbach. Simultaneously, the Celtics acted as the most progressive of organizations, becoming the first basketball team to draft an African-American player under the guidance of owner Walter Brown and the first to field an all-Black starting lineup.Cousy virtually invented the point guard role and Russell, the winningest athlete in North American professional sport, virtually invented defense while also becoming the first African-American coach in the league and the first in modern pro sport. Phrases such as "Celtics Mystique" worked their way into the lexicon as so many aspects of Celtic history permeated the league, including gravel-voiced announcer Johnny Most," the NBA's most recognizable court, the parquet floor at the Boston Garden, and the grand and great team rivalries pitting Boston against the St. Louis Hawks, each of Wilt Chamberlain's teams, and the most enduring: Celtics-Lakers. The Celtics personified unselfish basketball, the team game, the fast break. With so many members of the franchise voted into the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame, the Celtics could have their own wing.