Jayson Tatum has an incredible moment with his son Deuce after winning his first NBA Championship
At long last, the enduring plight of Boston sports fans is over.
The Celtics dispatched the Dallas Mavericks in Game 5 of the 2024 NBA Finals on Monday night to secure their 18th championship, the most in NBA history and one more than the rival Los Angeles Lakers (17).
While championships are nothing new in Boston -- this was the city's 40th title across the "Big Four" professional sports of NBA, NFL, MLB and NHL -- it had been a (relatively) long time since the city planned a championship parade. Boston's last "Big Four" championship was the New England Patriots' victory over the Los Angeles Rams in Super Bowl LIII on Feb. 3, 2019.
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That's a span of five years and four-and-a-half months, which for most sports cities would be a pretty quick turnaround between titles. But here in Boston, that's an eternity. In fact, according to "Boston Sports Inf" on X (formerly known as Twitter), the Celtics just ended the second-longest combined championship drought in the city's history since the Celtics, Patriots, Red Sox and Bruins were all in existence.
A few caveats here: The Patriots were founded in 1960 (originally as the Boston Patriots), so this doesn't include any droughts before then. Boston went 16 years between any Celtics, Bruins or Red Sox championships from 1941 (Bruins) and 1957 (Celtics), which was the longest combined drought of those three teams since 1901.
It also doesn't include Boston's other professional sports teams, which have had their fair share of success -- the Boston Pride of the now-defunct Premier Hockey Federation won three championships in 2016, 2021 and 2022; the Boston Cannons won a pair of Major League Lacrosse titles in 2011 and 2020; and the New England Free Jacks won the Major League Rugby title in 2023.
That said, it's remarkable that this five-year span was the longest the "Big Four" teams have gone without a title between them since 2002, when the Patriots upset the Rams in Super Bowl XXXVI to win the city's first championship since the Celtics in 1986.
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The region won an incredible 12 titles in a 16-year span beginning with that Super Bowl victory, earning the well-deserved "City of Champions" moniker with the Patriots, Celtics, Red Sox and Bruins all contributing at least one championship.
Boston endured a relatively quiet spell from 2019 to 2023, but with much of this current Celtics team expected to return in 2024-25 after one of the most dominant seasons in NBA history, the city may not have to wait much longer until the next parade.
