No team in the NBA has better tradition or a stronger legacy than the Boston Celtics.
This has been evident over the last month and a half following the Celtics winning the 2024 NBA Finals, a triumph that moved them past the rival Los Angeles Lakers for the most championships in league history with 18. The C's have won at least one title in six of the last eight decades (1950s to 2020s) of pro basketball.
One man who helped the Celtics win their first banner in 1957 is Bob Cousy. The legendary point guard won six championships in his 13 seasons with the C's.
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Cousy recorded a message for the 2023-24 team a few days after the 18th banner was secured, according to a Sports Illustrated feature by Chris Mannix published Thursday.
“I just said, ‘Job well done.' But I hope you appreciate the legacy that you represent," Cousy said, per Mannix. "One of the things I’m most proud about is that we started a unit. Red Auerbach and I were the first, we stuck together, then got a guy named Bill Russell in 1956, and finally rang the bell and won. That unit went on to win 11 freaking times. If you want to talk legacy, the Yankees, Green Bay [Packers], Montreal [Canadiens], they all have great legacies. None of them like the Celtics.”
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An important part of the legacies of those great Celtics, Yankees, Packers and Canadiens teams was that they won multiple titles at the peak of their powers.
That's the challenge facing the Celtics entering the 2024-25 campaign. Now that they've climbed the mountain, staying there will be difficult when many other formidable opponents are trying to knock them off.
One thing the Celtics have in their favor is the team will return its top 11 players from last season. It's pretty rare in today's NBA for a team to win a championship and then bring back almost the entire roster the next year. The Celtics have been busy over the last few months giving out contract extensions (Jayson Tatum, Jrue Holiday, Derrick White, Sam Hauser) and re-signing players (Luke Kornet, Xavier Tillman, etc.).
This group has a special (and rare) opportunity to win again. This fact is not lost on Tatum.
“When you win a championship, you think about all your favorite players,” Tatum told Mannix. “They have that moment. This is what makes them, those guys that they win on the highest level. They did it multiple times. So in a weird way, yeah, I have thought about, man, you can be one of the greatest basketball players ever in some capacity. And winning takes care of a lot of it.”