In the beginning, of course, there was Bill Russell.
He was so much the godfather of repeat NBA titles that it became repetitive. He went back to back to infinity in the early 1960s. The last time he did it, in 1969, he walked away from the sport after securing his 11th championship. Clearly, he’d made his point.
The NBA didn’t have a back-to-back champ in the 1970s. The early 1980s were known for a version of Trading Places with Magic Johnson and Larry Bird. It was Magic’s turn first. Then Larry’s. Then Magic’s again in 1982. There was a Fo’ Fo’ Fo’ intermission with Moses Malone and Dr. J in 1983. Then back to Larry. Then Magic. And Larry, at the height of his powers as an on-court genius, in 1986.
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He was 29 then, and it was the last time he played a 82-game season. He was the league’s regular-season MVP, completing a run of three straight. He was the Finals MVP for Banner 16 as well.
Part of the reason he and the Celtics couldn’t go back-to-back? His back. And Kevin McHale’s right foot. And, once again, too much Magic.
It took another 20-plus years for the conversation to have local relevance again. The 2008 Celtics with Kevin Garnett, Paul Pierce, Ray Allen (and Brian Scalabrine and Eddie House, too), rolled the Lakers to clinch Banner 17. They looked even better, deeper, meaner the next season. They won eight of their first 10 games, and then went on a 19-game winning streak.
In the second game of that streak, in a home game against the Knicks, Scal got the start and Eddie came off the bench. They both played exactly 20 minutes and scored eight points (Eddie, though, was a plus-10 to Scal’s plus-9). The repeat mission was derailed, essentially, when KG hurt his knee in Utah. He missed the playoffs and the Celtics were eliminated in the conference semifinals.
Which brings us to Tuesday night.
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It’s another home game against the Knicks, but this one carries more weight than the one 15 years ago. The Celtics will officially raise their 18th banner above the parquet. There will be thousands of fans celebrating the poetic June memories – they won on 6/17 -- of a Dallas Mavericks takedown. They’ll remember the parade of the ages, a wild summer ride through the city in which players and coaches could see that this is how all the Boston passion and energy looks and sounds when you win it all.
Everyone won’t be cheering, though. There’s a spirit of envy and "Why Not Us?" in every crowd, and the Knicks will represent the other side tonight. They won’t be alone.
A handful of teams have either tweaked or flat-out remodeled their rosters to challenge the Celtics and take the title for themselves. The Knicks traded for Karl-Anthony Towns and Mikal Bridges. The Sixers signed Paul George. The young Oklahoma City Thunder sacrificed some of their youth for veteran wisdom. The Mavericks didn’t shoot well enough against the Celtics, so they added Klay Thompson. And on top of that, there are two multiple NBA MVPs, who are still under 30 – Giannis Antetokounmpo and Nikola Jokic – searching for their second titles.
Minutes after the Celtics won in 2008, Doc Rivers retreated to his Garden office and wrote an exasperated note to himself which read, “Winning a championship is HARD!!”
It was hard then and, according to the recent trends, it’s harder now. The league hasn’t had a repeat champion since the Warriors did it in 2018. The last time the Celtics did it, with Russell, most of the current Celtics – from Brad Stevens and his staff to Joe Mazzulla and his staff to, obviously, the players – weren’t born.
It’s funny how quickly and dramatically storylines shift. Once upon a time, the big question for Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown was if they had the ability to play together and elevate one another. Now that the returns are in, emphatically, on that question, it’s time for another one: Why will the Jays be able to scale a mountain that Cowens and Bird and Pierce couldn’t?
Well, mountain peaks are one of the differences. Bird, at 30, was never better than he was in 1986. Robert Parish and Dennis Johnson, core pieces, were already in their early 30s and showing subtle signs of slowing down. The 1986 champs, one of the greatest teams ever, took advantage of a window that wasn’t going to be open very long. As dominant as the 2008 team was, it was led by a star trio in their 30s who had all logged significant mileage.
Brown will be 28 in a couple of days. Tatum is 26. There’s still a sense that both have room to grow as players. Thanks to summer slights from USA Basketball, both have been protected from championship complacency and contentment.
Most important of all, though, is the team’s vital statistics. While no team has repeated since the 2018 Warriors, no champion since then has done what the Celtics did last season.
By all metrics, including wins, the Celtics were the best team in basketball. They won the East by 14 games and had seven more wins than the top seed in the West.
By contrast, the Nuggets and Warriors had the fourth-best records in basketball in their championship seasons. The 2021 champs, the Bucks, won 46 games, tied for seventh-best in the league. The 2020 Lakers, with the third-best record in the league, won the oddest title in league history: they made the small world of Disney even smaller by operating in an exclusive Bubble. And then there were the Raptors, who won the 2019 title and almost immediately said goodbye to Kawhi Leonard, their best player.
This is different. On the morning of the parade, Mazzulla sported a black T-shirt. It was emblazoned with an image of Russell. For this Celtics night, and for this entire season, the picture says it all.
