Bob Cousy

Marc D'Amico

In conjunction with their 75th anniversary, the Boston Celtics are unveiling their 75th Anniversary All-Celtics Team from Jan. 23 through Feb. 3.
The team is comprised of 15 players who were selected to the team based upon thousands of votes cast by fans and an official voting panel that included both media members and Celtics historians.

The members of the All-Celtics Team will be unveiled in three groups of five, and in no particular order. The first five were announced Jan. 23, the second five were announced today, and the final five will be announced on a special live broadcast Thursday evening from the Encore Boston Harbor.

Below, we’ve provided brief capsules of the five players who were announced as members of the team today: Bill Russell, Bob Cousy, Tommy Heinsohn, John Havlicek and Paul Pierce.

There is no list of all-time Celtics greats if it doesn’t start with Bill Russell. Russell, who has in recent times been referred to as Lord of the Rings, won an astounding 11 championships with the Celtics as a player, including two for which he also served as the team’s coach. Russell played all 13 of his NBA seasons with Boston, during which he averaged 15.1 points and an incredible 22.5 rebounds per game. He totaled 21,620 rebounds during his career – nearly double the amount of the next-best player total in Celtics history. The NBA did not track steals and blocked shots during his playing days, otherwise he’d certainly have racked up impressive numbers in those two categories as well, as Russell is regarded as one of the great defensive centers of all time. Russell was chosen as the league’s Most Valuable Player five times. He was also selected to 12 All-Star appearances and 11 All-NBA teams during his 13 seasons. Russell was also known for his public push for racial equality and justice, and his constant support of mentor-mentee relationships. All of these facts are reasons why his No. 6 hangs in Boston’s rafters, and why the city of Boston erected a statue in his honor that now sits at Government Center.

Bob Cousy was a man before his time when it came to handling and passing the basketball. He was a magician with the ball, which is why Boston fans loved him dating back to his days as a collegiate star at the local College of the Holy Cross, and why he was rightfully nicknamed “Houdini of the Hardwood.” Cousy won six championships with Boston and was chosen as an All-Star during each of his 13 seasons with the team, including an appearance in the NBA’s very first All-Star game which was held at Boston Garden in 1951. He led the NBA in assists in eight consecutive seasons from 1953-1960. Cousy was the NBA’s 1957 MVP and was chosen to 12 All-NBA teams. The NBA also selected him to the league’s 25th, 35th, 50th, and 75th anniversary teams. It’s no wonder why his No. 14 is retired by the Celtics.

There is one person who has, in one way, shape or form, been involved in each of Boston’s 17 World Championships. That man is Tommy Heinsohn. Heinsohn is a two-time Hall of Famer as a player and a coach and is likely to become a three-time Hall of Famer following a lengthy and entertaining broadcast career as the Celtics’ color commentator. He won eight championships with Boston as a player and two as a coach, and he was a member of the organization in some capacity for the other seven titles. Heinsohn was a six-time All-Star with the Celtics and earned the NBA’s Rookie of the Year award in 1957. He remains as the only player who has ever won the Rookie of the Year award, been named to an All-Star team, and won a championship all in the same season (1957). Heinsohn averaged 18.6 points and 8.8 rebounds per game during his career and his No. 15 is retired by the franchise.

Of all of the great names who have donned a Celtics uniform, no player has ever scored more points in the green and white than John “Hondo” Havlicek. Havlicek totaled 26,395 points during his career, which leads Boston’s record books and also ranks 17th in league history. He was a 13-time All-Star who won eight championships with the team from the early 1960s through the late 1970s. He played all 16 of his seasons with Boston and took home the 1974 Finals MVP award. The numbers Havlicek tallied across the board are remarkable: 26,395 points, 8,007 rebounds, 6,114 assists, 46,471 minutes played and 1,270 games played. Havlicek’s No. 17 is retired by the team and he was chosen to the NBA’s 35th, 50th and 75th anniversary teams.

Paul Pierce is the Celtics legend with whom 80s and 90s babies in New England grew up. He was drafted by the team 10th overall in 1998 and played his first 15 seasons with the franchise while making it a point to show the nine teams that passed on him on draft night that they made a mistake. Pierce went on to play in 10 All-Star games as a member of the Celtics and led the franchise to its 17th championship in 2008 while earning Finals MVP honors. He was a four-time All-NBA selection and is one of three players in franchise history to rank in the top 10 in points, rebounds, assists, steals and blocks, along with Larry Bird and Dave Cowens. His 24,021 points in a Celtics uniform ranks second behind only John Havlicek. Pierce is the most recent player to have his number retired by the franchise, as his No. 34 was raised to the rafters Feb. 11, 2018. Pierce was chosen by the NBA as a member of the 75th anniversary team.

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Russell, Cousy, Heinsohn, Havlicek, Pierce Chosen to All-Celtics Team

Taylor Snow

Celtics Legend Bob Cousy will be immortalized outside Worcester’s DCU Center Friday afternoon, as the city that he has called home for more than 70 years will unveil a statue in commemoration of his impact on the local community.

The 92-year-old Hall-of-Fame point guard is expected to be in attendance for the 2 p.m. ceremony along with his daughters, Massachusetts Governor Charlie Baker, Worcester Mayor Joseph Petty and City Manager Edward Augustus, Celtics owners Wyc Grousbeck and Steve Pagliuca, former teammate Tom “Satch” Sanders, and former broadcast partner Mike Gorman, who will emcee the event, according to the Associated Press.

Nearly 50 miles east of Worcester is where Cousy mostly made a name for himself, as he helped to get the Boston Celtics off and running to their first six NBA championships. However, before he blossomed into the Houdini of the Hardwood at Boston Garden, he had already become a legend in Central Mass. after starring for four years at the College of the Holy Cross.

Cousy joined the Crusaders as a freshman during the 1946-47 season and took no time in helping the team make history as he guided them to their first NCAA Championship right off the bat.

Cousy would be named to the All-American Team during each of the following three years, including his senior season when he was recognized as a consensus First-Team member. He helped to lead Holy Cross to two Final Fours and three Elite Eights, marking its most successful stretch in program history to this day.

Cousy emerged as one of the most touted prospects in the 1950 NBA Draft, but there was one problem: he did not want to leave the Worcester area. He was hoping to be drafted by the nearby Boston Celtics, who owned the No. 1 overall pick. However, Red Auerbach passed on him in favor of Charlie Share, who was traded the following day for future Hall-of-Famer Bill Sharman.

Cousy was selected two picks later by the Tri-City Blackhawks, but he was hesitant to relocate to northwestern Illinois, as he had been hoping to establish a driving school in Worcester. The city probably should have given him a statue right then and there, solely based on that notion.

Sure enough, Cousy did not report to the team and was instead picked up by the Chicago Stags. Of course, that did not help his cause either. But then, by a stroke of immense luck, he found his way home.

The Stags soon folded and Cousy was one of three players chosen to be available in a dispersal draft along with Max Zaslofsky and Andy Phillip. Celtics patriarch Walter Brown was one of the owners who got to participate in the random selection. Brown drew Cousy’s name out of a hat, later admitting that Cousy was the last player he wanted of the three at the time. However, the 6-foot-1 point guard soon proved Brown wrong.

Cousy immediately became a star in Boston, earning his first of 13 All-Star appearances during his rookie season. Those 13 years represented his entire career in Boston, where he helped to lead the team to its first six NBA championships. Along the way, he also earned the 1957 NBA MVP, 12 All-NBA selections, and was the league assist champion for eight consecutive seasons from 1952-1960.

After hanging up his sneakers in the spring of 1963, Cousy shifted into the coaching field, though he didn’t shift far. In the fall of 1963, Cousy took up a job just down the road from Boston Garden as the head coach of the Boston College men’s basketball team. He coached the Eagles for six seasons, which included an NCAA Elite Eight appearance in 1967.

Cousy finally made a brief departure from the Massachusetts area in 1969 when he became the head coach of the Cincinnati Royals. He served in that role for five seasons and even un-retired as a player to appear in seven games during the 1969-70 campaign.

In 1971, after retiring from the court for good this time, Cousy was inducted into the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame in Springfield, Massachusetts. That year, the Celtics also retired his No. 14 to the Boston Garden rafters.

Cousy couldn’t stay away from Massachusetts for long, as he returned to the Celtics to serve as a broadcast color analyst starting in the 1980s. He made many appearances during the team’s television broadcasts, commentating alongside Gorman and former Celtics teammate and fellow Holy Cross alumnus Tommy Heinsohn. He later took up a position in the Celtics front office as a consultant for the marketing team.

In the fall of 2008, Cousy had his jersey number retired again, this time at Holy Cross’ Hart Center. His No. 17 was one of four numbers retired on Nov. 16, 2008, along with George Kaftan, Togo Palazzi, and Heinsohn.

Nearly 13 years later, Cousy will once again be honored by the city of Worcester right in front of its hub for entertainment.

addByline("Taylor Snow", "Celtics.com", "taylorcsnow");

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Worcester Set to Unveil Statue of Celtics Legend Bob Cousy

addByline("Marc D'Amico", "Celtics.com", "Marc_DAmico");

Who are the top scorers in Celtics history?  How about the top rebounders, passers, offensive players and defenders?

With so much history – unquestionably the most of any franchise in the sport – these debates are heated.  However, we have dug through the numbers and come up with our top-five lists for each of the five categories.

Over the next week, we will release our lists while likely throwing fire onto the debate.  So without further ado, here are the top five offensive players in Celtics history.  All statistics are from a player’s career with Boston.

Kevin McHale cracks our top five, but not by a wide margin.  Multiple players were hot on his heels simply because the separation between the top four offensive players in franchise history and the rest of the list is so great.  McHale was an incredible offensive player, most notably from the low post.  He ranks fifth on the team’s all-time scoring list with 17,335 points despite coming off of the bench for the majority of his games.  What gives McHale an enormous boost on this list is the fact that he made 55.4 percent of his field goal attempts during his career with Boston, which ranks third on the franchise list behind only Kendrick Perkins (56.5 percent), a junk-points scorer, and Cedric Maxwell (55.9 percent).

Here’s where it gets tricky – and difficult.  Bob Cousy could easily be higher on this list because he was not only a great scorer, but he was also a great passer.  Cous  scored the sixth-most points in franchise history (16,955) and dished out the most assists in franchise history (6,945).  His average of 18.5 points per game is the seventh-highest among all Celtics, and the free-throw line was a big part of his scoring prowess.  Cousy made 4,621 free throws during his career, the third-most in team history, and he canned better than 80 percent of his attempts.  Cousy was not known as an elite shooter, but that didn’t prevent him from being an incredibly dangerous offensive player.

As Boston’s all-time leader in points, and the second-ranked passer in terms of total assists, John Havlicek is cemented in Celtics lore forever.  It hurts to have him ranked third on this list, but that’s how the cookie crumbles.  Havlicek logged at least 5,745 minutes of playing time more than any other player in team history, which ironically works against him; his numbers are greater than everyone else’s thanks in large part to that fact.  Still, minutes played aside, Hondo got it done.  He scored.  He passed.  He got to the free-throw line (and made his freebies at an 81.5 percent clip).  There really wasn’t much that he didn’t do, and that’s why we call him the franchise’s third-best offensive player of all time.

Who’s the guy who challenged (and in many cases surpassed) Havlicek in nearly every statistical category?  That would be Paul Pierce.  Pierce is the franchise’s all-time leader in free throws made (6,434) and attempted (7,979), and his 24,021 points in a Celtics uniform trail only Havlicek on the franchise’s all-time list.  Pierce accomplished all of these feats despite playing 6,142 fewer minutes than Havlicek.  The small forward, who wore No. 34 for Boston for 15 seasons, finished his Celtics career with the franchise’s second-highest scoring average, at 21.8 points per game.  His assist average, at only 3.9 per game, is not overwhelming, but he was certainly capable of running the offense when his team needed him to.  Hence why he averaged 5.6 assists per game after the All-Star break of his final season with the team, after point guard Rajon Rondo went down with an injured knee.  Pierce, a guy who could take the ball off of the dribble and stroke it from long range (he won a 3-Point Shootout title and is far and away the franchise leader in 3-pointers with 1,823), might be the greatest pure scorer in the history of the franchise.  And he could distribute when his team needed him to do so.

There’s a reason why Larry Bird is nicknamed Larry Legend.  His legend and aura is unmatched in franchise history, thanks mostly to his offensive abilities.  Bird, who averaged 24.3 points per game during his career, is far and away the team’s leader in that category.  He also ranks third on the team’s all-time points list despite having effectively played only playing 12 seasons due to injuries.  He was a career 49.6 percent shooter, 10th among Celtics, and a career 37.6 percent shooter from long distance.  He also is the franchise leader in free throw percentage, at 88.6 percent.  As a facilitator, Bird dished out an impressive average of 6.3 APG, which ranks sixth on the franchise list.  He was an incredible shooter, an incredible scorer and an incredible passer all rolled into one.  That’s why he’s the greatest offensive player to have ever donned a Celtics uniform.

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The Debate: Top 5 C's Offensive Players of All Time

Over the next week, we will release our lists while likely throwing fire onto the debate.  So without further ado, here are the top five scorers in Celtics history.  All statistics are from a player’s career with Boston.

Surprised to see this man’s name at No. 5?  Well, we were surprised to write it, but the numbers don’t lie.  Many will be shocked that Antoine Walker’s name is in front of Bob Cousy’s, but Cousy never shot better than 39.7 percent from the field during a season, while Walker shot 41.3 percent from the field during his career with Boston.  Walker’s average of 20.6 points per game with Boston ranks fifth on the team’s all-time list (and one of the players in front of him is Isaiah Thomas, who has only played 103 regular-season games in a Celtics uniform).  Walker played parts of eight seasons with the Celtics, and while he wasn’t known for his efficiency, he certainly was known for his scoring.

The Slippery Eel, as they called it, was the move Kevin McHale used to score quite a few of his 17,335 points in a Celtics uniform.  His total ranks fifth on the team’s all-time scoring list.  What’s crazy about that number is the fact that he was a full-time starter for Boston during only four of his 13 seasons with the team, so the vast majority of his points were scored as a reserve.  McHale maxed out with an average of 26.1 PPG during the 1986-87 season, and he averaged at least 20.9 PPG for five straight seasons from 1985-1990.

Paul Pierce, the most recent legend in Celtics history.  Pierce spent the first 15 seasons of his career with the Celtics and poured in the second-most points in the franchise’s history, 24,021, during that time.  Pierce also ranks second on the team’s all-time PPG list, behind only Larry Bird, with a scoring average of 21.8 PPG.  Pierce was an all-around scorer throughout his decade and a half with the C’s.  He did it from long distance, he did it in the midrange, and he did it off the dribble.

John Havlicek could easily be atop this list.  In fact, he is atop the team’s all-time scoring list, with a total of 26,395 points.  That number remains as the 15th-best total in NBA history, just ahead of Pierce and former Celtic Kevin Garnett.  Think about all of the great players who have come through the league, then realize that Havlicek is in the top 15 of all of them when it comes to putting the ball through the basket.  Hondo finished his career in Boston with a scoring average of 20.8 PPG, which ranks fourth in team history.  He scored at a high rate for 16 seasons in Boston, including eight straight seasons that featured averages of at least 20.7 PPG.

How can anyone top Havlicek, the team’s all-time leading scorer, on this list?  One word: efficiency.  Larry Bird put up 21,791 career points in Boston despite playing only 13 seasons, including one (1988-89) during which he only played six games.  With those factors considered, it’s no surprise that Bird finished his career as the leading points-per-game scorer in Boston by a landslide.  Bird averaged 24.3 PPG during his career; the next-best average is Pierce’s 21.8 PPG.  That’s the largest scoring gap between any player on the team’s top 10 PPG list, and by a wide margin.  His average of 24.3 PPG ranks 16th in league history.  As more evidence of Bird’s hold as the franchise’s top scorer, his name appears 15 times in the team’s top 21 all-time single-game scoring efforts.  It’s no surprise that his scoring prowess was able to lead the C’s to three of their 17 NBA titles, in 1981, 1984 and 1984.

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The Debate: Top Five Celtics Scorers of All Time

Over the next week, we will release our lists while likely throwing fire onto the debate.  So without further ado, here are the top five passers in Celtics history.  All statistics are from a player’s career with Boston.

During his five seasons with the Celtics, Nate “Tiny” Archibald was one of the top assist men in the entire NBA.  He racked up 2,563 assists during 363 games, giving him the third-best assists-per-game average in team history at 7.1.  Archibald also ranks sixth in team history in assist percentage.  He ranked second (8.39 APG), fifth (7.72 APG) and fourth (7.96 APG) in the league in assist-per-game average during the 1979-80, the 1980-81 and the 1981-82 seasons, respectively.  He sits just outside of the top 10 list for total assists in Celtics history despite playing 69 or fewer games during three of his five seasons with the team.

Affectionately known simply as “DJ” by both his teammates and fans, Dennis Johnson was the floor general for Boston’s 1984 and 1986 championship teams.  Playing alongside superstars like Larry Bird and Kevin McHale, he still quarterbacked the team to the tune of 3,486 assists over seven seasons, which places him eighth on Boston’s franchise list.  He ranks sixth in team history in assists per game with an average of 6.4.  These numbers are quite impressive – and a bit skewed – seeing as he played on a team with Bird and McHale, who were both widely known for creating their own offense.

Speaking of Bird, is there anything this guy didn’t do?  He already checked in at fourth on our all-time rebounders in Celtics history list with an average of 10.0 rebounds per game, and now we rank him as the third-best passer the organization has ever seen.  Bird tallied an impressive 5,695 assists during his career with the C’s, which ranks third in team history.  He also dished out an average of 6.3 assists per game, which ranks sixth in team history on a top 10 list that features nine point guards.  Bird, a small forward, likely could have averaged double-digit assists for his career if he really wanted to, but Boston relied upon him to score the basketball at a high rate as well.  He still stands as quite possibly the top passing small forward in league history, and he surely deserves this spot on this list.

Bob Cousy has a strong hold on the top spot of Boston’s all-time total assists list.  There’s a reason why he earned the nickname “Hardwood Houdini”: because he looked like a magician with the ball in his hands.  Cousy dished out 6,945 assists during his career, which is at least 1,250 more than any other player on our particular list.  He averaged 7.6 helpers per game during his 13-year career with Boston, which included 13 selections to the All-Star game and eight assist titles.  His style of play was decades ahead of its time, as he showcased the flash and sizzle that became popular in the 1980s with Magic Johnson and has continued through today.  Cousy’s passing wasn’t just exciting; it was also effective.  He teamed with Bill Russell to help lead the Celtics to six titles during the 1950s and 1960s.

Millennials can rejoice, as they finally have one of their players make our list.  Rajon Rondo, who played for the team from 2006-14, is the top passer in the history of the Boston Celtics.  He racked up an impressive 4,474 assists during those nine seasons despite the fact that he averaged fewer than 30 minutes of action during his first two seasons.  Rondo’s assist total ranks fourth in franchise history, but what sets him apart from the others on this list is the fact that he leads the franchise in both assists per game (8.5) and assist percentage (41.6 percent) by large margins.  Rondo’s average of 8.5 APG is nearly a full assist greater than Cousy’s average of 7.6 APG, which ranks second in franchise history.  Rondo’s assist percentage of 41.6 percent blows away the next-best percentage, which is the 34.9 percent rate that was registered by Sherman Douglas.  Boston turned a new leaf when it traded Rondo to Dallas on Dec. 18, 2014, but had he remained in a Celtics uniform for another three years he would be the all-time leader in total assists, too.  In short, Rondo is the best passer in the history of the team.

Bob Cousy

Russell, Cousy, Heinsohn, Havlicek, Pierce Chosen to All-Celtics Team

Worcester Set to Unveil Statue of Celtics Legend Bob Cousy

The Debate: Top 5 C's Offensive Players of All Time

The Debate: Top Five Celtics Scorers of All Time

The Debate: Top Five Celtics Passers of All Time