The Boston Celtics

IÕm on top of the world!Ó shouted Kevin Garnett after the Boston Celtics demolished the heavily favored Los Angeles Lakers for a league-leading seventeenth NBA championship. Peter May chronicles the amazing run of the team, who went from having the second-worst record in 2007 to leading the pack in 2008. Drawing on interviews with the players, Coach Doc Rivers, and General Manager Danny Ainge, May charts the pivotal moments of the CelticsÕ magical season. From rebuilding the team to capping off their stunning year with another championship, Top of the World brings readers every key moment of the CelticsÕ wild ride.

Celebrate the championship glory, Hall of Fame personalities, and passionate fans that make the Boston Celtics one of the most revered teams in basketball Sports Illustrated™ celebrates basketball greatness with The Boston Celtics at 75, an extraordinary collection of classic stories and photographs from the pages of SI. This commemorative book salutes hall of famers like Bill Russell, Larry Bird, Bob Cousy, Paul Pierce, and coach Red Auerbach. Fans will unearth countless gems from the Celtics' past on each page of this diamond celebration.

Let's say you're the coach of one of the NBA teams with the most championship banners hanging from its rafters, with every current and former player available on your bench. Game 7 of the Finals is approaching and it's time to put your team on the floor. Who's your starting center? Bill Russell, Robert Parrish, or Dave Cowens? Who's starting at guard? Bob Cousy, Jo Jo White, Tiny Archibald, Dennis Johnson, or Kyrie Irving? At power forward, are you playing Kevin McHale or Jayson Tatum? Is Larry Bird your small forward or John Havlicek? Combining statistical analysis, common sense, and a host of intangibles, long-time Celtics writer John Karalis constructs an all-time All-Star Celtics line-up for the ages. Agree with his choices or not, you'll learn all there is to know about the men who played for and coached the most successful franchise in NBA history.

This book highlights the history of the Boston Celtics.

A behind the scenes perspective on Boston Celtics history from two-time champion Cedric Maxwell Having won two NBA titles with the Celtics before joining the broadcasting team as a radio analyst, Cedric Maxwell knows what it means to live and breathe Celtics basketball. In If These Walls Could Talk: Boston Celtics, Maxwell opens up about his life and career and provides insight into the team's inner sanctum as only he can, from Larry Bird to the Big Three era and up to the current roster. Featuring conversations with players and coaches past and present as well as off-the-wall anecdotes only Maxwell can tell, this indispensable volume is your ticket to Celtics history.

The New York Times Bestseller Out of the greatest dynasty in American professional sports history, an intimate story of race, mortality, and regret About to turn ninety, Bob Cousy, the Hall of Fame Boston Celtics captain who led the team to its first six championships on an unparalleled run, has much to look back on in contentment. But he has one last piece of unfinished business. The last pass he hopes to throw is to close the circle with his great partner on those Celtic teams, fellow Hall of Famer Bill Russell, now 84. These teammates were basketball's Ruth and Gehrig, and Cooz, as everyone calls him, was famously ahead of his time as an NBA player in terms of race and civil rights. But as the decades passed, Cousy blamed himself for not having done enough, for not having understood the depth of prejudice Russell faced as an African-American star in a city with a fraught history regarding race. Cousy wishes he had defended Russell publicly, and that he had told him privately that he had his back. At this late hour, he confided to acclaimed historian Gary Pomerantz over the course of many interviews, he would like to make amends. At the heart of the story THE LAST PASS tells is the relationship between these two iconic athletes. The book is also in a way Bob Cousy's last testament on his complex and fascinating life. As a sports story alone it has few parallels: An poor kid whose immigrant French parents suffered a dysfunctional marriage, the young Cousy escaped to the New York City playgrounds, where he became an urban legend known as the Houdini of the Hardwood. The legend exploded nationally in 1950, his first year as a Celtic: he would be an all-star all 13 of his NBA seasons. But even as Cousy's on-court imagination and daring brought new attention to the pro game, the Celtics struggled until Coach Red Auerbach landed Russell in 1956. Cooz and Russ fit beautifully together on the court, and the Celtics dynasty was born. To Boston's white sportswriters it was Cousy's team, not Russell's, and as the civil rights movement took flight, and Russell became more publicly involved in it, there were some ugly repercussions in the community, more hurtful to Russell than Cousy feels he understood at the time. THE LAST PASS situates the Celtics dynasty against the full dramatic canvas of American life in the 50s and 60s. It is an enthralling portrait of the heart of this legendary team that throws open a window onto the wider world at a time of wrenching social change. Ultimately it is a book about the legacy of a life: what matters to us in the end, long after the arena lights have been turned off and we are alone with our memories. On August 22, 2019, Bob Cousy was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom

The following summer, Russell stunned the sports world by announcing his retirement, ending his and the Celtics' celebrated reign."