The Boston Celtics All Time All Stars

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.

Let’s say you’re the head coach of the Denver Broncos, deciding which players should start in a Super Bowl matchup against the toughest team in the NFC. But instead of choosing from the current roster, you have every player in the team’s nearly sixty-year history in your locker room. Who starts at quarterback: John Elway, Peyton Manning, Craig Morton, or Frank Tripuka? At inside linebacker, do you play Bill Rowmanowski, Karl Mecklenburg, Tom Jackson, Randy or Gradishar? Which player is your featured running back: Floyd Little, Otis Armstrong, or Terrell Davis? Combining career stats, common sense, and a host of intangibles, veteran Broncos beat reporter Mike Klis imagines an embarrassment of riches and sets the all-time All-Star Broncos lineup for the ages.

Examines the best professional basketball players from each of the five distinct periods and ranks the five greatest players at each position throughout the history of the game.

The history of the NBA has been filled with superstars, names known to fans and non-fans alike. But while comparisons between athletes who competed against each other face-to-face is a common occurrence in the sports world, it is not quite as easy to compare players from different eras. How would Wilt Chamberlain stack up against Shaquille O'Neal? What about LeBron James and Larry Bird, or Magic Johnson and Oscar Robertson? In Pro Basketball’s All-Time All-Stars: Across the Eras, Robert Cohen not only examines the best players from each era, but also ranks the five greatest players at each position in the history of the pro game. Dividing the history of professional basketball into five distinct eras, this book first describes the style of play that prevailed during each period. From the slow-paced, rough-and-tumble style of play that characterized the NBA during its formative years, to the up-tempo, high-flying style that currently prevails, Pro Basketball’s All-Time All-Stars gives an in-depth view of how the game has evolved. For each of the five eras, Cohen has selected the best players to man the five positions on the court, providing career bios for each. To determine the best of the best, Cohen considers the level of dominance each player reached during his time in the league, his individual statistics, the degree to which he impacted the fortunes of his team, and the extent to which he improved his teammates’ level of play. Individual honors and quotes from teammates and opponents alike are used to support the rankings. Covering NBA greats such as Bob Pettit, Bill Russell, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Michael Jordan, and Kobe Bryant, this book will appeal to basketball fans of all generations, and to any NBA fan interested in the history of the game.

One of professional basketball's most iconic franchises, the Boston Celtics—along with the Boston Red Sox and New England Patriots, both of whom have been the subject of "50 Greatest" treatments by sports historian Robert W. Cohen—represent a multistate region rather than just a city or state. Many of the sport's very best have played for the Celtics, including Bill Russell, Bob Cousy, John Havlicek, Larry Bird, Kevin McHale, and Paul Pierce. But who is the greatest of them all? In The 50 Greatest Players in Boston Celtics History, Cohen attempts to determine just that. Using as measuring sticks the degree to which these players impacted the fortunes of the team, the extent to which they added to the Celtics legacy, and the levels of statistical compilation and overall dominance they attained while wearing a Celtics uniform, this book ranks, from 1 to 50, the top 50 players in team history. Quotes from opposing players and former teammates are provided along the way, as are summaries of each player’s greatest season, most memorable performances, and most notable achievements.

This book provides empirical evidence and statistical analyses to uncover answers to some of the most debated questions in the NBA. The sports world lives and breathes off of debates on who deserves an MVP award, and which athletes should be considered all-stars. This book provides some statistics-backed perspectives to some of these debates that are specific to the NBA. Was LeBron snubbed of an MVP in the 2010-2011 season? Why has the G.O.A.T. debate turned into LeBron vs. Jordan....Did Kobe get overlooked? How come Klay Thompson didn’t get All-NBA honors in the 2018-2019 season? This book explores these questions and many more with empirical evidence. This book is invaluable for any undergraduate or masters level course in sport analytics, sports marketing, or sports management. It will also be incredibly useful for scouts, recruiters, and general managers in the NBA who would like to use analytics in their work.

Provides a comprehensive listing, including biographical information and statistics, of each athlete inducted into one of the major sports halls of fame.