Boston Celtics

The Celtics have a notable rivalry with the Lakers. The teams' rivalry was especially pronounced in the 1960s and 1980s. The franchise has played the Lakers a record 12 times in the NBA Finals and has defeated them nine times. Four Celtics players (Bob Cousy, Bill Russell, Dave Cowens and Larry Bird) have won the NBA Most Valuable Player Award; overall, Celtics players have won an NBA-record 10 MVP awards.^[12] Both the nickname "Celtics" and their mascot "Lucky the Leprechaun" are a nod to Boston's historically large Irish population, and also to the Original Celtics, a barnstorming basketball team that played in the early 20th century.^[13]


The Celtics' rise to dominance began in the late 1950s, after the team, led by coach Red Auerbach, acquired center Bill Russell, who would become the cornerstone of the Celtics dynasty, in a draft-day trade in 1956. Led by Russell, point guard Bob Cousy, and 1956-7 Rookie of the Year Tom Heinsohn, the Celtics won their first NBA championship in 1957.


Russell, along with a talented supporting cast of future Hall of Famers including Tom Heinsohn, Don Nelson, K. C. Jones, John Havlicek, Sam Jones, Satch Sanders, and Bill Sharman, would usher the Celtics into the greatest period in franchise history, winning eight consecutive NBA championships from 1959 to 1966. After Russell retired, as a player-coach, and the first African-American head coach in any US sport, in 1969, the team entered a period of rebuilding. In the mid-1970s, the Celtics became contenders once again, winning championships in 1974 and 1976 under the leadership of head coach Tom Heinsohn with center Dave Cowens, forward John Havlicek, and point guard Jo Jo White. In the 1980s, the Celtics returned to dominance. The team experienced a renewed rivalry with the "Showtime" Lakers, who were led by Magic Johnson and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. Anchored by the "Big Three" of Larry Bird, Kevin McHale, and Robert Parish, the Celtics won championships in 1981, 1984, and 1986, the latter two with head coach K. C. Jones.


After the retirements of Bird and McHale, the departure of Parish, and the untimely deaths of 1986 draft pick Len Bias and star player Reggie Lewis, the Celtics struggled through the 1990s and much of the early 2000s. It was not until the Celtics assembled a new "Big Three" of Kevin Garnett, Paul Pierce, and Ray Allen that they found success once again. Under the leadership of head coach Doc Rivers, the team beat the Lakers to win a championship in 2008. The Celtics reached the NBA Finals again in 2010, but lost to Los Angeles in a seven-game series. By the start of the 2013–14 season, Garnett, Pierce, and Allen were no longer with the team. During the 2016–17 season, the Celtics clinched the top seed in the Eastern Conference but were eliminated in the Conference Finals. Led by Jaylen Brown and Jayson Tatum, the team reached the Conference Finals four times over the following six years and returned to the NBA Finals in 2022, losing to the Golden State Warriors.