The Boston Celtics are a professional basketball team based in Boston, Massachusetts. They play in the National Basketball Association (NBA). Their 16 NBA championships are the most for any NBA franchise.

The beginning of a dynasty (1946-1969)

The Celtics were formed in 1946 as a team in the Basketball Association of America, and became part of the National Basketball Association after the merger of the BAA and the National Basketball League to form the NBA in the fall of 1949. The Celtics had struggled during their early years, but the hiring of Coach Red Auerbach would change their fortunes. One of the first major players to join the Celtics was Bob Cousy, whom Auerbach initially refused to draft. Cousy eventually became the property of the Chicago Stags. When that franchise went bankrupt, Cousy was acquired by the Celtics in a dispersal draft. He would become a huge part of the Celtics' success and eventually became good friends with his new coach. Under Auerbach the Celtics improved dramatically, becoming a consistent threat to win in the NBA's Eastern Division in each of his first six seasons, although they fell short each time.

After the 1955-56 season, Auerbach made a stunning trade. He sent perennial All-Star and future Hall of Famer Ed Macauley to the St. Louis Hawks along with the draft rights to Cliff Hagan in exchange for the Hawks' first round draft pick, the second overall. After negotiating with the Rochester Royals, Auerbach used the pick to select University of San Francisco center Bill Russell . Auerbach also acquired Holy Cross standout, and 1957 NBA Rookie of the Year, Tommy Heinsohn. Russell and Heinsohn worked extraordinarly well with Cousy, and they were the players around whom Auerbach would build the Celtics for more than a decade. Russell, who might well have beaten Heinsohn for the '57 Rookie of the Year Award, had he not been ineligible due to joining the NBA mid-season in order to play for the US Olympic team (winning the gold), had an immediate impact during 1957. Russell joined the Celtics in December of 1956 and went on to play most every game during which the Celtics advanced to the NBA Finals and defeated the St. Louis Hawks in seven games, giving the Celtics the first of their record 16 NBA Championships. In 1958, the Celtics again advanced to the NBA Finals, this time losing to the Hawks in 6 games. However, with the acquisition of K.C. Jones that year, the Celtics began a dynasty that would last for more than a decade.


Attempts to rebuild (2001-2007)

Back to contention: The O'Brien years

Following the resignation of Rick Pitino, the Celtics improved greatly under coach Jim O'Brien. Paul Pierce matured into an NBA star and was ably complemented by Antoine Walker, along with the other role players acquired over the years. The team finished the season going 24-24 under O'Brien (after going 12-22 before Pitino's resignation) and following the 2000-01 season O'Brien was given the job of head coach on a permanent basis. As a result of numerous trades, the Celtics had three picks in the 2001 NBA Draft, a luxury that seemed to set the franchise up well for the long term. General Manager Chris Wallace used the picks on Joe Johnson, Joe Forte (a favorite of Red Auerbach) and Kedrick Brown.

The Celtics entered the 2001-02 season with low expectations. The team's success in the latter stages of 2000-01 was largely forgotten, and critics were surprised when the team (along with the New Jersey Nets) surged to the top of the Atlantic Division ahead of teams like the Philadelphia 76ers, who were fresh off a trip to the NBA Finals. A trade at the February trade deadline sent Joe Johnson, who was having an inconsistent rookie season, along with little-used bench players Randy Brown and Milt Palacio to the Phoenix Suns in exchange for Tony Delk and Rodney Rogers. The season salvaged by the trade, the Celtics went on to win 49 games. The 49 victories were the franchises most since 1992, when Larry Bird was still playing, and the Celtics made the playoffs for the first time since 1995.

The Celtics won a hard-fought five game series with the 76ers in the first round, 3 games to 2. Pierce scored 46 points in the series-clinching blowout at the Fleet Center. In the conference semifinals the Celtics defeated the favored Detroit Pistons 4 games to 1 in a series best remembered for the Celtics low-scoring (66-64) game 3 victory. In their first trip to the Eastern Conference Finals since 1988, the Celtics would jump out to a 2-1 series lead over the New Jersey Nets (after rallying from 21 points down in the fourth quarter to win game 3) but would lose the next three games to fall 4 games to 2.


Logos

The Boston Celtics may have come out with a new logo for the 1995-96 season, but the image of a leprechaun spinning a basketball has been in use since the early 1950s. The logo was originally designed by Zang Auerbach, the brother of Celtics head coach Red Auerbach. The logo has received numerous tweaks over the years, the latest version, shown here, decorated the leprechaun in a gold vest to celebrate the club's 50th anniversary. The most familiar version, however, is the one-colored Celtics logo used during the Larry Bird era, with the leprechaun traced in black and has only green and white which is still used on some TV networks whenever the current Celtics logo is unavailable or in classic Celtics references.

Uniforms

The Boston Celtics jerseys have always been green on away games and white on home games since their inception in 1946. Except for some minor modifications, the jerseys remained unchanged through the years. Beginning in 2005-06, the Celtics began using alternate jerseys of green with black trim with the words "Boston" in front of the jersey. Also that season, the Celtics began a tradition of wearing their green jerseys with gold trim as part of the St. Patrick's Day celebrations the NBA put into place every third week of March. Except for the words "Boston" in front, the rest of the St. Patrick's Day jerseys resemble the regular Celtics road jerseys. During the NBA Europe Live game against the Toronto Raptors in Rome, the Celtics used the black/green alternate jerseys, except that the words "BOSTON" on the front side of the jersey and the shamrock on the shorts and on the reverse side of the jersey contained the green/white/red tricolors of the Italian flag . They also had the tradition of wearing black sneakers through most of their history (except during the early 1980's when they wore green sneakers). Beginning with the 2003-04 season, the team began to wear white sneakers at home, though, they still wear the trademark black sneakers on occasion.