On this day in Boston Celtics history, point guard A.J. Wynder was born in 1964 in the Bronx, New York. Wynder played his college ball at the University of Massachusetts and Fairfield University, earning MAAC second-team status at the latter. The New Yorker helped carry the Fairfield Stags to back-to-back MAAC championships and two NCAA Tournament appearances in 1986 and 1987 before going undrafted in the 1987 NBA draft.
After several seasons playing in the Continental Basketball Association (CBA — that era’s equivalent of the NBA G League), Wynder landed a 10-day contract with the Celtics in March of 1991. He turned it into a rest-of-season deal.
Buy Celtics TicketsAppearing in just six games for Boston, he averaged 2 points and 1.3 assists per game as a Celtic.
Happy birthday AJ Wynder! #Celtics pic.twitter.com/9YgvLTy68X
— Honest☘️Larry (@HonestLarry1) September 11, 2020
Wynder played several more stints in the CBA before starting a successful coaching career, landing the head coaching job at Nassau Community College in 1997.
It is also the date former Celtics champion center Kendrick Perkins reached a contract extension with the team in 2006 after his first three seasons with the team.
“It is great to have one of our building blocks secured for the next few years,” Executive Director of Basketball Operations Danny Ainge said at the time via the team’s website. “We are looking forward to his continued development this upcoming season.”
It is also the date the Celtics defeated the Toronto Raptors, 92-87, in Game 7 of the 2020 Eastern Conference semifinals. They advanced to face the Miami Heat in the Disney bubble at the Wide World of Sports Complex in Lake Buena Vista, Florida.
A close game throughout, the Celtics needed 29 points from forward Jayson Tatum and 21 from forward Jaylen Brown to advance.
“If you want to achieve something great, if you want to win, it’s not going to be easy,” Tatum said via the AP. “That’s what we’re here for.”
“Man, it was a tough game to lose,” an emotional Lowry said. “But they won. Tip your hats to them. They have a chance to go on and play against Miami and get to the championship.”
Finally, in 2021, Boston legends Paul Pierce and Bill Russell were inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame as a player and head coach, respectively.
Pierce took the moment to relate how the nine teams who passed on him in the draft not only drove him harder but also led to a date with destiny.
“To this day I don’t understand how I slipped to No. 10,” said Pierce via the AP’s Jimmy Golen. “But everything happened for a reason. Going to the Celtics, I’m grateful.”
Russell, inducted as a player in 1975, was re-inducted for his coaching career; just the fifth person to be inducted as both a player and a coach.
Ex-President Barack Obama instead chose to laud him for what he accomplished off the court during the US Civil Rights movement of the 1960s.
“Bill Russell, perhaps more than anyone else, knows what it takes to win, and what it takes to lead,” Obama said in a video tribute. “As tall as Bill Russell stands, his example and his legacy rise far, far higher.”
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