On this day in Boston Celtics history, former head coach and team president Rick Pitino was hired as head coach and general manager of the team in 1997. He had previously coached at the NBA level as a moderately successful head coach of the New York Knicks between 1987 and 1989, and most recently at Kentucky in the NCAA ranks.
His tenure with the Celtics went considerably worse, with the pressure to return to greatness after the longest losing streak in team history undoubtedly a factor in the several questionable ‘win-now’ decisions made by Pitino. The New Yorker would throw in the towel after four seasons with the franchise, amassing a 102-146 record in the regular season, good for a .411 winning percentage.
He never made the postseason in his role as team president and head coach.
It is also the date of Dennis Johnson’s last game with the Celtics, in 1990. The game was against the New York Knicks, a Game 5 loss in the Eastern Conference Finals that had Boston finishing with a 121-114 loss.
Johnson scored 21 points, 5 rebounds, and 10 assists in the final game of his career, as the Californian retired after the loss. The Pepperdine product played the last seven seasons of his career with the Celtics, averaging 12.6 points, 3.2 boards, and 6.4 assists with the team.
Today is former Boston shooting guard Oliver Lafayette’s birthday, who had the briefest of Celtics tenures.
He appeared in exactly one game after signing a rest-of-season contract with the team in April 2010, scoring 7 points.
The 1968 NBA Expansion draft was held today, in which Boston lost several players of note to help populate the rosters of the newly-formed Milwaukee Bucks and Phoenix Suns.
All three players taken from the Celtics were drafted by the Bucks, starting with wing Tom Thacker.
A former NCAA and NBA champion with Cincinnati and Boston respectively, Thacker chose to play in the ABA instead of reporting to Milwaukee, winning an ABA championship with the Indiana Pacers.
Thacker averaged 4.2 points, 2.5 rebounds, and 1.1 assists per game in his sole season with the Celtics.
The second player taken was forward Johnny Jones, who played just one season with Boston, winning a ring on the 1967-68 squad.
Like Thacker, Jones chose the ABA instead of reporting to the Bucks, signing with the Kentucky Colonels instead. He averaged 4.2 points, 2.2 boards, and 0.5 assists with the Celtics in that single season.
Finally, the Celtics also lost big man Wayne Embry, a former five-time All-Star who also had won a ring with Boston in the 1967-68 NBA season.
Embry was the sole player of the three to report to Milwaukee, for whom he would play one season more before retiring permanently. He averaged 5.8 points, 4.1 rebounds, and 0.6 assists per game with the Celtics.
Bill Russell talks about Ron Watts: #Celtics https://t.co/wdhWm5je4Y pic.twitter.com/IAN9ikdf3r
— Honest☘️Larry (@HonestLarry1) May 21, 2020
On this day in 1965, the NBA draft was held in New York City, and Boston selected two players of note.
The first was forward Ron Watts, drafted out of Wake Forest with the 17th overall pick of the draft.
Watts would play just two seasons for the Celtics, technically winning a banner with the team in his rookie season despite only playing one game for Boston that year.
Watts averaged 1.4 points, as many rebounds, and 0.1 assists per game in the 28 games he played for the Celtics between 1965 and 1967.
Toby Kimball was a member of the inaugural class of the Huskies of Honor at Gampel Pavilion in 2006 #UConnNation pic.twitter.com/qoitUho4st
— UConn Men's Basketball (@UConnMBB) May 3, 2017
The other player taken by Boston was former UConn Huskies big man Toby Kimball, who played just one season with the club in 1966-67.
Just under a year later, he would be taken from the franchise in the 1967 expansion draft by the (then) San Diego (now, Houston) Rockets, where he had the most success of his career.
He would record 2.6 points, 3.8 boards and 0.3 assists per contest with the Celtics.
It is also the anniversary of three playoff wins since the season of Boston’s last title in 2007-08. The first was a 76-72 Game 1 win over the Cleveland Cavaliers in 2008, LeBron James’ first postseason run-in with the Celtics far from a success from his perspective.
Though Paul Pierce and Ray Allen had subpar games with a combined total of 4 points, 9 rebounds, and 5 assists, they still managed to contain a young James to 12 points, 9 boards, and as many assists to secure the victory.
Boston was led by 28 points and 8 rebounds from Kevin Garnett, and point guard Rajon Rondo added 15 points, 5 rebounds, and 6 assists, and guard Sam Cassell chipped in 13 from the bench.
“This was two heavyweights, just body-punching,” said Garnett via ESPN. “There was no finesse, no jabs, just an all-out, beat-down, defensive fight.”
In 2009, the Celtics blew out the Orlando Magic 112-94 in Game 2 of the Eastern Conference Semifinals behind a triple-double from Rondo.
He led Boston with 15 points, 18 assists, and 11 boards while Allen added 26 points and 6 rebounds and center Kendrick Perkins put up 16 points and 9 rebounds.
Finally, in 2012 the Celtics crushed the Atlanta Hawks 101-79 in Game 4 of the East’s first round.
The win came despite both Pierce and Allen playing under 20 minutes, led by the latter’s 24 points and Rondo’s 20 points and 16 assists.
“Their team set the tone from the jump ball and we weren’t able to recover,” said future Celtic big man Al Horford via the Associated Press. “It’s disappointing for us to lose this way, but the good thing is we’re going back home.”
It did not help the Hawks’ fortunes, with Boston eventually winning the series four games to two.
