Bill Simmons top-8 long-tenured Celtics of all time


You will find Bill Simmons list of his top-seven Celtics of all time in the tweet below. It appears he went with only the long-tenured players and stayed away from the shorter-term guys like Kevin Garnett, Shaquille O'Neal and Dominique Wilkins. Simmons did seem to initially forget Dave Cowens and put him in 5th place, moving Sam Jones, Kevin McHale and Paul Pierce down a spot and making it a top-eight ranking.


This is very subjective, and feel free to change the list according to your own preferences. Here are mine. No problem with Russ at number one. Anyone arguing hasn't paid attention to what the man accomplished. The above Russell/Auerbach photo displays one of the very best partnerships in the history of sports.

Larry Bird at number two is perfect. One of the best, and most complete, players of all time. John Havlicek at number three can be disputed, but I won't. Fabulous athlete who could run opponents into the ground, but do it quietly and courteously. I am putting Sam Jones at number four, and I am doing it, in part, because the 10-time Champion always gets short-changed. He was a vital part of those 10 trophies.

Bob Cousy goes to number five, but I need to put Dave Cowens at a tie with him. Bob was a 6-time Champion to Dave's two, but Big Red took over for the great Bill Russell, and at a bit over 6'8", battled Wilt Chamberlain and Kareeem Abdul Jabbar and did a hell of a job at it.

Admittedly, it may be because Paul Pierce's number was just raised to the rafters, but I put Paul and Kevin McHale at a tie for the next place. Kevin is very long and extremely talented, but he stepped into a pretty good situation coming to a Celtics team with Robert Parish in tow and Larry Bird already in place. No such luck for Paul who came to a team with the much-hated Rick Pitino in place, and he still put the team on his back and carried it until help arrived.

It's your turn. There are obvious omissions from the list that can be added. Tommy Heinsohn, Bill Sharman and JoJo White quickly come to mind. What does your list look like.

Follow Tom at @TomLaneHC

Photo via AP

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