First 5 of All-Time Celtics team announced
In conjunction with the NBA's 75th Anniversary, the Boston Celtics are also announcing their All-Time team. Not sure how the voting is weighted, but here are the details:
The team is comprised of 15 players who were selected to the team based upon thousands of votes cast by fans and an official voting panel that included both media members and Celtics historians.
Obvious choices like Larry Bird, Sam Jones, and Kevin McHale are featured in the first of the three groups. Kevin Garnett makes the cut as well, despite playing more of his career in Minnesota. If you only took his Celtics years into account, would he still make the list? You know he just might.
These lists are always subjective. Are we focusing on prime years or the whole career? Are we focusing on just Celtics seasons or again the whole career? Championships of course have to go into the equation.
Some people like to penalize players for playing in a certain generation and not another, but I don't think that's fair. I think you should be evaluated by where you stood against your peers of the time.
Even Larry Bird I feel is slighted due to him not entering the league young and retiring early. His prime was as good as anyone. And if he played in an era like the modern era where he could launch ten 3's a game and rebounds were easy to come by since big men head down court, he'd have averaged a lot more points and had many more triple doubles.
Back to the list, Dennis Johnson takes the fifth and final spot of Group 1. Like KG he played more seasons elsewhere, but was a key member of a championship team in Boston (Two of them for DJ). I thought he should have been on the NBA's All-Time list of 75, but nationally he wasn't considered the biggest snub, so I suppose he's the most controversial inclusion of this team so far.
Again, who knows how things are weighted. And personally an All-Time Celtics team without DJ would have felt wrong.
Hall of Famers Bird, Mchale, and Jones all played their whole careers for the Celtics and like we mentioned from the jump, were no brainers.
