History Time: Boston CeltiCats in the NBA Finals

Sunday night, Game 2 of the 2022 NBA Finals tips off at 8 p.m. EST. It features the Golden State Warriors and Boston Celtics, two of the most storied franchises in league history. Unfortunately, this year — for the first time since 2018 — neither side features a former UK player on its bench.

For the Celtics in particular, this is quite out of the ordinary. In their rich 76-year history, 14 different Wildcats have donned the green-and-white for Boston; that’s quite possibly the most of any franchise (unfortunately, we’re too lazy to actually look this up). Of those 14, four have won championships for the city. (Again, that could be a record. Who knows?)

That’s why this year, we’re taking the opportunity to look back on the exciting history of the Boston Celtics in and around the NBA Finals — and the UK legends that made it happen. Welcome back to History Time!

Note: some facts in this article may have been embellished, fictionalized or otherwise concocted for dramatic effect. You know, like most things you read on the internet.

The Rondo Years

Before now, the last time the Celtics appeared in the Finals was 12 years ago. They lost the 2010 series in seven games to the Lakers, who earned revenge after losing the title to the Celtics two years earlier. It was a legacy-defining moment for Kobe Bryant; but it was also a breakout tour-de-force by Rajon Rondo.

In the series, Rondo averaged 13.6 points while leading the Celtics in both assists and rebounds. His best moment came in their Game 2 victory, when he became the first Celtic since Larry Bird to record a triple-double in the Finals:

FUN FACT: Rondo also totaled a team-leading 11 steals in the series, many of which came off the hands of Bryant. Despite his offensive dominance, the Laker legend amassed 27 turnovers, most by any player in a Finals series since Magic Johnson in 1984. When asked about the impact of Rondo’s defense, Kobe is said to have called it “the biggest pain in my ass since Shaq slapped me with a towel back in ’01.”

Almost Famous: the Post-Pitino Party

In 1997, the Boston Celtics hired a man named Rick Pitino. You have heard this story before. While he didn’t fare so well in the NBA (he quit with a 102-146 record in less than four seasons), he did succeed in bringing about half the roster from his 1996 UK team to Boston. The Celtics drafted Antoine Walker in ’96, traded for Walter McCarty in ’97, and traded for Tony Delk in ’02. Pitino never coached all three together in Boston, but his influence was all over the make-up of that team.

As it turned out, that team was pretty good, too. In 2002 — the first full year without Pitino at the helm — the Celtics went 49-33 and advanced to the Eastern Conference Finals. They fell just short of the title series, losing in six games to Jason Kidd’s Nets. But the three ‘Cats combined to average 29.2 points in the series, with Walker leading both teams in triples and field goals made.

FUN FACT: Antoine Walker was so good in the 2002 Playoffs that Keith Van Horn reportedly had years of nightmares afterward where a large man would shimmy into his bedroom holding a knife. Walker was aware of this, and taunted him for it on many occasions.

Robey Restores C’s to Former Glory

It was a dark, dark time to be a Celtics fan at the onset of the 1980s. After capturing nine out of 10 NBA championships in the ’60s, the ’70s yielded naught but two titles. To make matters worse, the retirement of John Havlicek preceded their worst finish in three decades in the 1978-79 season, missing the playoffs entirely. It capped an unthinkable run of three straight seasons without a Finals appearance. But that year, they made an acquisition that would change the trajectory of their wayward franchise. That’s right: the trade for Rick Robey.

Robey, the 6’11” behemoth who starred at Kentucky alongside Jack Givens in the mid-’70s, was acquired from the Indiana Pacers in 1979. He led them right back to the Playoffs in 1980, and a year later, returned them to the promised land. The Celtics snapped their agonizing four-year title draught in ’81, winning it all thanks to Robey (and minor contributions from second-year utilityman Larry Bird). Way to go, Rick!

FUN FACT: Robey was ultimately traded again a few years later, moving to Phoenix in a deal that can only be explained as the Celtics simply admitting they had become too powerful with him in the paint. I imagine it went down as a sort of Frodo-in-Mordor situation, where the temptation to dominate the league was outweighed by the great moral corruption that came with it. They’ve won a scant three titles in all the years since. Coincidence? I think not.

Fightin’ Frank,* Lightning Lou* and the Big Green Dynasty

As everyone knows, the Celtics’ run with Bill Russell in the 1950s and ’60s is among the most dominant stretches in the history of pro sports. They advanced to 10 consecutive Finals from ’57 and ’66, winning a total of 11 rings in a 13-year span. It’s also well-known that UK product Frank Ramsey was one of the leading contributors for seven of those rings before retiring in 1964. Still today, he ranks sixth all-time in NBA titles, behind six of his teammates. He was inducted into the Naismith Hall of Fame in 1982.

A somewhat lesser-known fact is that Ramsey played alongside a college teammate, Lou Tsioropulous, for the first two championships. The Celtics drafted both of them in 1953, along with All-American Cliff Hagan. But despite having graduated, the trio opted to return to Kentucky for one more year, where they led the team to its only undefeated season in program history. Hagan was later traded by the Celtics to acquire Russell, which worked out pretty well for both sides.

In the 1957 Finals, all three players took the court as Hagan’s Hawks defeated the Celtics in six games for the only Finals loss of the Russell era. Ramsey averaged 20 points and nine rebounds in the series, while Tsioropulous generated 8.0 points, 6.5 boards, and a team-leading five syllables in his last name alone.

FUN FACT: Lou Tsioropulous easily belongs on the Mount Rushmore of Greek-American players in NBA history, along with Kurt Rambis, Nick Calathes and Kosta Koufos. I’m not even joking, those probably are the top four.

* nicknames based on vibes alone