Celtics ☘️ Sentinel

It is no contest. In the vote count for the most-despised Celtics opponent of all time, Bill Laimbeer of the Detroit Pistons takes first place, and no runner-ups are even close. Bill's the winner in this race. Laimbeer wouldn't just annoy and antagonize, he would whip opposing players into an absolute frenzy. Bill's takedown of Larry Bird in Game Three of the 1987 Eastern Conference Finals earned him a $5,000 fine. Larry was fined $2,000 for retaliating. Bird was known for his controlled anger, but he lost it in this confrontation - apparently for good reason. The game Larry Bird and Bill Laimbeer went at it. Seeing Larry Legend go full berserk is rare. You have to take him to the limit to see that. FULL VID https://t.co/CgVt6hvPgn pic.twitter.com/kg6BPguWCb — OLDSKOOLBBALL (@Oldskoolbball1) April 11, 2020 In Game Five, the normally-mild mannered Celtics center, Robert Parish, got so angry at Laimbeer that he golfed him three times in plain view of three officials, non...

Tommy Heinsohn has been around the Boston Celtics for so long, he seems to have a padlocked connection to the team. He has played the role of player, coach and analyst going back 64 years. The guy Red Auerbach called "the oldest 27-year-old body in the history of sports" earned eight Championship rings with The Green as a player and two more as coach. But his work as a TV analyst often spawns criticism from fans that view his analysis as perhaps too slanted in favor of Boston. These occasional attacks on Tommy's rhetoric go back as much as 53 years (from Bob Ryan's book, Scribe: My Life In Sports Everybody talks about (Celtics radio announcer) Johnny Most, and nobody watches Celtics games on TV without listening to him on the radio. That's too bad because if you really want a laugh, you should listen to Tommy Heinsohn, who is so partisan he makes Most seem like Walter Cronkite. Most is essentially a reporter, however ridiculous he may sound on occasion. Heinsoh...

Red Auerbach knew how to manage his troops, but he didn't hold back on criticizing some of them . Tom "Satch" Sanders and Don Nelson were often the recipients of Red's barbs, but it was Tom Heinsohn that was the most-frequent victim (per Sam Jones in his 1-on-1 interview with me): (Sam): "I saw a lot of it. I loved it. That means he (Red) kept off my back. That (Heinsohn) was Red's whipping boy. Better Tommy than me." Heinsohn helped the Celtics to eight Championships and played in six All-Star games. After Bill Russell's retirement in 1969, Tommy was chosen as Boston's next head coach, a move that was subject to much criticism at the time. But Celtics renowned announcer, Johnny Most, got it right (from Mark C. Bodanza's book, Ten Times a Champion): To me, Heinsohn represents the closest total of Auerbach coaching attributes of all the ballplayers that played for him. I think Tommy will turn out to be the junior edition of the Redhead. ...

Our on-line draft of 32 Celtics stars is complete, and we have now whittled down that number to the Sweet Sixteen. The only current player to make the cut is Al Horford. The remaining 15 Boston players are either retired or deceased, having played for The Green for more than two full seasons over the past sixty years. The 16 stars from the Lakers squad is as formidable. CELTICS: BIGS Bill Russell Dave Cowens Robert Parish Al Horford WINGS Kevin Garnett John Havlicek Paul Pierce Larry Bird Tom Heinsohn Kevin McHale Reggie Lewis Dennis Johnson Sam Jones BALL HANDLERS Bob Cousy JoJo White Tiny Archibald LAKERS: BIGS Wilt Chamberlain Kareem Abdul-Jabbar Shaquille O'Neal Pau Gasol George Mikan WINGS Magic Johnson Elgin Baylor Kobe Bryant James Worthy Bob MaAdoo Jamaal Wilkes Michael Cooper BALL HANDLERS Jerry West Byron Scott Gail Goodrich Derek Fisher What sticks out immediately is the triple-tower combo of Wilt, Shaq and Kareem. The Celtics can...

The Celtics-Lakers rivalry goes back six decades and isn't over yet. It started with Bill Russell, Tom Heinsohn, Bob Cousy and the Jones Boys in the early 60's, and with the current talent-laden rosters of both LA and Boston, it may not be over soon. CelticsSentinel held an online 4-team draft yesterday focusing on Celtics players with more than two years of service in Boston. The goal was to create a Celtics team that could take on a 60-year compilation of Lakers stars. The results are below: @LisaLaneMcCart1 Team Horford (C) Pierce (F) Havlicek (F) Rondo (G) Dennis Johnson (G) Bench: Antoine Walker (F) Smart (G) Isaiah Thomas (G) — Tom Lane (@CelticsSentinel) April 1, 2020 @DanKelley66 Team Parish (C) Bird (F) Heinsohn (F) Sharman (G) Cousy (G) Bench: Macauley (C) Maxwell (F) Ray Allen (G) — Tom Lane (@CelticsSentinel) April 1, 2020 It is quickly obvious that @DanKelley66 went old-school, taking Bob Cousy, Bill Sharman, Tom Heinsohn and "Easy Ed" Macauley. Des...