Prior to last season’s championship, which was Boston’s 18th, the Celtics last won a championship in 2008. That team was built around Ray Allen, Kevin Garnett and Paul Pierce.
Former Duke star Jayson Tatum is a key part of the current team and now Pierce and Garnett have a difference of opinion about where he’s heading.
Pierce thinks that Tatum may eventually be seen as better than Kevin Garnett. For his part, Garnett acknowledges Tatum’s case for greatness, but wants to pump the brakes on the Durant comparison and that’s fine. Then he goes on to suggest that this Celtics team has the best starting five in NBA history, and that’s just not true.
First, it’s not even the best starting five in Celtics history. The 1986 team started Larry Bird, Kevin McHale, Danny Ainge and Dennis Johnson. The 1964 team started Bill Russell, Sam and KC Jones, Tom Heinsohn and either Satch Sanders or John Havlicek. And the Showtime era Lakers started Magic Johnson, James Worthy, Byron Scott, Michael Cooper and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar.
This Boston team is really good, but it’s not on that level.
It’s an interesting discussion though, to be sure. If Boston wins a second consecutive championship, the talk about Tatum’s place will obviously increase. However, Cleveland is playing brilliantly and if Boston gets past New York in the second round, the Cavaliers will almost certainly be waiting. And that is not going to be an easy matchup.
