Last month, the Boston Celtics clinched their 17th NBA championship in style with a 131-92 mauling of the seemingly hapless Los Angeles Lakers, who looked as though they didn’t even deserve to be on the same floor as the Celtics throughout the series.
Things have not always been this easy in Boston. In fact, the Celtics had not won an NBA championship since Larry Bird, Kevin McHale, and Robert Parrish brought home a trophy back in 1986. Since Bird’s early retirement in 1992 due to chronic back and ankle problems, the Celtics as a franchise had struggled mightily both on the court and off. The tragic deaths of 1986 #2 overall pick Len Bias, who succumbed to a cocaine overdose, and Reggie Lewis, who fell victim to a heart problem called hypertrophic cardiomyopathy in 1993, set the Celtics back noticeably from a talent standpoint.
“They [Celtics fans] were very taken aback by it [Reggie Lewis’s death]” said Mary Bordonaro, who has worked as a waitress for the Garden’s private suites for 31 years. “These people [Reggie Lewis and Len Bias] were heroes. They did things that normal people hadn’t even thought of doing. To see that they had this kind of problem (referring to the drug addiction of Len Bias and the alleged drug addiction of Reggie Lewis) kind of took them off of their pedestal.”
Boston’s luck worsened in 1994, a year after Lewis’s death. In that year’s draft, they passed over Temple guard Eddie Jones, who averaged 14.8 points per game during his career, in favor of North Carolinacenter Eric Montross. Montross averaged 10 and 7.2 points per game respectively in his two seasons with the Celtics and retired in 2002, capping off an uneventful career during which the former Tar Heel averaged 4.5 points per game and played for 6 different teams.
Their luck was not much better in 1997, when the Celtics had two lottery picks and a 36.3% chance of landing Wake Forest forward Tim Duncan. Of course, Boston ended up with the third and sixth picks in that draft, and Duncan continues to play hall of fame caliber basketball in San Antonio.
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