Black NBA fans had a love-hate relationship with the Boston Celtics, especially in their hey-day of the early 80s, mainly because of the Larry Bird-Earvin Johnson storied rivalry as they battled for NBA supremacy.
It is too often overlooked in Black history that the Celtics back in the 1960s hired the NBA’s first Black head coach, Bill Russell, among other significant firsts. Longtime Black sports journalist Gary Washburn points this out in “The Boston Celtics: An Illustrated Timeline” (Reedy Press, 2024), an excellent table-top picture book.
“The Celtics drafted the first Black player in Chuck Cooper [in 1950]. They had the first Black starting lineup in 1964,” Washburn pointed out. “This is Boston, and I think people tend to compare the city of Boston with the Celtics. The city of Boston has had its racial issues, [such as] the busing issues of the 70s.
“Look what happened to Bill Russell — breaking into his house and defecating on his bed during his time [on the team],” he noted.
I also was among those Blacks who hated Boston, the team, because the media spotlighted Bird and their White stars over their Black teammates. “Cedric Maxwell, Quinn Buckner, Dennis Johnson, all integral players of these 80s teams and led by a Black coach in K.C. Jones,” continued Washburn. “I’m from Los Angeles. I didn’t grow up a Celtic fan.”
Washburn told me at last summer’s NABJ that it was a challenge to document as best he could the storied history of the Celtics, which was first in the Basketball Association of America, then the NBA. His nearly 200-page book consists of 170-plus “moments” Washburn uses to document in both words and archival photos of the franchise history in illustrated fashion.
“I hope it opens eyes that the Celtics itself made a lot of strides,” said Washburn. “It had a lot of landmark historical moments. The most difficult part was my research of the Fifties and the Sixties, trying to make sure all my stuff was correct, but also making sure I had the details,
“I tried to get in a lot of the players that people might not know about,” said Washburn, who covered the Celtics for many years and is a longtime NBA writer.
He told MSR at NABJ last summer, “Covering the ’24 team is probably my favorite part. I covered all the Celtics playoff runs … losing many times in the Eastern Conference Finals, losing to the [Golden State] Warriors … losing to Miami.
As a beat writer, “You should not root for the team you cover. You have to keep it real when they’re good [and] you have [to do the same] when they’re bad. You just got to keep it honest.”
On writing the book, “It was a real challenge. I wrote on weekends, wrote after I got home from covering games, wrote on off days.
“When you put a book together, you just have to kind of put your heart and soul into it,” he said. “There’s going to be a lot of long days … It was a great experience because it allowed me to do a lot of research and learn a lot of things about the Celtics organization that I did not know.”
Finally…
Athletes Unlimited (AU) starts its fifth season in Nashville Feb. 4 and runs through March 1. Among the competitive depth of the 2026 final roster: 16 WNBA first rounders, 21 college All-Americans, 27 current WNBAers, 13 players with combined WNBA championships, and 18 with combined NCAA championships.
Charles Hallman welcomes reader responses to challman@spokesman-recorder.com.