Cousy had this message for the Celtics after winning the 2024 NBA Finals originally appeared in NBC Sports Boston
No NBA team has a better tradition or stronger legacy than the Boston Celtics.
This has become evident over the past month and a half following the Celtics’ victory in the 2024 NBA Finals, a triumph that left them emotional. surpassed rival Los Angeles Lakers for most championships in league history with 18. The C’s have won at least one title in six of the last eight decades (1950 to 2020) of professional basketball.
One man who helped the Celtics win their first flag in 1957 is Bob Cousy. The legendary point guard won six championships in his 13 seasons with the C’s.
Cousy recorded a message for the 2023-24 team just days after the 18th flag was secured, according to a Sports Illustrated article by Chris Mannix published Thursday.
“I just said, ‘Job well done.’ But I hope you appreciate the legacy it represents,” Cousy said, according to Mannix. “One of the things I’m most proud of is that we started a unit. Red Auerbach and I were first, we stuck together, then we got a guy named Bill Russell in 1956 and we finally rang the bell and won. This unit won 11 damn times. If you want to talk about legacy, the Yankees, Green Bay [Packers]Montreal [Canadiens], they all have great legacies. None of them like the Celtics.”
An important part of the legacy of these great Celtics, Yankees, Packers and Canadiens teams was that they won multiple titles at the height of their powers.
That’s the challenge the Celtics face entering the 2024-25 campaign. Now that they have climbed the mountain, staying there will be difficult as many other formidable opponents are trying to take them down.
One thing the Celtics have going for them is that the team will return with the 11 best players from last season. It’s very rare in today’s NBA for a team to win a championship and bring back almost their entire roster the following year. The Celtics have been busy in recent months handing out contract extensions (Jayson Tatum, Jrue Holiday, Derrick White, Sam Hauser) and re-signing players (Luke Kornet, Xavier Tillman, etc.).
This group has a special (and rare) opportunity to win again. This fact did not go unnoticed by Tatum.
“When you win a championship, you think about all your favorite players,” Tatum told Mannix. “They have this moment. That’s what makes them those guys who win at the highest level. They did this several times. So in a weird way, yeah, I was like, man, you might be one of the greatest basketball players of all time in some capacity. And winning takes care of a lot of that.”
