The Boston Celtics finally hoisted their 18th championship banner on June 17, 2024! Jaylen Brown held up the Larry O’Brien trophy after they beat the Dallas Mavericks 106-88 in Game Five of the NBA Finals at TD Garden. This win made them the league-high with 18 titles across 80 seasons of NBA history, a mark that truly sets them apart.
Sixteen Years of Near Misses and Heartbreak
But man, it took them a while to get there. For 16 years after their 2008 ‘Big 3’ win, it felt like the Celtics were just doomed to fall. Every single high point after that was just crushed by disappointment. Remember 2010? They had a 3-2 lead in the Finals against Kobe’s Lakers, only to lose Games 6 and 7 in devastating fashion. That let LA grab their second championship in a row and their 16th overall if you’re counting Minneapolis titles. Talk about a gut punch!
The LeBron Era and the Big Blow Up
Then LeBron joined the Miami Heat in 2011, and his new Big 3 immediately stole the spotlight, cruising past Boston 4-1 on their way to the Finals. A year later, in the 2012 Eastern Conference Finals, Boston actually battled back from losing the first two games to win three straight and take a 3-2 series lead back home. Everything was perfectly set for one last run for those aging C’s. But nope, LeBron dropped one of his greatest performances ever in Game 6 and sealed it in Game 7, grabbing his first ring. Poof! The dream was over.
After a 4-2 series loss to the New York Knicks in the first round of the 2013 playoffs, the balloon totally popped. Danny Ainge blew up the team, trading fan favorites Paul Pierce and Kevin Garnett to the Brooklyn Nets. People thought Boston got fleeced back then. They traded away two Celtics greats for a hodgepodge of players, some who didn’t even wanna play here, and draft picks. And nobody thought those picks would be valuable, with the Nets having a 29-year-old Deron Williams and a 25-year-old Brook Lopez ready to steer their future.
Picking Themselves Up for Banner 18
But hey, as Thomas Wayne famously asked in Batman Begins, “Why do we fall, Bruce? So we can learn to pick ourselves up.” And that’s exactly what the Celtics finally did. After all those heartbreaks, all those falls, all that pain, they learned. They kept picking themselves up, building for years until the 2024 team finally hoisted Banner 18. What a journey for those guys!
This article was created with AI assistance and published under Seattle On Tap’s editorial standards. See our Editorial Policy.
Originally reported by Celtics Blog.
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