The Boston Celtics are getting ready for one last celebration of their recent NBA championship before they focus on winning again.
On Tuesday night, the team will raise its 18th championship banner to the rafters of TD Garden before their season opener against the New York Knicks. Players will also receive their championship rings in a pregame ceremony.
“This is a great accomplishment, that we get to do this. Be one hell of a night,” said guard Payton Pritchard after practice on Monday. “But then again, we talked about we’ve got to do it again. We’ve got to reset that focus.
“We get the rings, and then we want to go out and prove that we’re ready to make another statement.”
Last season, the Celtics had an easy time in the NBA regular season, finishing with the best record in the Eastern Conference by 14 games, and then going 16-3 in the playoffs. Led by Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown, they are bringing back their entire starting lineup and most of their bench, making them the favorites to win again.
Coach Joe Mazzulla has stated that he doesn’t feel any pressure to repeat.
“We’re all going to be dead soon, and it really doesn’t matter anymore. So there’s zero pressure,” he said. “You have an opportunity to carry the organization forward, to double down on the tradition and history of what this organization has. And what else would you expect than someone expecting you to win all the time?
“It’s not pressure,” he told reporters at the team’s practice facility. “There’s nothing anyone in this circle can do to me that’s gonna impact my identity and who I am as a person or a coach. We’re either gonna win or we’re not, and 40 years from now, none of you are invited to my funeral and that’s it.”
The Celtics won 16 NBA championships from 1957 to 1986, with Bill Russell earning 11 titles in just 13 years. The teams of the 1970s, led by Dave Cowens and John Havlicek, won two championships, and the Big Three of Larry Bird, Robert Parish, and Kevin McHale added three more in the 1980s.
When Paul Pierce, Kevin Garnett, and Ray Allen won the championship in 2008, they ended the franchise’s longest title drought. They reached the NBA Finals again two years later but lost to the Lakers. The time from 2008 to 2024 was the second-longest drought for the team.
Pritchard mentioned that to be seen as one of the greats in Celtics history, they need to win again.
“A lot of people can do it once,” Pritchard said. “I know a championship’s hard, but there’s a lot of people who have won one. But winning it multiple times, creating almost like a dynasty, is hard. So that’s greatness, and that’s something we’re trying to achieve.”
The journey starts against the Knicks, who have become the Celtics’ main rivals in the East after acquiring Karl-Anthony Towns and Mikal Bridges over the summer. Mazzulla expressed confidence in his team’s readiness.
“I trust who they are. I think they have an understanding of both ‘This is what we accomplished’ and ‘This is what we’re trying to do,’” the coach said. “All the intangibles that go into winning should carry over from one season to another season.”
“You have to appreciate it,” he added. “But you’ve got to know what got you there, and if you forget what got you there, you’ll never get back.”
