On this day, the Boston Celtics won the 1964 NBA Championship, the team’s eighth and seventh in a row as the franchise’s 1960s dynasty began to hit its stride.
It was a 105-99 victory over the San Francisco Warriors in Game 5 of the series, Boston only losing one game the whole way through.
Forward Tommy Heinsohn led the team with 19 points and 8 rebounds, wing Frank Ramsey and guard Sam Jones each added 18 points, and big man Bill Russell put up 14 points, 26 rebounds and 6 assists.
It was the first time rivals Russell and Wilt Chamberlain met in the Finals; they would again in 1969.
It is also the date that Boston shooting guard Bill Sharman was dealt to the Celtics in 1951 from the then- Fort Wayne Pistons, who in turn had picked up Sharman early in the year in a dispersal draft from the Washington Capitals.
Sharman would go on to play ten seasons for Boston, winning four championships and being elected to eight All-Star games (winning All-Star MVP in 1955) and seven All-NBA teams over that stretch.
It was on this day that the 1952 NBA Draft was held in Minneapolis, Minnesota, with the Celtics taking forward Gene Conley with the 90th overall pick out of Washington State.
Conley would play four seasons with Boston in two stints, the middle being broken up with five seasons playing for the Milwaukee Braves baseball team, with whom he won an MLB national championship in 1957.
He’d win three NBA championships with the Celtics in the second stint, between 1959 and 1961.
Speaking of Conley, on this day, the 1961 NBA Expansion Draft was held to populate the roster of the newly-created Chicago Packers. They took the place of the Chicago Stags, and would eventually become the Washington Wizards after several moves and rebrandings.
Conley was selected from Boston’s roster as an unprotected player, but never played for the Packers, instead electing to play baseball for the Boston Red Sox.
It is also the anniversary of two wins since the season of the Celtics’ last championship, in 2007-08.
The first was an 87-74 win over the Milwaukee Bucks to close out the regular season that saw point guard Rajon Rondo log 15 assists — and 0 points.
Paul Pierce sprained a toe, but still managed to score 12 points, and guard Avery Bradley added 14 points as well.
Boston also won Game 5 of their 2017 first round series with the Chicago Bulls 108-97 to take a 3-2 lead in the series.
Guards Avery Bradley and Isaiah Thomas each scored 24 points to lead the Celtics — a playoff career-high for Bradley — and big man Al Horford chipped in 21 points, 9 assists and 7 rebounds.
“Everyone knows he’s a good defender. Tonight, he got his offensive game going,” Chicago guard Dwyane Wade said via the Associated Press. “You expect him to do what he does defensively, but we gave up 24 points to him tonight. He hurt us offensively tonight more than anything.”
