Len Bias was supposed to be the future of the Boston Celtics. He would pick up the mantle from Bird and be the keystone of great Celtic teams into the 90s and beyond. That was the theory anyway.

Following their incredible '86 championship season the Celtics held the #2 position in the '86 NBA draft and used it to select the big forward from Maryland. He was quick, strong, had a nice scoring touch and could leap over tall buildings with a single bound. Unfortunately he also had an affinity for cocaine and on June 19th, just two days after being selected by the Celts and one day after signing an endorsement contract with Reebok for a reported $3 million, he died suddenly from cardiac arrythmia brought on by cocaine ingestion.

The University of Maryland and many close to Bias attempted at first to mask the truth by fabricating a tale of how he'd spent a quiet evening on campus with friends. They argued that he'd died of natural causes and stuck with that fairy tale for quite a while. But the reality was that his car had been spotted and his license plate number noted by police during the evening of the 18th cruising Washington DC's drug neighborhoods and more than a few people were aware of his coke habit (it was rumored by never proven that Maryland coach Lefty Dreisell had other players do a coke sweep of Bias' dorm room after his death). It also came out after the fact that he was 21 credits short of being eligible to graduate, a fact that had been hidden from the media.

Put in the tough position of having to honor someone who misrepresented himself, died from drugs and left them with myriad problems going forward the Celtics did the only thing they could from a PR perspective; they held the requisite memorial and gave the family his number 30 jersey which he'd never actually worn, then moved on.

But where they moved on to was not exactly the fabled halls of Mount Olympus they'd envisioned when they'd drafted Bias. Instead, they hobbled into the 1987 Finals on crutches only to lose to the Lakers in 6 and after that the slide began in earnest. 10 years after their '87 Finals appearance they would post a record of 15-67 and it would be another 10 years after THAT before the C's returned to something resembling their historical selves when Kevin Garnett and Ray Allen were brought on board to compliment Paul Pierce.

(left) Len Bias on June 17, 1986 and (right) his funeral a few days later.

They had already won two championships since Larry Bird arrived on the scene: 1981's endurance test of a title and 1984s bruising battle against the favored LA Lakers of Magic Johnson and Kareen Abdul Jabbar. But 1985 ended with those same Lakers finally breaking through their history of championship failure against the Celtics and taking one from the green (on the parquet floor of the old Garden to boot).

Something needed to be done. Red Auerbach had always been a fan of Bill Walton and he had also not forgotten what happened at the end of the '83 season when it seemed like some players, in particular Cedric Maxwell, quit playing for (then coach) Bill Fitch which resulted in the C's getting swept by the Milwaukee Bucks in the second round. So, when Auerbach found that he had a chance to aquire Walton from the Clippers he killed two birds with one stone by getting the big redhead and paying back Maxwell by shipping him off to basketball purgatory in return.

The stage was now set for one of the greatest seasons in NBA history. The revamped Celtics with a rejuvenated Walton coming off the bench went 67-15 in the regular season while losing only one game at home all year. Bird had what could arguably be called his best season as he and Walton tore up defenders with an array of mind-blowing pinpoint passes. There was often laughter on the floor and a look on the faces of the players that said "Is this really happening?". Yes it was.

The Celtics lost only one playoff game (in the second round to the Hawks) on their way to their third straight Finals appearance. The much hoped-for rematch with the Lakers, however, never occurred as LA was eliminated by the Houston Rockets and their "Twin Tower" combination of Ralph Sampson and Akeem Olajuwan. No matter, the Celtics dispatched the Rockets in six games and claimed their third title of the Bird era. Bird won his third straight MVP award and Bill Walton, who'd spent much of the last 10 years sitting injured on various benches, made it through the entire year without hurting himself and won 6th Man of the Year.

Here are the Celtics and the incomparable Larry Bird picking apart the Rockets in game 6 to win the 1986 NBA Championship.




All of the main pieces were under contract to return for the '87 season and the Celtics had the 2nd pick in the upcoming NBA draft as well. It seemed that Celtics fans were in for 5-10 more years of championship basketball. But the '86 team, as well as being perhaps the greatest basketball team ever assembled, was also the last Celtic team that would raise a banner for the next 22 years. I'll get to the '87 season and the collapse of the dynasty in a future post.

For someone like me who bleeds Celtic green watching the 2011 version of the team limp into the postseason and lose to the hated Heat left me with plenty of nostalgic longings for the 80s. So today I'm going to repair my fragile psyche by looking back to the first Celtic championship of my favorite decade.

At the end of Larry Bird's rookie season of 79-80 Red Auerbach completed part 2 of what may be the most lopsided trade in professional sports history. He had the 1st and 13th picks in the 1980 NBA Draft from trading Bob McAdoo to the Pistons for M. L. Carr the year before and traded them (picks 1 and 13) to the Golden State Warriors for center Robert Parish and the Warriors' first round pick (3rd overall). He then used that pick to select University of Minnesota power forward Kevin McHale. (Think about that for a minute: in essence Auerbach got Robert Parrish, Kevin McHale and M.L. Carr for Bob McAdoo. They don't make trades like that anymore.)

The Celtics went 62-20 in the regular season. In the Eastern Conference Finals however they fell behind to the 76ers 3-1 and it seemed like another trophy-less season was in store. But the Celts pulled together to force a game 7 in The Garden which they won 91-90. There was no stopping them after that and they went on to win the first of 3 trophies with the 'real' Big Three.

So without further ado here are the '81 Celtics vanquishing the Houston Rockets in game 6 of the '81 Finals to win it all. Excuse the poor quality; it was 30 years ago after all.



There, I feel better.

Right off the top I should say that I bleed Celtic green. No apologies.
So with that said, and with the Celtics about to tip off in game 1 of the Eastern Conference semis against the Miami Heat I figured this was as good a time as any to take the first of what will surely be many looks back at the Celtics of the 80s.
Bird, McHale, Parish; now THAT'S a 'big 3' (no disrespect to anyone in the current Celtic lineup).
Maybe nothing exemplified the fighting spirit of this team more than Kevin McHale's takedown of Kurt Rambis in game 4 of the 84 finals. The Lakers got angry and distracted, the Celtics got fired up. The rest is history.

Enjoy. McHale takes down Rambis: