Looking back at each of the Celtics' 18 NBA championships (2024)

The Boston Celtics won their first NBA championship in 1957 when they defeated the St. Louis Hawks in a thrilling Game 7 that went to double overtime. That contest remains the only Game 7 in NBA history that needed to go to a second overtime period to be decided.

The stars of the 1956-57 Celtics team included NBA MVP Bob Cousy, Jim Loscutoff, Frank Ramsey, Bill Sharman and rookies Tommy Heinsohn and Bill Russell.

The Celtics wound up losing an NBA Finals rematch with the Hawks and future Hall of Famer Bob Pettit in the spring of 1958, but they rebounded the following season by sweeping the Minneapolis Lakers and their star rookie, Elgin Baylor, in the 1959 NBA Finals.

Two future Hall of Fame players won their first of multiple championships with the Celtics this season: Sam Jones and K.C. Jones.

In the 1960 NBA Finals, the Celtics were once again matched up with the Hawks and this time Boston defeated St. Louis in seven games.

This year would mark the last time the NBA's championship series would be played in March.

For the fourth time in five seasons, the Celtics and Hawks squared off in the NBA Finals.

But in the spring of 1961, Boston dispatched of St. Louis in five games for its third straight championship.

This marked the last of guard Bill Sharman's four titles with the Celtics, but it was also the first of many for eventual Hall of Famer Tom "Satch" Sanders.

The Celtics won their fourth straight title, a feat that has yet to be matched, by defeating the Elgin Baylor, Jerry West and the Los Angeles Lakers in seven games in the 1962 NBA Finals.

Game 7 at the Boston Garden went to overtime. The only other Game 7 in NBA Finals history that went to overtime was the Celtics' double overtime victory in Game 7 of the 1957 finals.

The Celtics kept on rolling, as they defeated the Lakers in the NBA Finals for a second straight year to earn their fifth straight championship. Boston topped Los Angeles in six games.

Bob Cousy, who had announced his retirement late in the 1962-63 season, won the last of his six titles with the Celtics. This was the first championship for future Hall of Famer John Havlicek.

In the 1964 NBA Finals, the Celtics defeated the San Francisco Warriors in five games to claim their sixth consecutive title.

This series marked the first time Bill Russell faced fellow star big man Wilt Chamberlain in the NBA Finals.

The 1964 championship marked the seventh and final titles Jim Loscutoff and Frank Ramsey won with the Celtics.

The Celtics won their seventh straight championship by dispatching of the Lakers in five games to win the 1965 NBA Finals.

This title was the last of eight Tommy Heinsohn won as a player with the Celtics. He later helped Boston win two more championships as the team's head coach.

The Celtics and Lakers met in the NBA Finals for a second straight year in 1966. Los Angeles took the series to seven games, but Boston prevailed to capture an eighth straight title.

Before the 1965-66 season, the Celtics signed free agent Don Nelson, who was on the Lakers team that played Boston in the NBA Finals the year before. Nelson excelled as a sixth man off the bench for the C's and won his first NBA title.

This championship marked the final one Red Auerbach won as head coach of the Celtics. He would later add to those nine titles with his work as a team executive.

Hall of Fame guard K.C. Jones won his eighth and final NBA title with Boston in 1966.

The Celtics' championship streak was halted at eight during the 1966-67 season, when they lost to NBA MVP Wilt Chamberlain and the Philadelphia 76ers in the Eastern Division finals. This would be the only time Chamberlain defeated Bill Russell in a playoff series.

Boston returned to the mountaintop the following season, Russell's second as a player/coach, by defeating the Lakers in six games in the 1968 NBA Finals.

This was the first title Red Auerbach won strictly as a Celtics executive, as he remained the team's general manager after his retirement from coaching.

The final game of 1968 Finals series was played on May 2, marking the first time an NBA game had been played in the month of May.

The Celtics won their second straight championship in 1969 and ninth of the decade by defeating the Lakers, who had added Wilt Chamberlain to their star duo of Jerry West and Elgin Baylor.

Boston won a hard-fought Game 7 at The Forum, marking the first time a road team won a Game 7 in NBA Finals history.

Bill Russell ended his 13-year NBA career by winning his 11th title, which remains a league record for a player.

This championship was also the final one for Hall of Famers Sam Jones, who won 10 with the Celtics, and Satch Sanders, who won eight with Boston.

The series marked the debut of the NBA Finals Most Valuable Player award, which is now named after Bill Russell.

West was named NBA Finals MVP despite being on the losing team. He averaged 37.9 points, 7.4 assists and 4.7 rebounds per game, and he remains the only player from a losing team to win the award.

It took five years before the Celtics won their 12th championship, when they defeated NBA MVP Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and the Milwaukee Bucks in seven games in the 1974 Finals.

John Havlicek, who won six titles with Boston in the 1960s, was named NBA Finals MVP after he averaged 26.4 points, 7.7 rebounds, 4.7 assists and 1.9 steals per game in the series.

Tommy Heinsohn, who won eight championships with the Celtics as a player, won his first as the team's head coach in 1974.

This championship was also the first for Celtics greats Dave Cowens and Jo Jo White.

Red Auerbach, who was now team president, won his third title as an executive and his 12th with the Celtics organization.

The Celtics won their second title in three seasons under head coach Tommy Heinsohn by defeating the Phoenix Suns in six games in the 1976 NBA Finals.

Boston kept most of its players from the 1974 championship team together for this title run, including Dave Cowens, John Havlicek, Don Nelson and Jo Jo White.

One of the exceptions was eventual Hall of Fame player Paul Westphal, who came off the bench for the Celtics. Boston traded Westphal to Phoenix in exchange for All-Star Charlie Scott in May 1975. Westphal averaged 20.8 points and 4.8 assists per game against the Celtics in the NBA Finals one year after they dealt him to the Suns.

Game 5 of the 1976 NBA Finals was the first triple overtime game in Finals history and is often referred to as "the greatest game ever played."

White was named NBA Finals MVP after he averaged 21.7 points, 5.8 assists, 4.3 rebounds and 1.5 steals per game in the series.

This championship was the eighth and final title Havlicek won with the Celtics.

Nelson won his fifth and last title with the Celtics as a player. He would later be enshrined in the Basketball Hall of Fame as a coach.

Cowens and White finished their Hall of Fame careers with two NBA championships.

The Celtics had three subpar seasons following their 1976 title, but things changed quickly once Larry Bird made his NBA debut with Boston.

Bird was named NBA Rookie of the Year for the 1979-80 season and helped the Celtics reach the Eastern Conference finals, where they fell to the Philadelphia 76ers. Boston was also in its first season under head coach Bill Fitch, who was named NBA Coach of the Year.

After Bird's rookie season, the Celtics held the No. 1 overall pick in the 1980 NBA draft. Red Auerbach, still team president and general manager, traded the top pick to the Golden State Warriors for center Robert Parish and the No. 3 overall pick, which he used to draft Kevin McHale.

The Big Three of Bird, McHale and Parish, along with fellow Celtics stars Nate "Tiny" Archibald and Cedric Maxwell, led the charge as Boston won its 14th championship by defeating the Houston Rockets in six games in the 1981 NBA Finals. That Rockets team was led by Moses Malone and Calvin Murphy.

Maxwell was named NBA Finals MVP after he averaged a team-high 17.7 points per game for the series while also averaging 9.5 rebounds, 2.8 assists and 1.0 blocks per contest.

After the Celtics missed out on the NBA Finals two years in a row and Bill Fitch had resigned as head coach due to frustrations with ownership, Red Auerbach promoted assistant coach K.C. Jones — an eight-time champion with the Celtics as a player — to head coach.

Auerbach also traded for guard Dennis Johnson, the 1979 NBA Finals MVP and a six-time All-Defensive First Team selection, during the offseason.

Johnson joined a Boston team that still featured the Larry Bird, Cedric Maxwell, Kevin McHale and Robert Parish from the 1980-81 championship team. The 1983-84 team also featured the likes of Danny Ainge, Gerald Henderson and Scott Wedman.

Bird was named the 1983-1984 NBA MVP and McHale earned the Sixth Man of the Year Award for his outstanding play coming off the bench, and the Celtics ultimately reached the Finals.

The 1984 NBA Finals was the first of three meetings in the NBA's championship series between the Celtics and Magic Johnson, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and the "Showtime" Lakers.

The Celtics wound up clinching the title with a Game 7 win at Boston Garden, marking the first time the C's won the championship on their home floor since 1966.

Bird was named NBA Finals MVP after he averaged 27.4 points, 14.0 rebounds and 2.1 steals per game, the highest among players on both teams. He also averaged 3.6 assists and 1.1 blocks per contest.

The Celtics wound up losing the 1985 NBA Finals in a rematch with the Lakers, as both teams essentially had the same cast of players.

A month before the 1985-86 season began, legendary Celtics executive Red Auerbach traded Cedric Maxwell, a two-time champion and the 1981 NBA Finals MVP, to the Los Angeles Clippers in order to land former UCLA star big man Bill Walton, the 1978 NBA MVP who had struggled with injuries throughout his career.

Walton wound up winning the Sixth Man of the Year Award on a Boston team that had a starting five of Larry Bird, Kevin McHale, Robert Parish, Danny Ainge and Dennis Johnson.

Bird wound up winning his third straight NBA MVP award and the Celtics finished with an NBA-record 40-1 mark while playing at home in the Boston Garden during the regular season.

The Celtics reached the NBA Finals for a third straight year, but the Lakers lost in the Western Conference finals to the Rockets.

That Rockets team was coached by Bill Fitch, the former Celtics head coach who led Boston to victory over Houston in the 1981 NBA Finals. On top of his former team, Fitch would face one of his former assistants in K.C. Jones, who took over as Celtics head coach when Fitch resigned after the 1982-83 season.

In the 1986 NBA Finals, the Celtics wound up prevailing in six games over the Rockets and their star big men Hakeem Olajuwon and Ralph Sampson, who were known as the "Twin Towers."

Bird was named NBA Finals MVP for the second time in his career. He nearly averaged a triple-double in the series with a mark of 24.0 points, 9.7 rebounds and 9.5 assists per game. He also averaged a series-high 2.7 steals per contest.

This championship was the seventh won by Auerbach as a member of the front office, and the 16th he won with the Celtics when combining his time as head coach and executive.

The Lakers would defeat the Celtics in the 1987 NBA Finals, and Boston's Big Three of Bird, McHale and Parish wound up winning three championships with the C's.

Things were looking bleak the year before the Celtics won their 17th and most recent title.

Boston finished the 2006-07 season with a 24-58 record, the second-worst in franchise history, and star player Paul Pierce was expressing frustration.

Celtics general manager Danny Ainge, who won two championships with Boston as a player, decided to go big during the offseason after the team wound up with the 5th overall pick in the 2007 NBA draft despite having the second-best odds to land the No. 1 overall pick.

Ainge first acquired seven-time All-Star Ray Allen, one of the best shooters in the league, from the Seattle SuperSonics in a trade made during the draft.

In July, Ainge landed 10-time All-Star and 2004 NBA MVP Kevin Garnett in a deal that sent five players and a first-round draft pick to the Minnesota Timberwolves.

With a couple of big trades, the Celtics now had a new Big Three that helped them finish with the NBA's best record at 66-16. Garnett was named NBA Defensive Player of the Year and Ainge was named the league's Executive of the Year.

The Celtics reached the 2008 NBA Finals, where they would be matched up with NBA MVP Kobe Bryant and the Los Angeles Lakers.

The Celtics wound up defeating the Lakers in six games and celebrated a championship on their home floor, as head coach Doc Rivers got a celebratory Gatorade bath — something that was more common in the sport of football.

Pierce was named NBA Finals MVP after averaging a team-high 21.8 points per game to go along with 6.3 assists, 4.5 rebounds and 1.2 steals per contest.

This would be the only title Pierce, Garnett and Allen would win during five seasons together with the Celtics.

Rajon Rondo, Kendrick Perkins, James Posey, Leon Powe, Eddie House, P.J. Brown and Sam Cassell were among the other players on this championship team.

The Boston Celtics won their record-setting 18th NBA championship by defeating the Dallas Mavericks in five games in the 2024 NBA Finals.

The top-seeded Celtics went 64-18 in the regular season, ensuring home-court advantage throughout the playoffs, and dropped only one game in the Finals.

With their Game 5 win, the Celtics broke a tie with the Los Angeles Lakers, the only other team in the league with 17 championship victories.

The Celtics were coached to their first championship in 16 years by Joe Mazzulla, who at 35 is the youngest coach to win a title since Bill Russell won one as a player-coach for Boston in 1969. Mazzulla is in his second year at the helm. He originally took on the role of interim head coach just before the start of training camp in 2022, but his impressive success led the team to remove “interim” from his title later that season.

On the court, the dynamic duo of 26-year-old Jayson Tatum and 27-year-old Jaylen Brown led the way. Both All-Stars have played for the Celtics since they were drafted in 2017 and 2018, respectively.

Other key players on this Celtics championship team include Jrue Holiday, Derrick White, Al Horford, Kristaps Porzingis, Sam Hauser, Luke Kornet and Payton Pritchard.

The Boston Celtics won their record-setting 18th NBA championship by defeating the Dallas Mavericks in five games in the 2024 NBA Finals.

The top-seeded Celtics went 64-18 in the regular season, ensuring home-court advantage throughout the playoffs, and dropped only one game in the Finals.

With their Game 5 win, the Celtics broke a tie with the Los Angeles Lakers, the only other team in the league with 17 championship victories.

The Celtics were coached to their first championship in 16 years by Joe Mazzulla, who at 35 is the youngest coach to win a title since Bill Russell won one as a player-coach for Boston in 1969. Mazzulla is in his second year at the helm. He originally took on the role of interim head coach just before the start of training camp in 2022, but his impressive success led the team to remove “interim” from his title later that season.

On the court, the dynamic duo of 26-year-old Jayson Tatum and 27-year-old Jaylen Brown led the way. Both All-Stars have played for the Celtics since they were drafted in 2017 and 2018, respectively.

Brown was named NBA Finals MVP after he averaged 20.8 points, 5.4 rebounds, 5.0 assists and 1.6 steals per game in the series.

Other key players on this Celtics championship team include Jrue Holiday, Derrick White, Al Horford, Kristaps Porzingis, Sam Hauser, Luke Kornet and Payton Pritchard.