The 2008 Celtics Won a Ring With Only African American Players

[ralph_i_el]

https://i.ibb.co/7p3bF0g/Screenshot-20210912-132002-Chrome.jpg (https://ibb.co/6tKN5qv)

As far as I can tell, no other team has done this. They didn't play any White American, African, or European players for a single minute in the playoffs.

Regular season they had Brian "White Mamba" Salabrine and "Samurai" Scot Pollard, but neither saw the floor in the post season.

I just thought this was an interesting fact. Was this the peak of black American dominance of basketball, followed by this new international era?

The defensive strategies employed by this Celtics team were widely adopted and partially contributed to teams looking for more shooters to space the floor and foil the Thibideau defenses.

Edit: I thought about this because I'm watching the 2008 ecsf game 7 rn.

[HylianNightmare]

Black power

[warriorfan]

Are you watching on YouTube or nba tv?

[Im so nba'd out]

Yup. greatest NBA team ever if you ask me. I literally made an account on this site just to talk about them


I always wondered why i thought so highly of them now i know...no politics, strictly put the best players on the court. no pandering to fans or the local media....just best available players

[MadDog]

Underrated team cuz they played down to their comp. Their backcourt defense may have been the best I've seen. Tony Allen, Rondo and James Posey clamping dudes. Those three kept Ray & Paul fresh.

[ralph_i_el]

Yup. greatest NBA team ever if you ask me. I literally made an account on this site just to talk about them


I always wondered why i thought so highly of them now i know...no politics, strictly put the best players on the court. no pandering to fans or the local media....just best available players

One of my favorite teams to watch all time. This game is on NBA TV. I had luck in the past finding games of that run on YouTube but a lot got taken down.

[FultzNationRISE]

https://i.ibb.co/7p3bF0g/Screenshot-20210912-132002-Chrome.jpg (https://ibb.co/6tKN5qv)

As far as I can tell, no other team has done this. They didn't play any White American, African, or European players for a single minute in the playoffs.

Regular season they had Brian "White Mamba" Salabrine and "Samurai" Scot Pollard, but neither saw the floor in the post season.

I just thought this was an interesting fact. Was this the peak of black American dominance of basketball, followed by this new international era?

The defensive strategies employed by this Celtics team were widely adopted and partially contributed to teams looking for more shooters to space the floor and foil the Thibideau defenses.

Edit: I thought about this because I'm watching the 2008 ecsf game 7 rn.

I don't think you would measure such a thing by the success of one particular team, which can have a disproportionate concentration of talent. Theoretically if the league had only 12 good black american players, and they were all Celtics, that team might win a championship but you wouldnt say blacks dominate the league with only 12 good players.

From an empirical perspective I think such a thing would be best measured by total playoff minutes of each denomination. Obviously teams play their best guys the most minutes, so if you look at the minutes allocations of playoff teams and then break them down by ethnic composition or whatever... that gives a good idea of how relevant each group is.

Right now it seems like there's a fair amount of parity between black americans, bi racial americans, white internationals, and black internationals. Only American white boys aren't highly represented in the numbers you'd expect by population, which I'd surmise has a lot to do with the fact youth basketball in American is highly tied to AAU/black culture.

[Charlie Sheen]

https://youtu.be/k8kRBsmZd14

[Axe]

And they were led by this guy also

https://c.tenor.com/Ir6cHwwBoJIAAAAC/uhh-ok.gif

Btw, why do others still think that they are a superteam?

[SaintzFury13]

And they were led by this guy also

https://c.tenor.com/Ir6cHwwBoJIAAAAC/uhh-ok.gif

Btw, why do others still think that they are a superteam?

Don't try to pretend that you didn't just misread the OP and think he didn't mention the White Mamba himself and edited this out. I saw that shit.

In all seriousness (and to answer your question), how are they NOT a super team? People who don't consider the 2008 Celtics a super team have an incredibly idiotic definition of the term. To me, a super team is a team that is extremely difficult to match up with, a team that can play against just about anyone because they have all their bases covered. They have multiple all star level players AND they have roleplayers to fill out the rest of the roles who can not only do the dirty work, but even bring something to the table that the other all star players can't (or can but that isn't their main job). The idea of a super team being just a team with multiple super star players, while completely ignoring whether or not the rest of the roster conflicts with their ability to be affective to their fullest extent, has always been idiotic to me.

[MadDog]

And they were led by this guy also

https://c.tenor.com/Ir6cHwwBoJIAAAAC/uhh-ok.gif

Btw, why do others still think that they are a superteam?

3 HOFers & former go-to players, who, while weren't at their peak, were still arguably in their prime. Plus mulitple ELITE wing defenders (arguably the best one in Tony Allen). Boston was a superteam by the very definition. If you consider Rondo a HOFer make that 4.

[Axe]

Don't try to pretend that you didn't just misread the OP and think he didn't mention the White Mamba himself and edited this out. I saw that shit.

In all seriousness (and to answer your question), how are they NOT a super team? People who don't consider the 2008 Celtics a super team have an incredibly idiotic definition of the term. To me, a super team is a team that is extremely difficult to match up with, a team that can play against just about anyone because they have all their bases covered. They have multiple all star level players AND they have roleplayers to fill out the rest of the roles who can not only do the dirty work, but even bring something to the table that the other all star players can't (or can but that isn't their main job). The idea of a super team being just a team with multiple super star players, while completely ignoring whether or not the rest of the roster conflicts with their ability to be affective to their fullest extent, has always been idiotic to me.
I skipped the other parts and immediately made that comment earlier. Sorry for that mistake, mr. know-it-all.

Anyway, all that shit but others think kong hasn't been in one when he went to south beach a decade ago? Lmao.

[Axe]

3 HOFers & former go-to players, who, while weren't at their peak, were still arguably in their prime. Plus mulitple ELITE wing defenders (arguably the best one in Tony Allen). Boston was a superteam by the very definition. If you consider Rondo a HOFer make that 4.
They were not favorites against the lakers when they finally met again in the 2008 finals while along the way there, they initially struggled against their opponents. Which is why they had the toughest path to the finals too. They needed 20 games first to do that feat.

[MadDog]

They were not favorites against the lakers when they finally met again in the 2008 finals while along the way there, they initially struggled against their opponents. Which is why they had the toughest path to the finals too. They needed 20 games first to do that feat.

Never said Boston was, but that doesn't mean they weren't a superteam. Boston played down to their competition (Hawks & Cavs took them to 7 for example) and oddsmakers took the bait. Historically, they're an ATG team though.

[Axe]

Never said Boston was, but that doesn't mean they weren't a superteam. They played down to their competition (Hawks and Cavs took them to 7 for example) and oddsmakers took the bait. Historically, they're an ATG team though.
Yep, they were excellent. They surpassed expectations especially for a team that only won 24 games in the preceding season. Sadly, the team wasn't as impressive anymore when 2010s came.

[MadDog]

Yep, they were excellent. They surpassed expectations especially for a team that only won 24 games in the preceding season. Sadly, the team wasn't as impressive anymore when 2010s came.

They only won 24 games the previous year, but won the KG & Allen sweepstakes lol. Boston was undoubtedly championship or bust. Overall though you could definitely argue they underachieved.

[Axe]

They only won 24 games the previous year, but won the KG & Allen sweepstakes lol. Boston was undoubtedly championship or bust. Overall though you could definitely argue they underachieved.
By surpassing expectations, i only meant for that sole championship year they had in 2008. But they were a bit old also coming into the new decade. Tho yeah, they could have 2 peated or something like that. In 2012, they almost made the finals again but they choked their 3-2 lead in the ecf just like they did in the 2010 finals.

[kawhileonard2]

And coach as well.

[SaintzFury13]

I skipped the other parts and immediately made that comment earlier. Sorry for that mistake, mr. know-it-all.

I'm just giving you shit, don't take that part too seriously.


Anyway, all that shit but others think kong hasn't been in one when he went to south beach a decade ago? Lmao.

I mean, I've gone on record many times to state that I think his Miami teams were in fact super teams. But I think calling his Cavaliers teams in his second run with them that is idiotic beyond comprehension.

[SaintzFury13]

They only won 24 games the previous year, but won the KG & Allen sweepstakes lol. Boston was undoubtedly championship or bust. Overall though you could definitely argue they underachieved.

I don't agree that they underachieved when you consider the circumstances. KG's injury in 09 definitely affected his play for the remainder of his career. Honestly it's pretty incredible that they made it back to the finals in 2010 and took LA to seven games and almost stole that last one at the staples center. Kobe has gone on record stating that Celtics team was the best one he had ever beaten in the NBA Finals before (although given the teams he has beaten, that's not saying much). If KG doesn't get injured, they absolutely repeat and probably even get a third championship in that time span. It simply happens that KG got injured and this allowed Kobe to get two rings of his own.

[MadDog]

I don't agree that they underachieved when you consider the circumstances. KG's injury in 09 definitely affected his play for the remainder of his career. Honestly it's pretty incredible that they made it back to the finals in 2010 and took LA to seven games and almost stole that last one at the staples center. Kobe has gone on record stating that Celtics team was the best one he had ever beaten in the NBA Finals before (although given the teams he has beaten, that's not saying much). If KG doesn't get injured, they absolutely repeat and probably even get a third championship in that time span. It simply happens that KG got injured and this allowed Kobe to get two rings of his own.

Fair points. Injuries absolutely derailed their potential. IIRC, the 09 Celtics were on a 73-win pace before KG went down. They looked better that year than the one before. You could argue Boston should have closed Miami out in 2012, but then again going up 3-2 was probably on Miami. That performance LeBron had in Game 6 is what effectively ended them.

[Lakers Legend#32]

This is why Celtics fans will not embrace this team the way the do their previous white teams.