The Boston Celtics capped off one of the best seasons in the franchise’s illustrious history Monday night, defeating the Dallas Mavericks, 106-88, to win their 18th NBA championship.
Boston went 64-18 in the regular season, marking their fourth-best regular season ever and best since 2007-08 when they went 66-16 and also won the title behind the ‘Big Three’ of Paul Pierce, Ray Allen, and Kevin Garnett.
The 1985-86 season, which saw the Celtics go 67-15 and win the title, was the high-water mark for the franchise in the 1980s, led by Larry Bird, Kevin McHale, and Robert Parrish.
When you have success across multiple decades, it inherently lends itself to comparisons. The ‘Big Three’ wound up with just one championship while Bird’s Celtics won three in the 1980s, for example.
While it’s still to be determined how many championships the current Celtics core of Jayson Tatum, Jaylen Brown, and Kristaps Porzingis will wind up with, Jason McIntyre, co-host of The Herd with Colin Cowherd, said Tuesday that the 2023-24 Celtics were ‘as good as any Larry Bird team.’
"This Celtics team is as good as any of the Larry Bird teams." – Jason McIntyre pic.twitter.com/XOIEzBg5q1
— Awful Announcing (@awfulannouncing) June 18, 2024
“This Celtics team is as good as any Larry Bird team from the ’80s,” McIntyre said as Cowherd immediately disagreed.
McIntyre didn’t back down, though. He brought up the team’s NET rating and offensive and defensive efficiency when Cowherd pressed him, adding that it’s also ‘a better era’ of NBA basketball now.
While McIntyre’s take is fair and he has numbers to back it up, cross-decade comparisons will always be met with skepticism and that’s no different here. We’d be interested to hear what our readers think about the comparison.
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