Boston Celtics

Perfect place to see a game!
Very entertaining and easy to get to.

There is so much history here ... you can feel it. Feeling lucky to be here for a Sunday match.

I haven't rated NBA teams on Yelp as consistently as I have teams from other professional sports leagues (e.g., NFL, MLB, NHL). My Yelp ratings for NBA teams have been more subjective, in terms of how much I like the teams. If I was more objective, the Boston Celtics would get five stars because they're currently tied with the Los Angeles Lakers for the most NBA titles won (17).

I wasn't alive for the Bill Russell era, 1956-1969, when the Celtics won a staggering 11 championships. Red Auerbach was the head coach for nine of those titles. I was too young to appreciate the Larry Bird era, 1979-1992, but I remember it. Bird played his entire 13-year NBA career for Boston and won three titles (1981, 1984, 1986). Our family had the One on One: Dr. J vs. Larry Bird video game for the Atari 7800 (released in 1987): https://youtu.be/n1xE02rxyWo. I learned basic basketball rules from it.

The Boston Celtics I'm most familiar with are the much less successful - relatively speaking - Celtics of the 90s and onward. Coach Rick Pitino (1997-2000) had zero playoff appearances. He was hoping to get Tim Duncan in the 1997 NBA Draft. How weird would that have been?

I got EA Sports' NBA Live 99 for the Nintendo 64 (released in 1998). Antoine Walker was the cover star and his signature shimmy made it into the game: https://youtu.be/z6d7UA9_VxU?t=15. Walker would lead the Celtics as far as the 2002 Eastern Conference Finals. He later won an NBA title with Pat Riley, Dwyane Wade, Shaquille O'Neal, and the Miami Heat in 2006.

The Celtics have always been a popular NBA team due to their championship history and market size. The NBA loves the Celtics and so do the networks (ABC, ESPN, TNT). They're on TV a lot. But, the Celtics have only won one title since 1986, in 2008 with Doc Rivers, Paul Pierce, Ray Allen, Kevin Garnett, and Rajon Rondo. In that era, circa 2010, the Celtics had the first "Big Three" "super team" in Pierce, Allen, and Garnett. That was before Miami Heat's Big Three of Wade, LeBron James, and Chris Bosh formed in 2010.

A couple things about that 2008 team: (1) One of my favorite teams, the Atlanta Hawks, pushed the championship Celtics to seven games in the first round. It was really exciting for Atlanta at the time because we had missed the playoffs the previous eight years. Al Horford was one of my favorite players on that Hawks team. Horford would later help lead the Celtics to the 2022 NBA Finals. (2) I remember watching Garnett's "Anything is possible!" live. It made me cringe, but it became a part of sports history and American pop culture: https://youtu.be/avaSdC0QOUM?t=130.

I like the players on today's Celtics team. Like the dynastic Golden State Warriors since 2009, the core of today's Celtics team was built through the draft. Jaylen Brown (2016), Marcus Smart (2014), Jayson Tatum (2017), Grant Williams (2019), and Robert Williams III (2018) were all drafted by the Celtics. I was already a fan of Horford from his days with the Hawks. Horford is a winner, as evidenced in-part by his back-to-back NCAA championships at Florida (2006-2007). I'm also a fan of Derrick White from his time with the San Antonio Spurs (2017-2022). As a Spurs fan, I was sad to see guys like him and Dejounte Murray leave San Antonio recently.

Last week, the Celtics traded away Smart for Kristaps Porzingis. At that time, Smart had been on the Celtics the longest, was a team leader and fan favorite, and had just won the NBA Defensive Player of the Year award (2022). That said, after losing in the NBA Finals last year and the Eastern Conference Finals this year, it was time for a change. I think Porzingis is good. This means nothing to the Celtics, but stats-wise, he was a beast for my fantasy team last season.

At TD Garden, the Celtics' home court is known for its parquet floor. The only other NBA team to have a parquet floor is the Orlando Magic. The college team I grew up rooting for, Wake Forest, also has a parquet floor (Lawrence Joel Veterans Memorial Coliseum in Winston-Salem, North Carolina).

One championship in 36 years? And their fans want to be able to talk about them in the same sentence--in the same paragraph--in the same ESSAY...as the Lakers?

LOL no.

What in the world... how do MY Boston Celtics only have a 3.5 star review? Seventeen banners people, seventeen. Not to mention, with the Brooklyn picks, we have a very bright future. I go to 10+ games a year and watch every game, never time wasted imho.

GO CELTICS!

Yelp actually has a page dedicated to the Boston Celtics? Really? Ok, I'm in.

I grew up watching The C's, they are easily my favorite NBA team. My childhood story would be incomplete without mentioning #33. Larry Bird was my sports hero growing up. He represented all that was right with the league and the world of sports.
The steal in '87 versus Detroit is still my favorite memory.

I also have the upmost respect for Russell and Auerbach. It goes beyond the number of titles. They were pioneers of the NBA. What they meant and represented for the league will never be matched.

There is no other franchise in the NBA with as rich a history and mystique as that of the Celtics.

The Boston Celtics are a ROCKING team! I was in Boston for business, and my colleague and I thought it would be fun to stop in and watch Round 3 of the NBA Playoffs. We were fortunate enough to find a couple of ticket$ from the box office. What a TREAT!

The team is good and they beat the Miami Heat that night! Excellent sportsmanship from the Celtics! I enjoyed watching the team take down LeBron James. I even purchased a "LeBron is a Bitch" shirt from the streets to get into the mood of the game!

The arena is your typical professional basketball / hockey arena. But the Boston crowds really know how to enjoy sports (Well, most of them, as one of the fans tried to pick a fight with me and my colleague).

From the West Coast - I'm a new fan of this East Coast team! GOOOO Celtics!

What an experience I would never forget to be able to share with my son our very first live basket ball game. Went on a Monday night. 2/26/18 we played the Grizzlies. We got chicken tenders from some food spot. And pop corn from another spot I didn't look at names. Just look and see what they served. Both times they didn't accept cash so I had to use my card. And they also ask on the key pad if u want to tip them or not. I was generous so that didn't bother me, but what bothered me is why some don't accept cash and some do. A cup of beer was $11.50 (bud light). I suggest taking the T in, way cheaper and easier to commute then to drive in. Parking is very expensive. I rather use that parking money on food and drinks instead. Overall we had a great time and want to go back for another Celtics game. We won 109-98

GO LAKERS!

[But it was fun going to my first Celtics game vs the Houston Rockets on 11 March 2016. And I do admit that as a kid I used to pretend I was Kevin McHale during pickup games (pre-Magic of course)].

I have a bucket list to visit to visit every NBA arena. So far I've only hit up a handful of arenas. This is a quality arena but does need some updating. The seats are in need upgrading, the scoreboard is just average and the soundsystem is a little above average. Just a few negatives but overall the effort the Celtics organization puts into putting on a game / show is 1st class. The fans of a sports organization really add to the overall experience and Celtics fans are great in supporting their team and keeping the atmosphere in the TD Garden super exciting. This is a must visit for any NBA fan.

#388-2016:

I have been a Celtics fan since as far as I can remember (we are talking about single digits age) so those of you who wanna argue I am not really entitled to review because it isn't a personal experience, back up nice and slow.

I may have not been around when the team was founded (1946) and was part of the 23 teams in the NBA league. I may only be able to quote the statistics from the bottom of my Green Celtics heart.. such as the number of times Celtics played the Lakers (12) and the times they won (9) .

I can safely state that one of my early heroes was Larry Bird, who was drafted in 1978 and remained loyal to the team until his retirement in 1992. He was part of the marvellous US basketball team that won the gold medal in the 1992 summer Olympics.

But the Celitcs can brag about other players who, along with Larry, have won the NBA most valuable player such as Bob Cousy, Bill Russel and Dave Cowens.

In a sport where athletes have always been predominantly black, the Celitcs stood out as the only all-white team for a couple of decades, sparking some pretty harsh comments. To me, they but reflected the vast majority of the local population (of Irish descent).

When I was a teenager, I sported many a Celitcs sponsored clothing items and I even managed to visit their playing grounds during one of my visits to Boston. Sadly, Larry had already retired a few years earlier.

My unconditional love for this team keeps making my basketball heart bleed green.