John “Hondo” Havlicek was a 6’5” shooting guard-small forward who provided vital contributions at the end of the Boston Celtics Dynasty and then went on to win two more titles with the Celtics after Bill Russell had retired and the Dynasty had ended.

Havlicek is known as the player who revolutionized the sixth-man role. He was the first truly great player to come off the bench, saying about his role as sixth man, “It’s not who starts the game, but who finishes it, and I generally was around at the finish.” Hondo embraced his role, and was a true weapon as a 6th man who could change the outcome of a game.

Havlicek accumulated career averages of 20.8 points, 6.3 rebounds and 4.8 assists during his 16-year career. He was named to thirteen All-Star teams, eleven All-NBA First or Second Teams, and eight NBA All-Defensive First or Second Teams, won eight NBA Championships, and ended his career as the NBA’s top all-time scorer.

Though he became incredibly successful as a basketball player, Hondo had humble beginnings. Red Auerbach drafted him with low expectations, and Bob Cousy called Havlicek “a non-shooter who would probably burn himself out” after Havlicek’s rookie season. Havlicek spent his illustrious career proving his detractors wrong, and, to this day, remains one of the greatest Celtics of all-time.

Robert Parish was destined to play for the Boston Celtics. Though Parish went on to play the most games in NBA history, he almost quit basketball after the 1979 NBA season.

“I was contemplating retiring because I was losing my passion for the game,” Parish told the Boston Herald. “I didn’t enjoy playing and the guys I played with were very selfish and individualistic.”

Before the 1980 NBA season, however, Red Auerbach made a trade that would dramatically alter not only Robert Parish’s career, but the future of the NBA as well. Auerbach traded the 1st and 13th picks in the upcoming draft to the Golden State Warriors for Robert Parish and the 3rd pick, which turned out to be Kevin McHale.

McHale and Parish teamed up with Larry Bird to form, “The Big Three,” one of the best frountcourts ever and the nucleus for three Championships in the 1980′s as well as the best team in Boston Celtics history in 1986.

“Once I got traded,” Parish said, ” I felt rejuventated, with a new lease on life. It was a shot in the arm and I need that. That change recharged my batteries.”

Recharged like the Energizer Bunny, Parish went on to make 9 All-star appearances as a Celtic and won 4 NBA Championships, the last with the Chicago Buls in 1997. He is currently the 24th leading scorer in NBA history, the 7th leading rebounder and the 9th leading shot-blocker.

“It’s hard for me to even believe how good we were,” Parish later told the NBA website. “Some nights I’d be out there just kicking some guy’s butt, really feeling it, and then I’d look over and see what Kevin was doing, and what Larry was doing, and I’d say, ‘Man, this is something. This is special.’”

Bill Russell, or “Russ,” as they call him, was acquired through a trade that netted the Celtics the 2nd pick in the 1956 NBA draft. Red Auerbach knew that Russell was the missing piece to a Celtics championship, and gave up quite a bit to get Russell; six-time all-star Ed Macauley and rookie Cliff Hagan. Though the Celtics had to break the bank to acquire Russell, Auerbach knew they needed his rebounding and shot-blocking to become a championship-caliber team.

In thirteen seasons with the Celtics, Russell amassed career averages of 15.1 points, 22.5 rebounds, and 4.3 assists. During those thirteen seasons, Russell was named the NBA’s MVP five times, and to the all-star team twelve times.

While he possesses an incredible history of individual accolades, Bill Russell was known more for his team play. Maybe nobody in the history of team sports has ever been as consistent a winner as Bill Russell. His record of 11 NBA championships is likely a record that will never be broken.

Long, agile, and intelligent, Russell is considered to be the best defensive player of all time. He was a shot-blocking mastermind who used shot blocks as a weapon to start his team going the other way for a fast break. Most of Russell’s contemporaries feel Russell would still be the all-time leader in shot blocks per game had blocks been kept as a statistic when Russell played.

In 1980, Russell was voted Greatest Player in the History of the NBA by the Professional Writer’s Association of America, and was later named one of the NBA’s 50 greatest players. He will forever be remembered as the ultimate winner, someone willing to sacrifice his individual stats for the sake of his team. He is considered by many to be the greatest Celtic ever to play, and by some to be the best basketball player in history.