Banner Years: 1961, Celtics Achieve Elite Status With Third Straight Championship

NBA history spans 80 seasons, and as CelticsBlog readers well know, the Boston Celtics have won a league-high 18 championships. This month, we are recapping each of those title years.

Elite Three-Peat

The Boston Celtics reached an elite milestone by winning the NBA Finals in 1961, adding to their 1959 and 1960 banners. They became just the second franchise to collect a trio of consecutive titles. The first was the Minneapolis Lakers from 1952 to 1954.

Since then, the Chicago Bulls won three straight championships from 1991 to 1993, and a second time, 1996 to 1998, and the Los Angeles Lakers won from 2000 to 2002. No team has won more than three straight years except the Celtics, who went for eight in a row. as we know.

The MVP

A large factor in Boston’s success, literally, was 6-foot-10 center Bill Russell, who in five seasons changed the Celtics from a pretty good team to a dynasty with four titles. Russell was awarded Most Valuable Player of the 1960-61 season in a vote by players, which was the process then. Oddly, Russell was chosen to only second team All-NBA, behind Wilt Chamberlain, but that vote was by sportswriters. (Insert pondering-face emoji.)

This was Russell’s second MVP (1957-58 was the first). He would win five in his career because of his defense, rebounding, passing and intellect. To this day, he is universally known as the best defensive player of all time. In fact, as calculated by basketball-reference.com, he has the highest Regular Season Defensive Win Share, the highest Playoff DWS and the highest Total DWS of anyone who’s ever played in the NBA or ABA. By far.

Unfortunately, the Defensive Player of the Year award was created more than a decade after Russell retired.

The regular season

In 1960-61, NBA conventional wisdom was that the Celtics had gotten too good for the rest of the league. The results supported that theory, as both the regular season and postseason were nearly drama-free for the two-time defending champs.

The season began with an adjusted schedule, going from 75 games per team to 79. The Celtics’ final record was 57-22, which was 11 games ahead of the Eastern second-place Philadelphia Warriors and six games better than the West-leading St. Louis Hawks. Boston was third in scoring at 119.4 points per game while allowing a league-low 114.1. The Celtics also easily won the season series against all of the other teams, the only one close being St. Louis (6-4).

The blueprint to success

The rest of the league had to be wondering when they would ever beat Boston again. But as the saying goes, there were levels to this, and head coach and general manager Red Auerbach knew it.

First, the Celtics were fortunate that free agency was not yet a factor in building a roster. There were no expiring contracts that would allow players to change teams at will.

Succession plans were vital, as well. Careers were generally shorter in the early NBA than today, first because players stayed in college for four years, and later because their bodies wore down more quickly than today’s athletes. Modern training methods and medical treatments were still in the future, and travel was done on commercial airlines, trains and even buses, not in the comfort of private jets we see today. Scheduling quirks such as three games in three nights — with load management not yet invented — also had an adverse effect.

In Boston, MVP Russell and leading scorer Tommy Heinsohn were both entering their prime at age 26. Star guards Bob Cousy (age 32) and Bill Sharman (34), were aging but still highly effective, and Red Auerbach had developed supremely talented shooter Sam Jones (27) and defensive ace K.C. Jones (28) to step into their roles and not miss a beat when the time came.

Hard-nosed rebounder and defender Jim Loscutoff had turned 30, but 6-6 forward Tom Sanders from NYU was the eighth pick in the 1960 Draft. The man known as Satch would soon be ready to succeed the legendary “Loscy.”

By all indications, Auerbach had all that figured out before the rest of the league caught on, and the proof was in the results.

Eastern playoffs

The postseason was as stress-free as the regular season. The Celtics had a first-round bye while the Syracuse Nationals swept the Philadelphia Warriors, 3-0. Wilt Chamberlain averaged 37 points and 23 rebounds for naught, and Boston would not have to contend with him.

The Celtics handled Syracuse with ease, 4-1, with a 19-point average margin of victory. They won Game 1 at home by 13 points, lost game 2 away by 17, then finished off the series with three straight routs. Russell was the leading rebounder in each contest and topped the Celtics in all three main stat categories: 20.6 points, 31 rebounds and 5.2 assists per game. It’s a shame that blocked shots weren’t tracked until well after Russell’s career ended.

NBA Finals

Not even the St. Louis Hawks could slow down the Celtics juggernaut in 1961. Meeting for the fourth time in five years, the Hawks had twice taken Boston to seven games. Not this time. Celtics in five.

Game 1 in Boston went to the home team, 129-95, and they also won Game 2 on the parquet, 116-108. After the Hawks squeaked out a four-point win at home, the Celtics seized control by winning Game 4, 119-104. Back in Boston, Russell dominated Game 5 with an MVP performance of 30 points and 38 boards. The Celtics took the lead with a 37-23 third quarter, then held the Hawks at arm’s length to claim Banner #4.

Turning point

Bob Pettit dropped 40 points in the Hawks’ must-win Game 4, yet the Celtics ran away in the second half to win by 15.

It was over when…

Pettit and Cliff Hagan combined to average nearly 58 points per game, but Boston more than offset that with six players averaging between 12 and 22 points. Boston also demolished the Hawks in total rebounds, 369-304, thanks mostly to Russell’s 28.8 per game.

Notable facts and stats

• Tommy Heinsohn again led Boston in Finals scoring, averaging 22.0 points per game.
• Bill Sharman retired after this season, and a few years later began a successful coaching career. He led the Utah Stars to the 1971 championship of the American Basketball Association (ABA). The very next year, he coached the LA Lakers to their first ever NBA championship. His assistant coach was K.C. Jones.
• After playing them in the NBA Finals four times in five years, the Celtics and Hawks did not meet again in the playoffs until 1972, when Atlanta had moved to the Eastern Conference. Boston is now 11-2 in playoff series vs. the Hawks. 1958 remains the only championship year in Hawks’ history.

Notable changes elsewhere

1961 brought a few major changes across the NBA that would make a significant impact.

• The Lakers moved from Minneapolis to Los Angeles.
• Oscar Robertson (who won Rookie of the Year) was drafted No. 1 overall by the Cincinnati Royals, and Jerry West was selected no. 2 by the Lakers. Both would dominate statistically, be named to double-digit All-NBA teams and All-Star Games, win one championship, and when their careers ended would be widely considered the two best guards in NBA history. Both also had numerous playoff battles with the Celtics (spoiler alert: all unsuccessful).
• Lenny Wilkens also entered the league as the sixth overall pick by the Hawks, becoming a nine-time All-Star. He went on to coach the Seattle SuperSonics to the 1979 crown, and his 1,332 coaching wins ranks third all-time. He’s been inducted into the Hall of Fame as both a player and a coach. Wilkens would’ve been a perfect fit for the Auerbach Celtics.

Banner Years continues tomorrow with a review of the 1961-62 season and the road to winning Banner #5.