Celtics Trivia Game (2024)

[Fencer reregistered]

The three high schools that have produced the most NBA players are Oak Hill (21), DeWitt Clinton in NYC (15) and DeMatha Catholic (14). How many Celtics graduated from one of those three schools and who were they?

What NHL player was a high school classmate of Jason Tatum?

List all of the Celtics (past and present) who have had some association with Duke University. Obviously Tatum is one. can you name the others?

Any question to which Kyrie is an answer is not one of my favorites.

[Fencer reregistered]

Well, McHale held it the shortest. Like 1 game until Bird passed him (well, or a couple of days, whatever).

Now, the trick here is time. Cousy had 50 in a playoff game in the 1950's. So the question is when did Sam Jones score 51 the first time (he did it more than once). So, Cousy probably had the record between 8 and 12 years, depending on when he did it (might have been before Russell since he played like 7 seasons before Russell arrived).

Then Sam Jones had it a short while, until Havlicek broke it in an Overtime Playoff game with like 54. So, Sam Jones probably held it around 8 years.

Havlicek probably had it until McHale broke it with 56. Probably 12 or 13 years for Havlicek.

Whew, this one's tough. I'll guess Havlicek had it second longest and Cousy 3rd longest, with Sam Jones 4th longest with 8 years.

I blew that one in my memory. I thought Hondo broke Sam's record, then checked regular season games only and concluded I'd been wrong. So yeah, it's harder than I thought.

The McHale and Bird highs were in the 1984-5 season.
The Havlicek high was in 1973.
Sam Jones broke Cousy's record in the 1965-6 season (and tied his own record in the 1967 postseason)
Cousy's record game was in the 1953 playoffs.

If I'm doing this right, Cousy held the record one more season than Havlicek. But Cousy's record was broken in October, while Havlicek's was in March, so the difference is closer to half a year.

As for McHale's tenure, his Wikipedia article says:

McHale continued to come off the bench during the first half of the 1984–1985 season, but moved into a starting role in February 1985 after Cedric Maxwell suffered a knee injury. On March 3 versus the Detroit Pistons McHale enjoyed his greatest scoring night, setting the Celtics' single-game scoring record with 56 points.[8] Two nights later McHale scored 42 points against the Knicks, the only other time in his career he topped 40 points in a game. The 98 points in consecutive games is still a Celtics' record. Nine days after McHale had scored 56 points, Larry Bird established a new Celtics' single-game scoring mark by pouring in 60 points versus the Atlanta Hawks.

Well, technically, Cousy's was before the shot clock (April 1954). So technically, he doesn't count according to your parameters.

But we'll give him credit, anyway.

Yeah. I was sloppy with that question from beginning to end. Thanks for seeing it through anyway!

[Fencer reregistered]

1) Sam Jones Correct
2) 3 consecutive MVPs. Wilt Chamberlain Correct
3) made HOF as a player and coach? Player-only, please.
4) With Ainge, I will say 3 pointers made in the playoffs. I recall the stat as him being #2 in 3s made period. So it wouldn't surprise me if he were #1 in postseason 3s for a while, actually.

But that raises an interesting question, to which I may not have a complete answer:

Which Celtics players -- HoFers or otherwise -- became HoF coaches?

I suspect you are right about Ainge.

As for Heinsohn. Most years playing in the NBA while never missing the NBA finals. I don't know but I would think there have been some fringe NBA players that only played 1 or 2 years in the NBA but made the finals both years. But Heinsohn only lost in the playoffs once and that was with Russell missing a few games in the finals.

I'd guess the runner-up list might be heavy on Russell-era Celtic scrubs -- like a certain HoF college coach. Indeed, one or more of those guys would probably have the record for "Most seasons in the NBA while winning a championship every year."

[Fencer reregistered]

Open-ended and fairly subjective: Which Celtic roster(s) had the most impressive set of post-playing basketball careers?

Mid-80s you get:
-- Bird, Ainge, and McHale, each with long executive tenures and also head coaching careers.
-- Rick Carlisle, well-regarded coach.
-- Sam Vincent, briefly an NBA head coach.
-- DJ, a interim NBA head coach.
-- Sichting, assistant coach, and I'd guess a college HC too.
-- Chief, who coached some minor league team or other.
-- Walton, a major broadcaster (or Maxwell, but not both as they were traded for each other).

I forget exactly who overlapped with whom, but in the 60s you get:
-- HoF coaches Russell, Heinsohn, Sharman, Nelson, and John Thompson.
-- Highly respected coaches KC Jones and Satch Sanders.
-- Unsuccessful coach Bob Cousy.


By the way -- I don't know where they stand on quantity, but the Lakers had Jerry West and Pat Riley play together in the 70s, which is great post-playing quality. Long-time not-so-great GM Elgin Baylor played with them part of that time.

[Jammer]

Open-ended and fairly subjective: Which Celtic roster(s) had the most impressive set of post-playing basketball careers?

Mid-80s you get:
-- Bird, Ainge, and McHale, each with long executive tenures and also head coaching careers.
-- Rick Carlisle, well-regarded coach.
-- Sam Vincent, briefly an NBA head coach.
-- DJ, a interim NBA head coach.
-- Sichting, assistant coach, and I'd guess a college HC too.
-- Chief, who coached some minor league team or other.
-- Walton, a major broadcaster (or Maxwell, but not both as they were traded for each other).

I forget exactly who overlapped with whom, but in the 60s you get:
-- HoF coaches Russell, Heinsohn, Sharman, Nelson, and John Thompson.
-- Highly respected coaches KC Jones and Satch Sanders.
-- Unsuccessful coach Bob Cousy.

By the way -- I don't know where they stand on quantity, but the Lakers had Jerry West and Pat Riley play together in the 70s, which is great post-playing quality. Long-time not-so-great GM Elgin Baylor played with them part of that time.

This is no contest. SIXTIES by a landslide.

Heinsohn won 2 NBA titles as a coach, and was HIGHLY respected NATIONAL Broadcaster.
Sharman won an NBA title (1972) as a coach, was President of the Showtime Lakers, and took a bunch of Ragtag '67 Warriors to the Finals.
KC Jones won two NBA titles as a coach.
Thompson won an NCAA title as a coach.
Satch Sanders coached Harvard for 4 years, the Celtics for a few months and then went to New York to CREATE the NBA's program for rookies.
Don Chaney was a successful NBA coach.

[Fencer reregistered]

Open-ended and fairly subjective: Which Celtic roster(s) had the most impressive set of post-playing basketball careers?

Mid-80s you get:
-- Bird, Ainge, and McHale, each with long executive tenures and also head coaching careers.
-- Rick Carlisle, well-regarded coach.
-- Sam Vincent, briefly an NBA head coach.
-- DJ, a interim NBA head coach.
-- Sichting, assistant coach, and I'd guess a college HC too.
-- Chief, who coached some minor league team or other.
-- Walton, a major broadcaster (or Maxwell, but not both as they were traded for each other).

I forget exactly who overlapped with whom, but in the 60s you get:
-- HoF coaches Russell, Heinsohn, Sharman, Nelson, and John Thompson.
-- Highly respected coaches KC Jones and Satch Sanders.
-- Unsuccessful coach Bob Cousy.

By the way -- I don't know where they stand on quantity, but the Lakers had Jerry West and Pat Riley play together in the 70s, which is great post-playing quality. Long-time not-so-great GM Elgin Baylor played with them part of that time.

This is no contest. SIXTIES by a landslide.

Heinsohn won 2 NBA titles as a coach, and was HIGHLY respected NATIONAL Broadcaster.
Sharman won an NBA title (1972) as a coach, was President of the Showtime Lakers, and took a bunch of Ragtag '67 Warriors to the Finals.
KC Jones won two NBA titles as a coach.
Thompson won an NCAA title as a coach.
Satch Sanders coached Harvard for 4 years, the Celtics for a few months and then went to New York to CREATE the NBA's program for rookies.
Don Chaney was a successful NBA coach.

Chaney didn't play with most of those others.

Sharman -- who's the post-playing star of that group -- obviously did play with Heinsohn, Russell, and KC. He also overlapped with Sanders for one year, but not Thompson. So we probably should go with the 1960-61 Celtics.

https://www.basketball-reference.com/teams/BOS/1961.html

[Curmudgeon]

The three high schools that have produced the most NBA players are Oak Hill (21), DeWitt Clinton in NYC (15) and DeMatha Catholic (14). How many Celtics graduated from one of those three schools and who were they?

What NHL player was a high school classmate of Jason Tatum?

List all of the Celtics (past and present) who have had some association with Duke University. Obviously Tatum is one. can you name the others?

Any question to which Kyrie is an answer is not one of my favorites.

But he's just one of many. Can someone name them all? You can start with the guy who coached Dick Groat (All American basketball player and all star Pirates shortstop).

[BK_2020]

The three high schools that have produced the most NBA players are Oak Hill (21), DeWitt Clinton in NYC (15) and DeMatha Catholic (14). How many Celtics graduated from one of those three schools and who were they?

What NHL player was a high school classmate of Jason Tatum?

List all of the Celtics (past and present) who have had some association with Duke University. Obviously Tatum is one. can you name the others?

The Celtics Great Jabari Parker of course.

[shackles10]

Sheldon Williams was a Dukee stud for us. Although it was misspelled as "dookie" and the "st" made a "d" sound.

[shackles10]

Does Kara Lawson count?? Semi definitely counts though! Also off the top of my head Dahntay Jones technically, Austin Rivers technically again, Alaa (our first Egyptian whipping boy before Nader), and that's all I got that haven't been mentioned.

[Curmudgeon]

Shavlik Randolph and the most important omission, Red Auerbach, who was an assistant coach at Duke in 1947-48. Also Amilie Jefferson, who may not have been hired yet, and Steve Pagliuca.

Kara Lawson definitely counts.

[Fencer reregistered]

Anyhow, the Celtics who made the rookie first team are mainly HoFers plus future HoFer Jayson Tatum. The exceptions are all from the 1990s. One has already been mentioned: Dee Brown.

Who are the other two?

And for that matter, who are the HoFers?

[Curmudgeon]

1. Vin Baker, Antoine Walker. Sherman Douglas (1989-1990) and Wally Szczerbiak (1999-2000) were close
2. Havlicek, Jo Jo White (is he HOF?), Cowens, Bird, McHale, Garnett, Pierce

Non HOF first teamers: Ernie DiGregorio, Scott Wedman, Brian Shaw, Jason Richardson, Jeff Green, Blake Griffin, Brogdon.

[Fencer reregistered]

1. Vin Baker, Antoine Walker. Sherman Douglas (1989-1990) and Wally Szczerbiak (1999-2000) were close
2. Havlicek, Jo Jo White (is he HOF?), Cowens, Bird, McHale, Garnett, Pierce

Non HOF first teamers: Ernie DiGregorio, Scott Wedman, Brian Shaw, Jason Richardson, Jeff Green, Blake Griffin, Brogdon.

Yes, White's in the HoF.

I was only looking for Celtics rookies, not guys who became Celtics later.

Brian Shaw was 2nd team.

Toine is correct.

We're missing one more guy from the 90s.

[Fencer reregistered]

We might as well continue with:

Which Celtics rookies won Rookie of the Year?

Note: That award has been around longer than the All-Rookie teams have.

[Curmudgeon]

Tom Gugliotta (1993) played briefly for the Celtics. Also flash-in-the-pan Ron Mercer 1998). How could I forget LOL?

[Fencer reregistered]

Tom Gugliotta (1993) played briefly for the Celtics. Also flash-in-the-pan Ron Mercer 1998). How could I forget LOL?

Mercer but not Billups. Quite the head-shaker in retrospect.

[lon3lytoaster]

Tom Gugliotta (1993) played briefly for the Celtics. Also flash-in-the-pan Ron Mercer 1998). How could I forget LOL?

I was a wee little toaster when Googs had a half stint here but I remember being pretty excited we signed him lol

[Fencer reregistered]

I've asked this before, but it's the time of year for me to remember it again.

Which top basketball executive (GM or Team President or whatever he was) renounced free agency rights to HIMSELF?

Bonus: If I remember correctly, there's a minor Celtics connection in the story. If I'm right about that -- what is it?

[Parliament10]

How Many Celtics have worn the #11, even for 1 Game?