NBA Dynasty Series - Boston Celtics - The Complete History

Rating:
Summary: a Must have for a NBA Fan
Review: even though I dig the Lakers more so,I gotta give the celtics dap for there Rich&successful History.from Bill Russell,Cousey,the Jones's,Cowens,Hondo,Bird,Mchale,Parrish,&Countless others who made this Orgainazation Elite.the classic battles with the Lakers especially in the 80's Between Bird&Magic were the Golden Days of the NBA to Me.that Era of the Nba is timeless. Dap to Red as well&all the Coaches they have had that kept them rolling.Props to K.C. Jones in the 80's.

Rating:
Summary: Fitting Tribute to a Once-Great Franchise
Review: Every Celtics fan I've ever met lives hopelessly in the past. To them, the clock stopped when Larry Bird retired. Their hoops knowledge from 1956 to 1992 is impeccable. After that, they don't know squat. Ergo, the notion that this DVD set is the "complete history" of the Boston Celtics is a total fallacy.

The C's had an unbelievable run (16 titles in 30 years, including 8 straight from 1959 to 1966), but that run is LONG since over. Boston was once the New York Yankees of basketball, now they're lucky just to make it to the playoffs in the depleted Eastern Conference.

I once saw a C's game at the FleetCenter during the last days of the Rick Pitino era. The arena was half-empty (the city of Boston had long since abandoned the team) and I could barely hear myself think over the sound of 138-year-old Red Auerbach's knocking on death's door. It's sad how the mighty have fallen!

Further illustrating how things have changed in Boston, I attended a Lakers-Celtics game at the FleetCenter in the spring of 2001 (the Shaq-Kobe era) and discovered--to my surprise--that one-third of those in attendance were wearing Laker gear.

So, it's understandable that C's fans would rather focus on Bird & McHale (even if Bill Russell was the greatest-ever Celtic) rather than Paul Pierce's selfish ballhogging and declining basketball skills. There really are some terrific games to be watched on this DVD set; games that are justifiably famous.

So, Celtics fan, keep living in the past if you so desire. The Boston Garden--and the Celtic mystique--are dead. Long live the FleetCenter!...or Bank of America Arena or whatever it's called.

Rating:
Summary: Tired of crap NBA of today? This fills the void.
Review: I have been waiting for this DVD set with baited breath, and it was well worth the wait.
To be able to pop in a DVD of some of the greatest basketball ever played is a refreshing treat from watching the boring, slow, selfish basketball of today. Watching these games again, it just blows me away how little today's awful, me-me-me players learned from legends like Bird, Magic, McHale, Worthy, etc. This is basketball as its finest.
Celtics-Lakers '84 probably was the best Finals series ever played, and I say that not just because the C's won. It was high intensity, brilliantly played basketball on both sides (Worthy's stolen pass by Henderson notwithstanding). Watching the '81 Celtics-Sixers Game 7 again literally brings chills to me. I was a 16 year old kid at the time, and was literally too nervous to watch the final few minutes. The Sixers led the whole game, and I was getting too discouraged to keep watching. I went into a barn next to our house, which had a converted hoop inside it, and started shooting baskets in nervous energy, imagining every shot to be a comeback by the C's. When I quickly turned the game on the radio, I heard the cigarette-stained voice of Johnny Most gloriously saying the Celtics had just scored nine of the game's last 10 points and had pulled it out, 91-90. Incredible. My gambit worked. I was on Cloud Nine.
Speaking of Most - the most objective, truth-telling play-by-play man of all time ("The gutless way they do things here" - circa Detroit, late '80s), I attended the Johnny Most Basketball Camp in 1977, in Nashua, New Hampshire.
Some of the unforgettable memories include:
-Johnny yelling at his son, Les, to "pick 'em up and lay 'em down" on the court during the many scrimmages of camp.
- Johnny telling us wide-eyed kids of the time "Havlicek Stole the Ball."
-Us asking Johnny what he'd do if we took away all of his cigarettes (he smoked at least two packs of Kool cigarettes per day)? He said he'd "go right back out to my trunk and get another carton."
-Johnny sitting, alone, in the camp's kitchen, watching an episode of "Hawaii 5-O" on a small black and white TV, telling us he couldn't join us yet until he watched the conclusion.
It's all great stuff. I know fans around the country roll their eyes a lot at Boston sports fans, how much they live in the past and think everything of their childhood was the real "glory days", but you simply have no idea unless you were there how special it was to grow up watching this team. In my case, it started with the early '70s era, with Cowens, White, Havlicek, etc., and continued on through the wonderful Bird era. The basketball was incredible, and it will live on forever on this fine DVD.
I would have liked more, of course, including more on the teams that won the '74 and '76 titles - especially the '74 team. That series against Milwaukee for the title, against Kareem, Robertson, etc., was one of the more overlooked Finals ever, in terms of how great it was. Ironically, the best C's team of the '70s was one that didn't win it all. The 1973 Celtics won 68 games, and might have been the best fast-breaking C's team in history. They were a joy to watch, with their passing and teamwork. But Havlicek broke his arm in the playoffs, and the Knicks took advantage with a series win.
Anyway, Celtics fans need to run, not walk, to get this fine set of memories.

Rating:
Summary: Lar-ry, Lar-ry, Lar-ry!!!........
Review: I own Larry Bird: Living Legend on DVD and bought this one for my uncle, who is also an avid Celtics fan. Im only 18 so I cant really appreciate as much the Celtics of old...Russel, Cousy, Heinson, Jonses, Cowens, Havlicek, etc., and Im probably too old to give a crap anymore about the "Pierce era," mostly b/c theyve sucked for so long, but it was the Larry era that really did it for me. I dont care who says what, Larry and Magic defined basketball. The 80's and perhaps early 90's was the greatest I've ever seen basketball get. And the '86 Celtics was the best team in NBA history. I personally havent seen the Celtics Dynasty DVDs but being that they include 7 past games, 5 of which are during the 80's, I'd buy it in a heartbeat. Like Red said, "I've been blessed to coach some of the greatest that ever played the game. But if I had to start a team today...the greatest player, and the one I'd take would be Larry Bird."

Rating:
Summary: You won't see this: Antoine Walker for threeee....CLANG
Review: If anyone tries to say today's players are the best ever, just pop in the Boston Celtics -- NBA Dynasty Series if you want to win the arguement.

What a great collection of games in this DVD set. The first thing people should realize while watching Russell's final game in 1969 and the tripple overtime game against Pheonix in 1976, is how the game was played before the three-point line was an option. Can you say mid-range game?

Then, of course, we get to watch the 80's, when athleticism and basketball skills clashed for the first and last time. The Lakers, Sixers, Celtics, Rockets, Bucks, Cavs and even the Mavericks of the 80's would absolutely smash the teams of this era. The reason: They knew how to play the game.

This DVD series is a must for any basketball fan over the age of 30 who appreciates and remembers the great Celtics teams.

Rating:
Summary: At long last... The Boston Celtics Dynasty on DVD!!!
Review: NBA Dynasty Series: Complete History of the Boston Celtics

5 Greatest Games in Celtics History, in their entirety

Celtics unprecedented 16 championships will be covered in this DVD

Over 21 hours of content

Over the past 50 years the Celtics have won an unprecedented 16 World Championships including 8 in a row from 1959-1966, making them the the most storied franchise in NBA history. This 5-disc special edition collector's set features the complete Boston Celtics history including year-end compilation programs highlighting the Championship seasons. Plus for the first time ever on DVD, the team's most memorable games in franchise history.

Rating:
Summary: Must have for any Celtic fan!!
Review: The 5 disc set is well done with (6) great Celtic games in their entirity. Good to see two Celtic-Laker games from the '84 Finals, which was the greatest Finals series ever. Disc 1 has a good overview of the teams and championships from the 50 & 60's and 70's along with a segment on the Celtic-Laker rivalry in the '80's. Disc 2 has season ending compilations programs for the '81, '84 and '86 championship years.

Included:
'69 Finals Game 7 Celtics-Lakers (4th Qtr only)
'76 Finals Game 5 Celtics-Suns (greatest game ever played)
'81 East Conf Final-Game 7 Celtics-Sixers (Celts come back to win after being down 3-1)
'84 Finals Game 4 Celtics-Lakers
'84 Finals Game 7 Celtics-Lakers
'86 Finals Game 4 Celtics-Rockets
'87 East Conf. Finals Game 5 Celtics-Pistons (Bird steals the ball from an Isiah Thomas inbounds)

Rating:
Summary: Well Done but could have been better
Review: The Boston Celtics have won 16 NBA championships but none since 1986. They have had 3 distinct classic periods- the Russell Dynasty of 1956-69, the scrappy 71-77 teams of Cowens and Havilcek, and the Bird Era of 79-88. Since then they have had diminishing returns, with the occasional playoff run. The Boston Garden is gone, replaced by the sterile, anonymous Fleet Center. Years of consecutive sell-outs have been replaced by indifferent fans and empty stands. The players people cared about are long gone, replaced by selfish, anonymous wannabes. While the players can't really be blamed for simply being a part of the general vibe of the NBA of the early 21st century, it has to be admitted that Celtics Pride is as dead as the dodo. So what we have left are the memories, and this box encapsulates some of those great moments in Celtics history.

Discs 1 and 2 contain 10 different historical documentaries. There are two disappointments here. One is the barely 4 minute piece on the Celtics from 1988 to the present. It's not as if there is nothing to talk about. The fact remains that there have been some highlights since Bird injured his foot but they are glossed over here. The team was actually pretty fun to watch from 1989-93 and 2001-2003.

Also, there is zero info on the pre-Auerbach days of 46-50. Sure they were not champions, but to simply ignore the story of the team's very creation seems strange considering this is a "complete history".

Two other major events that are glossed over are the tragic deaths of rookie Lenny Bias (cocaine OD) and star Reggie Lewis (either heart irregularity or cocaine OD, the truth may never be known). I don't feel any Celtic history is complete without a more detailed analysis of these events, because they greatly affected the team's future. Sure it is bad news, and the idea here is to keep things upbeat and stress the championships won. But a "complete history" should live up to its name. Just look at the Red Sox and Pats for example.

Lenny Bias was to be the shot in the arm of youth the aging '86 champs would need to defend their title. Add the "what-ifs" of a healthy Walton and Wedman and the `87 Celtics may very well have won 70 games. Instead, they won 59 and went to 6 games with the Lakers in the Finals, and were within one baby hook of changing the series around. The documentary included in this box about that season is inspiring- the starting five had numerous injuries but trudged on. But it was also a marker of things to come.

What is sadly apparent was the number of stiffs the Celtics had on their benches in 87 and 88, the last two Bird years the team was in true title contention. The fact is the team had no cards to play with- all the money had been put on the Bias pick. KC Jones had to run his starting five of Ainge, DJ, Chief, Bird and McHale into the ground because there was no one else to go to reliably. In retrospect you wonder why they never got one more key player somewhere to help out. Bird for example may very well have been able to play longer.

The sad fact is that Red Auerbach and the Celtics have lost their touch and luck of the leprechaun for getting incredible talent. The parade of losers- both coaches and players- since 1988 is both sad and tragic.

It should also be noted that muscle conditioning was not encouraged in these days- compare the leaner 80s players to the buff players of today and you can see the obvious difference in muscle tone. One can wonder how players would have been helped with better muscle support on their frames.

Discs 3 to 5 contain the 6 games (and one quarter of Game 7 of the 69 finals against LA). The footage is amazing but there are numerous glitches in the video. If these are the only tapes available, then someone should have taken better care of them. The clothes worn by the commentators of the 76 Game 5 game against the Suns is a riot- Rick Barry looks like he is off to the disco after the game. And Dick Stockton's play-by-play of the 81 Philly game (he does it like radio, no pauses, mentioning every player move that we can plainly see, with various mistakes along the way, in a loud shouting tone)is just irritating.

I had the pleasure of attending the `84 Finals Game 5 (the 97 degree game, a classic), `85 Finals Game 6 (Celts lose the title at home-- Bird had injured hand in bar fight and was missing lay-ups), `86 Finals Game 6 (Sampson is a sissy and Celts regain title) and the `87 Semis Game 5 against Detroit (Bird steals it). The Garden was a hot, cramped, stuffy, smoky place, but it was perfect for Bird ball. I also attended basketball camps run by Red and Larry in `81 and `82, held at the same time as the rookie camps. Watching and listening to clinics run by Red, ML Carr, McHale, Larry, Ainge, etc, are cherished memories for life. Bird used to announce bedtime for the campers over the PA a la Bill Murray in Meatballs with "This is the Ayatollah Bird. Time for lights out, go to sleep". He had a very understated but hilarious dry ironic humor. I remember literally dozens of amazing basketball moments growing up during the Bird Era, both regular season and playoffs. Late nights as a young teenager were spent sitting in front of the TV with sweaty palms watching games against the West elite teams like San Antonio, LA and Denver when I knew I had to get up early for school the next day.

The six games included are all classics, but there are more out there. The Larry Legend DVD is also a must have, because it contains 3 other great games of the Bird Era.
More of the `81 Philly series would be nice..Or the `82 Washington series...or regular season games like the epic battle in LA in `86 with Walton blocking Kareem's sky hook, or Parish's last second shot in a 145-144 '82 shoot-out at the Garden against Denver ....Great stuff. The list is long. Even series lost had their moments- Game 4 of the `85 Finals in LA where DJ sinks the game winner at the buzzer for example.

Those days are gone forever but we have this box set to hold us over until the next Celtics team to win the title, whenever that may be. Or until the next Celtics DVD set, which I will gladly purchase!


Rating:
Summary: NBA Dynasty Series - Boston Celtics - The Complete History
Review: The Celtics and the Lakers are the two leading teams in the NBA in that era. The championship series between them in 1984 & 1985 are classics. The competitive spirit among the players brought about the best showtime in NBA history.

The Celtics in the 80s is really a team to behold. Bird, McHale, Parish, Johnson and Ainge are simply legendary in their exploits of the game. With the addition of Bill Walton, the 1986 Boston Celtics ranked as my favourite basketball team in NBA.

It is so unfortunate to see the NBA declining since then. How I wish that there could be more players like Bird, Magic, Kareem and McHale in the current NBA.


Rating:
Summary: One of Americas Greatest Teams
Review: The other teams are Green Bay-49 Ers-Cowboys-Notre Dame-Nebraska-Oklahoma-Lakers-Celtics-Cardinals-Yankees.I have always been a fan of the Boston Celtics just look at some of the guys they have had on there team from Cousy and Easy Ed Macauley to Russell-Heinsohn-The Jones brothers(I Know there not real brothers)-Cowans-Larry Bird the better version of Magic Johnson.Then there was Havlicek and Ainge and now there is Paul Pierce good luck to the Celtics this year.