Jrue Holiday and Derrick White. What’s not to like? The fact is that when people think of Celtics championship teams, they first think of big or at least medium-sized players: Russell, Bird, Cowens, McHale, Parish, Heinsohn, Havlicek, Pierce, Garnett, Tatum, Brown, Porzingis, well, you get the idea. But the Celtics haven’t won those 17 titles without superb guard play that began nearly 70 years ago with Bob Cousy and Bill Sharman.
It’s a necessity whose tradition is currently being upheld in brilliant fashion by Messrs. Holiday and White. Here’s a look at Celtics championship guard play over the years: When the Celtics put up Banner No.
1 in 1957, Cousy and Sharman were in the midst of a sensational run of individual and collective greatness at the guard position. The Cooz was a first-team All-NBA selection for 10 straight years from 1952-61. Sharman joined him on the first team in ’56, ‘57, ‘58, and ‘59.
Never before or since has each member of a team’s starting backcourt been first-team All-NBA. Sharman was also a second-team All-NBA choice in 1955 and ‘60. Advertisement Cooz is the godfather of all point guards, and Sharman was the measuring stick for all ‘50s shooting guards.
While this was going on, future Hall of Famers Sam Jones and (no relation) K.C. Jones were spending lengthy apprenticeships watching and learning.
Imagine that happening today. The elder statesmen were both gone by 1963-64, and now the Joneses were in charge of backcourt duty, a.
