Celtics Legend Compares Today's Celtics to His Old Teams

The Boston Celtics are probably the greatest franchise in NBA history. They’ve won 18 championships since 1957, and have been one of the defining franchises of basketball history. Despite dominating most of the 50s, 60s, 70s, and 80s, the Celtics have only had two championships since their 1986 win. The most recent of those titles was in 2024, the team whose core is still playing for the Celtics today. 

Robert Parish, an all-time Celtic and three-time champion in Boston, recently spoke about some of the similarities between his Celtics teams and the current one looking to make a run at another title. 

“I think the two eras’ coaching philosophies or whatever you want to call it, mirrors one another. They have the right coach in place…I like the fact that another area they mirror us in (is) they play hard, they play smart, and they play together. And I like that…the Celtics right now got their defensive identity of back, and that's when they won the championship, when they understood the benefits and the rewards of playing defense.”

When a franchise talks about building an identity, this is what they mean. Having an identity means that whoever is on the roster, the team plays with the same philosophy. The Celtics have done this for decades. They’ve always hung their hat on elite defense and strong coaching. The rest has just fallen into place. 

The 2025-26 Celtics are built the same way. Even without Tatum in the lineup for most of the season, they used their defensive identity and strong coaching to stay at the top of the Eastern Conference standings. Now they’ve Tatum back and are ready to try and win the 19th championship in Celtics history.