🚨Celtics Are NBA Champions Again

Apr. 25, 1965 - The Boston Celtics went on summer vacation at 4:08 p.m. today richer, with $51,500 playoff bonus money to slice up, happier, and basketball champions of the world for the seventh consecutive year.

They packed away their eighth NBA crown by treating 13,909 screaming partisans in Boston Garden and a nationwide T.V. audience to a 129-96 roasting of the Los Angeles, taking the series in five games.

Already leading by a comfortable 16-point margin, the Celtics shut out the Lakers, 20-0, in the first five minutes of the fourth period.

When the Lakers finally called time in an attempt to halt the onslaught, Boston coach Red Auerbach leaped off the bench, tossed a handful of his personalized cigars into the crowd, and then planted a kiss on the cheek of Mrs. Walter Brown, widow of the Celtics’ former owner.

He then pulled his men one by one — to get full acknowledgement on the applause meter.

First came Bill Russell — the man with the Midas touch in the clutch.

Russell, who has never played on a loser when healthy, could almost have beaten the Lakers alone. He finished the day with 22 points, 30 rebounds, and 10 of 12 foul shots.In the first period, he personally outrebounded the entire Los Angeles team, 9-8. This set the pattern. All afternoon, Russell’s left hand kept scratching the backboard for rebounds that would turn to offensive fast breaks in a matter of moments.

And K.C. Jones, who teamed on championship teams with Russell at San Francisco University and the U.S. Olympics, had perhaps his finest moment as a player.

K.C. scored 20 points for the first time in his playoff career and wore the fabulous Jerry West in his vest pocket most of the contest.

West scored 33 points in all, but 11 of these came after K.C. left the game in the fourth quarter. And in the second quarter, when the Celtics started to pull away, West scored only one point— that coming after Auerbach was assessed a technical foul.

“Honestly, Russell murdered them,” Auerbach remarked in the jubilant Celtic dressing room. “K.C. murdered them, and the rest of the guys took care of the scoring along with Russ and K.C.

“We just exploded all at once, and I have to be proud of them, and I never, I guess, in my nine years saw the fans so much with us, excited and almost crazed with emotion.”“This felt good, real good,” said Russell. “My father was not here, but he was listening in back on the Coast, and I wouldn’t be surprised if he even heard the noise. I’ve never felt anything like it. When I hugged Red as I came out, that has to be my biggest moment since our first win, I’d say.”

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