1976 Boston Celtics

Boston lost Don Chaney to the ABA and traded Paul Westphal to Phoenix for Charlie Scott, a guard who had averaged better than 20 points for three straight years. The bench thinned out, but the starting group held up, and the Celtics won the Atlantic for the fifth season running.

Dave Cowens and Paul Silas controlled the glass, White scored and steadied the offense, and Havlicek, now 36, still played heavy minutes. Scott gave them a second scoring guard and, in a quirk of the bracket, a chance against his former team.

The Finals against Phoenix produced Game 5, a triple-overtime classic at Boston Garden. Westphal nearly stole it for the Suns, Havlicek hit a shot that seemed to end it, and Gar Heard's buzzer-beater forced the third extra period. Deep reserve Glenn McDonald scored six key points in that overtime to help Boston survive 128-126. The Celtics closed the series in Game 6 in Phoenix.

White took Finals MVP. It was the last championship of the Havlicek and Cowens core, and the franchise would not win again until Larry Bird arrived.

The league was smaller than it is today, but the 1976 playoffs still required beating the best teams in the division and then the other side of the bracket. Title paths from this era are shorter on paper than a modern run, yet the Finals still decided the champion.

The starting five was Jo Jo White, John Havlicek, Charlie Scott, Paul Silas, and Dave Cowens. Tom Heinsohn coached the group with Don Nelson as the primary bench scorer.

This was title number 2 in a Boston Celtics run that stretched across consecutive or near-consecutive seasons. Repeat winners carried continuity from one year to the next.

The full roster ran deeper than the headline names. Role players who mattered included Glenn McDonald (scored six points in the Game 5 triple-overtime); Kevin Stacom (reserve guard); Steve Kuberski (frontcourt reserve).

By 1976 the NBA had expanded nationwide and the Finals were a national television event. The Boston Celtics title run still required winning the East or West bracket, then taking the championship round.

The Boston Celtics share a lineage with other banners from 1957, 1959, 1960, 1961, 1962, 1963, 1964, 1965, 1966, 1968, 1969, 1974, 1981, 1984, 1986, 2008, 2024. Compare those seasons on the franchise hub to see how the roster and style changed between title runs.

Looking back, the 1975-76 Celtics went 54-28 and beat the Phoenix Suns in six for the franchise's thirteenth title. Jo Jo White won Finals MVP, playing 60 minutes in the deciding stretch. Game 5 ran three overtimes and finished 128-126, the game many still call the greatest in NBA history.

For the full roster beyond the featured starters, see the table on this page. For other Boston Celtics titles, use the franchise hub linked below.