“I would take that team and challenge anyone” – Larry Bird on whether his Boston teams would beat Paul Pierce’s 2008 Celtics originally appeared on Basketball Network.
The 2007-08 Boston Celtics won the 17th championship in the franchise’s history. They were the first Celtics team in the post-Larry Legend era to win a championship.
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That Celtics team posted a regular-season record of 66-16, finished first in the Atlantic Division, and had the best record in the league. After struggling in the first two rounds of the playoffs, they defeated the Detroit Pistons 4-2 in the Eastern Conference Finals and went on to beat the Kobe Bryant-led Lakers 4-2 in the 2008 NBA Finals.
During a 2009 interview, Larry Bird and Magic Johnson talked about the 2008 Celtics and how they would match up against Larry’s team, which won three championships during the ’80s.
“I know their defense was excellent,” said Bird. “I think they won the championship because of their defense. I know Paul Pierce is a very, very good player. Ray Allen has always been one of my favorites because he shoots the ball extremely well. He knows how to play. And then you have Kevin Garnett. Then they have a lot of role players who fill the role.”
The 2008 Celtics were led by the Big 3 of Pierce, Garnett, and Allen
The ’08 Celtics were a defensive juggernaut that led the league in defensive rating at 98.9 points per 100 possessions and ranked second in the league in points allowed at 90.3 points per game. They held their opponents to 41.9 percent field goal and 31.6 percent 3-point shooting, both of which were tops in the NBA as well.
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They had three All-Stars in Paul Pierce, Kevin Garnett, and Ray Allen plus a solid supporting cast led by Rajon Rondon, James Posey, Sam Cassell, Tony Allen, and Eddie House. You can go deeper down the bench with Leon Powe, Glen Davis, P.J. Brown, Kendrick Perkins, and Brian Scalabrine. The team was coached by Doc Rivers and ably backed up a coaching staff that included current Knicks head coach Tom Thibodeau.
“I don’t know how we would have competed against them but obviously, with the teams that we had, ’84 and ’86. I thought in ’84 we got lucky and came back to beat you guys. But ’86 was a team that I thought was the best team in Boston and I would take that team and challenge anyone.”
The best Celtics team ever?
Meanwhile, the 1986 Celtics were one win shy of tying the franchise record for most wins during the regular season. Their 67 wins rank 5th most in the history of the league. Bird was at the peak of his powers that year, winning his third straight MVP award. Their Hall of Fame frontcourt of Bird, Kevin McHale, Robert Parish, and Bill Walton dominated the Houston Rockets Twin Towers of Hakeem Olajuwon and Ralph Sampson in the 1986 NBA Finals and earned the praise of “The Dream.”
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“I have great respect for that team,” Olajuwon said. “If you want to put an ideal basketball team together, that would be the team. A basketball team is supposed to be big. They had a big front line. And they’re very smart. They don’t waste opportunities. If you take a bad shot, they’re going to capitalize.”
With an impressive frontcourt, Bird’s team would have posed paint problems for Pierce’s squad. Paul’s crew was Top 5 in 3P% and Top 8 in 3-pointers made, so they would have tried to answer back with outside shooting. Ultimately, with all due respect to Paul Pierce, Kevin Garnett, and Ray Allen, it would have been a tremendous matchup; however, the deciding factor would be prime and healthy Larry Legend, who would, in all likelihood, take his team to the promised land.
This story was originally reported by Basketball Network on May 29, 2025, where it first appeared.