It’s not fair to the 1986 Boston Celtics to be compared to the 2024 Celtics championship squad. While the ’24 version was, by far, the best team in the league during their run to their NBA-best 18th championship, the ’86 team might be the best squad ever assembled in the NBA.
Led by Larry Bird, the 1986 team suffered one home loss all season and racked up 67 victories en route to their third championship of the decade. They had five future Hall of Famers on the roster, including four in the starting lineup. While Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown are off to a tremendous start to their careers and could very well wind up in the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame, are they the only two in the starting group who are HOF material?
Is Celtics Guard Jrue Holiday a Candidate for the Hall of Fame?
Anyone who knows basketball understands just how instrumental Jrue Holiday was in helping the Celtics capture their latest NBA title. A lockdown defender, Holiday won his second NBA title in his first season with Boston.
Holiday came to the Celtics days after he was traded from the Milwaukee Bucks to the Portland Trail Blazers. He presence was felt immediately.
Inserted into the starting lineup, along with fellow newcomer Kristaps Porzingis and veteran guard Derrick White, Holiday anchored a team that finished third in defensive rating.
Holiday was named Second-Team All-Defense. It was the fourth straight year Holiday was named to an All-Defensive Team.
Holiday, who also won a title with the Bucks in 2020, has been named First-Team All-Defense three times in his career. He’s also shown he can score, if needed. Holiday averaged a career-best 21.2 points with the New Orleans Pelicans during the 2018-19 season. It was also a year he made Second-Team All-Defense. In his 15-year NBA career, Holiday has averaged 16.1 points.
Holiday was clearly a difference-maker for the Celtics in his first year with the team. Stats are not the focal point for Holiday. Winning is. He’s proven over time that he plays both ends of the floor well.
If Bill Walton is a Hall of Famer, Holiday Should Be, Too
It’s not often you’ll see Hall of Fame center Bill Walton and Holiday compared, but we’ll do it here.
Walton is one of the greatest college basketball players ever after a stellar career at UCLA. He was also named the NBA’s MVP in 1978, one year after leading the Blazers to an NBA championship. Like Holiday, Walton won his second championship in his first year with the Celtics. Also like Holiday, Walton was the difference-maker after the Celtics came up short in the 1985 NBA Finals.
After averaging 12.8 points as a rookie, Walton had three stellar seasons with Portland. He led the league in rebounding and blocked shots during Portland’s title run in 1977, but after his MVP year in ’78, he played 14 games in the next four seasons.
Foot injuries derailed his career, and he became a role player when he returned to the NBA in 1982. Walton only played more than 65 games in a season twice in his 10-year career. One of those came in his first year with Boston during the 1985-86 season. Walton came off the bench to spell Robert Parish and Kevin McHale, playing his role to perfection. He played a career-high 80 games and was named the league’s Sixth Man of the Year. The following year, he played in just 10 games.
Walton was a tremendous player when healthy. Those injuries, however, prevented him from reaching his full potential. Walton averaged 13.3 points and 10.5 rebounds for his career. He was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 1993 and joins Bird, Parish, McHale, and Dennis Johnson as Hall of Famers from that 1986 championship squad.
It’s too early to see how many members of the 2024 Celtics are Hall candidates. Tatum and Brown are the favorites, but could Al Horford make his way? White and Kristaps Porzingis would be considered longshots, but if we’re using Walton as a barometer for getting into the Hall of Fame, Holiday should make his way to Springfield, Massachusetts.
