Celtics Legends Ranked Nos. 1, 3 Best Defenders in NBA History originally appeared on NESN.
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The Boston Celtics have featured many of the NBA’s best players ever.
That includes two of the greatest defenders to ever take to the hardwood.
Bleacher Report recently undertook the task of ranking the 99 best defenders in NBA history, and the Celtics were represented in the Nos. 1 and 3 spots on the list.
Bill Russell, to no real surprise, earned the top spot.
The All-Defense team only came out in Russell’s final season (he made first team), and they didn’t count steals or blocks (what were the scorekeepers doing?), but Russell is widely regarded as a defensive legend.
“In each of Russell’s 13 seasons, Boston’s defensive rating was dramatically better than the league average,” B/R writes. “In 1963-64 alone, it was an eye-popping 10.8 points better than average. And that elite defense anchored by Russell led to 11 championships in 13 years. In many ways, he’s the perfect answer to this question, because defense is about so much more than numbers. They can never truly measure communication, rotations and all the things an offense can’t do because of it. Even if they’d existed, the greatest defender of all time would’ve transcended the numbers and accolades anyway.”
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Tim Duncan, the Spurs legend, was the runner-up in the two spot.
Coming in at No. 3 wasn’t a life-long Celtic, but he made a huge impact all over the floor in Boston: Kevin Garnett.
“While his raw numbers tailed off a bit when he was traded to the Boston Celtics, Garnett’s experience, intensity and leadership helped establish the culture of one of the greatest defenses of all time,” B/R writes.
Other players who had Celtics tenures who made the list:
- Don Chaney, No. 92
- Derrick White, No. 89
- Theo Ratliff, No. 87
- Paul Silas, No. 83
- Dave Cowens, No. 81
- Artis Gilmore, No. 77
- Rasheed Wallace, No. 73
- Shaquille O’Neal, No. 71
- Larry Bird, No. 70
- Rajon Rondo, No. 62
- Kevin McHale, No. 60
- Bill Walton, No. 56
- Marcus Smart, No. 54
- Tayshaun Prince, No. 52
- Dennis Johnson, No. 45
- Jrue Holiday, No. 35
- John Havlicek, No. 31
- Bruce Bowen, No. 24
- Tony Allen, No. 23
- Gary Payton, No. 14
The DJ ranking feels a bit low, but overall, that’s quite a lot of good defense played for the Celtics through the years.
