i'll never understand the way that Dave Cowens is under-valued and underappreciated by Celtic fans.
maybe it's the young fan who wasn't around in the 70's or maybe just the very common tendency to over-rate the talents of the current players.
for me, dave cowens is one of the 3 most important celtics of all time - easy choice, though havlicek is a close 4th.
there are three Celtics around who championship teams were built before this current group - russell, cowens and bird. they are also the three celtics who have won league MVP's. for me, those are the three hubs of the Celtics dynasty.
now we have a 4th championship group, though this team is a little different than the main three teams that won muti-titles. i look at paul pierce more in the same light as havlicek and kevin garnett in the same role as cowens. the big difference, of course, being the number of seasons spent as a Celtic.
so i put paul pierce in the top 10 certainly, but i have a hard time putting him in that 5th slot behind russell, bird, cowens and havlicek because of his maturity issues and the fact that he didn't win anything at all until garnett arrived.
Nice post, and well thought out.
Pierce...nowhere near top-5 all time. Scoring and being a good player isn't enough to crack top 20 in this franchise.
Even if we excuse the huge matter of not winning, his complete immaturity (bandage face, etc.) and lack of leadership take him out of consideration. He may be the captain and all, but only by seniority. He's the captain only because KG lets him be out of respect for having been in green longer. KG is the leader, and Ray comes next. Perk has consistently shown more maturity and work ethic, and consequently is a stronger leader than PP. Teams led by PP didn't always play with heart; even Toine was the leader in 2002, even though Paul was the better player.
Does he make those around him better? Not that much. He has never been all that good at passing out of double teams and/or moving the ball, until 2007/8, when he was hardly doubled.
PP is a good wing player, maybe even top-5 in the league in his prime, but didn't do anything to change the position or the game, either. He's got talent in abundance, especially in scoring, but that's it.
I guess those are my criteria: Talent, obviously, but leading teams with heart that compete
My rankings:
Russell
Bird
Havlicek
Cousy
Cowens
Jo Jo
McHale
Sam Jones
Don Nelson
Max
Paul...somewhere further down.
Q: Where does Reggie Lewis rank?