The 2007-08 Boston Celtics are among the most revered championship-winning teams of the 21st century. However, Hall of Famer and the 2008 Finals MVP Paul Pierce believes the team could’ve achieved more with a little luck and better timing.
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Paul Pierce was drafted by the Boston Celtics in the 1998 NBA Draft. However, he was only joined by Ray Allen and Kevin Garnett ahead of the 2007-08 NBA season as per Bleacher Report. In the time they spent together, the Celtics were able to win a championship in 2008, something that is held in very high regard to this day in Boston. However, Pierce believes that it all could have been so much better. During a recent appearance on the Draymond Green Show, he said,
“I could’ve won two. If Kevin Garnett doesn’t get hurt (during the 2008-09 season), we were on pace to win 70 games. So I’m just thankful I even got a chance later in my career because if we would’ve got together when we were young, boy, we would’ve looked like y’all Warriors… We together at 26-27, it would’ve been a problem.”
Pierce asked Draymond Green if he felt the 2007-08 Celtics started the superteam culture and the Golden State Warriors star responded with an affirmative. He explained that Pierce, Kevin Garnett, and Ray Allen were the first superstar trio showcase to co-exist on a roster and win a championship. They were the blueprint that LeBron James, Dwyane Wade, and Chris Bosh would follow when they teamed up on the Miami Heat in 2010, and Kevin Durant, when he left the Oklahoma City Thunder and joined the Warriors in 2016.
Pierce agreed with Green’s assessment. Superstars teaming up to win a championship together wasn’t a new concept when the Celtics did it in 2008. In 1996, the Houston Rockets landed former MVP Charles Barkley and paired him with Hakeem Olajuwon and Clyde Drexler, and many teams that came after that followed a similar procedure. However, no ‘superteam’ achieved any real success till Paul Pierce’s side won their title. The season they did, most powerhouses in the league opened their eyes to the benefits of having a super team, with the Warriors arguably enjoying most of them.
The 2007-08 Celtics underachieved
The 2007-08 Boston Celtics roster helped the franchise end its 22-year wait for an NBA title and hang its 17th championship banner in the rafters. They were among the favorites to repeat as champions the following year and were spectacular in the regular season. They finished with a 62-20 record despite Kevin Garnett missing 25 games, including 22 of the Celtics’ last 26 games.
The superstar forward underwent season-ending knee surgery and the team felt his absence against the upstart Orlando Magic team, led by Dwight Howard, in the Conference semifinals. The Garnett-less Celtics put up a valiant display but fell in seven games.
During the Pierce-Garnett-Allen trio’s third season together, they made it to the NBA Finals, where they would take on defending champions, the Los Angeles Lakers, in a repeat of the 2008 NBA Finals. The series went to a Game 7, where the Celtics were without starting center Kendrick Perkins, who suffered an injury in Game 6 and couldn’t suit up for the championship decider. The Celtics lost 83-79 in LA and saw the Lakers repeat as champions.
In the 2010 offseason, LeBron James, Dwyane Wade, and Chris Bosh formed a superteam in Miami, which beat the Celtics in five games in the 2011 Eastern Conference semifinals. In the 2011 offseason, Ray Allen, who was relegated to the bench late in the 2010-11 campaign, left the Celtics and joined the Miami Heat, ending the superteam era in Boston.
Pierce and Garnett, along with Rajon Rondo, pushed the Heat to seven games in the 2012 Eastern Conference Finals but failed to stop them from reaching their third straight NBA Finals. After a disappointing 2012-13 season, which ended with a loss in the playoffs to the New York Knicks, the Celtics traded Pierce and Garnett to the Brooklyn Nets and got rid of the final remnants of their superteam.
In six seasons, the Celtics superteam made it to the Eastern Conference Finals thrice, the NBA Finals twice, and won the title once. During their stint together, the Heat and the Lakers won two championships each. In hindsight, the Celtics superteam’s achievement pales when compared to the Heat superteam. As Pierce explained, luck and timing weren’t on their side, and he’s grateful to have won only one title.
