8/3/2023 0 Comments 1991 charlotte hornets rosterAnd the supporting cast from 1988 to 1991 had actually improved. So, yes, Boston was still anchored by the elderly trio Bird-McHale-Parish, but Lewis had joined them as a co-star. (Boston also drafted Dino Radja in 1989, but it’d be a few years before he arrived on American shores. In 1990 Dee Brown was snagged with the 19th overall pick. The 6’6” Shaw was more than capable of running point guard. They snapped up Brian Shaw with the 24th overall pick in 1988. Further buttressing the frontline, the Celtics traded away longtime guard Danny Ainge and the thinly-built, offensively oriented Brad Lohaus to Sacramento in exchange for the more muscular center Joe Kleine and defensively-inclined power forward Ed Pinckney.Īlthough Dennis Johnson retired after the 1990 season, Boston’s guard rotation would be in good hands. This move was abetted by the signing of forward Kevin Gamble in mid-December to buoy the bench that Lewis was now leaving. Remember that Lewis was thrust into the starting lineup permanently in late December of ‘88. They were unceremoniously swept in the first round by the top seed Pistons.īut as a new decade dawned, Bird would be back, Lewis was bordering on All-Star status, and Boston got to work retooling the rest of the roster. He also was a tremendous defensive player averaging 1.5 SPG and 0.9 BPG. After just 4.5 PPG in his rookie campaign, Lewis was given the opportunity to start following Bird’s injury and he made the most of it. He helped ease, but not erase, the shocking death of Boston’s 1986 first round pick, Len Bias.Ĭomfortable at either small forward or shooting guard, the slender 6’7” Lewis helped salvage Boston’s 1988-89 season. Taken 22nd overall in the 1987 draft, Lewis’s unexpected ascendance was balming for another reason. The elderly frontcourt-and by extension the Celtics-had their lease on competitiveness extended thanks to the rise of Reggie Lewis. Still bothered, but not broken, by his bad back, Bird returned for some mighty fine twilight seasons, Parish continued his “ageless wonder” routine, and McHale was bumped back to his ancestral role as sixth man after a few years as a starter. Well, the Standard NBA History has the general outcome correct, but leaves out a lot of the fussy details. Having usurped Boston, Detroit would be the East’s dominant team until Chicago did to them what they had done to Boston. And in 1989, Bird played just six miserable games as Boston went 42-40, their worst record since Larry Legend showed up in the fall of 1979. After all, the Celtics would never again reach the ECF, let alone the NBA Finals, with the Hall of Fame trio on their roster. In the tired ole annals of Standard NBA History, the Celtics of Larry Bird, Kevin McHale, and Robert Parish just magically disappear after the 1988 Eastern Conference Finals when they lost to the Detroit Pistons. People forget, but the Boston Celtics in the early 1990s were a problem □
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