Championship Banners Ceiling

Lore & Background

The Celtics' old championship banners and retired numbers now hang at TD Garden; a new set of banners was made for the move to the FleetCenter (now TD Garden). The Celtics used to raise Eastern Division championship banners at Boston Garden in the 1960s, but stopped this practice by the 1970s.

In Their Own Story

The arena lights dimmed until TD Garden was a cavern of shadows, save for the spotlight cutting through to center court. Above, sixteen green banners floated in the still air, silent witnesses to decades of dominance. A collective breath-hold sucked the oxygen from the room as the PA announcer's voice boomed off the rafters. The player on the floor didn't blink; his eyes traced the fabric of the 2008 banner before drifting higher into the sea of 1960s green. He felt the weight of those sixteen titles pressing down, not as a burden to crush him, but as a foundation to stand upon. As the first note of the anthem swelled, he took a deep breath, realizing that for this night, he was merely the latest custodian of something far larger than himself.

Reader's Guide

During the 1985–86 season, the Celtics were 40–1 at home, setting the NBA record for home court mastery (the San Antonio Spurs tied the record 30 years later in the 2015–16 season). They also finished the post-season undefeated at home. Combined with the following regular season, the Celtics' Garden record was 79–3 between the 1985–86 and 1986–87 regular seasons.

Did You Know?

• The parquet floor was built and installed in the Boston Arena and moved to the Garden in 1952.
• The Garden had no air conditioning, resulting in fog forming over the ice during some Bruins' playoff games.
• The Garden's hockey rink was undersized at 191 by 83 feet, some nine feet shorter and two feet narrower than standard.