Living In The Past

With two off days between Games 1 and 2 of the Hawks - Celtics series, Shank kills some time and takes another walk down memory lane.

ATLANTA — The Celtics and Hawks are forever entwined in NBA lore. It was the St. Louis Hawks who generously traded their first-round draft pick to Boston in the spring of 1956. That pick became Bill Russell, and the Celtics’ first championship — led by rookie Russell — was won against the Hawks in the spring of 1957. The Celtics and Hawks met again in the ’58 Finals, with the Hawks prevailing in six games.

Danny Ainge and Dominique Wilkins don’t know very much about what went down between these two franchises more than a half-century ago, but back in the golden days of the 1980s, they were involved in two of the more memorable moments in Celtics-Hawks playoff history.

One moment was goofy: Atlanta center Tree Rollins bit the finger of Celtics guard Ainge as the two wrestled on the old Garden parquet floor in the final game of a 1983 first-round series won by the Celtics.

He also mentions the Bird - Wilkins shootout in Game 7 of the 1988 series, which you can watch here.