Customer Reviews

The Last Banner: The Story of the 1985-86 Celtics and the NBA's Greatest Team of All Time

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I consider myself among the top handful of 1980s Celtic votaries, and as a former college basketball player from the 80s and student of the history of the NBA, this book was one of the most thrilling publications to which I have ever been exposed. I have a tape collection that includes about 35 of the 100 playoff and regular season games the 86 Celtics played, and I have maintained for years that this is the greatest team to ever grace a basketball court. After living through so many painful Bulls championsips, capped by that revolting, 72-10 1996 season and all of the associated "Best Ever" pronouncements, I would, and still do, argue to friends and foes alike that the best teams of all-time were situated in the mid-1980s. The very best among the best, I argue, were the 85-86 Boston Celtics. Seeing May's book for the first time was like finding a beautiful resting place amidst a turbulent, seemingly endless sea of hostile waters, which, under this analogy, took the form of publications, paraphernalia, and television broadcasts extolling Michael Jordan, Dennis Rodman, Shaquille O'Neal, the Chicago Bulls, and the current NBA in all its shocking ineptitude and lack of substance.

The reading is wonderful, and the memories the reading inspires are gratifying, especially when supplemented with the 86 Celtic game tapes I so greatly treasure. In short, May's book brings to life a much better era for the basketball purist, an era whose chief exponents, the 80s Lakers and Celtics, were represented at their pinnacle--by no matter of coincidence, the pinnacle of the sport of basketball itself--by the 85-86 Boston Celtics. Peter May, this is a breakthrough book that needs elaboration: perhaps a more thoroughgoing, analytical piece devoted to comparing the 80s NBA champions to their 90s counterparts, advancing the thesis that the 80s champions were the better teams.

I would like to meet Peter May and express my appreciation to him directly for his wonderful project. I would also like to be! the individual charged with the duty of writing the successor, analytical piece discussed above. A great book about a team for the ages. Thank you, Mr. May.

Dan Galperin, San Francisco, CA (dgalperin@dir.ca.gov)

is to counteract the plethora of IDIOTIC opinions such as the last one that have no sense of historical context. Notice how the last reviewer's greatest list consisted of teams of the past decade (which by all accounts and standards consists of watered-down teams and play) and the 1986-87 Lakers (which btw wasn't even the best Laker team of all time in terms of record or strength of competition) while "he" called the Celtics teams from 1957-1969 who won 11 out of 13 years "OVERRATED". What's next? Titanic is the greatest movie of all time? Leonardo DiCaprio is the greatest actor? Justin Timberlake is the best singer?

Although I am a Celtics fan, esp. of the incredible 1985-86 team which I do think is the best for many of the same reasons as stated in the book, I can objectively state that really only four teams deserve to be in the discussion as the greatest single season team: the 1967 Sixers, the 1983 Sixers, the 1986 Celtics, and the 1972 Lakers. The books that chronicle these other teams also make good points too. This book does a reasonable job of showing why these 1985-86 Celtics should be there. In addition, this book gives a great chronicle of the entire 1985-86 season.

One more opinion that I would state is that at any given time, the 1986 Celtics could put on the court FOUR of the NBA's Top 50 (and s/b 5 because Dennis Johnson was certainly worthy of being in the list). The only other team who could even possibly boast this would be those "overrated" Celtics teams from the 1950s and 1960s.

BTW, if this opinion seems far-fetched, note that on a recent ESPN poll show, this 1985-86 Celtics team was ranked third of teams of all time and the number 1 team on that poll, the 1996 Bulls, was deservedly ridiculed by the second-guessers. The number 2 team, the 1972 Lakers, is too tough to argue against. There are also many articles on the web that state why the previous reviewer's argument is greatly flawed.

Another note, the past reviewer was right about three things, 1) the 1985-86 Celtics team was the best Celtics team of all time (which is obvious given that it is in the top 5 of greatest teams of all time), 2) yes you can see the old games on DVD, the old games show just how incredibly talented and in sync the 1986 Cs were, and 3) the 1986 Rockets were that good, so good that they beat a team that was quite similar to the 1987 Lakers in 5 games. However, when you lose by double digits in 3 games to the Cs, bad calls will almost never explain that. But believe this, if the 1986 Celtics could handle both Ralph Sampson and Hakeem Olajuwon, they can certainly deal with Shaq plus whatever scrub big man was next to him and they certainly would've obliterated the 1987 Lakers if the Cs were at full strength (even at half strength the Cs pulled off two victories against a Laker team that on paper should've swept them and this was after the Cs playing two consecutive seven game series with one of them being the eventual champion Detroit Pistons).

The 85-86 Boston Celtics are, without question, the greatest team in NBA history. And, Peter May's book is the best account of the team and their experiences. No other book goes into detail about the individual games and the players themselves. This is a true accomplishment! A must for any Celtics fan!

It's a must for real Celtics fans even though it is no longer the last banner they talk about...

This is a very good overview of the 1985-86 NBA champion Boston Celtics. May does not only cover the season day to day, he gives background biographical information on all the Celtics. As good as the book is, I don't know that it's beyond doubt that the 1985-6 Celtics were the best team ever. Were they better than Shaq's Lakers or Jordan's Bulls? Hard to say and May certainly doesn't prove they were. Nonetheless, I highly recommend this book to NBA fans.

Peter May's book about the 1985-86 Celtics is a great way for Celtics fans to experience the franchise's greatest season for a second time.

I was only 9 years old during that basketball season, meaning it was the first Boston sports championship I could really comprehend. I have vivid memories of watching those playoff games with my parents -- the Ralph Sampson fight with Jerry Sichting, the stunning home dominance, Bill Walton's impact off the bench, etc.

But it was great, years later, when I was old enough to fully appreciate what that team had accomplished, to get a view from the inside. May has covered the Celtics for a long time, and he told some great anecdotes while presenting the season in a nice narrative. Because basketball teams only have 12-15 players, I felt like I knew them all when I finished the book.

It's hard for me to say how a casual NBA fan, or a non-Celtics fan, would feel about this book. It's a book about one season and very little else; there are no cultural issues or prolonged looks into NBA history. But readers will learn more than what they got from watching the Celtics that season. It's not a classic by any means, but Celtics fans over the age of 30 would love it, and those under 30 will enjoy getting a closer look at the superstars -- including the original Big Three -- their parents have spoken so highly about for so many years.

This book chronicles the 1985-86 Celtics--a team that the author thinks would beat any team before or since in the NBA. I agree with him--it's nauseating to hear people say with a straight face that the champions of today's expansion-diluted era could beat Bird, McHale, D.J., Ainge, and The Chief.

If you pine for the days when the NBA was filled with teams that could score in triple digits and when the NBA Finals was an event that you looked forward to with relish every year, read this book.

It was with enthusiasm that I bought this book on my favorite Celtics. What a disappointment. The book is for some reason said to be a book about the greatest Celtics TEAM ever but it never really captures the TEAM concept as the author skillfully plots the personal progress of individual players. It is his fault coompletely that the players who should have been the heroes of this book fade into the background. Bird, McHale and Johnson never get the ink that Ainge and Walton get. The author misses the point while absorbing himself in the I's instead of the WE. What he finally ends up with is exactly that: Story of individuals but not a story of a team. The question remains unanswered, WHY did he write this book? Surely for the money that Celtic will forever generate but not for the Celtics themselves or TEAM basketball in general. Next time the author thinks about writing a book with the same method, he should write a story about the Chris Webber or Steve Marbury teams since both of those players think of themselves first and of the team second.

THIS IS A VERY SIMPLE AND DOWN TO EARTH BOOK. I REALLY ENJOYED THIS BOOK. IT DOES A GOOD JOB GOING THROUGH THIS EXCITING SEASON WITH THE CELTICS LAST CHAMPIONSHIP. IT DOESN'T WASTE TIME AND STAYS ON TARGET ALL THE WAY. A GOOD INSIGHT ON MANY OF THE PLAYERS. ALSO A GOOD BEHIND THE SCENES LOOK AT HOW SOME TRADES WERE MADE. ABOVE ALL I ENJOYED HOW EACH MEMBER WAS BROUGHT TO THE TEAM AND HOW EACH CONTRIBUTED TO THE ULTIMATE GOAL. A VERY GOOD READ. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED.

Peter May is right about one thing, the 1985-86 Boston Celtics championship team was special:with Bill Walton added to the team that lost in 6 games to the 1984-85 NBA Champion LA Lakers, the Bird-Walton combination was devestating, and the 67-15 regualar season record and 15-3 in the playoffs proved it. And May's right about something else, too, that Bird and Walton had a special chemistry, something never seen before or since between two NBA big men, a unique ability to know what play the other player wanted, and when!

But the problem with this book is its claim that this was the BEST TEAM EVER, and with today's access to dvds of old games, all you have to do is look at the 1986 first round playoff series against Chicago to see the Celtics' weaknesses. Yes, they beat the Bulls in 3 straight games--the first round series were best-of-five then--but the legendary GAME TWO was a matchup against a younger, quicker Chicago team that with a healthy Jawann Oldham in the lineup might have toppled the Celtics. As it is, they came very close in the Game Two, the famous game where Michael Jordan scored 63 points in double overtime.

And other teams that were better? Even the team the Celtics beat to win the 1986 Championship, the Houston Rockets, who on video in Games 1 and 2 were the recipients of some terrible hometown Boston calls by referees. With Lewis Lloyd and Robert Reid in the backcourt, and Jim Petersen, Ralph Sampson and Akeem Olajuwan up front, the Rockets weren't just faster, they were bigger, too! If the Rockets had gotten the calls in Games 1 and 2, the series might have ended differently. And the 1987 Lakers team ran the Celtics off the court, and even though, yes, there was no healthy Bill Walton or Kevin McHale, who did the Celtics have to stop Magic Johnson at his peak??? Heck, they couldn't even stop Byron Scott!

And of course, there's the Jordan-Pippen-Rodman Bulls, about whom former Celtic Dennis Johnson himself was once quoted as saying, "I know we could have stayed competitive with them, but could we have beaten them...I just don't know..."

And then there's the Shaquille O'Neal-Kobe Bryant-Coach Phil Jackson LA Lakers, probably the REAL BEST TEAM EVER, with ULTIMATE CENTER SHAQ, and THE BEST BOSTON TEAM EVER would be lucky to last 5 games against them! Who would have guarded Shaq? And Danny Ainge or DJ against Kobe Bryant??? Forget it!

And another team in the running for BEST TEAM EVER never even made the Finals, the 1999-2000 Portland Trailblazers, with Arvydas Sabonis--an even bigger and stronger version of Bill Walton--at center--Rasheed Wallace at his peak at power forward, Scottie Pippen at small forward, and guys like Detlef Schrempf, Stacey Augmon, and Jermaine O'Neal on the bench, and only bad coaching by Mike Dunleavy cost them the title!

The 1985-86 Boston Celtics team was THE BEST BOSTON CELTICS TEAM EVER, because Larry Bird, Kevin McHale, Robert Parish, Bill Walton, Dennis Johson, and Danny Ainge would have destroyed the former Celtic championship teams like the John Havlicek-Dave Cowens-Paul Silas 1970s champions, or even the many overrated Bill Russell winners of the 1960s and 1950s, but there were a lot of other teams that were better, and I haven't even gotten to the 76ers yet! The 1985-86 Boston Celtics was the BEST BOSTON CELTICS TEAM EVER, and that's all!