Their release:
CSN NEW ENGLAND PRESENTS:
“THE ‘86 CELTICS”
A 2-HOUR SPECIAL DEBUTING JUNE 15TH AT 8PM
In-Depth Interviews with Celtics All-Time Greats Larry Bird, Robert Parish, Kevin McHale, Bill Walton, Danny Ainge & More in this Exclusive CSN-Produced 2-Hour Documentary on the Exceptional 1985-86 Celtics Team…30 Years Later
BURLINGTON, MA, June 9, 2016 — The 1985-86 Boston Celtics team has long been considered one of the greatest teams in NBA history, fielding one of the strongest and deepest talent pools and bringing the storied franchise to its 16th NBA Championship. Featuring NBA legends like Robert Parish, Kevin McHale, and Larry Bird (who once again confirmed his MVP status that season), the 1985-86 Celtics team is still revered and celebrated, even 30 years later.
On Wednesday, June 15th at 8PM, CSN New England will debut a 2-hour documentary — “’The ’86 Celtics” — recounting this incredible season of NBA dominance with 67 wins, just one loss at home all season, and culminating with an NBA Championship. This CSN-produced original documentary, almost a year in the making, includes exclusive and insightful interviews with the team’s key constituents who are now spread across the country.
The documentary — narrated by Glenn Ordway who served as the Celticscolor commentator along side the legendary Johnny Most during the 1986 season — features exclusive interviews from every key member of the ‘86 Celtics team and others. Interviews include the original “Big Three” Bird, McHale, and Parish as well as Bill Walton, Danny Ainge, Greg Kite, Jerry Sichting, Sam Vincent, and Rick Carlisle. In addition, the show includes interviews and guest appearances from several who battled against this formidable Celtics team, including Dominique Wilkins, Doc Rivers and James Worthy, as well as former Celtics great Cedric Maxwell. The journalists who covered the team during this amazing journey to Banner 16 will also be featured with their perspective, including Bob Ryan, Jackie MacMullan, Dan Shaughnessy, Peter May and Mike Gorman.
Highlights from ”The ’86 Celtics” will include:
- A summary of how Celtics legend Red Auerbach assembled one of the greatest teams in NBA history.
- A look back from Bill Walton and Cedric Maxwell on how Auerbach made the trade with the Clippers to bring Walton to the Celtics.
- Player interviews and insight on how their dynamic roster — which included five future Hall of Fame players –were able to mesh to become one of the most prolific teams in NBA history.
- A plethora of Celtics nostalgia as the film takes viewers back inside the original BostonGarden to the glory days of the Bird era.
- A retrospective on how the Celtics battled Michael Jordan in one of the greatest playoff games in NBA history.
- A recount of the Celtics supremacy in the Playoffs over the Hawks and Bucks, culminating in a showdown with Rockets in the NBA Finals.
Leading up to the documentary debut, CSN has been running an “86 Days until the 86 Celtics Special” countdown initiative (#86Celtics) in an effort to get viewers and fans ready for this exclusive 2-hour show. CSN will also begin running dedicated podcasts which will include additional exclusive content and interview material related to the ‘86 Celtics that can only be seen online.
This documentary, produced by the same network and production team that just won the New England Sports Emmy for Sports: One-Time Special for the “Tommy Heinsohn: An NBA Masterpiece” documentary, promises to provide CSN New England viewers with an exclusive and honest look back at the 1986 Boston Celtics franchise with unique viewpoints from the players and media who were part of that era and others that have been part of the franchise since. Anyone tuning in – whether it be on TV or online — can bask in the glory of the Celtics Championship title 30 years ago as this cherished team raised Banner 16 to the rafters.
“The ‘86 Celtics” is presented by SpeeDee Oil Change and Auto Service. After its original debut on Wednesday, June 15th, it will repeat throughout the month, only on CSN New England (check local listings for airtimes).
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Boston Sports Media Watch 
“The journalists who covered the team during this amazing journey to Banner 16 will also be featured with their perspective, including Bob Ryan, Jackie MacMullan, Dan Shaughnessy, Peter May and Mike Gorman”……..
other than Gorman.and May, this will be the bad part of the documentary
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Ryan and MacMullan are both very good on basketball and particularly this era of the Celtics. MacMullan’s bizarre and lame antipathy for Belichick and the Patriots nothwithstanding, I would watch this program and be interested in her perspective on the ’86 team.
Shank is worth avoiding in all cases.
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Peter May’s book, “The Last Banner” makes a pretty good case for this team being the greatest ever. I find it hard to disagree. McHale was devastating in low, Bird was a threat from anywhere on the court. Their biggest opponent was themselves. I attended probably 35 of their home games and they would coast for a half and hen just turn on the jets. They dominated LA both times they played them and beat Philly four of five times. The only loss was at Philly, when Doc made a three (he almost never shot threes) to win at the buzzer. I loved watching them.
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Best team ever. I understand that the “72 wins” thing — just bested by Golden State — somehow became the benchmark for all-time greatness, but this team, as Bob Ryan has pointed out repeatedly, could have won 74 or 75 games “if that had been a goal on their radar.” In truth, there were several games the ’86 C’s simply “checked out of early” and ended up blowing. I remember three, in particular, and all against bad teams — opening night in New Jersey, Christmas Day at MSG, and a game at Sacramento during the February West Coast swing. That’s 70 wins right there, and there were other games, too, that they just gave away due to lack of concentration, or whatever.
Worth noting that after crushing the Lakers at the Garden in January, a lot of the buzz in the media at the time was that LA was in the midst of a long East Coast swing and was a tired team that night. So, a month later in The Forum, the C’s, without McHale (Achilles injury), went out and smacked them around again, removing all doubt about what would have happened in June had the Lakers bothered to show up for The Finals rather than losing to Houston. (For what it’s worth, I wanted them to play LA in the Finals because I thought Houston presented bigger problems for the C’s, since they were younger and were the only team in the league that year that could come close to matching what the C’s had in the front court in terms of size and talent).
Oh, what might have been if the Len Bias thing hadn’t happened. Even without Walton and Wedman, who both pretty much missed the entire ’87 season, an 86-87 team with the starting five, plus Sichting and Bias off the bench would have been hard to beat.
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I think the Lakers weren’t going to be denied in ’87…it’s considered the best of their 80s squads. Plus, McHale was playing injured that post-season so Walton was needed even more. Bias would have been great, but as a rookie who knows?
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It was a near-miracle that the ’87 Celtics got all the way to Game 6 of the Finals (and it would have been 7 games had they not given away Game 4 at the Garden). They played the entire season with the deck stacked against them: Bias dies on them in June of ’86; Walton gets hurt in training camp and basically misses the entire season (he did return late in the year, but obviously at well below 100%); Wedman gets hurt six games into the season and never plays again; McHale suffers the hairline fracture in his foot late in the regular season and limps around on it all post-season — the list goes on and on.
Still, if San Antonio doesn’t practically gift Mychal Thompson to the Lakers at the February trading deadline, that exhausted, very banged-up band of five Boston starters might still have been able to pull it off that year. Thompson was the difference maker.
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Agree, 100 percent. God, they were fun to watch!
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It would have been nice if CSNNE had let those of us who have had to move out of the area but lived and died with that team have a chance to watch, without blacking it out in other areas of the country.
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