NBA mascot power rankings, best past and present

28. Lucky the Leprechaun: Boston Celtics

How is this not gimmick infringement? The Boston Celtics introduced Lucky the Leprechaun, the physical manifestation of the team’s stereotypical logo, in 2003, a good 40 years after the Lucky Charms cereal mascot of the same name was created.

The mascot alone is emblematic of the team’s creative banality; for all we know, the Celtics could have found some random guy roaming the streets of Boston, put a Party City leprechaun costume on him and brought him to the TD Garden to do trampoline tricks.

Even if the name choice was incidental and didn’t give off the vibes of a student completing a school project the day before it’s due, why would the Celtics stick with it outside of some dogmatic devotion to alliteration?

When people — even people who live in New England — think of Lucky the Leprechaun, it’s almost a guarantee that the cartoon character who tries to keep the kids away from his gold (read: sugary cereal) will pop into their heads quicker than a low rent basketball mascot. It’s a losing proposition, which begs the question: why did the Celtics even bother?

They could have chosen anything: a random person in a Larry Bird jersey (since we know how much a certain segment of the Celtics fanbase adores Larry Bird), Mark Wahlberg, a sentient four-leaf clover, an oversized list of Paul Pierce’s hottest takes, or a parade of giant rings.

Instead, they chose this monument to their own hubris and unlike most of Celtics teams over the years, this mascot is terrible.