NBA History: The best era for each of the 30 franchises

Boston Celtics: 1956-69

A single championship can overflow an organization with both pride and joy. Back-to-back titles bring historical validation to the previous year’s run. A three-peat puts a team in the upper echelon of the all-time greats with a feat only accomplished a handful of times.

What does it then mean to capture 11 championships over 13 years, including eight straight as the Boston Celtics did in the 1950s and 60s? The combination of words hasn’t been put together yet.

Boston was a basketball powerhouse unlike any before seen in all of sports history with landmark legends who paved the way for those who came after. Take the 1962-63 Celtics, who captured their sixth title in seven seasons with a whopping nine Hall of Famers.

Other iterations of the Cs had similar talent, led primarily by the historic duo of Bill Russell and Bob Cousy, two former MVPs — Russell a five-time winner and Cousy just once — who combined for 17 rings between them.

The duo superbly complemented each other, as well as any point guard/big man combination could. Both were incredibly unselfish, Cousy as a facilitator who led the league in assists eight straight times and Russell the stifling interior presence who did the same for rebounds five times.

Their 11 championships were made sweeter by the defeat of the Los Angeles Lakers in six of them, laying the groundwork for the NBA’s premier rivalry at a time when success for the Celtics was as inevitable as it gets.