The C's Top Ten?

In an early effort to place the Celtics' recent title in historical perspective, Bob Ryan ranks his Top Ten Celtics teams of all time. Not surprisingly, the 1985-1986 team tops his list. Surprisingly this year's team gets number two. But most shocking to me is that of his top ten, three did not win the championship, and one did not even make the finals. Bob Ryan may be the most respected basketball writer in history, so I will tread lightly with my criticism, but it seems a dubious decision to argue that the team that has the most NBA titles has three teams that were better than ten championship teams. I am firmly of the belief that "better" being subjective, winning it all is a better sign of greatness than whatever we project onto teams that did not win it all. Still, the whole excercise is thought provoking, serves as a reminder of the storied history of the C's, and is fully worth it if only for this picture: