1965-66 NBA Finals

Result

Games

Finals MVP

The Finals MVP award was not introduced until 1969; no Finals MVP was named for this series.

Series context

The 1965-66 season marked a changing of the guard even as Boston chased one more title. The Philadelphia 76ers, the former Syracuse Nationals, relocated and renamed before the 1963-64 season, won the Eastern Division with a 55-25 record and Wilt Chamberlain took home the regular-season MVP award, breaking Boston's and Russell's grip on the honor. Boston finished 54-26, one game behind Philadelphia, but the Celtics beat the 76ers in the Eastern Division Finals to reach the championship round yet again, where they met the Western Division champion Lakers (45-35), led by Jerry West and Elgin Baylor, for the fourth time in five years. This Finals was the tightest of the dynasty era. Los Angeles stole Game 1 in overtime, 133-129, but Boston roared back with consecutive routs in Games 2 and 3, 129-109 and 120-106. The Celtics took a commanding 3-1 series lead with a 122-117 win in Game 4, seemingly putting the title in reach. But the Lakers refused to fold, winning Game 5, 121-117, and Game 6, 123-115, forcing a decisive Game 7, a comeback from a 3-1 deficit that would not be repeated in the NBA Finals until 2016. Boston survived Game 7 in a tense 95-93 finish, with Bill Russell contributing 32 rebounds and West scoring 36 points in a losing effort. West led all 1966 playoff scorers with 479 total points, and Baylor added a 41-point Game 5, but it was Boston that prevailed once more. Before Game 2 of the series, Red Auerbach announced he would step down as head coach after the season and that Russell would take over as player-coach for 1966-67, making Russell the first African American head coach in any major North American professional sports league, a landmark moment that came in the middle of an already historic championship run. This title was Boston's tenth consecutive Finals appearance and it completed the Celtics' unprecedented run of eight consecutive NBA championships from 1959 through 1966, a level of sustained dominance unmatched in North American professional sports history. Boston's road to the Finals ran through a five-game Eastern Division Finals win over Chamberlain and the 76ers, the team that had just denied Russell the regular-season MVP award. Auerbach's coaching announcement was not a spur-of-the-moment decision; he had told reporters before the season even began that he would step aside once it ended, deliberately giving the rest of the league, in his own words, one last shot at beating him while every team still had fair warning. That he chose to formalize Russell's promotion in the middle of the Finals, rather than after clinching the title as most retiring coaches did, was itself unusual, and Lakers coach Fred Schaus was reported to have resented that the announcement overshadowed his team's Game 1 upset. The eight consecutive championships from 1959 through 1966 remain the longest title streak in the history of North American major professional sports, a run built on Auerbach's drafting and trades as much as on the play of Russell, and it closed out his tenure on the bench with a won-loss coaching record that stood as the gold standard of the era.

Sources

• Wikipedia - 1966 NBA Finals
• Basketball-Reference - 1966 NBA Finals
• Mass Moments - Celtics Coach Red Auerbach Retires