Top Ten Boston/New England Teams to NOT win the Championship
On June 16, 2022 the Boston Celtics lost in the NBA Finals in an up and down (but, let’s face facts, a mostly down) Game Six at home. This team was fun, spunky, but sometimes frustrating throughout the course of an 82-game season and the following postseason. After I got over my disappointment in the Celtics’ shooting that had gone cold quicker than a Boston November, I got to thinking about some of my favorite teams in the region that had fallen just short of winning a title. By no means is this list definitive or made by any scientific methodology. Without further ado, here’s my list of top ten Boston/New England teams to fall just short of championship glory.
10.) 2009–2010 Boston Celtics
Most fun player: Clearly Kevin Garnett was the best and most fun, but this team had a ton of fun weirdos.
Most fun moment of the season/run: Beating LeBron’s Cavs in the playoffs which then set the league’s most detestable team into motion
Fun/weird nugget: Marquis Daniels’ massive jewel-encrusted pendant of his own head
I would say this team, which lost to the Los Angeles Lakers in seven games is truly an acquired taste. Powered by the Big Three of Ray Allen, Paul Pierce, and Kevin Garnett, this team went 50–32 finishing fourth in the Eastern Conference. In the playoffs, the C’s took down the last pre-Heatles Miami squad, Lebron’s Cavaliers in a six-game series, and then reigning Eastern conference champion Orlando Magic in six games. Once Kendrick Perkins went down in the series with a knee injury, it was all over for the green and white. Perk’s replacement was an out of shape Rasheed Wallace, who despite being much ballyhooed coming into the year, hadn’t really done much. The Lakers won Game 7 83–79, thanks to 23 from Kobe Bryant and 18 total rebounds by Pau Gasol. What could’ve been.
9.) 1996 UMass Minutemen
Most fun player: Marcus Camby was the best player, but Rigoberto Nunez was easily the most fun name to say.
Most fun moment of the season/run: Beating Kentucky in the opener was fun, but beating Arkansas, Georgetown back to back to get to the Final Four was awesome.
Fun/Weird Nugget: In the eyes of the NCAA, this run and Final Four appearance never actually happened due to later penalties. Tell that to the kid who had this kind of obnoxious Refuse to Lose hat!
The year was 1996. The world hadn’t yet heard about three brothers from Oklahoma named Hanson who would shape their summer in 1997, there was only one Tom Cruise-fueled Mission:Impossible movie in existence, and this absolutely cringe-inducing moment in Chicago hadn’t even happened yet. But in the college basketball world, the epicenter of events was in Amherst, Massachusetts, of all places. That year the Marcus Camby-led Minutemen went 35–2, eventually losing in the Final Four to a Kentucky team that they had beaten in their season opener. At one point they won 26 in a row and held the top spot in the AP poll for most of the year. Western Massachusetts was abuzz with this team led by a then-young John Calipari as coach. After bowing out to Kentucky in the Final Four, the program that had been built by Calipari broke in spectacular fashion. Camby was found to have violated NCAA rules for accepting gifts from an agent. Calipari left for the NBA (which was oddly in East Rutherford, NJ, the site of his last game at the helm of UMass) and the program hasn’t really been the same since. However, now 26 years later, optimism is back to Amherst after their recent hire of Frank Martin and a slew of promising transfer signees.
8.) 2019 Boston Bruins
Most fun player: Any answer that isn’t Patrice Bergeron, Brad Marchand, or David Pastrnak probably isn’t correct.
Most fun moment of the season: Probably the ovation received by Zdeno Chara after a puck decimated his face in the playoffs.
Fun/weird nugget: Fun? Eh, but both of these players involved in this play are now teammates in St. Louis.
An absolute dream run to the Cup Final which included a sweep in the conference final and a seven-game win over division rival Toronto. Everything was lined up for the Bruins to win their first Stanley Cup in eight years, until St. Louis played the series of their lives, and the Bruins simply didn’t. In Game 7, a fatigued group of guys in what sure looked like the Bruins game in and lost 4–0 to a hungry Blues team that smelled blood in the water. Of course, local sports talk radio here will tell you that Tuukka Rask, the team’s all-time leader in starts, wins, and save percentage, simply puked on his shoes when the team needed him most. A team gassed from a long season in front of him did more than enough to make sure that they wouldn’t, to quote then-Bruins coach Bruce Cassidy, “put their names on the damn Cup.”
7.) 2022 Boston Celtics
Most fun player: Definitely not the best player on the team, but Grant Williams and his self-adorned nickname wins this one.
Most fun moment: The moment Al Horford had had enough of Giannis in round 2.
Fun/weird nugget: The inked up guy opposite Adam Sandler in much of this trailer apparently played in 96 minutes across 18 games for the Celtics in this season. That’s 21 less than the entire film runs, and not a single Celtics fan can recall any of those actual NBA minutes.
Ah yes. The sometimes-frustrating, but mostly fun 2022 Boston Celtics. For the first time in 12 years, the city of Boston was captivated by its basketball team, which on January 6th, sat in 11th place after a loss to the New York Knicks. That team flipped a switch later in the season surging to second in the conference. A fortuitous trade deadline, which saw the Celtics trade Dennis Schroeder, Josh Richardson, and Juancho Hernangomez in trades that netted Daniel Theis and Derrick White in return, spurred a somewhat dream run to the NBA Finals. Would they blow a team out one night and then get their doors blown off or lose a frustrating squeaker the next? Surely possible with this team. But the highs were really high and really fun with this bunch. The thing is, they’re still young. Jayson Tatum is 24. Jaylen Brown is 25. Who knows what the future holds for the Celtics? I know this much: The Celtics are the balls.
6.) 2017 New England Patriots
Most fun player: Dion Lewis, a super small, and super speedy running back who ran for 896 yards, received passes for another 214.
Most fun moment of the run/season: I mean how could it be anything but this swat by Stephon Gilmore?
Fun/weird nugget: Martellus Bennett came back to the Patriots after bailing on the Packers, a team he had just signed with that spring, because of a medical dispute. Seriously.
The 2017 Patriots were another fun, but sometimes frustrating team to watch during their season, one in which they went 13–3, had homefield in the playoffs, and very nearly lost the AFC title to the favorite team of The Good Place’s Jason Mendoza, the Jacksonville Jaguars. They also did something that Belichick-helmed Patriots teams almost never do: lose in December. They lost to a rudderless Dolphin team, and very nearly lost the next week to Pittsburgh, but didn’t, thanks to what I’m sure the football fans in the other 44.5 states in the union would consider to be egregious officiating. They played in arguably the most aesthetically pleasing Super Bowl of all-time and lost to the Eagles 41–33. This was definitely the first of the Patriots’ later dynasty teams that felt like the beginning of the window closing, but had a ton of fun watching them along the way.
5.) 2002 Boston Celtics
Most fun player: Paul Pierce and Antoine Walker were the two best players, but nobody on this team captured New England’s heart quite like this guy.
Most fun moment of the season/run: Do you like historic comebacks? Here’s a historic comeback.
Fun/weird nugget: The most recent coach to be dismissed by LeBron James, who was not yet in the NBA in 2002, Frank Vogel, was one of Jim O’Brien’s assistants in Boston.
This ragtag bunch of Celtics made it to the Eastern Conference finals after going 48–34. I swear! They did! Besides Walker and Pierce, this imperfect island of basketball misfit toys beat a tough Sixers team, an as-yet-to-be-championship-realized Pistons team before losing to an absolute wagon in the New Jersey Nets. They had Jason Kidd, Kenyon Martin, Kerry Kittles, and a young Richard Jefferson. Hell, the Nets even had Scal! Getting to the Eastern Conference Finals was a bonus. They played a gritty, tough brand of basketball, which was still en vogue in the league at the time, going up against a Nets team that was a total juggernaut. Then, in Game 3, the Celtics erased a 21-point deficit in the fourth quarter to win against a team fueled by the previously named star power. Prior to the 2007 trades for the aforementioned Allen and Garnett, this felt like Pierce’s best moment with the Celtics. Even two decades later, it’s still a moment that Celtics fans can smile about.
4.) 2021 Boston Red Sox
Most fun player: Probably Rafael Devers, though whoever came up with the laundry cart after homers deserves some credit here.
Most fun moment of the season/run: Christian Vazquez hitting a moonshot in the 13th inning against Tampa. Though this is a VERY close second.
Fun/weird nugget: Kyle Schwarber in fact wasn’t from Waltham, but still acted like he was anyway, endearing himself to plenty of Massholes.
I can’t lie to you: the 2021 Red Sox, who recorded a tally of 92–70, almost had no business being as good as they ended up being that season. They were not exactly favorites at the beginning of the year, but had built the kind of roster that a team makes to see if anything or anyone sticks. They ended up building a fairly solid bullpen, rotation, and a lineup that was pretty good. Then, at the trade deadline, they acquired Kyle Schwarber, a power-hitting outfielder who played some first base for the first time, on a team desperately needing power at the position. Then, as clock struck ever closer to midnight on their season, their bats went cold against an experienced and deep Houston Astros team who may or may not have been cheating — again. (Depending on who you believe. I could be convinced further, is all I’m saying.) All year, this team had the feel of the 2013 Red Sox, another team that came out of nowhere to a title, but for the newer model, that wasn’t meant to be.
3.) 2003 Boston Red Sox
Most fun player: Come on. It’s Kevin Millar, by a mile.
Most fun moment of the season/run: Derek Lowe striking out Terrance Long, which spurred a brief “is this an obscene gesture?” discourse for the celebration.
Fun/weird nugget: A high school classmate of Kevin Millar, who was a federal agent of some kind unearthed this video, which became a rally video. I kid you not.
The Cowboy Up Red Sox of 2003, who went 95–67 probably top most lists of fellow New England fans. On mine, they take the bronze. A team that was built on home runs, and solid starting pitching, but a bullpen that had some patched-up holes made it within five outs of a Game 7 win until the ghosts of Yankee Stadium made their appearance. (No need to re-live certain baseball-related nightmares here.) A key moment for them was trading Shea Hillenbrand for pitcher Byung-Yun Kim, which got David Ortiz’s bat into the lineup everyday. Ortiz and Manny Ramirez led one of the game’s best lineups into the playoffs where he would start his career of October heroics. With a different manager, do they win the World Series against the Marlins? Maybe. After all they had squished the fish earlier in the year 25–8.
2.).2007 New England Patriots
Most fun player: Randy Moss. He was just so much better than everybody else that year, and had it not been for Tom Brady, maybe would’ve won MVP.
Most fun moment of the season/run: Two records. One play.
Fun/weird nugget: The Patriots only surrendered 34 touchdowns on the season. They scored their 34th in Week 7 on October 21st.
Of course this team is on this list. You thought they wouldn’t be? The 2007 Patriots were such an absolute juggernaut. Full stop. They played their worst game in the Super Bowl, but when they were an absolute Death Star intent on making the rest of the league look like the disintegrated remains of Alderaan, it was fun football to watch. By every measure the most talented team on this list, they didn’t need to blow teams out, but did it anyway. They got touchdowns from guys like Kyle Eckel, Willie Andrews, and Randall Gay. They had superstars on both sides of the ball. The only team that could stop them, ultimately was themselves. Well, that and a Giants defense that was an absolute menace along the line. The 18–1 Patriots were moments away from football immortality, and instead, they’ll forever live in what could’ve been.
1.) 2013 Boston Bruins
Most fun player: This is the Jaromir Jagr’s favorite player.
Most fun moment of the season/run: This. It’ll always be this.
Fun/weird nugget: Kaspars Daugavins, who would eventually play a role in the Cup Final, apparently used to bark like a dog after scoring goals, of which he scored none for the Bruins.
The Boston Strong Bruins. There were so many moments for this team and this run. Fueled by the emotions after the Boston Marathon bombing just weeks before their playoff run, this team played some of the best, most emotional hockey I’ve ever seen. Their first game back after the bombing sounded like this. Somehow, this team just carried this city on its back for as far as it could go. There was the comeback against Toronto. The gentleman’s sweep against the Rangers. The Gregory Campbell shift in Game 3 against Pittsburgh. Then a bruising, but beautifully played Final against President’s Trophy winners, Chicago. This team gave it everything they could until they just couldn’t give anything more. As a fan, you can’t help but appreciate that, even if they don’t win in the end. The series ended and Patrice Bergeron apparently had been playing with a separated shoulder, broken ribs and a punctured lung. To have even suited up playing through that is remarkable. Playing as well as he did through that is borderline insane.
