Report: NBA denied Celtics’ request to make use of parquet for In-Season Event initially appeared on NBC Sports activities Boston
A key a part of the Boston Celtics’ picture has all the time been the ground they play on — parquet. Due to a lumber scarcity after World Warfare II, the Celtics seemed for tactics to chop prices when getting into the Basketball Affiliation of America in 1946, ensuing within the distinctive use of a parquet ground, which the Celtics have performed each house recreation on since — till now.
With the introduction of the NBA’s new In-Season Event, groups got new ground designs to signify that the video games being performed had been event video games. With all courts being the identical dual-tone template, with a couple of particular person branding components all through, Boston’s house courtroom lacked the ever-important parquet.
The Celtics reportedly requested the NBA so as to add a parquet-painted design within the center strip however had been denied, Steve Bulpett of Heavy Sports reported on Friday night.
The Celtics’ new courtroom design, solely for use for In-Season Event video games, follows the design of their new metropolis version jersey: primarily inexperienced with a tan coloured strip by the center of the courtroom, from hoop to hoop, and a “Boston” wordmark emblem at middle courtroom. It additionally options the signature of Pink Auerbach and the quantity 6 in honor of the late Invoice Russell.
Russell himself even commented on the significance of the parquet in a 2000 interview with the New York Occasions.
“It was distinctive as a result of it seemed like no different ground,” Russell mentioned. “However what was most vital concerning the ground was that groups discovered it distracting. And that was all proper. It was a part of our legend for kicking everyone’s butts.”
The Celtics kick off their In-Season Event run on Friday night time in opposition to the Brooklyn Nets, a staff they’ve already overwhelmed earlier within the season, in what would be the franchise’s first house recreation in historical past with out the parquet.