Boston Celtics NBA Finals History: Championships, Record & More

The Boston Celtics entered the 2025 NBA playoffs as not only the No. 2 seed in the Eastern Conference, but also as the defending champions. With goals of adding another banner to the rafters, the C's have the talent to do so.

But the path ahead is a difficult one. Boston won 60+ games for the 15th time in franchise history this past season. In eight of those seasons, the team made it to the NBA Finals. So this year's squad is attempting to make it nine of 15 (or 60%).

Make no mistake about it, the Boston Celtics are the NBA's original dynasty. The team had dominant runs in the 1950s, 60s, 70s and 80s before returning to glory in the mid-2000s and eventually winning a record 18th championship in 2024.

The franchise's legacy is one that few can rival.

How Many NBA Championships Have the Boston Celtics Won?

The Celtics have 18 NBA championships, the most of any franchise in the league. The team's first came in 1957, led by Bob Cousy and Bill Russell. The latest was in 2024, with Jaylen Brown and Jayson Tatum leading the way.

Full List of Boston Celtics' NBA Championships & NBA Finals History

Founded on June 6, 1946, it didn't take long for the Celtics to start dominating the NBA. The team added Bill Russell 10 years later, and the center from the University of San Francisco made an immediate impact not just for the franchise, but for the league as well.

Russell led the Celtics to a championship in his rookie season, defeating the St. Louis Hawks and league MVP Bob Pettit. The series went seven games and Russell finished each contest with at least 19 rebounds.

He would go on to lead the Celtics to 11 championships in 13 seasons, including eight-straight from 1959-66. This run remains mind-boggling to this day and it solidified the franchise as the NBA's premiere team.

Boston would win two more championships in the 1970s before adding Larry Bird to the team in 1978, then Robert Parish and Kevin McHale in 1980. These moves turned the team back into a powerhouse as Boston won at least 56 games in nine-straight seasons and made five NBA Finals appearances (winning three of them).

The Celtics would go on to face their largest "down" period in franchise history in the 1990s and early 2000s before a pair of blockbuster trades brought in Ray Allen and Kevin Garnett to go alongside Paul Pierce in 2007. Get the story behind those deals in the SI Vault.

Boston's "Big Three" led the franchise to another championship in 2008, but a mix of injuries and bad luck prevented the establishment of a new dynasty in Beantown. The Celtics would return to the NBA Finals in 2010, but fell to a familiar foe: The Los Angeles Lakers. The Celtics have faced the Lakers a total of 12 times in the NBA Finals.

By 2013, Boston was in rebuild mode, dealing away Pierce and Garnett. In 2016, the Celtics selected Jaylen Brown in the first round, and the following year the team picked Jayson Tatum. Those two proved to be the core that would bring Boston its NBA-leading 18th championship.

What separates the Celtics isn't just the number of banners or retired numbers hanging from the rafters of the TD Garden, it's the consistency at which the franchise succeeds across multiple decades, multiple coaches and multiple players. In just about every era, the Celtics were contenders.

Key Players in Boston's NBA Finals Success

You can't talk about the Celtics without first mentioning Russell.

Russell's legacy is cemented by his unprecedented success in professional basketball. He won 11 titles over 13 seasons with Boston (more than any other player in NBA history), was a five-time NBA MVP (1958, 1961, 1962, 1963, 1965), has the second-most rebounds in NBA history (21,620), went 10-0 in game sevens as a player and became the league's first Black head coach in 1966, winning two championships.

His impact to the franchise (and the NBA) cannot be overstated.

After Russell, the next player is none other than the "Hick From French Lick," Larry Bird. After all, there's a reason they call him "Larry Legend" in Boston. Regarded as one of the most competitive players in the history of professional basketball, Bird brought three titles to Beantown in the 1980s and is one of just three players to win three-straight MVP awards.