The

1995–96 NBA season The 1995–96 NBA season was the 50th season of the National Basketball Association (NBA), though the 50th anniversary was not celebrated until the following season. The Chicago Bulls defeated the Seattle SuperSonics 4 games to 2 in the NBA Final ...

was the 50th season for the Boston Celtics in the

National Basketball Association The National Basketball Association (NBA) is a professional basketball league in North America. The league is composed of 30 teams (29 in the United States and 1 in Canada) and is one of the major professional sports leagues in the United St ...

. A new era began for the Celtics as they moved into their current home, a state of the art new arena then known as the Fleet Center (now

TD Garden TD Garden is a multi-purpose arena in Boston, Massachusetts. It is named after its sponsor, TD Bank, a subsidiary of the Toronto-Dominion Bank of Toronto, Ontario. It opened in 1995 as a replacement for the original Boston Garden and has been k ...

). In addition, this also ended their practice of playing occasional home games in

Hartford Hartford is the capital city of the U.S. state of Connecticut. It was the seat of Hartford County until Connecticut disbanded county government in 1960. It is the core city in the Greater Hartford metropolitan area. Census estimates since t ...

Civic Center A civic center or civic centre is a prominent land area within a community that is constructed to be its focal point or center. It usually contains one or more dominant public buildings, which may also include a government building. Recently, the ...

. The Celtics had the fourteenth overall pick in the

1995 NBA draft The 1995 NBA draft took place on June 28, 1995, at SkyDome in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It marked the first NBA draft to be held outside the United States and was the first draft for the two Canadian expansion teams, Toronto Raptors and Vancouve ...

, and selected

Eric Williams Eric Eustace Williams (25 September 1911 – 29 March 1981) was a Trinidad and Tobago politician who is regarded by some as the " Father of the Nation", having led the then British Colony of Trinidad and Tobago to majority rule on 28 October ...

out of Providence College. There was much speculation during the previous off-season over who would coach the team after the firing of

Chris Ford Christopher Joseph Ford (born January 11, 1949) is an American former professional basketball player and head coach. He is known for making the first counted NBA three-point shot on October 12, 1979. Amateur career A 6-foot-5 (1.96 m) guard from ...

, with candidates that included former Celtics coaches

Dave Cowens David William Cowens ( ; born October 25, 1948) is an American former professional basketball player and NBA head coach. At , he played the center position and occasionally played power forward. Cowens spent most of his playing career with the B ...

and K. C. Jones, and even former Celtic player

Paul Silas Paul Theron Silas (July 12, 1943 – December 10, 2022) was an American professional basketball player and head coach in the National Basketball Association (NBA). As a player, he was a two-time NBA All-Star and earned five selections to the N ...

. Ultimately, General Manager M. L. Carr decided to hire himself as the team's new head coach. The Celtics also signed free agent and former Boston College star

Dana Barros Dana Bruce Barros (born April 13, 1967) is an American former professional basketball player from the National Basketball Association (NBA). In college, he played at Boston College, finishing as one of the school's all-time leading scorers. He wa ...

, who won the Most Improved Player award the previous season with the Philadelphia 76ers. The Celtics started their season losing their first game at the Fleet Center, 101–100 to the

Milwaukee Bucks The Milwaukee Bucks are an American professional basketball team based in Milwaukee. The Bucks compete in the National Basketball Association (NBA) as a member of the league's Eastern Conference Central Division. The team was founded in 1968 ...

on November 3, 1995. Near the end of the month, the team traded

Sherman Douglas Sherman Douglas (born September 15, 1966) is an American former professional basketball player from Syracuse University who played for the Miami Heat, Boston Celtics, Milwaukee Bucks, New Jersey Nets and the Los Angeles Clippers from 1989 to 200 ...

to the Bucks in exchange for

Todd Day Todd Fitzgerald Day (born January 7, 1970) is an American former professional basketball player and current head coach at Philander Smith College in Little Rock, Arkansas. Day is the all-time leading scorer at the University of Arkansas, and pla ...

and

Alton Lister Alton Lavelle Lister (born October 1, 1958) is an American former professional basketball player. He is currently serving as an assistant coach for TNT Tropang Giga in Philippine Basketball Association. Lister graduated from Woodrow Wilson High ...

, as they played around .500 with a 12–12 start. However, the magic was clearly gone for the Celtics as they lost 15 of their next 18 games, holding a 17–30 record at the All-Star break, finishing fifth in the Atlantic Division with a 33–49 record, and failing to qualify for the

playoffs The playoffs, play-offs, postseason or finals of a sports league are a competition played after the regular season by the top competitors to determine the league champion or a similar accolade. Depending on the league, the playoffs may be eit ...

. Dino Radja led the team with 19.7 points, 9.8 rebounds and 1.5 blocks per game, but was out for the remainder of the season with an ankle injury after 53 games, while

Rick Fox Rick may refer to: People *Rick (given name), a list of people with the given name *Alan Rick (born 1976), Brazilian politician, journalist, pastor and television personality *Johannes Rick (1869–1946), Austrian-born Brazilian priest and mycol ...

averaged 14.0 points, 5.6 rebounds, 4.6 assists and 1.4 steals per game, and Barros provided the team with 13.0 points and 3.8 assists per game, and also led them with 150 three-point field goals. In addition,

David Wesley David Barakau Wesley (born November 14, 1970) is an American former professional basketball player who played in the National Basketball Association (NBA). He is the current television color analyst for the New Orleans Pelicans. He is the cou ...

contributed 12.3 points and 4.8 assists per game, while Williams and Dee Brown both provided with 10.7 points per game each, and second-year guard

Greg Minor Greg Magado Minor (born September 18, 1971) is an American basketball coach and a former National Basketball Association player who spent five seasons with the Boston Celtics. Born in Sandersville, Georgia he played basketball for Washington Coun ...

contributed 9.6 points per game. On the defensive side, second-year center

Eric Montross Eric Scott “Big Grits” Montross (born September 23, 1971) is an American former professional basketball player who played in the National Basketball Association (NBA) for eight seasons with the Boston Celtics, Dallas Mavericks, New Jersey Nets ...

averaged 7.2 points and 5.8 rebounds per game, but only played 61 games due to a sprained ankle, and

Pervis Ellison Pervis Ellison (born April 3, 1967) is an American former National Basketball Association (NBA) player. Nicknamed "Never Nervous Pervis" for his clutch play with the University of Louisville, after leading Louisville to a national championship, El ...

provided with 5.3 points, 6.5 rebounds and 1.4 blocks per game. Following the season, Montross was traded to the Dallas Mavericks in exchange for the sixth overall pick in the

1996 NBA draft The 1996 NBA draft was the 50th draft in the National Basketball Association (NBA). It was held on June 26, 1996 at Continental Airlines Arena in East Rutherford, New Jersey. In this draft, NBA teams took turns selecting college basketball playe ...

Draft picks

Roster

Regular season

Season standings

Record vs. opponents

Game log

Player statistics

Awards and records

Transactions

Overview

Trades

References

See also