The Maine Celtics (formerly the Maine Red Claws) are an American professional

basketball Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular Basketball court, court, compete with the primary objective of #Shooting, shooting a basketball (ball), basketball (appr ...

team in the

NBA G League The NBA G League, or simply the G League, is the National Basketball Association's (NBA) official List of developmental and minor sports leagues, minor league basketball organization. The league was known as the National Basketball Development ...

based in

Portland, Maine Portland is the largest city in the U.S. state of Maine and the seat of Cumberland County. Portland's population was 68,408 in April 2020. The Greater Portland metropolitan area is home to over half a million people, the 104th-largest metropol ...

, and are affiliated with the

Boston Celtics The Boston Celtics ( ) are an American professional basketball team based in Boston. The Celtics compete in the National Basketball Association (NBA) as a member of the league's Eastern Conference Atlantic Division. Founded in 1946 as one of t ...

. The Maine Celtics play their home games at the Portland Expo Building. The team debuted in the 2009–10 season as the Maine Red Claws and have since won three division titles. The

purchased the franchise in July 2019 from Maine Basketball, LLC, a company chaired by William Ryan, Jr. The Boston Celtics renamed the team the Maine Celtics in 2021.

Franchise history

On February 25, 2009, the

NBA Development League The NBA G League, or simply the G League, is the National Basketball Association's (NBA) official List of developmental and minor sports leagues, minor league basketball organization. The league was known as the National Basketball Development ...

(D-League) awarded the city of

, with an expansion franchise. On July 21, 2009, the Red Claws announced Austin Ainge as the first head coach of the team. On April 2, 2009, "Red Claws" was announced as the winning name after a name-the-team contest, beating out Beacons, Crushers, Destroyers, Swarm, and Traps. The name and logo gave homage to the

lobster Lobsters are a family (biology), family (Nephropidae, Synonym (taxonomy), synonym Homaridae) of marine crustaceans. They have long bodies with muscular tails and live in crevices or burrows on the sea floor. Three of their five pairs of legs ...

fishing industry, a major economic engine of the

New England New England is a region comprising six states in the Northeastern United States: Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, and Vermont. It is bordered by the state of New York to the west and by the Canadian provinces ...

area. The use of "Red" in the team's name also served to pay tribute to longtime Boston Celtics coach

Red Auerbach Arnold Jacob "Red" Auerbach (September 20, 1917 – October 28, 2006) was an American professional basketball coach and executive. He served as a head coach in the National Basketball Association (NBA), most notably with the Boston Celtics. ...

. During the 2009–10 season, the Red Claws were the only D-League team to sell out all 24 of their home games. This streak continued until the 2011–12 season, ending the streak at 48 consecutive games. PortlandExpoRedClaws

On June 21, 2012, the Red Claws announced that they had entered a hybrid affiliation with the

, making the Celtics the Red Claws' sole affiliate. For the team's first two seasons, their affiliation was split between the Celtics and the

Charlotte Bobcats Charlotte ( ) is the most populous city in the U.S. state of North Carolina. Located in the Piedmont region, it is the county seat of Mecklenburg County. The population was 874,579 at the 2020 census, making Charlotte the 16th-most populous ...

. For its third season, the team's affiliation was split between Boston, Charlotte and the

Philadelphia 76ers The Philadelphia 76ers, colloquially known as the Sixers, are an American professional basketball team based in the Philadelphia metropolitan area. The 76ers compete in the National Basketball Association (NBA) as a member of the league's Eas ...

. The Red Claws made their first playoff appearance in April 2013, entering the playoffs as the eighth seeded team and being swept by the

Rio Grande Valley Vipers The Rio Grande Valley Vipers are an American professional basketball team of the NBA G League based in Edinburg, Texas, and are affiliated with the Houston Rockets. The Vipers play their home games at the Bert Ogden Arena. The Vipers have won f ...

in a best-of-three-game opening round series. On July 16, 2014, the Red Claws announced that Mike Taylor would not return for a third season as the team's head coach. He had a 45–55 record as coach over two seasons with the team. He was replaced by

Canadian Canadians (french: Canadiens) are people identified with the country of Canada. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Canadians, many (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of ...

Scott Morrison Scott John Morrison (; born 13 May 1968) is an Australian politician. He served as the 30th prime minister of Australia and as Leader of the Liberal Party of Australia from 2018 to 2022, and is currently the member of parliament (MP) for t ...

after 11 seasons as the head coach of

Lakehead University Lakehead University is a public research university with campuses in Thunder Bay and Orillia, Ontario, Canada. Lakehead University, shortened to 'Lakehead U', is non-denominational and provincially supported. It has undergraduate programs, grad ...

Lakehead Thunderwolves The Lakehead Thunderwolves are the U Sports varsity athletic teams that represent Lakehead University in Thunder Bay, Ontario, Canada. Sports activities The Lakehead Thunderwolves are perennial powers in the OUA and U Sports in Nordic Skiing and w ...

. Morrison spent the 2013–14 season as a D-League assistant. On June 21, 2017,

Brad Stevens Bradley Kent Stevens (born October 22, 1976) is an American basketball executive and former coach who is currently the president of basketball operations for the Boston Celtics. Born and raised in Zionsville, Indiana, Stevens starred on the Zio ...

head coach, named him as an assistant coach with the Celtics. In 2017, the D-League rebranded as the

via a sponsorship with

Gatorade Gatorade is an American brand of sports-themed beverage and food products, built around its signature line of sports drinks. Gatorade is currently manufactured by PepsiCo and is distributed in over 80 countries. The beverage was first develop ...

. On July 25, 2019, the Celtics announced they would purchase the Red Claws franchise from original owners Bill Ryan and Bill Ryan, Jr. Before the sale, the Red Claws had been one of the few remaining independently owned G League franchises. Their sale to the Celtics continued the trend of

NBA 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 ...

teams purchasing their G League affiliates. The sale was finalized on October 15, 2019. On December 7, 2019,

Bryce Brown Bryce Lee Brown (born May 14, 1991) is a former American football running back who played for the Philadelphia Eagles, Buffalo Bills, and Seattle Seahawks. He attended the University of Tennessee his freshman year of college, but decided to tra ...

set a franchise record with scoring 11 of 11 three-pointers for the Red Claws in a 128–123 loss to the

Delaware Blue Coats The Delaware Blue Coats are an American professional basketball team in the NBA G League based in Wilmington, Delaware, and are affiliated with the Philadelphia 76ers. The Blue Coats play their home games at Chase Fieldhouse. The team was founde ...

. The 2019–20 season was then curtailed in March 2020 by the onset of the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identif ...

while the Red Claws were in first place in their division. The following 2020–21 season was then delayed due to the ongoing pandemic-related restrictions and eventually held at a single location in

Orlando, Florida Orlando () is a city in the U.S. state of Florida and is the county seat of Orange County, Florida, Orange County. In Central Florida, it is the center of the Greater Orlando, Orlando metropolitan area, which had a population of 2,509,831, acco ...

. However, the Celtics decided to not have the Red Claws participate and opted out of the season. On May 24, 2021, the Boston Celtics announced the Red Claws had been rebranded the Maine Celtics beginning with the 2021–22 season.

Season-by-season

Head coaches

Current roster

Players assigned from NBA teams

Bill Walker Bill Walker may refer to: Australian rules football * Bill A. Walker (1886–1934), Australian rules footballer for Essendon * Bill Walker (Australian footballer, born 1883) (1883–1971), Australian rules footballer for Fitzroy * Bill J. V. Wal ...

– assigned by the

on November 21, 2009 * Alexis Ajinca – assigned by the

on November 30, 2009 *

Lester Hudson Lester Hudson III (born August 7, 1984) is an American professional basketball player for the Shandong Heroes of the Chinese Basketball Association (CBA). In the 2007–08 season, Hudson recorded the only quadruple-double in NCAA Division I men's ...

– assigned by the

on December 15 and December 26, 2009 *

Sherron Collins Sherron Marlon Collins (born March 18, 1987) is an American former professional basketball player who last played for the Kansas City Tornados of the NAPB (NAPB). He formerly played for the Charlotte Bobcats of the National Basketball Associat ...

– assigned by the

on December 8, 2010 *

Avery Bradley Avery Antonio Bradley Jr. (born November 26, 1990) is an American professional basketball player who last played for the Los Angeles Lakers of the National Basketball Association (NBA). He played college basketball for the Texas Longhorns before ...

– assigned by the

on January 14, 2011 *

Craig Brackins Craig Lee Brackins (born October 9, 1987) is an American professional basketball player who last played for Shiga Lakestars of the Japanese B.League. Brackins played collegiately for the Iowa State Cyclones. A power forward, Brackins was the h ...

– assigned by the

on February 7, 2012 *

Fab Melo Fabricio Paulino de Melo (; June 20, 1990 – February 11, 2017) was a Brazilian professional basketball player. He played one season in the National Basketball Association (NBA) for the Boston Celtics before returning to his home country and play ...

– assigned by the

on November 14, 2012 *

Kris Joseph Kristopher Carlos Joseph (born December 17, 1988) is a Canadian professional basketball player for Ottawa Blackjacks of the Canadian Elite Basketball League (CEBL). He played for the Syracuse Orange men's basketball team from 2008 to 2012. He ...

– assigned by the

on November 14, 2012 *

MarShon Brooks MarShon Scitif Brooks (born January 26, 1989) is an American professional basketball player for the Guangdong Southern Tigers of the Chinese Basketball Association (CBA). Standing at , he plays at shooting guard and small forward positions. Origi ...

- assigned by the

on January 1, 2014 *

Rajon Rondo Rajon Pierre Rondo (, born February 22, 1986) is an American professional basketball player who last played for the Cleveland Cavaliers of the National Basketball Association (NBA). A point guard, Rondo played two years of college basketball for ...

– assigned by the

on January 15, 2014 *

Vítor Faverani Vítor Luiz Faverani Tatsch (born May 5, 1988) is a Brazilian professional basketball player who plays for Flamengo of the Novo Basquete Brasil (NBB). He has also represented Brazil in international competition and holds a Spanish passport. Pro ...

- assigned by the

on January 25, 2014 *

Vander Blue Vander may refer to: Names ''van der'', a variant of ''van'' in Dutch names People * Christian Vander (born 1948), French musician *Musetta Vander (born 1969), South African actress and model *Roberto Vander, Dutch-Mexican actor and singer *Vand ...

- assigned by the

on January 31, 2014 *

Jordan Mickey Jordan Grayson Mickey (born July 9, 1994) is an American professional basketball player for Virtus Bologna of the Italian Lega Basket Serie A (LBA) and the EuroLeague. He played college basketball for Louisiana State University before being selec ...

- assigned by the

on November 5, 2015 *

Terry Rozier Terry William Rozier III (born March 17, 1994) is an American professional basketball player for the Charlotte Hornets of the National Basketball Association (NBA). He played college basketball for the Louisville Cardinals before being selected ...

- assigned by the

on November 5, 2015

Players recalled by NBA teams

– recalled by the

on December 20, 2009 *

– recalled by the

on December 23, 2009 * Alexis Ajinça – recalled by the

on February 2, 2010 *

– recalled by the

on December 21, 2010 *

– recalled by the

on February 7, 2011 *

– recalled by the

on March 2, 2012 *

– recalled by the

on January 15, 2014 *

- recalled by the

on January 16, 2016 *

Kadeem Allen Kadeem Frank Allen (born January 15, 1993) is an American professional basketball player for Hapoel Haifa of the Israeli Basketball Premier League. He was selected with the 53rd pick of the 2017 NBA draft by the Boston Celtics, and has played i ...

- recalled by the

on January 29, 2018

NBA affiliates

(2009–present) *

(2009–2012) *

(2011–2012)

References

External links

* {{Portland, Maine Maine Celtics Basketball teams established in 2009 Basketball teams in Maine 2009 establishments in Maine