The 1966 NBA World Championship Series was the championship round of the 1966 NBA Playoffs, which concluded 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 ...

(NBA)'s 1965–66 season. The Eastern Division champion Boston Celtics faced the Western Division champion Los Angeles Lakers in a best-of-seven series that the Celtics won 4 games to 3. For the Celtics this was their tenth straight finals appearance, which tied a North American professional sports record set by the

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Montreal Canadiens The Montreal CanadiensEven in English, the French spelling is always used instead of ''Canadians''. The French spelling of ''Montréal'' is also sometimes used in the English media. (french: link=no, Les Canadiens de Montréal), officially ...

from 1951 to 1960, and the

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from 1946 to 1955. Thus Boston won its eighth consecutive league title, which no other team has achieved in North American professional sports competition. Before Game 2, after the Los Angeles Lakers' comeback overtime win in Game 1, Red Auerbach, who had challenged the entire league to topple the Celtics from their reign by announcing he would retire after 1965–1966 before the season had started (thus giving his detractors "one last shot" at him), announced Bill Russell as the Celtics' coach for 1966–1967 and beyond. He would be the first African-American to coach in the NBA. Laker coach

Fred Schaus Frederick Appleton Schaus (June 30, 1925 – February 10, 2010) was an American basketball player, head coach and athletic director for the West Virginia Mountaineers, West Virginia University Mountaineers, player for the National Basketball Ass ...

privately fumed that Auerbach's hiring had taken away all of the accolades his Lakers should have received following their tremendous Game 1 win. The Celtics won the next three games and looked ready to close out L.A. in Game 5. However, the Lakers won the next two games, setting the stage for another classic Game 7 in the Boston Garden. The Celtics raced out to a huge lead, and held off a late Los Angeles rally to capture the NBA title and send Red Auerbach out a champion. This was the last NBA championship series until

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in which a team trailing 3 games to 1 rallied to force a Game 7.

Series summary

''Celtics win series 4–3''

Team rosters

Boston Celtics

{, class="toccolours" style="font-size: 95%; width: 100%;" , - ! colspan="2" style="background-color: #008040; color: #FFFFFF; text-align: center;" , Boston Celtics 1965–66 roster , - style="background-color: #FFFFFF; color: #008040; text-align: center;" ! Players !! Coaches , - , valign="top" , {, class="sortable" style="background:transparent; margin:0px; width:100%;" ! Pos. !! # !! Nat. !! Name !! Ht. !! Wt. !! From , -

Los Angeles Lakers

External links

1966 Finals
at NBA.com

at Basketball-Reference.com {{DEFAULTSORT:1966 Nba Finals National Basketball Association Finals NBA NBA

Finals Final, Finals or The Final may refer to: *Final (competition), the last or championship round of a sporting competition, match, game, or other contest which decides a winner for an event ** Another term for playoffs, describing a sequence of cont ...

NBA Finals Boston Garden Sports competitions in Boston Sports competitions in Los Angeles 1960s in Boston NBA Finals NBA Finals NBA Finals

Series summary

Team rosters

Boston Celtics

Los Angeles Lakers

See also

External links