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The Last Banner: The Story of the 1985-86 Celtics, the Nba's Greatest Team of All Time | 
 enlarge | Author: Peter May
Publisher: Adams Media Corporation
Category: Book
List Price: $10.95
Buy New: $10.00
You Save: $0.95 (9%)
New (4) Used (6) from $2.00
Rating:  11 reviews
Sales Rank: 187493
Media: Paperback
Pages: 304
Number Of Items: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.8
Dimensions (in): 8.4 x 5.5 x 0.8
ISBN: 155850835X
Dewey Decimal Number: 796.323640974461
UPC: 045079008359
EAN: 9781558508354
ASIN: 155850835X
Publication Date: March 1998
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Shipping: Expedited shipping available
Shipping: International shipping available
Condition: Absolutely new - Never Opened - No remainder marks - Ships from non-smoking warehouse in Orange County, CA
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Product Description
A portrait of the most recent Boston Celtics championship team, a squad that included Larry Bird and Robert Parrish, follows their amazing sixty-seven-win season and march to the NBA title. 25,000 first printing.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 6 more reviews...
 The Last Banner September 29, 2008
Samuele Parolin (Madrid, Spain)
It's a must for real Celtics fans even though it is no longer the last banner they talk about...
Enjoyable tale of 1985-6 Celtics September 14, 2008
J. Davis (San Diego, CA United States)
This is a very good overview of the 1985-86 NBA champion Boston Celtics. May does not only cover the season day to day, he gives background biographical information on all the Celtics. As good as the book is, I don't know that it's beyond doubt that the 1985-6 Celtics were the best team ever. Were they better than Shaq's Lakers or Jordan's Bulls? Hard to say and May certainly doesn't prove they were. Nonetheless, I highly recommend this book to NBA fans.
Fun to relive the great season June 24, 2008
Chris (Chicago, IL)
1 out of 2 found this review helpful
Peter May's book about the 1985-86 Celtics is a great way for Celtics fans to experience the franchise's greatest season for a second time.
I was only 9 years old during that basketball season, meaning it was the first Boston sports championship I could really comprehend. I have vivid memories of watching those playoff games with my parents -- the Ralph Sampson fight with Jerry Sichting, the stunning home dominance, Bill Walton's impact off the bench, etc.
But it was great, years later, when I was old enough to fully appreciate what that team had accomplished, to get a view from the inside. May has covered the Celtics for a long time, and he told some great anecdotes while presenting the season in a nice narrative. Because basketball teams only have 12-15 players, I felt like I knew them all when I finished the book.
It's hard for me to say how a casual NBA fan, or a non-Celtics fan, would feel about this book. It's a book about one season and very little else; there are no cultural issues or prolonged looks into NBA history. But readers will learn more than what they got from watching the Celtics that season. It's not a classic by any means, but Celtics fans over the age of 30 would love it, and those under 30 will enjoy getting a closer look at the superstars -- including the original Big Three -- their parents have spoken so highly about for so many years.
 Author Is More Than A Bit Delusional December 11, 2006
bix lang (Davenport, Iowa USA)
2 out of 4 found this review helpful
The 1966-67 Philadelphia 76ers would have smashed the 1985-86 Celtics' team into the hardwood. Robert Parrish and Kevin McHale would have been rendered helpless in the paint against 7-1, 300 lbs Wilt Chamberlain and the 6-10, 275 lbs Luke Jackson, two of the strongest players in NBA history. Between them they averaged close to 40 rebounds per game----that's more than the per game average of the entire 1985-86 Celtic team. The sensational Bird would be his usual handful, but that would not be nearly enough to compensate for the 76ers' incredible array of talent. Beyond Wilt's 25 ppg, 25 rpg, and 8 apg, and Luke's tenacious rebounding, intimidation, and defense in the paint, the Celtics would also have to contend with three other 20 points per game scorers, Hal Greer, Billy Cunningham, and Chet Walker. The 76ers could run you off the court, break your bones under the basket, or simply shoot the lights out from the corners and top of the key. I'm not sure if Mr. May actually believes his hyperpole or he is simply trying to sell his book. Either way, the term "the greatest" is very elastic; but since the author took it upon himself to write in absolutes, I'll respond by stating that the 1966-67 76ers would have absolutely destroyed the 1985-86 Celtics. Put that in your green beer and drink it.
The reason this book was written.... June 27, 2006
Jack Ace Rothstein (USA)
3 out of 6 found this review helpful
is to counteract the plethora of IDIOTIC opinions such as the last one that have no sense of historical context. Notice how the last reviewer's greatest list consisted of teams of the past decade (which by all accounts and standards consists of watered-down teams and play) and the 1986-87 Lakers (which btw wasn't even the best Laker team of all time in terms of record or strength of competition) while "he" called the Celtics teams from 1957-1969 who won 11 out of 13 years "OVERRATED". What's next? Titanic is the greatest movie of all time? Leonardo DiCaprio is the greatest actor? Justin Timberlake is the best singer?
Although I am a Celtics fan, esp. of the incredible 1985-86 team which I do think is the best for many of the same reasons as stated in the book, I can objectively state that really only four teams deserve to be in the discussion as the greatest single season team: the 1967 Sixers, the 1983 Sixers, the 1986 Celtics, and the 1972 Lakers. The books that chronicle these other teams also make good points too. This book does a reasonable job of showing why these 1985-86 Celtics should be there. In addition, this book gives a great chronicle of the entire 1985-86 season.
One more opinion that I would state is that at any given time, the 1986 Celtics could put on the court FOUR of the NBA's Top 50 (and s/b 5 because Dennis Johnson was certainly worthy of being in the list). The only other team who could even possibly boast this would be those "overrated" Celtics teams from the 1950s and 1960s.
BTW, if this opinion seems far-fetched, note that on a recent ESPN poll show, this 1985-86 Celtics team was ranked third of teams of all time and the number 1 team on that poll, the 1996 Bulls, was deservedly ridiculed by the second-guessers. The number 2 team, the 1972 Lakers, is too tough to argue against. There are also many articles on the web that state why the previous reviewer's argument is greatly flawed.
Another note, the past reviewer was right about three things, 1) the 1985-86 Celtics team was the best Celtics team of all time (which is obvious given that it is in the top 5 of greatest teams of all time), 2) yes you can see the old games on DVD, the old games show just how incredibly talented and in sync the 1986 Cs were, and 3) the 1986 Rockets were that good, so good that they beat a team that was quite similar to the 1987 Lakers in 5 games. However, when you lose by double digits in 3 games to the Cs, bad calls will almost never explain that. But believe this, if the 1986 Celtics could handle both Ralph Sampson and Hakeem Olajuwon, they can certainly deal with Shaq plus whatever scrub big man was next to him and they certainly would've obliterated the 1987 Lakers if the Cs were at full strength (even at half strength the Cs pulled off two victories against a Laker team that on paper should've swept them and this was after the Cs playing two consecutive seven game series with one of them being the eventual champion Detroit Pistons).
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