The premier of Celtics City, an in depth history of the Boston Celtics through each era of the franchise from day one in 1946 to right now in 2025 as the Celtics are working towards winning back-to-back championships.

This introductory episode is titled Founding Fathers. It’s the perfect title for this episode as it outlines the rise of the Celtics franchise and sets the tone for how the documentary will go from here.

It starts with Jaylen Brown talking about what the Celtics franchise is and the “misconceptions” of what it stands for. He says the Celtics organization is a pioneer for social justice movements and society and moving forward is part of the DNA.

The first episode is heavily focused on the greatness of Bob Cousy. He was Mr. Basketball and Massachusetts’ Golden Boy after four years at Holy Cross that saw a championship in his first year.

After Cousy landed with the Celtics in 1950, he became a six-time All-Star and made All-NBA First Team five times before winning his first championship. He was voted NBA MVP for the 1956-57 season.

At this point, Cousy is considered to be one of the best players ever. He got all of the publicity and all of the commercials, and he was living the high-life compared to his teammates, but especially Bill Russell.

What was overlooked is the importance of Russell and how the Celtics couldn’t win a title until he arrived. Russell was the “missing piece to the puzzle” as Red Auerbach once said in an interview.

Russell was a revolutionary player as a rookie and was living in a very strong racially divided world that wasn’t kind to him and his Black teammates. He once said that “I am coming to the realization that we are accepted as entertainers, but not as people in some places.”

Within only the first handful of years, Russell had become the most important player on the Celtics. He was named MVP (1958), made All-Star teams consecutively, and was winning championships consistently. Russell had taken the shine away from Cousy as the Celtics best player.

During this time, it ultimately caused a divide between Cousy and Russell and it’s depicted in the documentary in that way as they lived in two completely different worlds as the NBA’s best player.

Auerbach acknowledged this and would talk to Russell, telling him not to care what the media has to say and not to pay any attention to their opinions. He knew how important Russell was to the team and he tried his best to make sure that Russell didn’t feel under appreciated even though it was near impossible.

In an interview for a magazine conducted by a local media member, Russell was told that he’s the luckiest man on the planet because he gets to play with Cousy. He was surprised by that and responded quite honestly about it.

“Bob Cousy is a great basketball player, these guys are lucky that I’m here. They didn’t come out to San Francisco to draft me because they wanted to give this nice tall colored kid a break… I’m really good. In fact I’m great and these guys are lucky to be playing with me.”

The headline the next day read: “All Cousy’s Celtics teammates love him except for Russell. He’s insanely jealous.”

Russell wasn’t jealous of Cousy. He wanted the respect he deserved and to be appreciated for what he does and who he is, both on and off the court.

The episode ends with that quote of Russell saying the Celtics are lucky to have him. It shows the division in the world and how it impacted sports during the 50s and through the 60s on a team in Boston that didn’t care one iota about race.

This opening episode set the stage for how this documentary will go from here.

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Photo Credit: Celtics City, HBO