A few weeks ago, we noticed Dime Magazine doing a league-wide 1-on-1 tourney where fans voted on the winners. We thought it was a fantastic idea, so we… uhhhh… borrowed it. Except we're putting our own little twist on it. We went back through the annals of Celtics history and put together the ultimate 1-on-1 bracket. We took 24 players, ranked them, and put them in a bracket.
Before we get into it, our criteria was NOT who are the best players in Celtics history. We are ranking it in order of who we think is better 1-on-1. It's a different skill set. Your passing skills mean nothing. You'd better be able to hit a shot. Or you'd better have some skills that are so outrageously good, they make up for other holes in your 1-on-1 game. Here's what we've got:
Our top 4 seeds (all getting 1st round byes)
Green Bracket:
1: Larry Bird
2: Tommy Heinsohn
White Bracket:
1: Paul Pierce
2: John Havlicek
The rest of the Green Bracket:
Reggie Lewis
Kevin Garnett
Bob Cousy
Bill Russell
Cedric Maxwell
Dave Cowens
Jo Jo White
Antoine Walker
Frank Ramsey
Robert Parish
The rest of the White Bracket:
Kevin McHale
Ray Allen
Sam Jones
Dennis Johnson
Rajon Rondo
Bill Sharman
Tiny Archibald
Rick Fox
Ed Macauley
Dino Radja
And now for our Day 1 matchup:
We're starting in the Green Bracket for day one. Our matchup pits 9th overall seed Bob Cousy against 24th overall seed Robert Parish.
(9) Bob Cousy:
1-on-1 Advantage: Quick, good ball handler, nifty finisher around the rim. Also has a hook shot that he can break out in a pinch.
1-on-1 Disadvantage: Size. Will have trouble getting the ball back after a miss or guarding a bigger player who may back him down.
(24) Robert Parish:
1-on-1 Advantage: Size. Tall and long, Chief will force you to shoot over him. His length will allow him to recover quickly and block shots. Also has a soft touch within 10 feet.
1-on-1 Disadvantage: Speed, lack of quickness. Smaller players may be able to get by him easily. They may also be able to strip the ball from him if he takes too many dribbles while trying to take advantage of his size.
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