5 NBA legends you forgot played for the Boston Celtics

3. Bob McAdoo — 1978-79 season

Bob McAdoo was a legend in the early 70s for the Buffalo Braves, but the second half of his career was strange. After he was traded to the New York Knicks, he saw his career jump from team to team before he eventually finished his career in Italy. One of those stops during the second half of his career was a 20-game stint in Boston.

McAdoo was traded to the awful Celtics for the last 20 games of the 1978-79 season. The team won just 30 games that season. McAdoo was fine, but he wasn’t able to get a ton of minutes with Cedric Maxwell, Marvin Barnes, and Rick Robey already in the frontcourt. His 20.6 points per game with the Celtics was by far the lowest of his career. His stint in Boston was doomed from the start, as Red Auerbach nearly quit over the McAdoo acquisition.

Things went from bad to worse, because the very next season was the rookie year for Larry Bird. Having McAdoo and Bird side by side early in Bird’s career would have been a ton of fun, but the Celtics traded McAdoo to the Detroit Pistons.

While McAdoo definitely missed out on playing with Bird, the Celtics aren’t upset they traded McAdoo. They were able to get two first-round picks from the Pistons. One of those picks ended up being the 1980 number-one overall pick. They traded that pick to the Golden State Warriors for Robert Parrish and the third-overall pick. They used that pick to select Kevin McHale. So for those keeping track at home, they turned McAdoo’s 20 games into Kevin McHale and Robert Parrish.