The past is always present with the Celtics. Those 18 championship banners swaying in the TD Garden rafters provide heights worthy of constant aspiration. But their shadow can be long.
The talents and achievements of the current Celtics — who, of course, collected that 18th banner just last June — bring inevitable comparison to their legendary forefathers on the Garden parquet.
Those comparisons are not always easily navigated. When Jayson Tatum recently cited Larry Bird as the greatest Celtic — a title Tatum said he aspires to wrest — a common local response was, “Why didn’t he say Bill Russell?