Boston Celtics: Creating the all-time one-year starting five

Center: Bob McAdoo (1978-79)

Bob McAdoo‘s tenure with the Boston Celtics was SO short lived that from the countless pictures we have at our disposal on the site via Getty Images, there are simply none of which that show the big man donning the green and white.

Explained in an article written by contributor Michael Hilperts from Hardwood Houdini a few years back, McAdoo’s Celtics career was quite a “bizarre” situation:

"New owner, John Y. Brown sought a high level of involvement with the Celtics, but seeing as his recently-acquired team had won its plethora of titles under Red Auerbach, he probably should’ve just taken a back seat to Red. However, Brown executed the trade for McAdoo himself and sent three of the Celtics’ draft picks to the New York Knicks. This infuriated Auerbach as he had highly valued those picks. Plus, the Celtics already had Dave Cowens playing center, and to make matters worse for McAdoo, Cowens was also the head coach. After a mere 20 games, the Celtics traded McAdoo for M.L. Carr and a Pistons’ draft pick – in a trade that was originally seen as one-sided in the Pistons’ favor."

The 2000 Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame inductee saw himself average solid numbers in his short stint with the franchise. In 31.9 minutes per night, McAdoo boasted 20.6 points, 7.1 rebounds and one block per game on 50 percent shooting from the field.

The 1975 NBA Most Valuable Player made the most of quite a sticky situation in Boston and, after just 20 games, found himself producing similar numbers for the Detroit Pistons.

He would go on to play for seven more seasons in the league, winning a championship in 1985 with the Los Angeles Lakers and, by 1986, decided to call it quits on his NBA career.

Though the 1978-79 Boston Celtics might not have wanted Bob McAdoo on their roster, when making one up consisting of one-year wonders of the franchise, we’d gladly take him as our starting center.