On this day in Boston Celtics history, Boston Celtics icon Tommy Heinsohn scored 45 points in the Celtics’ 127-122 win over the Syracuse Nationals (now, the Philadelphia 76ers) on the road for the holiday in 1961.
It remains the record to this very day for points scored in a Christmas Day game by a Celtic player (point guards Kyrie Irving and Bob Cousy hold the next two highest scores on that day at 40 and 35 points, respectively), as well as being the most points scored by the Hall of Fame power forward in any game of his storied career.
The Holy Cross alum would go on to win his fifth title with the team of eight total titles in his career later that season but played a game for the ages that holiday tilt first.
Dick Raphael-USA TODAY Sports
Heinsohn’s full stat line was 45 points scored on 19-of-36 shooting from the floor in an unrecorded amount of playing time while hitting 7 of his 9 free throw attempts.
Unfortunately for the Celtics history buffs among us, the Union City, New Jersey native’s other stats for the night have been lost to the sands of time, evidently unrecorded as was the custom for many counting stats in that era.
Bob DeChiara-USA TODAY Sports
It is also the date of former Celtic center Jarvis Varnado‘s debut with Boston in 2012.
A product of Mississippi State University, Varnado was drafted by the Miami Heat in the 2010 NBA draft, but didn’t make the team and instead played overseas and in the D League (as the G League was called then) until the Celtics signed him on Dec. 24 of the same year as his debut.
Varnado played just seconds over a single minute of playing time in the 93 -76 win over the Brooklyn Nets, scoring a lone steal across that short span.
He would only play 4 more games with Boston, averaging 1.2 points per game.
(AP Photo/Paul Benoit)
Today is the date of the Celtics’ first game on Christmas Day in 1948, an 80-77 loss to the (then) Philadelphia (now, Golden State) Warriors, as well as their first win on Christmas Day six seasons later.
That would come in 1954 against the (then) Milwaukee (now, Atlanta) Bucks, led by 35 points from Hall of Fame Boston point guard Bob Cousy.
It’s also the anniversary of Larry Bird getting 28 points, 20 boards, and 8 assists against the New York Knicks in 1980, and the date the season started (in a loss to the Knicks) in the lockout-shortened 2011-12 season.
AP Photo
Finally, it is the day that we lost Hall of Fame Celtics legend KC Jones, who left us on this day in 2020.
A legend as a player and a coach, Jones won 2 NCAA titles with the USF Dons (1955, 1956), Olympic gold in 1956, 8 NBA titles as a player with Boston (1959-1966), and 2 more as a head coach (1984, 1986) with the Celtics along with countless other accolades.
Rest in peace, KC — you are missed.
Listen to the “Celtics Lab” podcast on:
Apple Podcasts: https://apple.co/3zBKQY6
Spotify: https://spoti.fi/3GfUPFi
YouTube: https://bit.ly/3F9DvjQ
[mm-video type=video id=01gmkgyvc6rcwr57v73p playlist_id=01eqbzegwgnrje4tv2 player_id=01f1jxkahtwnvzepyp image=https://images2.minutemediacdn.com/image/upload/video/thumbnail/mmplus/01gmkgyvc6rcwr57v73p/01gmkgyvc6rcwr57v73p-8cfe63e0a72f1935c3fd7068a7d93e2f.jpg]
[lawrence-related id=114379,114322,114319,114315,114381,114367]
[listicle id=114324]
[listicle id=114317]
[listicle id=114336]
[listicle id=114157]
Story originally appeared on Celtics Wire