Celtics' Players Missed Almost 200 Games Due to Injury

June 1987

Even before the first ball was thrown up to start the regular season, there was trouble in the air.

Len Bias had been a Celtic for all of 24 hours before, well, you know what. Scott Wedman had been operated on for a bum heel two weeks after the '86 playoffs had ended and was not ready to play. Bill Walton thought he was ready to play -- Larry Bird had visited him during the summer and came back raving about Walton's conditioning and motivation -- but first he broke the little finger of his left hand, and then, in a move that Bill Walton and Bill Walton alone could conjure up, sustained an injury to his right ankle while pedaling an exercise bicycle too vigorously (or so he's intimated; he has never fully confirmed any story pertaining to the injury).

So much for the frontcourt bench strength. But, wait, things would get worse. With two weeks remaining prior to the start of the season, Danny Ainge would make an ill-fated decision to go for a loose ball during an exhibition game in Hartford. In so doing, he would suffer a fractured "transverse process" (a crack between the third and fourth vertebrae in his back.)

The season was ready to begin.

Regard the Celtics' as a drama in four acts.

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