Thursday night, April 28, 1966, was eventful in Boston.
It was seventh game of the championship series against the Los Angeles Lakers and Red Auerbach's last as a pro coach. The Celtics were going for an eighth consecutive National Basketball Association title.
Auerbach, reliving the past, recently recalled his final pep talk.
"This one means $700 apiece to you guys," he told his team. "That's the difference between the winners' and losers' shares. Show me another way you can make $700 quicker."
The National Basketball Association has since grown from 9 to 23 teams and the playoff pool to $1.5 million, with the winner's share worth about 30,000 a player.
The Celtics beat the Lakers in that last game, 95-93, and Auerbach went out a winner.
Three seasons later, on May 5, 1969, the Celtics were again involved in a seventh game in the championship round against the Lakers. This time it was Bill Russell's final game as a Celtic.
Jack Kent Cooke, then the Los Angeles owner, ordered thousands of balloons to be released from the Forum in Inglewood, Calif., to mark a Laker victory. They never were released because Boston won, 108-106, for its 11th championship.
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