1946–47 Boston Celtics season

Due to this being the first season in the franchise's history, the BAA didn't utilize a draft system like they would in future seasons of the BAA/NBA and instead relied upon some combination of the head coach and the general manager of the team finding and signing players in time to start out their training camp period for the season.^[7] For the Celtics, they looked at players that head coach Honey Russell had largely known from either the older American Basketball League or the otherwise defunct Eastern Basketball League for training camp invites, such as former (original) Baltimore Bullets and Trenton Tigers player Virgil Vaughn from Western Kentucky University, former New York Westchesters/Westchester Indians and Brooklyn Gothams player Warren Fenley from Manhattan College, former Brooklyn Indians and Original Celtics guard Mel Hirsch from Brooklyn College, former (original) Baltimore Bullets and Trenton Tigers player Art Spector from Villanova University, former New York Westchesters/Westchester Indians and Brooklyn Gothams player Red Wallace from the University of Scranton, former Jersey Reds, Brooklyn Visitations, Baltimore Clippers, New York Jewels, and Brooklyn Gothams player Tony Kappen from Forest Hills High School, John Simmons from New York University, Connie Simmons from Flushing High School, former Wilkes-Barre Barons player Al Brightman from Morris Harvey College, Harold Kottman from Culver–Stockton College, Wyndol Gray from Bowling Green State University, and former Brooklyn Indians, Wilmington Bombers, Paterson Crescents, and rivaling NBL team Rochester Royals player Chuck Connors from Seton Hall College to open up their first ever season of play.^[8]

On November 5, the Celtics played their first game at the Boston Arena in front of 4,329 fans.^[9] The game would be delayed for an hour when the wooden backboard was damaged after a practice shot (not a slam dunk) from Chuck Connors occurred during warm-ups, with the team getting their spare backboard from the occupied (at that point in time) Boston Garden, which was hosting a rodeo show at the time. While the team tried to entertain the crowd with a three-on-three match of sorts with the single remaining backboard, by the time the spare backboard was installed, it was suggested that only half of the original crowd remained to actually watch the game properly. After the backboard was repaired, the Celtics lost to the Chicago Stags by a score 57–55. This would become the first-ever broken backboard in BAA/NBA history.^[10]

Throughout this season, the Boston Celtics only had an average total of 1,682 paid attendees per game, with net receipts totaling up to $57,875 for the season and estimated losses totaling up to around $200,000 for this season.^[13] Despite the high amount of money lost during that period of time, the Boston Celtics would be one of six teams to fully confirm their interest in staying on board for another season while playing in the BAA (likely because the team ownership's involvement with the Boston Bruins in the National Hockey League (NHL) would help offset any financial losses caused by the BAA during this short-term period of time).^[14] To this day, they join the New York Knicks as the only inaugural BAA/NBA team to still operate in their original location, with the Golden State Warriors (formerly known as the Philadelphia Warriors) also being the only other BAA/NBA team from this time still existing in the present day.