2000–01 Boston Celtics season

The 2000–01 Boston Celtics season was the 55th season for the Boston Celtics in the National Basketball Association.^[1] The Celtics received the eleventh overall pick in the 2000 NBA draft, and selected power forward Jérôme Moïso from the University of California, Los Angeles.^[2][3][4] During the off-season, the team acquired Bryant Stith, and second-year guard Chris Herren from the Denver Nuggets,^[5][6][7] and signed free agents Randy Brown,^[8] Chris Carr, second-year guard Milt Palacio,^[9] and rookie center Mark Blount.

Prior to the start of the regular season, the Celtics were nearly hit with tragedy when Paul Pierce was stabbed 11 times in the face, neck and back, and had a bottle smashed over his head, and was attacked by three men at the Buzz Club, a late night dance club in the Boston Theater District on September 25, 2000; Tony Battie, Pierce's Celtic teammate, along with Battie's brother, saved him by rushing him to a nearby hospital, where Pierce had to undergo lung surgery to repair the damage.^[10][11][12] Nevertheless, Pierce was the only Celtic to start all 82 games during the 2000–01 season.^[13]

With the addition of Stith, the Celtics played around .500 in winning percentage in November, but then struggled as Kenny Anderson only played just 33 games due to an ankle injury and broken jaw,^[14][15] and Battie only played just 40 games due to an ankle injury.^[16][17] With a 12–22 start to the regular season, a frustrated Rick Pitino resigned as head coach after three years with the Celtics.^[18][19][20] Under replacement Jim O'Brien, the team played around .500 basketball for the remainder of the season, posting a six-game winning streak between January and February, and holding a 22–27 record at the All-Star break.^[21] However, the Celtics lost six of their final eight games of the season, finishing in fifth place in the Atlantic Division with a 36–46 record, and missing the NBA playoffs for the sixth consecutive year;^[22] in the 39 years before the current streak, they had missed the playoffs only five times.^[1]

Pierce averaged 25.3 points, 6.4 rebounds and 1.7 steals per game, and contributed 147 three-point field goals, while Antoine Walker averaged 23.4 points, 8.9 rebounds, 5.5 assists and 1.7 steals per game, and led the league with 221 three-point field goals. In addition, Stith contributed 9.7 points per game, while Anderson provided the team with 7.5 points, 4.1 assists and 1.3 steals per game, Vitaly Potapenko averaged 7.5 points and 6.0 rebounds per game, and Eric Williams contributed 6.6 points per game. Meanwhile, Battie provided with 6.5 points, 5.8 rebounds and 1.5 blocks per game, Palacio averaged 5.9 points and 2.6 assists per game, Brown contributed 4.1 points and 2.9 assists per game, and Blount averaged 3.9 points and 3.6 rebounds per game.^[23] Pierce also finished in 13th place in Most Valuable Player voting.^[24][25]

The Celtics finished 19th in the NBA in home-game attendance, with an attendance of 629,201 at the FleetCenter during the regular season.^[23][26] Following the season, Stith signed as a free agent with the Cleveland Cavaliers,^[27][28] while second-year guard Adrian Griffin signed with the Dallas Mavericks,^[29][30] and Carr was released to free agency.