After helping the Celtics win the 1985-86 NBA title, Bill Walton always returned to Boston to a champion's welcome.
After helping the Celtics win the 1985-86 NBA title, Bill Walton always returned to Boston to a champion's welcome.Jim Davis/Globe Staff
Let’s call ‘em the Bill Walton All-Stars.
I am talking about a certain genre of Boston athlete here, a category of honorable players we were fortunate to call our own for a fleeting time, but who helped create memories that remain forever part of the region’s sports fabric.
I’m talking about the Boston short-timers who were essential in winning championships.
A scattered few were mercenaries of the most helpful variety. Some had been underestimated and discarded elsewhere, arriving here with scars. Others were acquired because they appeared — and proved to be — The Missing Piece.
Most appreciated the passion of the Boston sports scene. Many reveled in it. All of them, in this century anyway, in this ridiculous run of 13 major professional championships since 2001, learned their way around a duck boat. When they return to Boston, it is obligatory to call them “Champ.”
This topic popped into mind recently for a few reasons.
It’s been more than a year now since Walton, the joyous sixth man on the greatest basketball team that you, me, and Bob Ryan have ever seen, the 1986 Celtics, died from cancer at age 71.
Bill Walton (left) is just one of many athletes to come through the Hub and play a big role in winning a title.
Bill Walton (left) is just one of many athletes to come through the Hub and play a big role in winning a title.Stan Grossfeld/Globe Staff
Walton came to mind often over the last several weeks while watching his former teammate Rick Carlisle, who spoke so eloquently about Walton last May upon news of his death, guide the underestimated Pacers to the seventh game of the NBA Finals. Walton would have loved the way Carlisle’s Pacers played the game.
Walton is also connected to the other reason this was on my mind. The Celtics, mere days after their reign as NBA champions officially came to an end with the Thunder’s Game 7 victory, began the brutal but necessary business of paring a couple of eight-figure annual salaries from their payroll in order to escape the punitive “second apron” tax and roster-building penalties.
That meant bidding farewell in successive days to Jrue Holiday and Kristaps Porzingis, two accomplished and distinctly talented veteran players who arrived via trade before the 2023-24 season and proved to be the perfect missing ingredients to the championship recipe.
It’s a shame that Holiday played just two seasons here, because the guy is a born Celtic in all the admirable ways, an amalgam of Dennis Johnson and K.C. Jones, while also answering the question, “What would it look like if Marcus Smart embraced calm rather than chaos, and also could shoot?”
Porzingis was the Walton of this Celtics era. He loved being here, the fans loved him, he had great perspective due to all he has been through, and he gave a champ a superpower when healthy. It’s both wild and fitting that Walton played one more game as a Celtic than Porzingis (118-117, playoffs included).
Holiday and Porzingis are first-ballot Walton All-Stars, based on our loose parameters of being a short-timer (let’s say three seasons in Boston or less) but a major contributor to a champ.
There are actually more players that meet the qualifications than you might be able to name without the assistance of one sportsreference.com site or another.
So many, in fact, that we’ll keep our acknowledgements today to those who contributed to the aforementioned 13 champions — six Patriots teams, four Red Sox, two Celtics, and one Bruins — since the turn of the century . . . or the arrival of Tom Brady, a far more relevant cultural event.
Sticking with the Celtics, their other banner-raising team this century had its share of Walton All-Stars. James Posey was the ideal sixth man for the ’08 champs, playing lockdown defense, knocking down big 3-pointers, and being an A+ chemistry guy, which included having a different handshake for every teammate.
Posey was here just one season, as was big man P.J. Brown. I’ll pause while you happily replay his crucial jump shot in Game 7 against the Cavaliers in your mind.
How about that other winter team that took up some space of its own in the Garden rafters with the 2010-11 Stanley Cup victory? Mark Recchi, the classic veteran leader, meets the qualifications: He spent three seasons with the Bruins, retiring after beating the Canucks in the Cup Final.
The Patriots have an abundance of these players. Veterans wanted to come here and board the two-decade dynasty in pursuit of a ring. Darrelle Revis, who proved one man can be an island for the ’14 defense, and Chris Long, who won a Super Bowl with the Pats in ’16 and then beat them as an Eagle in ’17, are textbook examples.
The 2004 Patriots — their best Super Bowl winner in my opinion — brought in Corey Dillon, who rambled for a franchise-record 1,635 rushing yards. The 2001 Patriots — their most beloved Super Bowl winner in my opinion — were loaded with dependable vets, among them Antowain Smith, who always got 3.5 yards when they needed 3.
Because 86 years of frustration had been endured before the 2004 Red Sox made everything that came before worth it, some of their Walton All-Stars are among the most unforgettable. It’s crazy to me that post-Nomar stabilizer Orlando Cabrera played just 72 games with the Red Sox. Dave Roberts is rumored to have had a steal of some importance (will investigate further). Pokey Reese, so smooth afield, never played another MLB game after that season.
The ’13 Red Sox were rejuvenated by veterans who came in and instantly became a team — Mike Napoli, Shane Victorino, Ryan Dempster, Stephen Drew . . .
There are many more that could have been mentioned by name. But not everyone gets a salute in the first class.
Perhaps we’ll dig into the pre-2000 Walton All-Star honorees at some point. Already wish I could include Tom Seaver among them.
Chad Finn can be reached at chad.finn@globe.com. Follow him @GlobeChadFinn.