The Boston Celtics are entering brand new era with a lot of new faces on the roster in 2025-26, but some fans are still pining for the recent past. A topic on X recently arose around the sad fact that Boston’s championship core five of Derrick White, Jrue Holiday, Jaylen Brown, Jayson Tatum, and Kristaps Porzingis only played 51 total games together between the 2023-24 title season and last season (2024-25). With Brad Stevens’ hand forced this offseason by financial pressures, he traded both Holiday and Porzingis to the Portland Trail Blazers and Atlanta Hawks, respectively. Both players suffered from injuries during their joint, two-year stint in Boston, although Holiday was more or less durable. He appeared in 69 games in 2023-24 and 62 in 2024-25. He played in every playoff game in 2024 and was a huge reason why Boston ended up winning it all. In the most recent playoffs, however, Holiday was clearly hurt. He missed three games and wasn’t able to get it going when he did play. On the whole, Holiday’s legacy as a Celtic is excellent. Porzingis, on the other hand, missed far too many games with the Celtics to call his tenure anything other than a mixed bag. He appeared in just 99 regular-season games across two season in Boston, and he wasn’t fully healthy for either postseason run, although he does deserve credit for trying to play in both playoffs and putting together at least one iconic performance in the 2024 postseason (Game 1 of the NBA Finals). Story continues below advertisement Probably a little bias but I do think this was the greatest starting 5 ever when healthy, all 5 guys could play above average defense and shoot from anywhere— Nicholas (@SleepyCiccone) October 20, 2025 While the aforementioned financial limitations would have broken up this core eventually, anyway, it’s still frustrating for Celtics fans to look back and realize that they didn’t play together as a unit all that much. Now, only Tatum, Brown, and White remain, although JT will of course be missing most or all of the upcoming season as he recovers from a serious injury of his own. Story continues below advertisement Thank goodness they got one. No banner from this group would've been a really tough pill to swallow.— Dev, The Celtics Fan (@CelticsDev) October 20, 2025 While fans are allowed to feel however they want, it’s important to acknowledge that the above core did indeed bring the city a championship in 2024, which means everything. Despite Porzingis having a tough stretch of health over two seasons in green, he’s ultimately a champion, and that fact that he did so wearing a Celtics uniform will be a part of his legacy forever. Holiday was already a champ when he arrived to Boston, but his legacy as a Celtic is just as special, if not more so. Story continues below advertisement