1997–98 Boston Celtics season 1997–98 Boston Celtics season The 1997–98 NBA season was the 52nd season for the Boston Celtics in the National Basketball Association. In the 1997 NBA draft, the Celtics selected Chauncey Billups out of the University of Colorado with the third pick. Billups only spent half of his rookie season in Boston, and was traded along with Dee Brown to the Toronto Raptors for Kenny Anderson at midseason. The Celtics also had the sixth pick in the draft and selected Ron Mercer from the University of Kentucky. In the offseason, they acquired second-year forward Walter McCarty from the New York Knicks
Original Celtics fourth place, while first-half winner Cleveland slumped badly to fifth place. Cleveland’s fall was precipitated by the hasty mid-season departure of star Honey Russell, who was exiled to Chicago after a disagreement with team owner Max Rosenblum. The Celtics easily disposed of the weakened Cleveland team in three straight games to take the ABL championship. In 1926, the American Basketball League, developed by sports entrepreneur George Preston Marshall, effectively railroaded the team into joining its ranks by prohibiting member teams from playing against them. The Original Celtics responded by winning the next two ABL titles. During their first full season