1999–2000 Boston Celtics season 1999–2000 Boston Celtics season The 1999–00 NBA season was the 54th season for the Boston Celtics in the National Basketball Association. During the offseason, the Celtics signed free agent Calbert Cheaney while acquiring Danny Fortson, and former Celtics forward Eric Williams from the Denver Nuggets. In the third year of the Rick Pitino era, the Celtics played around .500 for the first few months, but then struggled suffering a ten-game losing streak between March and April. Fans and the media began to show their impatience with the struggling franchise, who finished out of the playoffs again with a 35–47 record,
Original Celtics of owner Jim Furry for embezzling $190,000 from a New York business. Then, in early October, just a month before the ABL season was to get underway, the Celtics bolted to the newly organized National Basketball League. The new league operated solely in and around the metropolitan New York City, but despite its geographical limitations was stocked with some of the best players in the country. After pulling off a coup by signing the Original Celtics, the NBL brashly raided ABL rosters for additional players. The Brooklyn Arcadians were particularly hard hit, losing stars Red Conaty and Rody Cooney, while