title: Central Intelligence Agency

text: The CIA's prime source in Lebanon was Bashir Gemayel, a member of the Christian Maronite sect. The uprising against the Maronite minority blindsided the CIA. Israel invaded Lebanon, and, along with the CIA, propped up Gemayel. This secured Gemayel's assurance that Americans would be protected in Lebanon. Thirteen days later he was assassinated. Imad Mughniyah, a Hezbollah assassin, targeted Americans in retaliation for the Israeli invasion, the Sabra and Shatila massacre, and the US Marines of the Multi-National Force for their role in opposing the PLO in Lebanon. On April 18, 1983, a 2,000 lb car bomb exploded in the lobby of the American embassy in Beirut, killing 63 people, including 17 Americans and 7 CIA officers, including Robert Ames, one of the CIA's Middle East experts. America's fortunes in Lebanon suffered more as America's poorly-directed retaliation for the bombing was interpreted by many as support for the Maronite minority. On October 23, 1983, two bombs (1983 Beirut Bombing) were set off in Beirut, including a 10-ton bomb at a US military barracks that killed 242 people.


title: Central Intelligence Agency

text: The Embassy bombing killed the CIA's Beirut Station Chief, Ken Haas. Bill Buckley was sent in to replace him. Eighteen days after the US Marines left Lebanon, Buckley was kidnapped. On March 7, 1984, Jeremy Levin, CNN Bureau Chief in Beirut, was kidnapped. Twelve more Americans were captured in Beirut during the Reagan Administration. Manucher Ghorbanifar, a former Savak agent, was an information seller, and was discredited over his record of misinformation. He reached out to the agency offering a back channel to Iran, suggesting a trade of missiles that would be lucrative to the intermediaries.


title: Central Intelligence Agency

text: It has been alleged by such authors as Ahmed Rashid that the CIA and ISI have been waging a clandestine war. The Afghan Talibanwith whom the United States is officially in conflictis headquartered in Pakistan's Federally Administered Tribal Areas and according to some reports is largely funded by the ISI. The Pakistani government denies this.


title: Central Intelligence Agency

text: On May 11, 1998, CIA Director George Tenet and his agency were taken aback by India's second nuclear test. The bellicose gesture ruffled the feathers of its nuclear-capable adversary, Pakistan, and, furthermore, "remade the balance of power in the world." The nuclear test was New Delhi's calculated response to Pakistan previously testing new missiles in its expanding arsenal. This series of events subsequently revealed the CIA's "failure of espionage, a failure to read photographs, a failure to comprehend reports, a failure to think, and a failure to see."


title: Central Intelligence Agency

text: Unlike the Carter Administration, the Reagan Administration supported the Solidarity movement in Poland, andbased on CIA intelligencewaged a public relations campaign to deter what the Carter administration felt was "an imminent move by large Soviet military forces into Poland." Colonel Ryszard Kukliński, a senior officer on the Polish General Staff, was secretly sending reports to the CIA. The CIA transferred around $2 million yearly in cash to Solidarity, which suggests that $10 million total is a reasonable estimate for the five-year total. There were no direct links between the CIA and "Solidarnosc", and all money was channeled through third parties. CIA officers were barred from meeting Solidarity leaders, and the CIA's contacts with "Solidarnosc" activists were weaker than those of the AFL–CIO, which raised 300 thousand dollars from its members, which were used to provide material and cash directly to Solidarity, with no control of Solidarity's use of it. The U.S. Congress authorized the National Endowment for Democracy to promote democracy, and the NED allocated $10 million to Solidarity. When the Polish government launched a crackdown of its own in December 1981, however, Solidarity was not alerted. Potential explanations for this vary; some believe that the CIA was caught off guard, while others suggest that American policy-makers viewed an internal crackdown as preferable to an "inevitable Soviet intervention." CIA support for Solidarity included money, equipment and training, which was coordinated by Special Operations CIA division. Henry Hyde, U.S. House intelligence committee member, stated that USA provided "supplies and technical assistance in terms of clandestine newspapers, broadcasting, propaganda, money, organizational help and advice". Michael Reisman from Yale Law School named operations in Poland as one of the covert actions of CIA during Cold War. Initial funds for covert actions by CIA were $2 million, but soon after authorization was increased and by 1985 CIA successfully infiltrated Poland Rainer Thiel in "Nested Games of External Democracy Promotion: The United States and the Polish Liberalization 1980–1989" mentions how covert operations by CIA and spy games among others allowed USA to proceed with successful regime change.


title: Central Intelligence Agency

text: During the Iran–Iraq War, the CIA had backed both sides. The CIA had maintained a network of spies in Iran, but in 1989 a CIA mistake compromised every agent they had in there, and the CIA had no agents in Iraq. In the weeks before the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait, the CIA downplayed the military buildup. During the war, CIA estimates of Iraqi abilities and intentions flip-flopped and were rarely accurate. In one particular case, the DOD had asked the CIA to identify military targets to bomb. One target the CIA identified was an underground shelter. The CIA didn't know that it was a civilian bomb shelter. In a rare instance, the CIA correctly determined that the coalition forces efforts were coming up short in their efforts to destroy SCUD missiles. Congress took away the CIA's role in interpreting spy-satellite photos, putting the CIA's satellite intelligence operations under the auspices of the military. The CIA created its office of military affairs, which operated as "second-echelon support for the Pentagon. .. answering ... questions from military men [like] 'how wide is this road?'"


title: Central Intelligence Agency

text: Gorbachev's announcement of the unilateral reduction of 500,000 Soviet troops took the CIA by surprise. Moreover, Doug MacEachin, the CIA's Chief of Soviet analysis, said that even if the CIA had told the President, the NSC, and Congress about the cuts beforehand, it would have been ignored. "We never would have been able to publish it." All the CIA numbers on the USSR's economy were wrong. Too often the CIA relied on inexperienced people supposedly deemed experts. Bob Gates had preceded Doug MacEachin as Chief of Soviet analysis, and he had never visited Russia. Few officers, even those stationed in the country, spoke the language of the people on whom they spied. And the CIA could not send agents to respond to developing situations. The CIA analysis of Russia during the Cold War was either driven by ideology, or by politics. William J. Crowe, the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, noted that the CIA "talked about the Soviet Union as if they weren't reading the newspapers, much less developed clandestine intelligence."


title: Central Intelligence Agency

text: On January 25, 1993, Mir Qazi opened fire at the CIA headquarters in Langley, Virginia, killing two officers and wounding three others. On February 26, Al-Qaeda terrorists led by Ramzi Yousef bombed the parking garage below the North Tower of the World Trade Center in New York City, killing six people and injuring 1,402 others.


title: Central Intelligence Agency

text: During the Bosnian War, the CIA ignored signs within and without of the Srebrenica massacre. On July 13, 1995, when the press report about the massacre came out, the CIA received pictures from spy satellite of prisoners guarded by men with guns in Srebrenica. The CIA had no agents on the ground to verify the report. Two weeks after news reports of the slaughter, the CIA sent a U-2 to photograph it. A week later the CIA completed its report on the matter. The final report came to the Oval Office on August 4, 1995. In short, it took three weeks for the agency to confirm that one of the largest mass murders in Europe since the Second World War had occurred. Another CIA mistake which occurred in the Balkans during the Clinton presidency was the NATO bombing of Serbia. To force Slobodan Milošević to withdraw his troops from Kosovo, the CIA had been invited to provide military targets for bombings, wherein the agency's analysts used tourist maps to determine the location. However, the agency incorrectly provided the coordinates of the Chinese Embassy as a target resulting in its bombing. The CIA had misread the target as Slobodan Milosevic 's military depot.


title: Central Intelligence Agency

text: In France, the CIA had orders for economic intelligence; a female CIA agent revealed her connections to the CIA to the French. Dick Holm, Paris Station Chief, was expelled. In Guatemala, the CIA produced the Murphy Memo, based on audio recordings made by covert listening devices planted by Guatemalan intelligence in the bedroom of Ambassador Marilyn McAfee. In the recording, Ambassador McAfee verbally entreated "Murphy." The CIA circulated a memo in the highest Washington circles accusing Ambassador McAfee of having an extramarital lesbian affair with her secretary, Carol Murphy. There was no affair. Ambassador McAfee was calling to Murphy, her poodle.


title: Central Intelligence Agency

text: Harold James Nicholson would burn several serving officers and three years of trainees before he was caught spying for Russia. In 1997 the House would pen another report, which said that CIA officers know little about the language or politics of the people they spy on; the conclusion was that the CIA lacked the "depth, breadth, and expertise to monitor political, military, and economic developments worldwide." Russ Travers said in the CIA in-house journal that in five years "intelligence failure is inevitable". In 1997 the CIA's new director George Tenet would promise a new working agency by 2002. The CIA's surprise at India's detonation of an atom bomb was a failure at almost every level. After the 1998 embassy bombings by Al Qaeda, the CIA offered two targets to be hit in retaliation. One of them was the Al-Shifa pharmaceutical factory, where traces of chemical weapon precursors had been detected. In the aftermath, it was concluded that "the decision to target al Shifa continues a tradition of operating on inadequate intelligence about Sudan." It triggered the CIA to make "substantial and sweeping changes" to prevent "a catastrophic systemic intelligence failure." Between 1991 and 1998 the CIA lost 3,000 employees.


title: Central Intelligence Agency

text: Between 1985 and 1986, the CIA lost every spy it had in Eastern Europe. The details of the investigation into the cause were obscured from the new Director, and the investigation had little success and has been widely criticized. On February 21, 1994, FBI agents pulled Aldrich Ames out of his Jaguar. In the investigation that ensued, the CIA discovered that many of the sources for its most important analyses of the USSR were based on Soviet disinformation fed to the CIA by controlled agents. On top of that, it was discovered that, in some cases, the CIA suspected at the time that the sources were compromised, but the information was sent up the chain as genuine.


title: Central Intelligence Agency

text: Agency files show that it is believed Osama bin Laden was funding the Afghan rebels against the USSR in the 1980s. In 1991, bin Laden returned to his native Saudi Arabia protesting the presence of troops, and Operation Desert Storm. He was expelled from the country. In 1996, the CIA created a team to hunt bin Laden. They were trading information with the Sudanese until, on the word of a source that would later be found to be a fabricator, the CIA closed its Sudan station later that year. In 1998, bin Laden would declare war on America, and, on August 7, strike in Tanzania and Nairobi. On October 12, 2000, Al Qaeda bombed the USS "Cole". In the first days of George W. Bush's presidency, Al Qaeda threats were ubiquitous in daily presidential CIA briefings, but it may have become a case of false alarm. The agency's predictions were dire but carried little weight, and the focus of the president and his defense staff were elsewhere. The CIA arranged the arrests of suspected Al Qaeda members through cooperation with foreign agencies, but the CIA could not definitively say what effect these arrests have had, and it could not gain hard intelligence from those captured. The President had asked the CIA if Al Qaeda could plan attacks in the US. On August 6, Bush received a daily briefing with the headline, not based on current, solid intelligence, "Al Qaeda determined to strike inside the US." The US had been hunting bin Laden since 1996 and had had several opportunities, but neither Clinton, nor Bush had wanted to risk taking an active role in a murky assassination plot, and the perfect opportunity had never materialized for a DCI that would have given him the reassurances he needed to take the plunge. That day, Richard A. Clarke sent National Security Advisor Condoleezza Rice warning of the risks, and decrying the inaction of the CIA.


title: Central Intelligence Agency

text: The CIA had long been dealing with terrorism originating from abroad, and in 1986 had set up a Counterterrorist Center to deal specifically with the problem. At first, confronted with secular terrorism, the agency found Islamist terrorism looming increasingly large on its scope.


title: Central Intelligence Agency

text: In January 1996, the CIA created an experimental "virtual station," the Bin Laden Issue Station, under the Counterterrorist Center, to track bin Laden's developing activities. Al-Fadl, who defected to the CIA in spring 1996, began to provide the Station with a new image of the Al Qaeda leader: he was not only a terrorist financier but a terrorist organizer as well. FBI Special Agent Dan Coleman (who together with his partner Jack Cloonan had been "seconded" to the bin Laden Station) called him Qaeda's "Rosetta Stone".


title: Central Intelligence Agency

text: In 1999, CIA chief George Tenet launched a plan to deal with al-Qaeda. The Counterterrorist Center, its new chief, Cofer Black, and the center's bin Laden unit were the plan's developers and executors. Once it was prepared, Tenet assigned CIA intelligence chief Charles E. Allen to set up a "Qaeda cell" to oversee its tactical execution. In 2000, the CIA and USAF jointly ran a series of flights over Afghanistan with a small remote-controlled reconnaissance drone, the Predator; they obtained probable photos of bin Laden. Cofer Black and others became advocates of arming the Predator with missiles to try to assassinate bin Laden and other al-Qaeda leaders. After the Cabinet-level Principals Committee meeting on terrorism of September 4, 2001, the CIA resumed reconnaissance flights, the drones now being weapons-capable.


title: Central Intelligence Agency

text: On September 11, 2001, 19 Al-Qaeda members hijacked four passenger jets within the Northeastern United States in a series of coordinated terrorist attacks. Two planes crashed into the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center in New York City, the third into the Pentagon in Arlington County, Virginia, and the fourth inadvertently into a field near Shanksville, Pennsylvania. The attacks cost the lives of 2,996 people (including the 19 hijackers), caused the destruction of the Twin Towers, and damaged the western side of the Pentagon. Soon after 9/11, "The New York Times" released a story stating that the CIA's New York field office was destroyed in the wake of the attacks. According to unnamed CIA sources, while first responders, military personnel and volunteers were conducting rescue efforts at the World Trade Center site, a special CIA team was searching the rubble for both digital and paper copies of classified documents. This was done according to well-rehearsed document recovery procedures put in place after the Iranian takeover of the United States Embassy in Tehran in 1979. While it was not confirmed whether the agency was able to retrieve the classified information, it is known that all officers present that day fled the building safely.


title: Central Intelligence Agency

text: While the CIA insists that those who conducted the attacks on 9/11 were not aware that the agency was operating at 7 World Trade Center under the guise of another (unidentified) federal agency, this center was the headquarters for many notable criminal terrorism investigations. Though the New York field offices' main responsibilities were to monitor and recruit foreign officials stationed at the United Nations, the field office also handled the investigations of the August 1998 bombings of United States Embassies in East Africa and the October 2000 bombing of the USS "Cole". Despite the fact that the 9/11 attacks may have damaged the CIA's New York branch, and they had to loan office space from the US Mission to the United Nations and other federal agencies, there was an upside for the CIA. In the months immediately following 9/11, there was a huge increase in the number of applications for CIA positions. According to CIA representatives that spoke with "The New York Times", pre-9/11 the agency received approximately 500 to 600 applications a week, in the months following 9/11 the agency received that number daily.


title: Central Intelligence Agency

text: The intelligence community as a whole, and especially the CIA, were involved in presidential planning immediately after the 9/11 attacks. In his address to the nation at 8:30pm on September 11, 2001, George W. Bush mentioned the intelligence community: "The search is underway for those who are behind these evil acts, I've directed the full resource of our "intelligence" and law enforcement communities to find those responsible and bring them to justice."


title: Central Intelligence Agency

text: The involvement of the CIA in the newly coined "War on Terror" was further increased on September 15, 2001. During a meeting at Camp David George W. Bush agreed to adopt a plan proposed by CIA director George Tenet. This plan consisted of conducting a covert war in which CIA paramilitary officers would cooperate with anti-Taliban guerillas inside Afghanistan. They would later be joined by small special operations forces teams which would call in precision airstrikes on Taliban and Al Qaeda fighters. This plan was codified on September 16, 2001, with Bush's signature of an official Memorandum of Notification that allowed the plan to proceed.


title: Central Intelligence Agency

text: On November 25–27, 2001, Taliban prisoners revolted at the Qala Jangi prison west of Mazar-e-Sharif. Though several days of struggle occurred between the Taliban prisoners and the Northern Alliance members present, the prisoners gained the upper hand and obtained North Alliance weapons. At some point during this period Johnny "Mike" Spann, a CIA officer sent to question the prisoners, was beaten to death. He became the first American to die in combat in the war in Afghanistan.


title: Central Intelligence Agency

text: After 9/11, the CIA came under criticism for not having done enough to prevent the attacks. Tenet rejected the criticism, citing the agency's planning efforts especially over the preceding two years. He also considered that the CIA's efforts had put the agency in a position to respond rapidly and effectively to the attacks, both in the "Afghan sanctuary" and in "ninety-two countries around the world". The new strategy was called the "Worldwide Attack Matrix".


title: Central Intelligence Agency

text: Anwar al-Awlaki, a Yemeni-American U.S. citizen and al-Qaeda member, was killed on September 30, 2011, by an airstrike conducted by the Joint Special Operations Command. After several days of surveillance of Awlaki by the Central Intelligence Agency, armed drones took off from a new, secret American base in the Arabian Peninsula, crossed into northern Yemen, and fired several Hellfire missiles at al-Awlaki's vehicle. Samir Khan, a Pakistani-American al-Qaeda member and editor of the jihadist "Inspire" magazine, also reportedly died in the attack. The combined CIA/JSOC drone strike was the first in Yemen since 2002 – there have been others by the military's Special Operations forces – and was part of an effort by the spy agency to duplicate in Yemen the covert war which has been running in Afghanistan and Pakistan.


title: Central Intelligence Agency

text: A major criticism is a failure to forestall the September 11 attacks. The 9/11 Commission Report identified failures in the IC as a whole. One problem, for example, was the FBI failing to "connect the dots" by sharing information among its decentralized field offices.


title: Central Intelligence Agency

text: The report concluded that former DCI George Tenet failed to adequately prepare the agency to deal with the danger posed by al-Qaeda prior to the attacks of September 11, 2001. The report was finished in June 2005 and was partially released to the public in an agreement with Congress, over the objections of current DCI General Michael Hayden. Hayden said its publication would "consume time and attention revisiting ground that is already well plowed." Tenet disagreed with the report's conclusions, citing his planning efforts vis-à-vis al-Qaeda, particularly from 1999. Assistant Secretary of State for Intelligence, Carl W. Ford Jr. remarked, ""As long as we rate intelligence more for its volume than its quality, we will continue to turn out the $40 billion pile of crap we have become famous for." He further stated, "[The CIA is] broken. It's so broken that nobody wants to believe it."


title: Central Intelligence Agency

text: Conditions worsened in the mid-1970s, around the time of Watergate. A dominant feature of political life during that period were the attempts of Congress to assert oversight of the U.S. presidency and the executive branch of the U.S. government. Revelations about past CIA activities, such as assassinations and attempted assassinations of foreign leaders (most notably Fidel Castro and Rafael Trujillo) and illegal domestic spying on U.S. citizens, provided the opportunities to increase Congressional oversight of U.S. intelligence operations. CIA involvement in Contra cocaine trafficking in Nicaragua and complicity in the actions of the death squads in El Salvador and Honduras also came to light.


title: Central Intelligence Agency

text: Hastening the CIA's fall from grace was the burglary of the Watergate headquarters of the Democratic Party by former CIA officers, and President Richard Nixon's subsequent attempt to use the CIA to impede the FBI's investigation of the burglary. In the famous "smoking gun" recording that led to President Nixon's resignation, Nixon ordered his chief of staff, H. R. Haldeman, to tell the CIA that further investigation of Watergate would ""open the whole can of worms about the Bay of Pigs"". In this way Nixon and Haldeman ensured that the CIA's No. 1 and No. 2 ranking officials, Richard Helms and Vernon Walters, communicated to FBI Director L. Patrick Gray that the FBI should not follow the money trail from the burglars to the Committee to Re-elect the President, as it would uncover CIA informants in Mexico. The FBI initially agreed to this due to a long-standing agreement between the FBI and CIA not to uncover each other's sources of information, though within a couple of weeks the FBI demanded this request in writing, and when no such formal request came, the FBI resumed its investigation into the money trail. Nonetheless, when the smoking gun tapes were made public, damage to the public's perception of CIA's top officials, and thus to the CIA as a whole, could not be avoided.


title: Central Intelligence Agency

text: Repercussions from the Iran–Contra affair arms smuggling scandal included the creation of the Intelligence Authorization Act in 1991. It defined covert operations as secret missions in geopolitical areas where the U.S. is neither openly nor engaged. This also required an authorizing chain of command, including an official, presidential finding report and the informing of the House and Senate Intelligence Committees, which, in emergencies, requires only "timely notification."


title: Central Intelligence Agency

text: Seventy-two days after the 9/11 attacks, President Bush told Secretary of Defense Rumsfeld to update the US plan for an invasion of Iraq, but not to tell anyone. Rumsfeld asked Bush if he could bring DCI Tenet into the loop, to which Bush agreed.


title: Central Intelligence Agency

text: The CIA had put out feelers to Iraq in the form of eight of their best officers in Kurdish territory in Northern Iraq. These officers hit a goldmine, unprecedented in the famously closed Hussein government. By December 2002, the CIA had close to a dozen functional networks in Iraq and would penetrate Iraq's SSO, tap the encrypted communications of the Deputy Prime Minister, and recruit the bodyguard of Hussein's son as an agent. As time passed, the CIA would become more and more frantic about the possibility of their networks being compromised. To the CIA, the invasion had to occur before the end of February 2003 if their sources inside Hussein's government were to survive. The rollup would happen as predicted, 37 CIA sources recognized by their Thuraya satellite telephones provided for them by the CIA.


title: Central Intelligence Agency

text: The case Colin Powell presented before the United Nations (purportedly proving an Iraqi WMD program) was inaccurate. DDCI John E. McLaughlin was part of a long discussion in the CIA about equivocation. McLaughlin, who would make, among others, the "slam dunk" presentation to the President, "felt that they had to dare to be wrong to be clearer in their judgments". The Al Qaeda connection, for instance, was from a single source, extracted through torture, and was later denied. Curveball was a known liar, and the sole source for the mobile chemical weapons factories. A postmortem of the intelligence failures in the lead up to Iraq led by former DDCI Richard Kerr would conclude that the CIA had been a casualty of the Cold War, wiped out in a way "analogous to the effect of the meteor strikes on the dinosaurs."


title: Central Intelligence Agency

text: The opening days of the invasion of Iraq would see successes and defeats for the CIA. With its Iraq networks compromised, and its strategic and tactical information shallow, and often wrong, the intelligence side of the invasion itself would be a black eye for the agency. The CIA would see some success with its "Scorpion" paramilitary teams composed of CIA Special Activities Division paramilitary officers, along with friendly Iraqi partisans. CIA SAD officers would also help the US 10th Special Forces. The occupation of Iraq would be a low point in the history of the CIA. At the largest CIA station in the world, officers would rotate through 1–3-month tours. In Iraq, almost 500 transient officers would be trapped inside the Green Zone while Iraq station chiefs would rotate with only a little less frequency.


title: Central Intelligence Agency

text: The Intelligence Reform and Terrorism Prevention Act of 2004 created the office of the Director of National Intelligence (DNI), who took over some of the government and intelligence community (IC)-wide functions that had previously been the CIA's. The DNI manages the United States Intelligence Community and in so doing it manages the intelligence cycle. Among the functions that moved to the DNI were the preparation of estimates reflecting the consolidated opinion of the 16 IC agencies, and preparation of briefings for the president. On July 30, 2008, President Bush issued Executive Order 13470 amending Executive Order 12333 to strengthen the role of the DNI.


title: Central Intelligence Agency

text: Previously, the Director of Central Intelligence (DCI) oversaw the Intelligence Community, serving as the president's principal intelligence advisor, additionally serving as head of the CIA. The DCI's title now is "Director of the Central Intelligence Agency" (D/CIA), serving as head of the CIA.


title: Central Intelligence Agency

text: Currently, the CIA reports to the Director of National Intelligence. Before the establishment of the DNI, the CIA reported to the President, with informational briefings to congressional committees. The National Security Advisor is a permanent member of the National Security Council, responsible for briefing the President with pertinent information collected by all U.S. intelligence agencies, including the National Security Agency, the Drug Enforcement Administration, etc. All 16 Intelligence Community agencies are under the authority of the Director of National Intelligence.


title: Central Intelligence Agency

text: On May 1, 2011, President Barack Obama announced that Osama bin Laden was killed earlier that day by "a small team of Americans" operating in Abbottabad, Pakistan, during a CIA operation. The raid was executed from a CIA forward base in Afghanistan by elements of the U.S. Navy's Naval Special Warfare Development Group and CIA paramilitary operatives.


title: Central Intelligence Agency

text: The operation was a result of years of intelligence work that included the CIA's capture and interrogation of Khalid Sheik Mohammad, which led to the identity of a courier of bin Laden's, the tracking of the courier to the compound by Special Activities Division paramilitary operatives and the establishing of a CIA safe house to provide critical tactical intelligence for the operation.


title: Central Intelligence Agency

text: The CIA ran a fake vaccination clinic in an attempt to locate Osama bin Laden. This was revealed after bin Laden's death and may have negatively affected the campaign against Polio in Pakistan and Afghanistan. In some rural areas, vaccination workers were banned by the Taliban or chased away by locals. There have been many deadly attacks by militants against vaccination workers in Pakistan. Efforts to eradicate polio have furthermore been disrupted by American drone strikes.


title: Central Intelligence Agency

text: Under the aegis of operation Timber Sycamore and other clandestine activities, CIA operatives and U.S. special operations troops have trained and armed nearly 10,000 rebel fighters at a cost of $1 billion a year. The CIA has been sending weapons to anti-government rebels in Syria since at least 2012. These weapons have been reportedly falling into hands of extremists, such as al-Nusra Front and ISIL. Around February 2017, the CIA was instructed to halt military aid to Syrian rebels (Free Syrian Army or FSA), which also included training, ammunition, guided missiles, and salaries. Sources state that the hold on aid was not related to the transitions from Obama's administration to Trump's, but rather due to issues faced by the FSA. Based on responses by rebel officials, they believe that the aid freeze is related to concerns that weapons and funds will fall into the hands of ISIL. Based on information obtained by Reuters, five FSA groups have confirmed that they received funding and military support from a source called "MOM operations room." Several countries besides the U.S., including Turkey, Qatar, and Saudi Arabia, had also contributed to the funding of the FSA. On April 6, 2017, Al-Jazeera reported that funding to the FSA was partially restored. Based on the information provided by two FSA sources, the new military operation room will receive its funds from the coalition "Friends of Syria." The coalition consists of members from the U.S., Turkey, Western Europe, and Gulf states, which previously supported the military operation known as MOM.


title: Central Intelligence Agency

text: It was reported in July 2017 that President Donald Trump had ordered a "phasing out" of the CIA's support for anti-Assad rebels.


title: Central Intelligence Agency

text: On March 6, 2015, the office of the D/CIA issued an unclassified edition of a statement by the Director, titled "Our Agency's Blueprint for the Future," as a press release for public consumption. The press release announced sweeping plans for the reorganization and reform of the CIA, which the Director believes will bring the CIA more in line with the agency doctrine called the 'Strategic Direction.' Among the key changes disclosed include the establishment of a new directorate, the Directorate of Digital Innovation, which is responsible for designing and crafting the digital technology to be used by the agency, to keep the CIA always ahead of its enemies. The Directorate of Digital Innovation will also train CIA staff in the use of this technology, to prepare the CIA for the future, and it will also use the technological revolution to deal with cyber-terrorism and other perceived threats. The new directorate will be the chief cyber-espionage arm of the agency going forward.


title: Central Intelligence Agency

text: Other changes which were announced include the formation of a Talent Development Center of Excellence, the enhancement and expansion of the CIA University and the creation of the office of the Chancellor to head the CIA University to consolidate and unify recruitment and training efforts. The office of the executive director will be empowered and expanded, and the secretarial offices serving the executive director will be streamlined. The restructuring of the entire Agency is to be revamped according to a new model whereby governance is modeled after the structure and hierarchy of corporations, said to increase the efficiency of workflow and to enable the executive director to manage day-to-day activity significantly. As well, another stated intention was to establish 'Mission Centers', each one to deal with a specific geographic region of the world, which will bring the full collaboration and joint efforts of the five Directorates together under one roof. While the Directorate heads will still retain ultimate authority over their respective Directorate, the Mission Centers will be led by an assistant director who will work with the capabilities and talents of all five Directorates on mission-specific goals for the parts of the world which they are given responsibility for.


title: Central Intelligence Agency

text: The unclassified version of the document ends with the announcement that the National Clandestine Service (NCS) will be reverting to its original Directorate name, the Directorate of Operations. The Directorate of Intelligence is also being renamed. It will now be the Directorate of Analysis.


title: Central Intelligence Agency

text: A new policy introduced by President Barack Obama removed the authority of the CIA to launch drone attacks and allowed these attacks only under Department of Defense command. This change was reversed by President Donald Trump, who authorized CIA drone strikes on suspected terrorists.


title: Central Intelligence Agency

text: For decades until 2018, the CIA secretly owned Crypto AG, a small Swiss company that made encryption devices, in association with West German intelligence. The company sold compromised encryption devices to over 120 countries, allowing Western intelligence to eavesdrop on communications that the users believed to be secure.


title: Central Intelligence Agency

text: Until the 2004 reorganization of the intelligence community, one of the "services of common concern" that the CIA provided was open source intelligence from the Foreign Broadcast Information Service (FBIS). FBIS, which had absorbed the Joint Publication Research Service, a military organization that translated documents, moved into the National Open Source Enterprise under the Director of National Intelligence.


title: Central Intelligence Agency

text: During the Reagan administration, Michael Sekora (assigned to the DIA), worked with agencies across the intelligence community, including the CIA, to develop and deploy a technology-based competitive strategy system called Project Socrates. Project Socrates was designed to utilize open source intelligence gathering almost exclusively. The technology-focused Socrates system supported such programs as the Strategic Defense Initiative in addition to private sector projects.


title: Central Intelligence Agency

text: As part of its mandate to gather intelligence, the CIA is looking increasingly online for information, and has become a major consumer of social media. "We're looking at YouTube, which carries some unique and honest-to-goodness intelligence," said Doug Naquin, director of the DNI Open Source Center (OSC) at CIA headquarters. "We're looking at chat rooms and things that didn't exist five years ago, and trying to stay ahead." CIA launched a Twitter account in June 2014.


title: Central Intelligence Agency

text: Many of the duties and functions of Intelligence Community activities, not the CIA alone, are being outsourced and privatized. Mike McConnell, former Director of National Intelligence, was about to publicize an investigation report of outsourcing by U.S. intelligence agencies, as required by Congress. However, this report was then classified. Hillhouse speculates that this report includes requirements for the CIA to report:


title: Central Intelligence Agency

text: The problem is two-fold. Part of the problem, according to Author Tim Weiner, is that political appointees designated by recent presidential administrations have sometimes been under-qualified or over-zealous politically. Large scale purges have taken place in the upper echelons of the CIA, and when those talented individuals are pushed out the door they have frequently gone on to found new independent intelligence companies which can suck up CIA talent. Another part of the contracting problem comes from Congressional restrictions on the number of employees within the IC. According to Hillhouse, this resulted in 70% of the de facto workforce of the CIA's National Clandestine Service being made up of contractors. "After years of contributing to the increasing reliance upon contractors, Congress is now providing a framework for the conversion of contractors into federal government employeesmore or less." The number of independent contractors hired by the Federal government across the intelligence community has skyrocketed. So, not only does the CIA have trouble hiring, but those hires will frequently leave their permanent employ for shorter term contract gigs which have much higher pay and allow for more career mobility.


title: Central Intelligence Agency

text: As with most government agencies, building equipment often is contracted. The National Reconnaissance Office (NRO), responsible for the development and operation of airborne and spaceborne sensors, long was a joint operation of the CIA and the United States Department of Defense. The NRO had been significantly involved in the design of such sensors, but the NRO, then under DCI authority, contracted more of the design that had been their tradition, and to a contractor without extensive reconnaissance experience, Boeing. The next-generation satellite Future Imagery Architecture project "how does heaven look," which missed objectives after $4 billion in cost overruns, was the result of this contract.


title: Central Intelligence Agency

text: Some of the cost problems associated with intelligence come from one agency, or even a group within an agency, not accepting the compartmented security practices for individual projects, requiring expensive duplication.


title: Tatiana Maslany

text: Tatiana Gabriele Maslany ( ; born September 22, 1985) is a Canadian actress. She rose to prominence for playing multiple characters in the science fiction thriller television series "Orphan Black" (2013–2017), which won her a Primetime Emmy Award (2016), two Critics' Choice Awards (2013 and 2014), and five Canadian Screen Awards (2014–18). Maslany is the first Canadian to win an Emmy in a major dramatic category for acting in a Canadian series.


title: Tatiana Maslany

text: Maslany also appeared in television series such as "Heartland" (2008–2010), "The Nativity" (2010), "Being Erica" (2009–2011), "Perry Mason" (2020), and "" (2022) in the lead role of Jennifer Walters / She-Hulk. Her other notable films include "Diary of the Dead" (2007), "Eastern Promises" (2007), "The Vow" (2012), "Picture Day" (2012), "Cas and Dylan" (2013), "Woman in Gold" (2015), "Stronger" (2017), and "Destroyer" (2018). For starring in the romantic drama "The Other Half" (2016), she won the Canadian Screen Award for Best Actress.


title: Tatiana Maslany

text: Maslany was born in Regina, Saskatchewan, the daughter of Daniel Maslany, a woodworker, and Renate (née Kratz), a French–English translator and interpreter. She has two younger brothers, fellow actor Daniel Maslany and animator Michael Maslany. She has Austrian, German, Polish, Romanian, and Ukrainian ancestry. For elementary school, Maslany was in French immersion and was taught in German by her mother before learning English. Additionally, her grandparents spoke German around her as a child. She also speaks some Spanish. She has danced since age four and started community theatre and musicals at the age of nine.


title: Tatiana Maslany

text: Maslany attended Dr. Martin LeBoldus High School, where she participated in school productions and improvisation, and graduated in 2003. While attending high school, she found paying acting jobs that allowed her to travel all over Canada with her parents' approval. She would work for a few months at a time and then return to school in Regina. She stated, "It wasn't an easy transition. I felt a little outside of it. Outside of both experiences, really."


title: Tatiana Maslany

text: After completing high school, she took a gap year before entering University of Regina, studying German, Ancient Greek, Philosophy, Psychology, and film. She dropped out after half a semester. She spent some time doing theatre performances and travelling before settling in Toronto, Ontario, at the age of 20.


title: Tatiana Maslany

text: Maslany was one of the stars of the 2002 Canadian television series "2030 CE". She appeared as the character Ghost in the 2004 film "". Maslany performed comedic improvisation for ten years. She participated in improvisational theatre, including the Canadian Improv Games, and has since become a member of the General Fools Improvisational Theatre. She is a certified improvisation trainer.


title: Tatiana Maslany

text: In 2007, Maslany appeared in "The Messengers" and starred in the CBC series "Heartland". During 2008, she had a recurring role on "Instant Star", provided the voice of Tatiana in "Eastern Promises", and had a lead role in the Hallmark Channel film "An Old Fashioned Thanksgiving". In September 2008, she portrayed a kidnapping victim in the Canadian series "Flashpoint".


title: Tatiana Maslany

text: Maslany appeared in the second season of the Canadian television series "Being Erica" in 2010. Also in 2010, she appeared as the protagonist Mary, the mother of Jesus, in the British four-part television series "The Nativity". Her role in "Grown Up Movie Star" earned Maslany a special jury breakout role award at the 2010 Sundance Film Festival. Also in 2010, she appeared in one episode of "The Listener" and the direct-to-video film "Hardwired". In late 2011, she co-starred in the film adaptation of "John Sandford's Certain Prey". In 2012, Maslany appeared as lead character Claire in "Picture Day", for which she won a Phillip Borsos Award for Best Performance at the 2012 Whistler Film Festival. Also in 2012, she played the character of Sister Meir in the historical fiction mini-series "World Without End".


title: Tatiana Maslany

text: From 2013 to 2017, Maslany starred in the BBC America and Space original series "Orphan Black". She played the lead character, Sarah Manning, and Sarah's cohort of clones. Maslany won two Critics' Choice Television Awards and one TCA Award for her performance in the series. She was also nominated for a Golden Globe Award for Best Actress and in 2015 received a nomination for an Emmy Award for her performance. She was again nominated in 2016 and won the category. Maslany received a nomination for Best Lead Actress in a Drama Series at the 7th Critics' Choice Television Awards, her third total nomination from the Broadcast Television Journalists Association. "The Guardian" praised Maslany's performance in the series, calling it "Olympic-level acting" and praised her ability to play a series of clones who interact seamlessly with each other. In 2013, Maslany guest starred in a two-episode arc of "Parks and Recreation". She portrayed the lead in the independent film "Cas and Dylan", for which she won a Phillip Borsos Award for Best Performance at the 2013 Whistler Film Festival.


title: Tatiana Maslany

text: The 2013 Juno Award ceremonies were held in Regina, Maslany's home town, and Maslany was one of the presenters. Maslany guest starred on the season 39 finale of "Saturday Night Live" and played the character Bridget in the episode's second digital short entitled "Hugs". Maslany co-starred in the 2015 film "Woman in Gold" as a younger version of Maria Altmann, Helen Mirren's character. She mostly spoke German in the film.


title: Tatiana Maslany

text: Maslany starred in the independent film "The Other Half" with her then-partner Tom Cullen.. It premiered at South by Southwest on March 12, 2016. Maslany played the lead role in the 2016 drama film "Two Lovers and a Bear". The film follows the two characters as they come together in Apex, Iqaluit, to find peace in their lives. In the 2017 film "Stronger", Maslany starred as Erin Hurley, the love interest of Jeff Bauman, a victim of the Boston Marathon bombing.


title: Tatiana Maslany

text: Maslany was cast as a series regular in the 2018 drama series "Pose" but was replaced by Charlayne Woodard. She starred in the crime thriller film "Destroyer", which premiered at the Telluride Film Festival in August 2018. She next starred in the Broadway production of "Network" in 2019. Maslany starred as Sister Alice in the HBO period drama miniseries "Perry Mason", which premiered in June 2020. In September 2020, Maslany was cast in the lead role of Jennifer Walters / She-Hulk for the Disney+ TV series "", set in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. She will next star in AMC's six-episode series "Invitation to a Bonfire", a psychological thriller set in the 1930s at an all-girls boarding school.


title: Boston Celtics

text: The Boston Celtics ( ) are an American professional basketball team based in Boston. The Celtics compete in the National Basketball Association (NBA) as a member of the league's Eastern Conference Atlantic Division. Founded in 1946 as one of the league's original eight teams, the Celtics play their home games at TD Garden, which they share with the National Hockey League's Boston Bruins. The Celtics are one of the most successful basketball teams in NBA history. The franchise is one of two teams with 17 NBA Championships, the other franchise being the Los Angeles Lakers. The Celtics currently hold the record for the most recorded wins of any NBA team.


title: Boston Celtics

text: The Celtics have a notable rivalry with the Los Angeles Lakers, which was heavily highlighted throughout the 1960s and 1980s. During the two teams' many match-ups in the 1980s, the Celtics' star, Larry Bird, and the Lakers' star, Magic Johnson, had an ongoing feud. The franchise has played the Lakers a record 12 times in the NBA Finals (including recent appearances in 2008 and 2010), of which the Celtics have won nine. Four Celtics players (Bob Cousy, Bill Russell, Dave Cowens and Larry Bird) have won the NBA Most Valuable Player Award for an NBA record total of 10 MVP awards. Both the nickname "Celtics" and their mascot "Lucky the Leprechaun" are a nod to Boston's historically large Irish population, and also to the Original Celtics, a marquee team prior to the NBA.


title: Boston Celtics

text: The Celtics' rise to dominance began in the late 1950s, after the team, led by coach Red Auerbach, acquired center Bill Russell, who would become the cornerstone of the Celtics dynasty, in a draft-day trade in 1956. Led by Russell and point guard Bob Cousy, the Celtics won their first NBA championship in 1957. Russell, along with a talented supporting cast of future Hall of Famers including John Havlicek, Tom Heinsohn, K. C. Jones, Sam Jones, Satch Sanders, and Bill Sharman, would usher the Celtics into the greatest period in franchise history, winning eight consecutive NBA championships from 1959 to 1966. After Russell retired in 1969, the team entered a period of rebuilding. In the mid-1970s, the Celtics became contenders once again, winning two championships in 1974 and 1976 under the leadership of center Dave Cowens, forward John Havlicek, and point guard Jo Jo White.


title: Boston Celtics

text: In the 1980s, the Celtics returned to dominance, as well as renewed competition with the "Showtime" Lakers, who were led by Magic Johnson and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. Anchored by the "Big Three" of Larry Bird, Kevin McHale, and Robert Parish, the Celtics won championships in 1981, 1984, and 1986. The team defeated the Lakers in the 1984 Finals, but lost to Los Angeles in 1985 and 1987. After the departure of Parish as a free agent and the retirement of both Bird and McHale, the team struggled through the 1990s and much of the early 2000s. It was not until the Celtics assembled a new "Big Three" of Kevin Garnett, Paul Pierce, and Ray Allen that they found success once again. Under the leadership of head coach Doc Rivers, the team beat the Lakers to win a championship in 2008, but lost to Los Angeles in a seven-game series in 2010, the latest Finals matchup between the two ancient rivals.


title: Boston Celtics

text: By the start of the 2013–14 season, none of the new "Big Three" were still with the team. Kevin Garnett and Paul Pierce were traded away to the Brooklyn Nets, while Allen left as a free agent. After a period of rebuilding, the Celtics became a force again under head coach Brad Stevens. During the 2016–17 season, the Celtics clinched the top seed in the Eastern Conference, but were eliminated in the Conference Finals. Led by Jaylen Brown and Jayson Tatum, the team returned to the Conference Finals in 2018 and 2020, and broke through to the NBA Finals in 2022, losing to the Golden State Warriors.


title: Boston Celtics

text: The Boston Celtics were formed on June 6, 1946, by Boston Garden-Arena Corporation president Walter A. Brown as a team in the Basketball Association of America. In 1948, the team earned its first playoff appearance, only to lose to the Chicago Stags 4–1. In 1949, the team missed the playoffs, fifth in the Eastern Division. Then, on August 3, 1949, the team became part of the National Basketball Association after the absorption of the National Basketball League by the BAA. In 1950, the Celtics signed Chuck Cooper, becoming the first NBA franchise to draft a black player. Chuck Connors of "The Rifleman" fame was an original member of the Celtics in 1946.


title: Boston Celtics

text: The Celtics struggled during their early years, until the hiring of coach Red Auerbach. In the franchise's early days, Auerbach had no assistants, ran all the practices, did all the scouting—both of opposing teams and college draft prospects—and scheduled all road trips. One of the first great players to join the Celtics was Bob Cousy, whom Auerbach initially refused to draft out of nearby Holy Cross because he was "too flashy". Cousy's contract eventually became the property of the Chicago Stags, but when that franchise went bankrupt, Cousy went to the Celtics in a dispersal draft.


title: Boston Celtics

text: After the 1955–56 season, Auerbach made a stunning trade, sending perennial All-Star Ed Macauley to the St. Louis Hawks along with the draft rights to Cliff Hagan for the second overall pick in the draft. After negotiating with the Rochester Royals—a negotiation that included a promise that the Celtics owner would send the highly sought-after Ice Capades to Rochester if the Royals would let Russell slide to No. 2—Auerbach used the pick to select University of San Francisco center Bill Russell. Auerbach also acquired Holy Cross standout, and 1957 NBA Rookie of the Year, Tom Heinsohn. Russell and Heinsohn worked extraordinarily well with Cousy, and they were the players around whom Auerbach would build the champion Celtics for more than a decade.


title: Boston Celtics

text: With Bill Russell, the Celtics advanced to the 1957 NBA Finals and defeated the St. Louis Hawks in seven games, the first of a record 17 championships. Russell went on to win 11 championships, making him the most decorated player in NBA history. In 1958, the Celtics again advanced to the NBA Finals, this time losing to the Hawks in 6 games. However, with the acquisition of K.C. Jones that year, the Celtics began a dynasty that would last for more than a decade. In 1959, the Celtics won the NBA Championship after sweeping the Minneapolis Lakers, the first of their record eight consecutive championships.


title: Boston Celtics

text: During that time, the Celtics met the Lakers in the Finals five times, starting an intense and often bitter rivalry that has spanned generations. In 1964, the Celtics became the first NBA team to have an all African-American starting lineup. On December 26, 1964, Willie Naulls replaced an injured Tom Heinsohn, joining Tom 'Satch' Sanders, K.C. Jones, Sam Jones, and Bill Russell in the starting lineup. The Celtics defeated St. Louis 97–84. Boston won its next 11 games with Naulls starting in place of Heinsohn. The Celtics of the late 1950s–1960s are widely considered one of the most dominant teams of all time.


title: Boston Celtics

text: Auerbach retired as coach after the 1965–66 season and Russell took over as player-coach, which was Auerbach's ploy to keep Russell interested. With his appointment Russell became the first African-American coach in any U.S. pro sport. Auerbach would remain the general manager, a position he would hold well into the 1980s. However, the Celtics' string of NBA titles ended when they lost to the Philadelphia 76ers in the 1967 Eastern Conference Finals. The aging team managed two more championships in 1968 and 1969, defeating the Los Angeles Lakers each time. Russell retired after the 1969 season, effectively ending a Celtics dynasty that had garnered an unrivaled 11 NBA titles in 13 seasons. The team's run of 8 consecutive is the longest championship streak in U.S. professional sports history.


title: Boston Celtics

text: The 1969–70 season was a rebuilding year, as the Celtics had their first losing record since the 1949–50 season. However, with the acquisition of Paul Silas and future Hall of Famers Dave Cowens and Jo Jo White, the Celtics soon became dominant again. After losing in the Eastern Conference Finals in 1972, the Celtics regrouped and came out determined in 1973 and posted an excellent 68–14 regular-season record. But the season ended in disappointment, as they were upset in seven games by the New York Knicks in the Conference Finals. John Havlicek injured his right shoulder in game six and was forced to play game seven shooting left-handed. The Celtics returned to the playoffs the next year, defeating the Milwaukee Bucks in the 1974 NBA Finals for their 12th NBA Championship. Boston took a 3–2 series lead and had a chance to claim the title on their home court. The Bucks won Game Six in Boston when Kareem Abdul-Jabbar nestled in a hook shot with 3 seconds left in the game's second overtime, and the series returned to Milwaukee. Cowens was the hero in Game 7, scoring 28 points, as the Celtics brought the title back to Boston for the first time in five years.


title: Boston Celtics

text: In 1976, the team won yet another championship, defeating the Phoenix Suns in six games. The Finals featured one of the greatest games in NBA history. With the series tied at two games apiece, the Suns trailed early in the Boston Garden, but came back to force overtime. In double overtime, a Gar Heard turn-around jumper at the top of the key sent the game to a third overtime, at which point the Celtics prevailed. After the 1976 championship and a playoff appearance in 1977, Boston went into another rebuilding phase. In the 1977 NBA draft, the Celtics drafted a young forward from UNC Charlotte named Cedric Maxwell. "Cornbread" Maxwell did not contribute much in his rookie season, but he showed promise. Auerbach's job became even tougher following the 1977–78 season in which they went 32–50 as Havlicek, the Celtics' all-time leading scorer, retired after 16 seasons.


title: Boston Celtics

text: The Celtics owned two of the top eight picks in the 1978 NBA draft. Auerbach took a risk by selecting junior Larry Bird of Indiana State with the sixth overall pick, knowing that Bird would stay in college for his senior year but believing that his potential would make him worth the wait. The team retained Bird's rights for one year and signed him soon after he led Indiana State to the NCAA championship game. In 1978, Celtics owner Irv Levin traded franchises with Buffalo Braves owner John Y. Brown Jr.. Two weeks before the swap of franchises was made official, details of a six-player trade between the two teams were reported. Boston sent Freeman Williams, Kevin Kunnert, and Kermit Washington to the Braves for "Tiny" Archibald, Billy Knight, and Marvin Barnes. The move turned Boston fans against Brown, both because Kunnert and Washington were seen as key pieces of the team's future and because Auerbach publicly stated that he was not consulted about the trade.


title: Boston Celtics

text: The relationship between Brown and Auerbach worsened with Brown's decision to acquire Bob McAdoo in February 1979, in exchange for three first-round draft picks that Auerbach had planned to use to rebuild the franchise. Again, Brown made the trade without consulting Auerbach. Auerbach almost left Boston to take a job with the New York Knicks as a result. With public support strongly behind Auerbach, Brown sold the team to Harry Mangurian in 1979 rather than run the risk of losing his famed general manager. The Celtics would struggle through the season, going 29–53. Newcomers Chris Ford, Rick Robey, Cedric Maxwell and Nate Archibald failed to reverse the team's momentum.


title: Boston Celtics

text: Larry Bird debuted for the Celtics during the 1979–80 season. With a new owner in place, Auerbach made a number of moves that would bring the team back to prominence. He almost immediately traded McAdoo, a former NBA scoring champion, to the Detroit Pistons for guard M. L. Carr, a defensive specialist, and two first-round picks in the 1980 NBA draft. He also picked up point guard Gerald Henderson from the CBA. Carr, Archibald, Henderson and Ford formed a highly competent backcourt, blending in well with the talented frontcourt of Cowens, Maxwell and Bird. With Bird winning NBA Rookie of the Year honors the team went 61–21, a 32-game improvement from the previous season. Playing strong in the playoffs, the Celtics fell to the Philadelphia 76ers in the Eastern Conference Finals.


title: Boston Celtics

text: After the season, Auerbach completed one of the most lopsided trades in NBA history, garnering a pair of future Hall of Famers for a pair of first-round draft picks. Seeking to improve the team immediately, Auerbach sent the team's two first-round draft picks to the Golden State Warriors for both center Robert Parish and the Warriors' first round pick. He then used the pick the Celtics obtained from Golden State to select University of Minnesota power forward Kevin McHale. The "Big Three" of Bird, McHale and Parish played together for the Celtics until 1992, won three NBA championships together, and were later described as the best NBA frontcourt of all time.


title: Boston Celtics

text: Despite losing center Dave Cowens to retirement late in training camp, the Celtics went 62–20 under coach Bill Fitch in 1980–81. Once again, the Celtics faced the 76ers in the Eastern Conference Finals, falling behind 3–1 before coming back to win Game Seven, 91–90. The Celtics went on to win the 1981 NBA Championship over the Houston Rockets, with Maxwell being named NBA Finals MVP.


title: Boston Celtics

text: Following the 1981–82 season, the Celtics once again met the 76ers in the playoffs. This time, they lost in seven games. In 1983 the Celtics were swept in the playoffs (a first for the franchise) by the Milwaukee Bucks; afterwards, Fitch resigned and the team was sold to new owners led by Don Gaston.


title: Boston Celtics

text: In 1983–84, the Celtics under new coach K. C. Jones would go 62–20 and return to the NBA Finals after a three-year hiatus. Boston came back from a 2–1 deficit to defeat the Lakers for their 15th championship. Bird renewed his college rivalry with Lakers star Magic Johnson during this series. After the season, Auerbach officially retired as general manager, but maintained the position of team president. He was succeeded by Jan Volk.


title: Boston Celtics

text: In 1985, the Lakers and Celtics met again in the Finals, with the Lakers winning. This was the first time the Lakers had defeated the Celtics in the Finals and the only time the team had won a championship at Boston Garden. During the following off-season, the Celtics acquired Bill Walton from the Los Angeles Clippers in exchange for Cedric Maxwell. Walton had been an All-Star and league MVP while leading the Portland Trail Blazers to the 1977 NBA championship, but injuries had hobbled him since. Considered the best passing center in NBA history, he stayed healthy and was a big part of the Celtics' success in 1986.


title: Boston Celtics

text: The Celtics won the second pick in the 1986 NBA draft and drafted University of Maryland star Len Bias, one of the most heralded prospects of his era. Bias died 36 hours later of an accidental cocaine overdose. Despite the tragedy, the Celtics remained competitive in 1986–87, going 59–23 and again winning the Eastern Conference Championship. They were defeated in the Finals by the Lakers in six games.


title: Boston Celtics

text: In 1988, the Celtics lost in six games to the Detroit Pistons in the Eastern Conference Finals. Following the season, head coach K.C. Jones retired and was replaced by assistant Jimmy Rodgers. Boston's hopes for 1988–89 faded when Bird underwent a procedure to remove bone spurs in his feet early in the season, and the Celtics won just 42 games before a first-round playoff defeat to the Pistons. Bird returned in 1989–90 and led the Celtics to a 52–30 record. In the playoffs, the Celtics collapsed after winning the first two games in a best-of-five series against the New York Knicks, losing three straight games and the series. After the playoffs, Rodgers was fired and replaced by assistant coach and former Celtics player Chris Ford.


title: Boston Celtics

text: Under Ford's leadership, the Celtics improved to 56–26 in 1990–91, recapturing the Atlantic Division title even though Bird missed 22 games with several injuries. The Celtics again lost to the Pistons in the playoffs. In 1992, a late-season rally allowed a 51–31 Celtics team to catch the New York Knicks and repeat as Atlantic Division champions. After sweeping the Indiana Pacers in the first round, the Celtics lost a seven-game Eastern Conference Semifinals series to the Cleveland Cavaliers. Back injuries limited Bird to only 45 regular-season games, and just four of ten in the playoffs. After thirteen NBA seasons and a gold medal at the Barcelona Olympics with the Dream Team, continued back trouble led Bird to retire in 1992.


title: Boston Celtics

text: The loss of Bird and the aging of the team's other veteran stars forced coach Chris Ford into rebuilding mode. Hopes centered on 26-year-old Reggie Lewis, a small forward out of Boston's Northeastern University. In the first round of the 1993 playoffs Lewis fainted during Boston's four-game series loss by the Charlotte Hornets. An examination revealed heart problems, but Lewis was able to get doctors to clear him for a comeback. Before he could make it he died of a heart attack while shooting baskets at Brandeis University during the off-season. The Celtics honored his memory by retiring his number 35. With McHale having retired after the Celtics' playoff loss to the Hornets, Boston's original Big 3 era came to an end in 1994 upon Robert Parish's signing with Charlotte. The team collapsed, finishing out of the playoffs with a 32–50 mark.


title: Boston Celtics

text: In 1994, the Celtics hired former player and legendary towel-waving cheerleader M. L. Carr as the team's new vice president of basketball operations. Working alongside general manager Jan Volk, Carr selected University of North Carolina star Eric Montross with Boston's first-round pick in the 1994 NBA draft. Montross became the new heir apparent in the paint, but failed to develop and was eventually traded. 1994–95 was the Celtics' final season in the Boston Garden. The Celtics signed aging Dominique Wilkins as a free agent, who led the team in scoring with 17.8 PPG. Second-year player Dino Rađa, a power forward from Croatia, added an interior presence the team had been lacking in 1993–94. The Celtics made the playoffs, losing to the heavily favored Orlando Magic in four games. In 1995, the Celtics moved from the Boston Garden to the Fleet Center (later TD BankNorth, then TD Garden). Carr fired Chris Ford and took the coaching reins himself. After drafting Providence College star Eric Williams, the Celtics struggled to a 33–49 record.


title: Boston Celtics

text: Things got worse in 1996–97 as the Celtics lost a franchise-record 67 games, setting an unwanted NBA record winning only once against other Atlantic Division teams and just fifteen victories overall. In spite of the emergence of 1st-round draft pick Antoine Walker, Carr's resigned after the season ended, while Rick Pitino was hired to join the franchise as the team's president, director of basketball operations, and head coach, reportedly on a $70 million ten-year contract. Volk resigned on May 7, 1997. Pitino's appointment as team president was controversial as Auerbach, the incumbent who had filled that role for more than 25 years, first heard about the change from local media. Unfortunately for the franchise, Pitino was not the savior everyone hoped he would be. Auerbach bore the insult of being elbowed out with dignity, even as the team failed to improve.


title: Boston Celtics

text: The Celtics received the third and sixth draft picks in the 1997 NBA draft, and used the picks to select a brand new backcourt through Chauncey Billups and Ron Mercer. The young team that lost 67 games the year before was dismantled, with David Wesley, Dino Rađa and Rick Fox being let go, and Williams traded to the Denver Nuggets for a pair of second round draft picks (Williams would return to the Celtics in 1999 and played for four years). Walter McCarty was also acquired in a trade with the Knicks. With a promising start, upsetting the defending champions Chicago Bulls at home on opening night, and hard play from the youngsters that led to leaderships in turnovers and steals, the team improved its victories from 15 to 36 despite many losing streaks. Billups was subsequently traded to the Raptors during his rookie year, and Mercer was traded to the Nuggets during his third season.


title: Boston Celtics

text: The following year in the 1998 NBA draft, the Celtics drafted Paul Pierce, a college star who had been expected to be drafted much earlier than the Celtics' 10th overall pick. Pierce had an immediate impact during the lockout-shortened 1998–99 season, averaging 19.5 points and being named Rookie of The Month in February as he led the league in steals. However, the Celtics continued to struggle as Pitino failed to achieve meaningful success. After Boston lost to the Toronto Raptors on March 1, 2000, on a buzzer-beater by Vince Carter, Pitino delivered the memorable "walking through that door" speech, invoking Bird, McHale and Parish, which has been frequently cited over the years as a reality check for organizations wrestling with bygone glory. He resigned in January 2001.


title: Boston Celtics

text: Following the resignation of Rick Pitino, the Celtics saw modest improvement under coach Jim O'Brien. Paul Pierce matured into an NBA star and was ably complemented by Antoine Walker and the other players acquired over the years. While the team was 12–21 when Pitino left, O'Brien's record to finish the season was 24–24. Following the 2000–01 season O'Brien was given the job of head coach on a permanent basis. As a result of numerous trades, the Celtics had three picks in the 2001 NBA draft. They selected Joe Johnson, Joe Forte, and Kedrick Brown. Only Johnson managed to succeed in the NBA, becoming a perennial All-Star after leaving the Celtics.


title: Boston Celtics

text: The Celtics entered the 2001–02 season with low expectations. The team's success in the latter stages of 2000–01 was largely forgotten, and critics were surprised when the team, along with the New Jersey Nets, surged to the top of the Atlantic Division ahead of the Philadelphia 76ers, who were fresh off a trip to the NBA Finals. The Celtics won a hard-fought 5-game series with the 76ers in the first round, 3–2. Pierce scored 46 points in the series-clinching blowout at the Fleet Center. In the Conference Semifinals, the Celtics defeated the favored Detroit Pistons 4–1. In their first trip to the Eastern Conference Finals since 1988, the Celtics jumped out to a 2–1 series lead over the Nets, after rallying from 21 points down in the fourth quarter to win Game 3, but would lose the next three games to fall 4–2.


title: Boston Celtics

text: In 2003, the Celtics were sold by owner Paul Gaston to Boston Basketball Partners L.L.C., led by H. Irving Grousbeck, Wycliffe Grousbeck and Steve Pagliuca. The team made it back to the playoffs but were swept by the Nets in the second round, despite bringing Game 4 to double overtime. Before their elimination, the team hired former Celtics' guard Danny Ainge as general manager, moving Chris Wallace to another position in the organization. Ainge believed the team had reached its peak and promptly sent Antoine Walker to the Dallas Mavericks (along with Tony Delk). In return, the Celtics received the often-injured Raef LaFrentz, Chris Mills, Jiří Welsch, and a first-round pick in 2004. The Celtics made the playoffs, only to be swept in the first round by the Indiana Pacers, losing all four games.


title: Boston Celtics

text: The Celtics were a young team under new coach Doc Rivers during the 2004–05 season, having drafted youngsters Al Jefferson, Delonte West and Tony Allen in the 2004 Draft. Yet they seemed to have a core of good young players, led by Pierce and rookie Al Jefferson, to go along with a group of able veterans. The Celtics went 45–37 and won their first Atlantic Division title since 1991–92, receiving a boost from returning star Antoine Walker in mid-season. The Pacers defeated them in the first round yet again, with the series culminating in an embarrassing 27-point loss in Game 7 at the Fleet Center. After the season Walker was traded again, this time to the Miami Heat. Despite Pierce's career season, in which he averaged career-highs in points (26.8), the Celtics missed the playoffs with a 33–49 record, owing largely to a young roster and constant roster shuffling, which saw the likes of Marcus Banks, Ricky Davis and Mark Blount traded for underachieving former first-overall pick Michael Olowokandi and former all-star Wally Szczerbiak.


title: Boston Celtics

text: The Celtics continued to rebuild in the 2006 NBA draft. The Celtics selected Kentucky point guard Rajon Rondo, who was to become a key piece in the team's revival. In the second round the Celtics added center Leon Powe. The 2006–07 season was a gloomy one for the franchise, starting with the death of Red Auerbach at 89. Auerbach was one of the few remaining people who had been a part of the NBA since its inception in 1946. The Celtics went 2–22 from late December 2006 through early February 2007 after losing Pierce to injury, the result of a stress reaction in his left foot. At first, the Celtics received a much-needed boost from guard Tony Allen but he tore his ACL and MCL on a needless dunk attempt after the whistle. The Celtics compiled a record of 24–58, second-worst in the NBA, including a franchise-record 18-game losing streak. At the end of the season, the Celtics, with the second-worst record in the NBA, were at least hopeful that they could secure a high draft pick and select either Greg Oden or Kevin Durant to help rebuild the franchise, but the Celtics fell to fifth in the Draft Lottery.


title: Boston Celtics

text: In the summer of 2007, general manager Danny Ainge made a series of moves that returned the Celtics to prominence. On draft night, he traded No. 5 pick Jeff Green, Wally Szczerbiak and Delonte West to Seattle for perennial All-Star Ray Allen and Seattle's second-round pick, which the team used to select LSU's Glen "Big Baby" Davis. The Celtics then traded Ryan Gomes, Gerald Green, Al Jefferson, Theo Ratliff, Sebastian Telfair, and a first-round draft pick to the Timberwolves in exchange for superstar power forward Kevin Garnett. These moves created a new "Big Three" of Pierce, Allen, and Garnett.


title: Boston Celtics

text: In the 2007–08 season, Celtics completed the largest single-season turnaround in NBA history. The team went 66–16 in the regular season, a 42-game improvement over its 2006–07 record. However, the team struggled in the early rounds of the playoffs, needing seven games to defeat the Atlanta Hawks in the first round and another seven to defeat the Cleveland Cavaliers in the conference semifinals. The Celtics then beat the Detroit Pistons in six games in the Eastern Conference Finals, winning two road games.


title: Boston Celtics

text: For the 11th time in league history, and for the first time since 1987, the Celtics and the Lakers faced off in the NBA Finals. The Celtics won Game One at home 98–88, fueled by strong play by Garnett and Pierce's dramatic comeback from a second-half knee injury. They won Game Two 108–102 despite nearly blowing a 24-point lead in the fourth quarter. As the series shifted to Los Angeles, the Lakers stifled Pierce and Garnett in Game Three and won 87–81. However, the Celtics would overcome a 24-point deficit in Game 4 to win 97–91, making the largest in-game comeback in NBA Finals history. After again blowing a large lead, the Lakers hung on to win Game 5 103–98, sending the series back to Boston. In Game 6, the Celtics overpowered the Lakers, winning 131–92 and clinching their 17th NBA title. Paul Pierce was named Finals MVP. With the win Celtics set a record for most games a team had ever played in a postseason with 26.


title: Boston Celtics

text: The 2008–09 Celtics started off the season at 27–2, the then-best starting record in NBA history. They also had a franchise-record 19-game streak. After the All-Star Break, Kevin Garnett was injured in a loss against the Utah Jazz and missed the last 25 games of the season. Garnett was eventually shelved for the playoffs. The 2009 Celtics still finished with 62 victories, but their playoff run would end against the Magic in the second round.


title: Boston Celtics

text: In 2009, with the return of Garnett from injury and the additions of Rasheed Wallace and Marquis Daniels, the Celtics started the season 23–5 and at one point had the best record in the NBA. However, Doc Rivers decided to lessen his aging stars' minutes to keep them fresh for the playoffs. As a result, the Celtics sputtered to an even 27–27 record the rest of the way and finished the 2009–10 regular season with a 50–32 record. Despite being the fourth seed in the Eastern Conference, the Celtics managed to make the NBA Finals. Rajon Rondo emerged as a star during postseason play. For the 12th time, the Celtics faced the Lakers in the Finals. After taking a 3–2 lead heading into Los Angeles for Game Six, the Celtics appeared poised to win their 18th title. However, starting center Kendrick Perkins suffered a severe knee injury early in Game Six, and the Celtics went on to lose the series in seven games.


title: Boston Celtics

text: During the 2010 offseason, with Perkins expected to be out until February 2011, the Celtics signed two former All-Star centers, Shaquille O'Neal and Jermaine O'Neal. Shaquille O'Neal's presence wound up leading to Perkins' departure: the Celtics were 33–10 in games Perkins had missed during the year due to injury and had a 19–3 record in games when O'Neal played over 20 minutes. Consequently, Perkins was traded to the Oklahoma City Thunder in February, when the Celtics were 41–14 and led the Eastern Conference despite another rash of injuries. Following the trade, however, they proceeded to win only 15 of their final 27 games. They finished with a 56–26 record, sliding to the third seed. The 2010–11 season still provided three landmarks: The Celtics became the second team to reach 3,000 victories, Paul Pierce became the third Celtic to score 20,000 points (the others are Larry Bird and John Havlicek), and Ray Allen broke the NBA record for most career three-pointers. The 2011 NBA playoffs started with the Celtics sweeping the New York Knicks 4–0 in the opening round. In the second round, they were ousted by eventual Eastern Conference champions Miami Heat in five games. Shaquille O'Neal, limited to 12 minutes in two games of the second round, retired at the end of the season.


title: Boston Celtics

text: The Celtics started the lockout-shortened season 0–3, as Pierce was out with a heel injury. At the All-Star break, the Celtics were below .500 with a 15–17 record. However, they were one of the hottest teams in the league after the break, going 24–10 the rest of the year and winning their fifth division title in a row. The Celtics made the playoffs as the fourth seed in the Eastern Conference. In the playoffs, the Celtics faced the Atlanta Hawks in the first round, beating them in six games led by strong play from Pierce and Garnett. In the conference semifinals, the Celtics defeated the 76ers in seven games. The Celtics faced the Miami Heat in the Eastern Conference Finals, losing in seven games to the eventual NBA champions.


title: Boston Celtics

text: The 2012 off-season started with the Celtics having only six players under contract. While Kevin Garnett was signed to a new contract, Ray Allen signed with the Miami Heat for less money than the Celtics offered; this move brought the five-year "Big Three" era to a somewhat acrimonious end. The Celtics finished the season with 41 wins. The Celtics trailed the New York Knicks 3–0 in the first round of the 2013 NBA playoffs before losing the series in six games. In Game Six, the Celtics nearly completed a comeback when they went on a 20–0 run to cut the lead to four.


title: Boston Celtics

text: During the off-season, head coach Doc Rivers was allowed to terminate his contract. He departed the Celtics to coach the Los Angeles Clippers, and the Celtics received a 2015 unprotected first-round pick as compensation. A few days later, Pierce, Garnett (who waived a no-trade clause), Jason Terry, and D. J. White, were traded to the Brooklyn Nets for Keith Bogans, MarShon Brooks, Kris Humphries, Kris Joseph, Gerald Wallace, and three future first-round draft picks (2014, 2016, 2018), together with the right to swap 2017 first-round picks with Brooklyn. The deal marked the start of a youth movement for the team.


title: Boston Celtics

text: On July 3, 2013, the Celtics announced that Brad Stevens, the head coach of Butler University, would replace Doc Rivers as head coach. Halfway through the season, in January, Rajon Rondo made his return and was named the 15th Team Captain in team history, and the team furthered the youth movement by acquiring two draft picks in a three-team trade that sent Jordan Crawford and MarShon Brooks to the Golden State Warriors while the Celtics received the Heat center Joel Anthony. The 2013–14 season marked the Celtics' first missed playoffs since the "Big Three".


title: Boston Celtics

text: The next off-season, the Celtics drafted Marcus Smart with the 6th overall pick and James Young with the 17th overall pick in the 2014 NBA draft, and signed Evan Turner. The 2014–15 season had several roster moves, the most prominent being Rondo and rookie Dwight Powell traded to the Dallas Mavericks for center Brandan Wright, forward Jae Crowder, veteran point guard Jameer Nelson, and future picks. A total of 22 players spent time with the Celtics, leading scorer and rebounder Sullinger suffered a season-ending left metatarsal stress fracture, and the team was only tenth in the East with 28 games remaining. However, midseason acquisition Isaiah Thomas helped the team win 22 of their last 34 games, finishing the season with a 40–42 record, enough for the seventh seed in the Eastern Conference Playoffs. The Celtics were swept by the second seeded Cleveland Cavaliers in the first round.


title: Boston Celtics

text: In the 2015 NBA draft Boston selected Terry Rozier, R.J. Hunter, Jordan Mickey, and Marcus Thornton with the 16th, 28th, 33rd, and 45th selections respectively. During the off-season, the Celtics signed forward Amir Johnson and traded Gerald Wallace and Chris Babb in exchange for Warriors forward David Lee. The Celtics finished the 2015–16 NBA season with a 48–34 record, earning the fifth seed in the Eastern Conference. They played the fourth seed Atlanta Hawks in the first round of the playoffs. After leading by 3 points in the fourth quarter of Game 1, guard Avery Bradley went down with a hamstring injury, making him sit out for the rest of the series. The Celtics lost the series 4–2 to the Hawks, ending their season.


title: Boston Celtics

text: In the 2016 NBA draft, the Celtics selected Jaylen Brown with the third pick. At the time, he was a tenacious defender with raw athletic ability who is now an elite offensive threat. On July 8, 2016, the Celtics signed four-time All-Star Al Horford. The Celtics finished the 2016–17 season with a 53–29 record and clinched the top seed in the Eastern Conference. After a hip injury ended Thomas' impressive playoff run in game 2 of the Eastern Conference Finals, the Celtics eventually lost to the Cavaliers in five games. For the 2017 NBA draft, the Celtics won the draft lottery, earning them the first pick. They were projected to select freshman guard Markelle Fultz, but the pick was subsequently traded to the Philadelphia 76ers in exchange for the third pick in the 2017 draft and future picks. The 76ers would go on to draft Fultz, while the Celtics used the third pick to select freshman forward Jayson Tatum. Semi Ojeleye, Kadeem Allen, and Jabari Bird were selected with the 37th, 53rd, and 56th selections, respectively, in the second round. At the start of the off-season, the team signed Tatum and Ante Žižić, among others, with the biggest acquisition being the signing of Gordon Hayward. On August 22, 2017, the Celtics agreed to a deal that sent Isaiah Thomas, Jae Crowder, Žižić, and the Brooklyn Nets' 2018 first round draft pick to the Cleveland Cavaliers in exchange for Kyrie Irving. An additional draft pick (Celtics' 2020 second round) was later added to the package from the Celtics to the Cavaliers after doctors revealed that Thomas's injury was more significant than initially anticipated.


title: Boston Celtics

text: By the end of the off-season, only four Celtics' players remained from the 2016–17 team, with Marcus Smart being the longest-tenured Celtic from the 2014 NBA draft. On the team's opening night game in the first quarter against the Cavaliers, Hayward suffered a fractured tibia and dislocated ankle in his left leg, causing him to be ruled out for the rest of the regular season. Despite the loss, the Celtics went on a 16-game winning streak, which also went down as the fourth-longest winning streak in the teams' history. The streak started with a 102–92 victory over the Philadelphia 76ers on October 20 and ended on November 22 to the hands of the Miami Heat with a 104–98 loss. The Celtics finished the year with a 55–27 record, good enough for second place in the Eastern Conference. In the playoffs, they defeated the Milwaukee Bucks in the First Round in seven games, and continued the feat in the Conference Semifinals by defeating the Philadelphia 76ers in five games before losing to the Cleveland Cavaliers in seven games in the Conference Finals.


title: Boston Celtics

text: The Celtics finished the 2018–19 season with a 49–33 record. Analysts started questioning team's performance and chances for the championship when the Celtics had a 10–10 record after the first 20 games on November 24, 2018. The Celtics then won the next eight games improving their record to 18–10. During the eight-game win streak, the Celtics defeated the Cleveland Cavaliers 128–95, the New York Knicks 128–100, and also defeated the Chicago Bulls by 56 points (133–77), setting a record for the largest margin in a victory in franchise history, while also tying the record for largest victory margin by an away team. On February 9, 2019, the Celtics lost 129–128 to the Los Angeles Lakers after former Celtic Rajon Rondo hit the first game-winning shot in his NBA career. The Celtics finished the regular season place fourth in the Eastern Conference. During an April 7 game, Marcus Smart injured his hip and was ruled out for the rest of the regular season and the first round of the playoffs. In the 2019 playoffs, the Celtics swept the Indiana Pacers in the first round, and then lost to the Milwaukee Bucks in five games.


title: Boston Celtics

text: The Celtics held four picks in the 2019 NBA draft. Following a series of transactions, the team landed Romeo Langford with the 14th pick and also added Grant Williams, Carsen Edwards, and Tremont Waters (2020 G-league Rookie of the year). During the 2019 offseason, Irving and Horford signed with the Brooklyn Nets and Philadelphia 76ers, respectively. On June 30, 2019, the Celtics and point guard Kemba Walker agreed to a four-year maximum contract worth $141 million. On July 6, 2019, the Celtics officially acquired Walker in a sign and trade with the Charlotte Hornets; the Celtics sent guard Terry Rozier and a protected 2020 second-round draft pick to Charlotte in exchange for Walker and a 2020 second-round draft pick. On July 1, 2019, the Celtics agreed to a two-year contract with center Enes Kanter. On July 25, 2019, the Celtics agreed to a rookie contract with center Tacko Fall.


title: Boston Celtics

text: Following the suspension of the 2019–20 NBA season, the Celtics were one of the 22 teams invited to the NBA Bubble to participate in the final 8 games of the regular season. In the 2020 playoffs, the Celtics swept the Philadelphia 76ers in the first round, beat the Toronto Raptors in a seven-game series, and fell to the Miami Heat in the Eastern Conference Finals in six games. Boston struggled with injuries in the 2020–21 season, with Walker, Tatum and Brown all missing games at different points in the season due to injury and COVID-19. The injury of Brown was particularly impactful as he would miss the playoffs. Boston could not automatically qualify for the playoffs and were sent to the play-in tournament where they defeated the Washington Wizards 119–100. In the playoffs they lost to the Brooklyn Nets in five games. With a highlight being Tatum's 50 point game in a Game 3 victory. After Game 4, a Celtics fan threw a plastic water bottle at Irving. When asked about it after the game, Irving talked about the "underlying racism" that leads to fans treating athletes like they are in a "human zoo". This was not the former Celtics' first time speaking out against racism in Boston. Before the playoff series, he was asked whether or not he experienced racism while in the TD Garden and responded: "I'm not the only one that could attest to this, but it's just, you know — it is what it is." Irving was not alone in sharing this sentiment. After the incident, several players shared their experience, including Celtics center Tristan Thompson, and guard Marcus Smart, who wrote about an encounter with a Celtics fan who had called him a slur in "The Players' Tribune" the summer before the season.


title: Boston Celtics

text: On June 2, 2021, the Celtics named head coach Brad Stevens as president of basketball operations replacing Danny Ainge after he announced his retirement. On June 18, Stevens made his first transaction in his new position trading away Kemba Walker, the 16th pick in the 2021 NBA draft, and a 2025 second-round pick in exchange for Horford, Moses Brown, and a 2023 second-round pick. The deal gave the Celtics a bit more financial flexibility with Horford due about $20 million less than Walker over the next two years. The Celtics also improved their depth in the frontcourt by adding Horford and Moses Brown, who recorded 21 points and 23 rebounds, which included 19 rebounds in the first half, in a March 27 game between the Celtics and the Thunder. On June 23, 2021, it was reported that Stevens had made the decision to hire Ime Udoka as his own replacement as head coach of the Celtics. Tatum made his third All-Star appearance off the bench at the 2022 NBA All-Star Game in Cleveland.


title: Boston Celtics

text: In April 2022, the Celtics qualified for the 2022 NBA playoffs as the second seed in the Eastern Conference, having a 51–31 record and swept the Brooklyn Nets in the first round of the postseason. They next faced the Milwaukee Bucks in the Eastern Conference Semifinals and the Miami Heat in the Eastern Conference Finals, defeating both teams in seven-game series, earning the Celtics their first Finals appearance since 2010. The Celtics took a 2–1 series lead, but lost the next three games to lose to the Golden State Warriors 4–2.


title: Boston Celtics

text: The rivalry between the Boston Celtics and Los Angeles Lakers involves the two most storied franchises in NBA history. It has been called the NBA's best rivalry. The two teams have met a record twelve times in the NBA Finals, starting with their first Finals meeting in . They would go on to dominate the league in the 1960s and the 1980s, facing each other six times in the 1960s, three times in the 1980s, in 2008, and in 2010.


title: Boston Celtics

text: The rivalry had been less intense since the retirements of Magic Johnson and Larry Bird in the early 1990s, but in 2008 it was renewed as the Celtics and Lakers met in the Finals for the first time since 1987, with the Celtics winning the series in six games. They faced off once again in the 2010 NBA Finals which the Lakers won in seven games. The two teams are tied for the highest number of championships (17); together, the 34 championships account for almost half of the 74 championships in NBA history.


title: Boston Celtics

text: The Celtics–Hawks rivalry is a rivalry in the Eastern Conference of the National Basketball Association that has lasted for over five decades, although the two teams have played each other since the 1949–50 season, when the then-Tri-Cities Blackhawks joined the NBA as part of the National Basketball League and the Basketball Association of America merger. However, the Blackhawks could not field a truly competitive team until they moved to St. Louis as the St. Louis Hawks after a four-year stopover at Milwaukee. The two teams have faced each other eleven times in the NBA Playoffs, four times in the NBA Finals, with the Celtics winning ten of twelve series against the Hawks, including three out of four NBA Finals. While the Hawks have only defeated the Celtics twice out of eleven series in the NBA Playoffs, they still often managed to make their series with the Celtics memorable. The rivalry intensified in 2016 with Hawks All-Star Center Al Horford spurning the team and joining the Celtics.


title: Boston Celtics

text: The Boston Celtics were once rivals of the New Jersey Nets during the early 2000s due to their respective locations and their burgeoning stars. The Nets were led by Jason Kidd and Kenyon Martin, while the Celtics were experiencing newfound success behind Paul Pierce and Antoine Walker. The rivalry began to heat up in the 2002 Eastern Conference Finals, which was preceded by trash-talking from the Celtics who claimed Martin was a "fake" tough guy. Things progressed as the series started, and on-court tensions seemed to spill into the stands. Celtics' fans berated Kidd and his family with chants of "Wife Beater!" in response to Kidd's 2001 domestic abuse charge. When asked about the fan barbs being traded, Kenyon Martin stated, "Our fans hate them, their fans hate us." Bill Walton said at the time that Nets-Celtics was the "beginning of the next great NBA rivalry" during the Eastern Conference Finals in 2002 with the Nets advancing to the NBA Finals, though New Jersey would go on to sweep Boston in the 2003 playoffs. In 2012, the year the Nets returned to New York in the borough of Brooklyn, there were indications that the rivalry might be rekindled when an altercation occurred on the court on November 28, resulting in the ejection of Rajon Rondo, Gerald Wallace, and Kris Humphries. Rondo was suspended for two games in the aftermath, while Wallace and Kevin Garnett were fined. The story was revisited on December 25, when Wallace grabbed Garnett's shorts and the two had to be broken up by referees and players alike. However, the rivalry between the Nets and the Celtics appeared significantly cooled off by the June 2013 blockbuster trade that dealt Celtics stars Garnett and Paul Pierce to the Nets in exchange for Wallace, Humphries, and others. This move was billed as a merger of the two Atlantic Division teams. Celtics announcer Sean Grande said "It's almost as if you found a great home for these guys. You couldn't have found a better place. These guys will be in the New York market, they'll be on a competitive team, they'll stay on national TV. It's funny, because the enemy of my enemy is my friend. So with Celtics fans feeling the way they do about the Heat, feeling the way they do about the Knicks, the Nets are going to become almost the second [Boston] team now." The trade would end up crippling the Nets who posted a record of 151–259 following the trade including three consecutive seasons with fewer than 30 wins from 2016 to 2018. Brooklyn would win just one playoff series with Garnett and Pierce, neither of whom were with the team by the close of the 2014–2015 season. The Celtics would use Brooklyn's draft picks to acquire Jaylen Brown and Jayson Tatum through the draft in 2016 and 2017 respectively and Kyrie Irving via trade, en route to consecutive appearances in the Eastern Conference Finals in 2017 and 2018. Irving then left to the Nets in the 2019 Free Agency.


title: Boston Celtics

text: The rivalry between the Celtics and the Detroit Pistons peaked in the 1980s, featuring players such as Larry Bird, Kevin McHale, Robert Parish, Isiah Thomas, Bill Laimbeer, Dennis Rodman, and Joe Dumars. These teams met in the NBA playoffs five times in 7 seasons from 1985 to 1991, with the Celtics winning in 1985 and 1987, and the Pistons coming out on top en route to back-to-back Finals appearances in and their championship seasons of and . Led by Paul Pierce, Kevin Garnett and Ray Allen in the 2008 Eastern Conference Finals the Celtics defeated the Pistons in 6 games to advance to the NBA Finals where they went on to beat the Lakers also in 6 games.


title: Boston Celtics

text: The rivalry between the Celtics and the New York Knicks stems from the location of the teams, both of which are in the NBA's Atlantic division. It is one of many rivalries between Boston and New York teams. Boston and New York are also the only two original NBA franchises that have remained in the same city for the duration of their existence. The teams have played 512 games against each other during the regular season, with the Celtics winning 276 times. The two teams have also faced each other 61 times during the playoffs, with the Celtics winning 34 times.


title: Boston Celtics

text: The Celtics and the Philadelphia 76ers are the two teams who have the most meetings in the NBA playoffs, playing each other in 19 series, of which the Celtics have won 12. The 76ers are considered the Celtics' biggest rival in the Eastern Conference. The rivalry reached its peak when players Bill Russell and Wilt Chamberlain of the 76ers played each other from 1965 to 1968. Their play would result in the Celtics not winning every NBA Finals series in the 1960s when the 76ers won in 1967.


title: Boston Celtics

text: One of the most recent and unexpected rivalries that has been created between the Celtics is with the Washington Wizards. Although both teams had engaged in a fight in 1984, the rivalry intensified during the 2015–16 season in a January regular-season game after Jae Crowder was given a technical foul. Crowder then began to exchange words with then Wizards coach Randy Wittman. It began to escalate that off-season when the Celtics were trying to sign Al Horford. It was publicly reported that Jae Crowder emphasized that the Celtics beat the Wizards in all of their meetings that season and should sign with them rather than Washington. In their first meeting of the 2016–17 season, Wall hit Marcus Smart in the back-court when they were up by 20 late in the 4th quarter. Wall was hit with a Flagrant 2 foul and was promptly ejected. Smart immediately got back up and began to scuffle with Wall. Their words continued even after being separated with Wall telling Smart to meet him out back after the game. No incident was reported between the two following the game. In their next meeting, the Celtics won 117–108. However, after the game Wall and Crowder exchanged words in front of the Wizards bench. Crowder ended up trying to jab his finger at Wall's nose and Wall tried to fight back with a slap. Teammates and coaches from both sides had to step in and separate the two teams but the players continued to yell while entering their respective locker rooms. Police officers had to be on guard between the two locker rooms to ensure no further confrontation. Otto Porter is quoted as calling the Celtics as dirty. Isaiah Thomas replied "If playing hard is dirty, then I guess we are a dirty team."