The road of the modern game of basketball leads directly back to the “Original Celtics” of New York. No relation to the Boston Celtics, the “Original Celtics” formed out of the disbanded New York Celtics following WWI. Although primarily a barnstorming squad, they also competed in the EBL (1921-22), MBL (1922-23), and ABL (1926-28), winning three league championships. The Original Celtics won an estimated 90% of their games during their 20+ years of existence and were the first to introduce zone defenses as well as innovate offensive post play. In 1922–23, they finished with an unfathomable 193–11–1 record. In fact, the team was so good that it was essentially blackballed and dismantled by the ABL, forcing them to revert back to barnstorming. Some of the early stars donning an Original Celtics jersey during the team’s MBL and ABL glory days were 6’ 1” forward Dutch Dehnert (inventor of the pivot), point guard and ballhandling wizard Nat Holman, sharpshooter John Beckman, and dominant center Joe Lapchick. At 6’ 5”, the rangy Lapchick was the game’s first agile big man and the greatest center of his generation. His height was especially valuable in an era when jump balls determined possession after every basket. The Original Celtics were inducted into the Naismith Hall of Fame as a team in 1959, and Joe Lapchick was also elected as an individual player.

Born in 1900 in Yonkers, NY, and raised by struggling Czech immigrants, Joe Lapchick saw basketball as his way out of poverty, quitting school after the eighth grade and earning $100 a night playing basketball by age 19. He joined the Original Celtics in 1923 and led them to back-to-back ABL championships (1927-28). After the Celtics were forced to return to barnstorming, Lapchick joined the Cleveland Rosenblums and added two more ABL titles to his resume. Lapchick later helped reform the Celtics and barnstormed five more years before taking over as head coach at St. John’s University in 1936. He would go on to coach the New York Knicks to three straight NBA Finals appearances (1951-53) before concluding his coaching career with a second stint at St. John’s, which ended in 1965. He passed away five years later.

Finding original artifacts from this early period of round ball is nearly impossible, but to find something game worn and attributed to one of the game’s pioneering superstars is almost unfathomable. Here, we present to you Joe Lapchick’s "Original Celtics" of New York game-used jersey from the 1920s. The green and white wool Everlast vest features a chenille Celtics patch sewn to the front, along with "Originals" and the number “7” in white felt, centered on the back. The jersey exhibits extensive wear throughout. There is significant bleeding between the green wool and the white wool and the white felt. There are several small holes throughout the vest  presumably due to moth damage from storage, and part of the stitching on the tag has come loose. There are four team repairs from the period on the vest, and careful examination reveals that both sides and the tail were hemmed.

Provenance for a piece as rare as this doesn’t get much better. The jersey was gifted by Joe Lapchick to his nephew, John Carey, in the 1940s, and has remained in the family's possession ever since. This is just the second Joe Lapchick Original Celtics gamer to surface. We were fortunate enough to handle the first and only other known example in 2019 when it sold at auction for $151,652. An unbelievable, museum-worthy piece of basketball history. Comes with full authentication paperwork from Sports Investors as well as a letter from the Lapchick family.