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A New Floor Plan
June 16, 2022

Bird
Another Boston sporting heirloom soon will become a memory.

The famed parquet floor, as synonymous with Celtic basketball as Larry Bird or Bill Russell, is nearing an end. A replacement floor is being sought for the FleetCenter.

Delaney
''It's something we've looked at for a while,'' said FleetCenter spokesman Jim Delaney. ''Nothing has been done for sure yet. But we are actively looking at different samples to replace it.''

For more than a year, the Celtics and the FleetCenter have explored the possibility of replacing the crosscut oak floor that is as old as the National Basketball Association. There were rumors last summer that a new floor would be installed by the opening of this season.

''That deadline has already passed,'' said Delaney. ''But it might be something to look at for the new millennium.''

Most likely, the new floor will not be an exact copy of the current floor, which consists of 247 panels, measuring 5 feet by 5 feet, held together with 988 bolts.

Some of the samples that have been brought to the FleetCenter for examination are much bigger, some 4 feet by 9 feet.

''Whatever is done, we'd like there to be a continuity with the Celtic tradition,'' said Delaney.

Rick Pitino, the Celtics' president and coach, said he knew nothing about the floor being replaced, but team spokesman Jeff Twiss confirmed that replacement samples have been examined, as Delaney said.

The floor currently in use at the FleetCenter was brought over from the Boston Garden when that building was closed in 1995. It is the only basketball floor that has been graced by every current NBA Hall of Famer who ever dribbled in the 53 years of the league's existence.

Though the Garden dates to 1928, it wasn't opened with the intention of hosting basketball games, so it wasn't until 1946 that original Celtics owner Walter Brown had the floor built by the East Boston Lumber Co.

The floor was built from oak scraps crosscut from a forest in Tennessee for a cost of about $11,000. It had to be manufactured in that unusual fashion because of a shortage of materials following World War II.

Besides its unique pattern, the floor is famous for its alleged ''dead spots'' - areas where the basketball doesn't bounce the way it should.

''There are a lot of dead spots,'' said Delaney. ''The old floor isn't what it used to be.''

When the parquet floor is finally retired, you can expect some of it to wind up at the Basketball Hall of Fame in Springfield. Much of it is expected to be cut up and sold as memorabilia.