Everything New At Celtics' Arena - Except The Floor -- Boston Won't Part With Famous Parquet

BOSTON - When they move from historic Boston Garden to the sparkling new FleetCenter, the Boston Celtics will have a new scoreboard, new air conditioning and even new championship banners to hang from the rafters of the $160 million arena.

So why are the Celtics bringing along the same old court they've had since 1947?

The answer is hidden in the dead spots and crevices of the Celtics' parquet floor, a collection of World War II-era oak and red pine scraps that has supported the team through 16 NBA titles.

"That floor is the most famous basketball floor in the world - the Boston Garden Parquet," team patriarch Red Auerbach said last week, when the floor was assembled on the FleetCenter deck for the first time.

"A lot of teams have copied the parquet floor. Well, we were the first," he said. "There's no way we would play without that floor."

The parquet was brought over from the Boston Garden next door in its 256 pieces and assembled in a few hours. Putting down the sub-flooring over the hockey ice took another half day.

Everything went smoothly, arena workers reported, and by late morning the ball-balancing leprechaun at center court was smiling toward the ceiling of his new home.

With the the floor in place, two members of the FleetCenter cleaning crew went courtside to check out the dead spots that lead to the NBA's most unpredictable bounces. Dave MacKinnon, who got to play on the court after working his night shift in the Garden, said he knew where the bad bounces were hidden.

And, some say, so do the Celtics.

While it is a fact of the game that both teams play under the same conditions, frustrated opponents frequently complain the floor's timeworn state give the home team an advantage. When a dead spot would freeze a player mid-dribble, he never seemed to be wearing a Celtics uniform.

"There's no question there's a bunch of dead spots. But the whole floor is dead," former Celtics guard Jerry Sichting said. "Overall, I think it was more psychological than anything.

Still, Auerbach conceded the Celtics thrived on the rumors.

"The whole thing was a myth," he said. "People thought not only that there were dead spots, but that we knew where every one was and we could play accordingly. Now, did you ever watch a ball player go up and down the court at that speed and pick out a dead spot?

"If our players worried about that, thinking that's going to help them win, they're out of their cotton-picking mind. But if the other team thought that: Hey, good for us."

Dead spots or no, the parquet floor has taken on a life of its own. The condensation from the ice beneath helps give the Garden court repute as the slickest in the league, Sichting says.

And when Celtics forward Kevin McHale did a guest spot on the TV show "Cheers," the episode focused on how many bolts it takes to secure the floor. (Attention Norm and Cliff: The answer is 988.)

The floor got a new paint job, a fresh coat of varnish and some of the boards were replaced this summer as part of its biennial refurbishment. Although the same floor has been used for 48 years, most of the original structure has probably been replaced.

"But there's a very good chance that there are some of the original pieces from 1947," building spokeswoman Jo O'Connor said.