The HBO Original documentary series CELTICS CITY is more than just a retelling of basketball glory—it is a powerful, deeply layered exploration of the Boston Celtics’ impact on sports, culture, and social progress in America. Directed by Lauren Stowell and executive produced by Bill Simmons and Connor Schell, this nine-part series examines the Celtics’ profound role in shaping history, both on and off the court.
Spanning over seven decades, CELTICS CITY masterfully weaves together never-before-seen archival footage and nearly 100 interviews with past and present Celtics greats, coaches, executives, journalists, and fans. From the early days of Bill Russell to the modern-day dominance of Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown, the series captures the spirit of a franchise that has stood at the crossroads of basketball excellence and societal evolution. The film revisits defining moments, from iconic championship runs and fierce battles against the Lakers and 76ers to the social movements and racial tensions that have come to define Beantown.
Stowell’s direction ensures that the series is not merely a sports piece but a project that chronicles the resilience, progress, and the unbreakable bond between a team and its city. As an accomplished storyteller with a passion for narratives at the intersection of sports and culture, the Emmy-winning filmmaker brings a fresh and necessary perspective to this organization’s history. Her work highlights both the triumphs and struggles of Celtics legends, illuminating their roles not only as athletes but as figures in the broader American landscape.
CELTICS CITY served as an opportunity to explore Boston’s complex racial history, the perception of Black athletes in the city, and the larger implications of sports as a reflection of society. The documentary also offers a candid look at Boston’s racial dynamics, featuring insights from players across generations—from Satch Sanders to Marcus Smart—who share personal experiences about playing in a locale with such a complicated past.
This series goes beyond the championship banners to tell the real story of one of the most polarizing franchises in professional basketball. In her own words, Stowell shares what drew her to this project, the challenges of weaving together history and sports, and the message she hopes CELTICS CITY will leave with audiences.
ESSENCE: What inspired you to take on this project? And what unique perspective did you want to bring to the story of the Boston Celtics?
Lauren Stowell: So, two years ago when I started having the conversation with Bill Simmons, our executive producer, and Connor Schell, what they presented as the definitive story of the Boston Celtics. On the surface—it’s an incredible story—17 championships at the time, we now know that they won another, but really, it was about, “how can we tell this story through the lens of America, through the lens of progress in America, through Black empowerment in America?” Those were things that immediately drew me to the story. It’s a story that goes much deeper than the 18 championships that they now have.
This is an organization that drafted the first Black player in the NBA in 1950 in Chuck Cooper, had the first Black starting five, and the first Black head coach in North American sports history. And this is also a city that has such a complex relationship with race relations throughout history. So I thought it would just be an incredible opportunity to tell a story from 1950 to the present day, and to trace that history of America, and again, of Boston through the story of the Boston Celtics.
It’s interesting that you brought up Boston being the first team to draft a Black player, and have the first Black starting five, because there’s also been a long history of how Black players felt about this city. For you, what was the most surprising part of this story that you uncovered?
That’s a good question. There are actually a lot of surprises. I was very aware of the perception, the conversations around Boston, the experience of being a Black person in Boston, living there, traveling there, visiting there. The comments that LeBron made a few years ago about his experience playing, and describing the city as racist. Marcus Smart and the Players’ Tribune had spoken about it. So we were very aware. The Boston Globe had actually done a pretty comprehensive research piece in 2017 about this perception—54% of African-American participants in this study said they didn’t feel welcomed in the city.
So when we started talking to our interviewees, whether it were former players throughout the history, from Satch Sanders who was drafted in 1960, grew up in Harlem, came to Boston for the first time, and what he experienced, to Jaylen Brown and Jason Tatum. I asked all of the players, and executives, and journalists that we spoke with, “What is your experience? Why do you think Boston has this perception?” And what we did find is that a lot of the negative perception around race in Boston really originated in the 1970s with the busing mandate and the busing crisis as we know it. The images that were on the front page of newspapers, and the horrific violence that went on in the city during that time is part of all of our consciousness.
I know these things took place in other cities as well, but Boston has never really recovered from that in a lot of ways. From what we found even today, those are things that these young players still think about and feel. I think the perception of Boston is that it is a place that maybe doesn’t have a large Black population, but it is very diverse. And so we spent a lot of time talking to Black historians and journalists, who live in and around the city, and who really wanted to highlight Black Boston. There were Black Celtics fans, there are great thriving communities in Boston, and they’re often not visible in film, television, and just what we perceive the city to be. And that’s something that was important to us to highlight.
You did over 80 interviews for this particular docu-series, is that correct?
Yes. We did actually have close to 100. 98 interviews total.
Wow. So with this, what was the most challenging part of weaving together these interviews, and this footage, and putting together this particular documentary to make sure you tell a cohesive narrative of past and present?
I think the most challenging part was how to balance the culture and societal threads, with the character development of these incredible and unbelievable humans in this story. From Bill Russell, to Larry Bird, Kevin Garnett, Bob Cousy, to Jaylen Brown, and Tatum. There’s just a richness of just character, Paul Pierce, what he went through. But I think it was almost trying to weave these three threads together, the people that make the Celtics franchise what it is, their character, their ethos, what makes them unique, what they anchored to in the tradition of the Celtics. We also have the iconic basketball moments, the unbelievable rivalries over 77 years—the Pistons, the Sixers, the Lakers specifically. We wanted to make sure that of those 18 championships, we’re seeing the most important basketball moments.
But then there was also this other through line of the story of Black empowerment in America. With Bill Russell and everything he experienced in Boston, and what he was fighting for in the Civil Rights Movement, to Jaylen Brown signing the biggest contract in NBA history in 2023. So looking at that lineage, trying to trace that history, we had to balance. I mean, the hardest thing was, “what do you strip away?” Can we spend as much time on the ‘84 finals as what a true straight sports documentary did? Of course not. We chose to show it through iconic moments, like Henderson’s steal. So, that was the biggest challenge. You can’t make everyone happy, but I know that it was important to everyone on this team that we went deeper than just the highlights.
You’ve had an award-winning career in sports storytelling. I wanted to ask you, if you can, how does CELTICS CITY compare to your previous work? And what impact do you hope that this documentary will have on viewers?
I think, for me, there were a lot of parallels. I think throughout my career, I’ve always gravitated towards stories that kind of sit at that intersection of sports, race, culture, society in America.
Absolutely.
There’s a bigger message to what sports means to people. It has the power to inspire, to heal, to provide enjoyment, but also, it can move society forward. It can also be a mirror to society that we can have to look into and confront. So that’s always been my passion in sports storytelling. To your second part of your question, what I hope people take away from this is, we presented a story that has a lot of humanity in it, I believe. I don’t think you have to be a Celtics fan to appreciate this. The Celtics organization and everyone who has been part of it has contributed to moving society forward. I do think that telling that history, the truth of the things that have happened in America through that almost 80 year timeline is important. Tradition is important, and history is important for us to recognize, acknowledge. And I hope that people can see the humanity, and the unity, and the triumph in this story.
