Wish It Lasted Forever

Life with the Larry Bird Celtics

By: Dan Shaughnessy

Narrated by: Dan Shaughnessy

From award-winning Boston Globe columnist Dan Shaughnessy, an “entertaining” (The Wall Street Journal) and nostalgia-filled retelling of the 1980s Boston Celtics’ glory years, which featured the sublime play of NBA legend Larry Bird.

Today the NBA is a vast global franchise—a billion-dollar industry seen by millions of fans in the United States and abroad. But it wasn’t always this successful. Before primetime ESPN coverage, lucrative branding deals like Air Jordans, and $40 million annual player salaries, there was the NBA of the 1970s and 1980s—when basketball was still an up-and-coming sport featuring old school beat reporters and players who wore Converse All-Stars.

Enter Dan Shaughnessy, then the beat reporter for The Boston Globe who covered the Boston Celtics every day from 1982 to 1986. It was a time when reporters travelled with professional teams—flying the same commercial airlines, riding the same buses, and staying in the same hotels. Shaughnessy knew the athletes as real people, losing free throw bets to Larry Bird, being gifted cheap cigars by the iconic coach Red Auerbach, and having his one-year-old daughter Sarah passed from player to player on a flight from Logan to Detroit Metro.

Drawing on unprecedented access and personal experiences that would not be possible for any reporter today, Shaughnessy takes us inside the legendary Larry Bird-led Celtics teams, capturing the camaraderie as they dominated the NBA. Fans can witness the cockiness of Larry Bird (who once walked into an All-Star Weekend locker room, announced that he was going to win the three-point contest, and did); the ageless athleticism of Robert Parish; the shooting skills of Kevin McHale; the fierce, self-sacrificing play of Bill Walton; and the playful humor of players like Danny Ainge, Cedric “Cornbread” Maxwell, and M.L. Carr.

For any fan who longs to return—for just a few hours—to those magical years when the Boston Garden rocked and the winner’s circle was mostly colored Boston Green, Wish It Lasted Forever is a masterful tribute to “the Celtics from 1982-1986 [that] is so good even fervent Celtics haters will have trouble putting it down” (New York Post).

©2021 Dan Shaughnessy. All rights reserved. (P)2021 Simon & Schuster, Inc. All rights reserved.

Brings the Bird era back in high relief

I was the Celtics photographer for this period and Dan's book brings back rich memories.

He adds much that I was not aware of and fills in lots of details not commonly known.

It's an entertaining and informative narrative of a VERY special time with colorful characters and, arguably, the greatest team in NBA history.

THE Best

The Celtics during the Larry Bird eta was the Best and so is Dan’s book, thank you.

Great story

Great insight on 1986 Celtics. Best team ever! Shaughnessy has a better relationship with the players today than he did then.

Wonderful story

This basketball ball goes into depth about what of the greatest teams ever. I loved it and I hate the Celtics.

Great read but wished he stayed the entire season

Anyone can look at the stats sheets to see what happened, but the author gave us the background on the almost 4 seasons. The end was kind of chopped due to the change of assignment. I wished he could have stayed to finish the season. 1985-86 Celtics best team ever.

The Good Ole Days!

I loved this. Nothing like going down memory lane and hearing detailed stories of my favorite all-time team.

Great book about a great time in basketball history

Great book about a great time in basketball history. I loved those years. I wish there were biographies of many players on that team. I was happy to find this book and this perspective. Brought it all back and learned a lot.

A joyful ride!

An incredibly beautiful story telling from a unique perspective of an amazing time in sports history!

Great book for any Celtics fans

If you're a fan of how the NBA used to be played or remember the NBA in the 80s and 90s you'll probably enjoy this book. If you're a Boston Celtics fan you'll LOVE this book. Some of the stories you've heard a thousand times but they're still enjoyable. hearing Dan Shaughnessy do an impression of Bill Walton it's a good enough reason to use a credit for this book.

The memory’s

Anything bird I love Only idle I ever had won’t be another like him I never missed a televised game