Celts to replace Parquet Floor?

[opi@unesco.org]

A Boston Globe article --by a new guy Paul Harber -- today reports among
other things that the Celtics are exploring replacing the 5x5 feet
parquet floor panels (some as old as the NBA itself) with new ones
measuring 9x4 feet.

The really great upside is that Gaston can sell a lot of the old panels
to memorabilia collectors. In addition, the new 9x4 panels should make
it much easier for Pitino's dancing girls to sidestep the dead spots,
which can be a real killer when you are in high heels.

Joe

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A new floor plan
Original parquet declared deadwood

By Paul Harber, Globe Staff, 11/09/99

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.

''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.