Fred Roberts may not be a name immediately associated with the Boston Celtics, given his relatively short tenure of just two seasons with the team, during which he appeared in 147 games in the regular season. Even though he was never able to attain his career-best numbers or even establish himself as a consistent starter, the 6’10” center cherished his time in Beantown.

Moreover, Roberts was part of the successful ’86-87 Celtics team that reached the NBA Finals, but he admitted that it felt like ‘two different teams.’

Roberts on ’86-87 Boston Celtics team

Boston was one team that didn’t make heavy changes to their roster as they clearly had their superstars marked and numbered, and Roberts, making his way from Utah Jazz, which was a non-championship-caliber team, found it hard to cement his place.

Furthermore, as the reigning championships ended the ’86-87 regular season as the best team in the Eastern Conference courtesy of their 59-23 record, Roberts felt that the team was divided to an extent where all the credit was handed to the top six players whereas all the loss was always blamed on the remaining roster.

“The locker room was good, but it was a little challenging for me,” Roberts said. “I felt like there was a separation from the first six guys (in the rotation) to the last six. If we won, it was because of the top six guys. If we lost, it was because of the bench. To me, it didn’t feel like one big team. It felt like two separate teams.”

Roberts on what the Celtics’ problem was

Joining the Celtics at the age of 26, ‘Norman’ was excited to share the court with Larry Bird. However, he soon observed that the management and coaching staff were excessively fixated on the star players to lead them to victories that they simply neglected the potential of younger and inexperienced players, which, in his view, limited the team’s ability to capitalize on the potential of its burgeoning talent pool.

“McHale broke his foot, and it was always, we have to have him to win. Walton hadn’t played all year long, and it would be like, once we get them back, we’ll be fine,” Roberts added. “That was all true, but I think they lost sight of developing guys like me.”

Who knows, had the Celtics invested in developing Roberts to serve as the ideal replacement for the injured Bill Walton, they might have found the solution to stop the tandem of Mychal Thompson and Kareem Abdul Jabbar in the Finals.