Banner Years: 2024, A Superteam After the Superteam Era

The 2023-24 Boston Celtics and the quest for Banner 18 could be best exemplified by Thomas Wayne's famous quote from the criminally underrated — if only due to the astronomical success of its sequel — Batman Begins: "Why do we fall, Bruce? So we can learn to pick ourselves up."

Heading into the 2023 offseason, it seemed like the Celtics were destined to fall flat on their faces every year, only picking themselves up enough between each tumble to ensure the next collapse would hurt more than the last.

Every high point since the Big 3 won in 2008 had been marred by disappointment — a feeling Celtics fans would come to know well over the next 16 years.