The Boston Celtics have featured many of the NBA’s best players ever.

That includes two of the greatest defenders to ever take to the hardwood.

Bleacher Report recently undertook the task of ranking the 99 best defenders in NBA history, and the Celtics were represented in the Nos. 1 and 3 spots on the list.

Bill Russell, to no real surprise, earned the top spot.

The All-Defense team only came out in Russell’s final season (he made first team), and they didn’t count steals or blocks (what were the scorekeepers doing?), but Russell is widely regarded as a defensive legend.

“In each of Russell’s 13 seasons, Boston’s defensive rating was dramatically better than the league average,” B/R writes. “In 1963-64 alone, it was an eye-popping 10.8 points better than average. And that elite defense anchored by Russell led to 11 championships in 13 years. In many ways, he’s the perfect answer to this question, because defense is about so much more than numbers. They can never truly measure communication, rotations and all the things an offense can’t do because of it. Even if they’d existed, the greatest defender of all time would’ve transcended the numbers and accolades anyway.”

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Tim Duncan, the Spurs legend, was the runner-up in the two spot.

Coming in at No. 3 wasn’t a life-long Celtic, but he made a huge impact all over the floor in Boston: Kevin Garnett.

“While his raw numbers tailed off a bit when he was traded to the Boston Celtics, Garnett’s experience, intensity and leadership helped establish the culture of one of the greatest defenses of all time,” B/R writes.

Other players who had Celtics tenures who made the list:

Don Chaney, No. 92Derrick White, No. 89Theo Ratliff, No. 87Paul Silas, No. 83Dave Cowens, No. 81Artis Gilmore, No. 77Rasheed Wallace, No. 73Shaquille O’Neal, No. 71Larry Bird, No. 70Rajon Rondo, No. 62Kevin McHale, No. 60Bill Walton, No. 56Marcus Smart, No. 54Tayshaun Prince, No. 52Dennis Johnson, No. 45Jrue Holiday, No. 35John Havlicek, No. 31Bruce Bowen, No. 24Tony Allen, No. 23Gary Payton, No. 14

The DJ ranking feels a bit low, but overall, that’s quite a lot of good defense played for the Celtics through the years.

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