Examination and comparison of the materials, design of tagging, presence of the NBA shoulder logo, comparison of the chest and torso measurements, introductory forms of imagery analysts used as an aide for style matching, and lack of year tag allows us to attribute this jersey to being issued to be worn by Larry Bird during the 1986-87 season. 1986 found the NBA adding league logo on the shoulder of the jersey.
For comparison of the 1986-shoulder league logo we examined:
MEARS 1985 Celtics Home Walton (no shoulder logo)
MEARS 1986 Celtics Home Ainge (with shoulder logo)
MEARS 1986 Celtics Home Bird (with shoulder logo)
MEARS 1986 Celtics Road McHale (with shoulder logo).
This allowed MEARS to eliminate 1985 or previous as a year of issuance. The addition of the league logo in 1986 was used to validate this examined Boston Celtics jersey and was also consistent with all of the other NBA teams for the 1986 era as included in the MEARS database.
For comparison of 1986-87 Sand Knit NBA & Boston Celtics jersey knit materials, we examined:
MEARS 1986 Celtics Ainge
MEARS 1986 Celtics Bird
MEARS 1986 Celtics McHale
MEARS 1986 Kings K. Smith
Both the 1986 Celtics and Kings were using the same heavy body non-mesh Sand Knit “knit” blend. Additional teams may have worn Sand Knit supplied uniforms, but they were of the mesh variety.
For comparison of the 1986-87 Sand Knit label design, we examined:
MEARS 1983-85 Road Larry Bird (open Medalist design)
MEARS 1986 Celtics Home Ainge (closed Medalist design)
MEARS 1986 Celtics Home Bird (closed Medalist design)
MEARS 1986 Celtics Road McHale (closed Medalist design)
This allowed MEARS to eliminate 1983-85 as a year of issuance due to the open lettering of the Medalist tag design. The Medalist tag design changed and the lettering were found with closed Medalist lettering. Additional 1986 NBA jersey with the closed Medalist lettering design were examined and used for comparison to positively date the new closed Medalist tagging. Additional NBA teams examined and found in the MEARS database includes the Jazz, Kings, Nets, and Sixers. All were found with the 1986 closed Medalist lettering tagging design. The arrangement of the “Designed & Tailored Exclusively for the Boston Celtics” tag above the closed Medalist tag was consistent with examined samples.
For comparison of the presence of the lack of year tag, we examined:
MEARS 1986 Celtics Home Larry Bird ( no year tag)
MEARS 1986 Celtics Home Danny Ainge ( no year tag)
MEARS 1986 Celtics Road Kevin McHale (no year tag)
MEARS 1987 Celtics Road Gilmore (with 87 year tag)
This allowed MEARS to attribute the year dating to 1986. The following season, 1987, the Boston Celtics added year tags. This continued through the 1989 season. In 1990, Champion supplied the Celtics with their game worn jerseys.
For comparison in order to conduct trend analysis of Larry Bird chest and torso measurements, we examined:
1979-85 Larry Bird Sand Knit: chest 20 ½ inch, torso 30 inch
1981-84 Larry Bird Sand Knit: chest 21 ½ inch, torso 28 ½ inch
1986-87 Larry Bird Sand Knit: chest 21 inch, torso N/A
1987-88 Larry Bird Sand Knit: chest 20 inch, torso 28 inch
1987-88 Larry Bird Sand Knit: chest 22 inch, torso N/A
1986-87 MEARS #307573 Larry Bird Sand Knit: chest 21 inch, torso 30 inch
The examined 1986-87 Larry Bird Home Jersey (MEARS #307573) measures within an acceptable range of chest and torso measurements to 5 previously examined Larry Bird jerseys.
For basic imagery analysis to determine proper style and design, MEARS referenced:
1986-87 Larry Bird Celtics Home Finals photo (image enclosed)
1986-87 Larry Bird Celtics Home Finals photo (image enclosed)
Getty Image 2038751
Getty Image 235160
Getty Image 71694137
Corbis U87201024 (Back jersey reference)
Corbis U87201025
Corbis U871180132
Corbis U87198066 (Front jersey reference)
Corbis U87104028
Video: A Basketball Legend with highlights from the 1986-87 season.
The examined 1986-87 Larry Bird Home Jersey (MEARS #307573) compares quite favorably to the above references when examined with respects of team font, player’s name font, front and reverse lettering.
In summary, examination of the jersey style, examination of tagging, lettering, numbering, & evaluation of overall moderate wear allowed MEARS to deem this 1986-87 Sand Knit Boston Celtics Home style jersey as being consistent with other game worn Larry Bird jerseys examined by MEARS.
Troy R. Kinunen