As RoadDawg so accurately pointed out, the extension of the mid-80s Celtics team was going to be the transition into Len Bias and the ability to lighten the load for the remaining front court players for the Celtics.
The 87 team saw its championship chances get burned by McHale's broken foot (from which he never really recovered from) and Magic's sky hook in Game 4.
The 88 team just flat out lacked depth that was an extension of the 87 team.
Bird gets hurt in 89 and the Celtics trade Ainge to extend younger front court depth by getting Joe Kleine ... ouch
What many forget though, is that when Bird returned for the 89-90 season until his retirement in 91-92, the Celtics won 52, 56, and 51 games. Even the year after Bird retired the Celtics won 48 games.
So when you really break it down, the reasons for the Celtics dynasty falling apart had 3 major factors:
1) Len Bias OD 2) Retirement/Fall of the Big Three (Bird in '92, McHale in '93, Parish leaving in '94 as a free agent) 3) Death of Reggie Lewis
I was at an M's game against the Rangers that night. I remember it because there were maybe 4,000 people in the dome. Dude in my row just walked to the bullpen to area to get some dip from Jeff Russell.
edit: checked retrosheet and the attendance was 6729. 2:12. Mike Morgan with a complete game loss.
The Bulls trading for Scott Pippen and the Pistons taking a Hall of Famer in the worst draft in NBA history were more important than any of those three reasons.
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edit: checked retrosheet and the attendance was 6729. 2:12. Mike Morgan with a complete game loss.
Lewis did not die until Jordan had 3 titles.