Pro Basketball Hall of Fame player and coach Tommy Heinsohn - who won 10 titles with the Celtics and announced the team for 42 years - dies at 86

Pro Basketball Hall of Famer and legendary Boston Celtics player, coach, and announcer Tom Heinsohn has died at 86.

The 6-foot-7 forward from New Jersey passed away on Tuesday, the team has confirmed. A cause of death was not disclosed, but he had battled health problems - including blood clots - in recent years and was frequently replaced for Celtics broadcasts last season - his 60th with the club, dating back to 1956.

Heinsohn is one of only four people to be inducted into the Hall of Fame in Springfield, Massachusetts as both a player and a coach, and he's the only person associated with all 17 of the Celtics' NBA titles. 

Tommy Heinsohn is one of only four people to be inducted into the Hall of Fame in Springfield, Massachusetts as both a player and a coach, and he's the only person associated with all 17 of the Celtics' NBA titles. He passed away Tuesday at age 86

Heinsohn smokes a cigarette while John Havlicek pours champagne on his head after the Celtics beat the Milwaukee Bucks to win the 1974 NBA title.  Heinsohn drives to the basket against the San Francisco Warriors during a mid-1960's game at the Boston Garden

To later generations, Heinsohn is known as the Celtics' unapologetically biased color commentator, questioning nearly every officials' call made against Boston for the last 39 years, all of which was spent alongside his play-by-play partner Mike Gorman . 'Well, Mike put it best,' Heinsohn told Boston.com in 2016. 'There's a generation – it's an old generation, my friend, but it's a generation! – that remembers me best as a player. There's a generation that remembers me best as a coach. There's a generation that thinks of me as a broadcaster. And kids, they think I'm Shrek! I'll tell you what, I'll take all of it!'

'This is a devastating loss,' the team's owners said in a statement Tuesday. 'Tommy was the ultimate Celtic. For the past 18 years, our ownership group has relied hugely on Tommy's advice and insights and have reveled in his hundreds of stories about Red Auerbach, Bill Russell, and how the Celtics became a dynasty. He will be remembered forever.' 

Before starting his NBA career in Boston in 1956, Heinsohn played collegiately at Holy Cross in Worcester, where Celtics great Bob Cousy had starred before him. The slick-shooting Heinsohn made an immediate impact for the Celtics, winning the Rookie of the Year award over teammate and franchise icon Bill Russell.

Heinsohn and the Celtics would go on to win eight NBA titles in nine years before his retirement in 1965, which marked his first foray into broadcasting for local radio station WKGB.

In 1969, Celtics general manager Red Auerbach hired Heinsohn to replace Russell as the team's head coach, leading to a pair of Boston titles in the 1970s. He accumulated a 427-263 record over two years as coach before going back into the announcer's booth in the early 1980s. 

To later generations, Heinsohn is known as the Celtics' unapologetically biased color commentator, questioning nearly every officials' call made against Boston for the last 39 years, all of which was spent alongside his play-by-play partner Mike Gorman.   

'Well, Mike put it best,' Heinsohn told Boston.com in 2016. 'There's a generation – it's an old generation, my friend, but it's a generation! – that remembers me best as a player. There's a generation that remembers me best as a coach. There's a generation that thinks of me as a broadcaster. And kids, they think I'm Shrek! I'll tell you what, I'll take all of it!'

'It's hard to imagine the Boston Celtics without Tommy Heinsohn,' the team said in a statement. 'There isn't a generation of Celtics fans for whom Tommy's presence hasn't been felt. He is the only person to be an active participant in each of the Celtics' 17 world championships, an extraordinary and singular legacy.'