BOSTON: Green and white confetti rained on Boston on Friday as thousands of people jammed the streets to celebrate the Celtics' 17th championship win and first NBA title in 22 years.

Aboard amphibious "duck boat" tour buses, Celtics players basked in the cheers of supporters who lined the streets behind steel barriers from the TD Banknorth Garden to Copley Square.

Team captain Paul Pierce puffed on a cigar while holding aloft his trophy as most valuable player in an NBA finals run that ended on Tuesday with a 131-92 rout of the Los Angeles Lakers.

The team's "Big Three" - Pierce, Ray Allen and Kevin Garnett - waved to a sea of fans dressed in green - from T-shirts to jackets, baseball hats, green golf shirts, green-painted faces and even white-and-green wigs.

The so-called "rolling rally" was Boston's sixth championship celebration in seven years, following recent successes of the Red Sox baseball team and the New England Patriots in the NFL.

"We're going to do it again next year," shouted Celtics co-owner Wyc Grousbeck as he gripped the championship banner that will soon hang in the Garden.

The win marked a revival of the storied but tarnished Celtics franchise and capped one of the NBA's most dramatic turnarounds following an embarrassing 2007 when the Celtics won an Eastern Conference-worst 24 regular-season games.

By acquiring Garnett and Allen they became title contenders, winning 66 regular-season games and reviving "Celtics pride" in the sports-mad and once-predominantly Irish-Catholic city that still lionises Celtics legends of the past - Larry Bird, Kevin McHale and Robert Parish.

Screaming fans held up signs reading "Sweet 17", "We beat LA" and "NBA champions" as cheerleaders danced with green pom-poms. The 131-kilogram centre Glen "Big Baby" Davis peeled off his shirt, swinging it in the air before playing air guitar and shouting "what's going on" as the crowd roared.