In “Cheers Fouls Out,” Kevin McHale joins Cheers’ basketball team.
The Boston Celtics star appears as himself in the second episode of Cheers’ ninth season, which aired in 1990. Sam Malone recruits McHale as a ringer for Cheers’ annual three-on-three employee basketball game against the rival bar Gary’s Olde Towne Tavern.
Sam persuades McHale to play by claiming that the game is a charity event benefiting an orphanage. McHale eventually discovers that Sam has misrepresented the contest and becomes angry. He nevertheless agrees to continue playing on the condition that the money involved is actually donated to charity.
The episode uses McHale’s real Boston basketball identity as part of the show’s local flavor. He was not merely mentioned as a Celtic: he appeared on screen and participated in the plot. That makes him distinct from other Celtics names referenced in the episode, especially Larry Bird, whose rivalry with Woody is part of a separate joke. McHale later returned to Cheers in “Where Have All the Floorboards Gone?”