Havlicek reminded the new generation, "With your jersey it carries a lot of great tradition. Go Celtics. Beat LA." (Boston Globe)
Fasten your seat belts...we are heading back to the future ..destination-Dream Date!
12 months ago if you had told any Boston sports fan that the Red Sox would win another World Series, the Patriots would go undefeated in the regular season and ...oh yeah, the Celtics would have the best record in the NBA and win the Eastern Conference championship, they might challenge you on the first two but as for the Celtics...they would laugh you out of the bar. It all came true! and last night the Celtics defeated the Detroit Pistons clinching the Eastern Conference title and waking up the Leprechauns.
One year ago the Boston Celtics had won only 24 games all season and no one in Boston cared...it was too hard for anyone over say 35 to care and everyone else didn't remember or know they should care. The Celtics have not been in the finals since 1986...the whole planet has changed since then and in 22 years an entire generation has grown up in Boston without knowing what it is to be a Celtics fan.
There has been a lot to cheer about around here, beginning with the 2002 improbable Superbowl win of the Patriots, followed by the dream of the 2004 Red Sox World Series win that no one thought would ever happen. The word Dynasty has been loosely used, especially applied the Pats, but for those of us who grew up with a Green team in the playoffs year in and year out and watched banner after banner rise to the rafters there is only one real Dynasty in this town...but no one cared for over 22 years.
This generation of Boston fans is far from deprived. In fact they are growing up thinking the Patriots will always win and the Red Sox will always make the post season. They don't know pain! My crowd lived without much of a football franchise to cheer on a Sunday afternoon and being a Red Sox fan meant only heartache...for 86years.
What we did have, and yes we took it for granted, was a basketball team that played in a leaky, stifling hot, old building with pigeons flying in and out. They played on a magical parquet floor and year after year they won...16 championships brought by names that are spoken with reverence around these parts...Cousey, Havlicek, Cowens, Parrish, Mchale, the hick from French Lick-Larry Bird, and a man that defines the overused sports adage Legend...Bill Russell- all under the guiding eye of Red Auerbach. A win was not a win til Red lit his cigar, fire laws would probably have stopped him last night.
I grew up a Celtics fan, hard not to, but after losing my Dad 19 years ago I stopped watching the team, and then there was no reason to watch the team. I had not really watched a Celtics game for all those years of misery until last fall...curiosity drew me back and 62 wins kept me watching. Sean Grandy, the voice of the Celtics, would remind listeners each game, "this is not a dream...it is all really happening." Sean, it still feels like a dream and now we have come full circle. The Celtics are revisiting their past..they are meeting their fiercest and most glamorous rival, the LA Lakers in the NBA finals. The NBA and the networks are jumping for joy...but the real joy is in the hearts of those of us who have survived the long off season for Boston basketball. It is June and the Celtics are playing basketball-the world is back on track.
That old pigeon filled building is gone,in its place a building that has had a few too many corporate names but is now called The Garden once again...that may have helped turn things. Bird and Magic won't be running up and down the court, but trust me their presence will be recognized on both floors. Red Auerbach, the man who personified this dynasty, is also gone, though there can be no doubt he is watching this team,always his team. The Celtic fans in my life are gone as well, oh how they would have loved Kevin Garnett. I may not be able to sit and cheer well after my bedtime with Daddy and my brother this time around, but I am a Celtic fan again and I will bleed Green for all of us and chant with a smile filled with memories of special days...BEAT LA!
Fasten your seat belts...we are heading back to the future ..destination-Dream Date!
12 months ago if you had told any Boston sports fan that the Red Sox would win another World Series, the Patriots would go undefeated in the regular season and ...oh yeah, the Celtics would have the best record in the NBA and win the Eastern Conference championship, they might challenge you on the first two but as for the Celtics...they would laugh you out of the bar. It all came true! and last night the Celtics defeated the Detroit Pistons clinching the Eastern Conference title and waking up the Leprechauns.
One year ago the Boston Celtics had won only 24 games all season and no one in Boston cared...it was too hard for anyone over say 35 to care and everyone else didn't remember or know they should care. The Celtics have not been in the finals since 1986...the whole planet has changed since then and in 22 years an entire generation has grown up in Boston without knowing what it is to be a Celtics fan.
There has been a lot to cheer about around here, beginning with the 2002 improbable Superbowl win of the Patriots, followed by the dream of the 2004 Red Sox World Series win that no one thought would ever happen. The word Dynasty has been loosely used, especially applied the Pats, but for those of us who grew up with a Green team in the playoffs year in and year out and watched banner after banner rise to the rafters there is only one real Dynasty in this town...but no one cared for over 22 years.
This generation of Boston fans is far from deprived. In fact they are growing up thinking the Patriots will always win and the Red Sox will always make the post season. They don't know pain! My crowd lived without much of a football franchise to cheer on a Sunday afternoon and being a Red Sox fan meant only heartache...for 86years.
What we did have, and yes we took it for granted, was a basketball team that played in a leaky, stifling hot, old building with pigeons flying in and out. They played on a magical parquet floor and year after year they won...16 championships brought by names that are spoken with reverence around these parts...Cousey, Havlicek, Cowens, Parrish, Mchale, the hick from French Lick-Larry Bird, and a man that defines the overused sports adage Legend...Bill Russell- all under the guiding eye of Red Auerbach. A win was not a win til Red lit his cigar, fire laws would probably have stopped him last night.
I grew up a Celtics fan, hard not to, but after losing my Dad 19 years ago I stopped watching the team, and then there was no reason to watch the team. I had not really watched a Celtics game for all those years of misery until last fall...curiosity drew me back and 62 wins kept me watching. Sean Grandy, the voice of the Celtics, would remind listeners each game, "this is not a dream...it is all really happening." Sean, it still feels like a dream and now we have come full circle. The Celtics are revisiting their past..they are meeting their fiercest and most glamorous rival, the LA Lakers in the NBA finals. The NBA and the networks are jumping for joy...but the real joy is in the hearts of those of us who have survived the long off season for Boston basketball. It is June and the Celtics are playing basketball-the world is back on track.
That old pigeon filled building is gone,in its place a building that has had a few too many corporate names but is now called The Garden once again...that may have helped turn things. Bird and Magic won't be running up and down the court, but trust me their presence will be recognized on both floors. Red Auerbach, the man who personified this dynasty, is also gone, though there can be no doubt he is watching this team,always his team. The Celtic fans in my life are gone as well, oh how they would have loved Kevin Garnett. I may not be able to sit and cheer well after my bedtime with Daddy and my brother this time around, but I am a Celtic fan again and I will bleed Green for all of us and chant with a smile filled with memories of special days...BEAT LA!
