There is really just so much on my mind right now. So many emotions. I'm sort of still in shock.
May 22nd last year, I feared the worst for the Celtics. A 50% chance to land one of the top 2 picks, the Celtics fell to five, where there would almost certainly be no value. I was watching in Zac Mercer's living room, and it was like someone punched me in the gut. Really. Ten years after we got robbed of Tim Duncan, we had been robbed of Kevin Durant, Greg Oden, and even Al Horford.
Draft night, we trade for Ray Allen. At the time, I feel like we are getting the better end of the deal, but it doesn't feel like it's going to be enough. With talks of Garnett to Boston dying down, I consider the possibilities of landing Andre Kirilenko or Jermaine O'Neal. Having seen the Celtics advance past the first round just once previously in my 10-year tenure as a fan, these are the sort of desperate thoughts I'd grown accustomed to.
But the KG talks picked up. Paul Pierce lobbied the deal to Garnett relentlessly, and Garnett, the ultimate team player, finally agreed that it would be for the best to leave Minnesota. So on July 31st, it happened. The Celtics dealt five players, cash, and two draft picks for Garnett.
My anticipation of seeing him was unprecedented. One of the best power forwards in history, still at the tail end of his prime, and he finally had some teammates.
Garnett didn't wait for me to accept his presence in Boston- he made me and everyone else feel it immediately. A block on Gilbert Arenas on opening night was a symbol that this was a very different Celtics team. Garnett's basketball became everyone's basketball. Everyone started playing defense. Everyone started picking each other up. Everyone bought into a "we not me" mentality and that was that. The team that lost 18 straight games in 2006-07 only lost 16 total in 07-08.
I've been gushing about Garnett, but we can't forget about the pieces that made this team complete. Eddie House and James Posey signed on at a discount because they knew they could be part of something great. And they were.
The first month of the postseason was fairly nerve racking, to say the least. The Celtics looked out of synch, Doc wasn't putting our best lineups out there, and we were allowing third-rate teams like the Atlanta Hawks to keep up with us. We didn't look like a champion, we looked like a team who was going to get bounced from the playoffs by Cleveland in the second round.
But we endured. A legendary 41-point performance by Paul Pierce in game 7 of the Eastern Semis carried us to the Eastern finals, where we began to come into our own.
We started playing efficient offense and lockdown defense. We won on the road. Twice. We began to look like a 66-16 team again. Clinching the Detroit series on the road after being down ten points allowed the team to prove to themselves and everyone else that they had a real shot at the title.
...okay. This was pretty disheartening.
But we pushed forth. Games 1 and 2 at home, wins. On the road in game three, we lost by just six despite Pierce and Garnett combining to score 19 points on 8-35 shooting. I felt at that point that if we could come that close even with such a weak performance, the series was ours. And I was right.
The first quarter (and most of the first half) of game four was painful to watch. Down 24 at one point, it looked like the Celtics would have to take it in seven if they were going to win this series. How wrong I was. A 21-3 run in the third quarter brought us to within 2 points, and then in the fourth, we took over. Everyone was dropping the shots we needed, Paul Pierce locked Kobe down, and the Celtics finished off the largest comeback in finals history.
"Eddie House by 5." -Brendan Clair, when asked by ABC6 what he thought the spread of the game was going to be.
Game five, lackluster. We didn't even look like we were trying. Gross. Ugly. I don't even want to talk about it. We didn't get crushed, we just didn't care. That simple.
That was not the case in game six.
After a very flat start for both teams, the Celtics began firing on all cylinders. 48 rebounds (14 offensive). 13-26 3-pt (Including an incredible 7-9 from Allen). 18 steals (a finals record). 33 assists (10 from the MVP, Paul Pierce). The Celtics didn't just beat the Lakers, they demolished them. They put the largest exclamation point on a championship in history: 131-92.
For the first time in 21 years.
For the first time in my lifetime.
My only regret is that Red wasn't here to see it- He wouldn't have had it any other way.
It brings me back to the beginning. I've been following the Celtics since I was eight- Antoine Walker's rookie season. Back then, I was dumb enough to believe Toine was a good player. I saw a LOT of mediocre-to-borderline-embarrassing basketball during that time. The single bright spot that I did see (01-02) was a pipe dream which cost us future All-Star Joe Johnson. Really, I was tortured by bad play as a Celtics fan more than I was as a Sox fan. At least with the Sox I had some hope every year before we finally captured the championship in 2004. I would go into nearly every Celtics season fully expecting us to just fold to better teams. And we would.
I was a fan of the Celtics before, but I've been following them closely ever since we drafted Pierce in 1998. Really, I sort of feel like I've been struggling with him all along. Bad seasons, bad teammates, trade rumors, I've seen it all. And most players in the NBA would've demanded a trade and gotten the hell out of dodge while they still could. Not Pierce. Pierce never came out and said he wanted a trade- that's something another MVP winner from this season can't say. Pierce stayed strong. And when he was given a team to win with, he led them to the title.
It's weird for a 19-year old to say this about a 30-year old, but I am very proud of Paul Pierce. I've seen his entire career unfold. He went from a rookie spark plug to the team leader and NBA champion right before my eyes. And yes, I admit that sometimes I thought the Celtics would be better suited to trade him and begin to build around a youth core. I'm happy to have been wrong about that. Paul Pierce is one of the greatest Celtics in the history of the franchise, and the number 34 will someday hang up in the rafters with 33, 32, and the myriad numbers that are there now.
It really has all changed now. Danny Ainge's questionable start as the Celtics' GM (even though I hate Antoine, I really still can't get over the Raef trade. That was extraordinarily bad.) has been erased. He was executive of the year. He (along with the help of Kevin McHale) created this team. We are the champions. One of my friends, though I don't remember who, said it wouldn't sink in until today, and they were right. On my drive home, I felt things that even the World Series victories couldn't even bring me. The only words I could bring myself to mutter were "We fucking did it. We fucking did it."
It was always sort of a custom to follow the Sox for kids my age. There were not many true Celtics fans. Those of you who stuck with the team through and through, this is your championship. You were there with Dana Barros, Ron Mercer, Walter McCarty and the rest of the pu-pu platter of mediocrity for the lowest of lows. If you watched any game last season, you saw a team who was actually trying to lose. It was disgusting and an insult to the great Celtics teams of the past who brought the city sixteen titles. In years before that, lackluster, selfish teams would hardly be unified. Bad luck and questionable management never brought the city teams of the same caliber of even the early 90s squads.
Chris Wallace, despite your awful draft picks, trades, and tenure as the Celtics GM, I forgive you. Despite your last-ditch attempt to fuck us over by trading Pau Gasol to the lakers for his brother, a VHS copy of Road House, a Bimbo Coles rookie card and $20, I forgive you. Even your best attempts to kill us couldn't do it. You have failed in every fashion imaginable. I forgive you.
After the mass coverage Boston sports has received, this sentence (and maybe even this post in its entirety) may sound a little cliche. But in a sports town like Boston, it is so easy to come under scrutiny and fold under the pressure. It has happened to a lot of athletes here, and it will happen to many more. This team banded together and achieved greatness. We're holding a parade. We're hanging another banner on the rafters. This can't be taken away.
Now, I have to get back to my regular life, back to work, and soon enough, back to school. But for just these fleeting moments in time, I can embrace this moment and how beautiful it is and how all the pain I felt to get here has been worth it. The feeling is something more than any mix of words can even attempt to convey. I couldn't be prouder of the 2008 World Champion Boston Celtics, and I know there are others out there who feel just the same.
"And the sky is blue in every direction.
The sun is total and burning and just right there, and today is a beautiful day."
