Get Up, Stand Up!!!

I was up in Burlington, Vermont this past weekend on business. Thanks to a wicked ice storm Saturday, I hunkered down in my room at the lovely Sheraton with a bottle of Shiraz and the newly installed flat screen TV. After watching ESPN's preview of the UNC/Duke game for the 15th consecutive time (great game by the way, especially since Duke lost, as they are part of my triumervate of "Teams I Love To Watch Lose", along with BC and UConn), I decided to do a little light reading before tip-off. When you go to these things, you've got to take light reading, you only get to read in short spurts, so it can't be anything that demands too much attention. As one might expect, I filled my backpack with my usual topics: fishing, beer, the Grateful Dead, and baseball. My choice that night was to start re-reading Bill Simmons' Now I Can Die In Peace. I'm often struck when I read his stuff by the similarities in our lives. We're basically the same age, and have the same addiction to our local sports teams. Although no one in my family ever had season tickets to the Celtics. I will, however, bet that I saw more Celtics games at the Hartford Civic Center than Bill did, including one where my grandmother (the sweetest and most honest person you'll ever meet) conned the box office people into giving us better seats. I still can't believe that. I did get to see Bird and Parrish and company up close and personal, and I even got M.L. Carr's autograph that night. I thought about mentioning this to Kevin McHale when I met him at a Bob Dylan concert several years later, but I figured he wouldn't remember me. Anyhow, my point here is that there are a lot of similarities between Bill Simmons and myself, except he somehow managed to get somebody to PAY him to do this. I'm available at a much better rate, if anybody out there is interested.

OK, somehow I've gotten off track here. At one point early in the book, the Sports Guy is referring back to the heyday of the Celtics. I was thinking fondly back on those great teams, and trying to figure how this current incarnation of the Green are bringing that passion back to the "Garden". Last week the C's became the first team in the league to clinch a play-off spot. Wow. Last night, with 20 games still to be played this season, they became the first team in the NBA to win 50 games this year. FIFTY GAMES!!!!!! Do you know the last time the Celtics won 50 games?

1992.

That's right, our Celtics haven't won 50 games in 16 years. For the record, although I expect you've already made this connection, 1992 was the last year of the Larry Bird Era. Larry Legend. The Basketball Jesus. His back failed him, and pretty much ever since, the Celts have failed us. Until this year. Larry's running mate Danny Ainge brought us back to relevance (helped in no small part by the ghost of Red Auerbach, I'm sure). It is remarkable. Click on the NBA page of ESPN.com and nearly every day you'll see KG, or Paul, or Ray, or Rajon. They are ever-present. Not even the 2002 team that went (read: snuck in) to the Eastern Conference Finals had this kind of presence. But maybe the best thing about these guys is that they are a team. Unlike the Antoine Walker Ill-Advised 3-Pointer Show, these guys all contribute, they are all focused on one thing...hoisting a trophy. They make each other better. They've turned a second year point guard into one of the elite floor generals in the game. They have a bench that doesn't just hold on, they elevate the team. They've just added two quality veterans to solidify them for the playoffs. And they are fun, man are they fun. Just watch this team pass the ball, it is poetry in motion. Like a perfectly executed 6-4-3 double play, they move the ball gracefully around the court until the perfect moment, and then drive home the dagger.

So Get Up, Stand Up people! These are OUR BOSTON CELTICS!!!! It has been a long time since we could say that with Pride, with conviction, with joy. It's been 16 years, it's been since the last time we won 50 games, the last time Larry Legend graced the parquet. Some may say Boston sports these days are an embarrassment of riches, but I'm not embarrassed. I couldn't be happier.






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