BEVERLY HILLS (MI) -- The Boston Celtics and their old friends the Los Angeles Lakers are set to meet in the NBA Finals for the 1st time in 21 years and the fun kicks off tonight. For those of you who have been paying the slightest bit of attention, I'm kinda pulling for the Celts a little bit in this one.
These two teams have got history. If you are too young (or too old for that matter) to remember them, Bob Ryan of the
Boston Globe has conveniently listed his top ten Celts/Lakers playoff moments here:
http://www.boston.com/sports/basketb...lakers_top_10/
Maybe it's the fact that I was born in Boston and raised in the Hub exurbs. Mrs. Swampy likes to point out that I have lived in Michigan longer than I did in Taxachusetts so, based on tenure, I should be a Pistons fan. Her logic didn't stop me from rooting against the Sons of Joe Dumars in the recently concluded Conference Finals, the outcome of which just cost Flip Saunders his job. (Altho, when you think about it, $5 million for sitting on your kiester ain't too bad, is it Flip?) Any other time in the NBA season, I'm a Piston fan -- except when they play Boston. I got a full ration of crap during the Pistons/Celts series from a guy working at Home Depot when I showed up there wearing a Celtics hat. I tried to reason with him by asking if he were to move to Boston, what hat would he wear? Pistons, right? Well, that's exactly what I was doing, only in reverse. No sale. Never attempt to use logic on a guy working at Home Depot.
Or, perhaps it's the fact that from the time I was in 2nd grade until I graduated from high school the Cs won the NBA title
every year except for one. We Celts fans didn't just hope the Green would win -- we
expected them to! And ****ed if they didn't, except for 1967 and the one year dynasty of Wilt and company in Philly. And most of those victories came against the Lakers. I credit all of that success to two guys: one William Felton Russell, the best team player to ever lace 'em up and Red Auerbach, the guy who was prescient enuf to draft Big Bill.
The Celtics of my youth played in the barn over a railroad station known as the Boston Garden. It smelled, there was no AC and it featured a permanent cloud of smoke hanging over the arena floor. Now the Celts play in the shiny TD Banknorth Garden in air conditioned comfort, with cheerleaders, digital scoreboards urging fans to make noise and all of that crap that the Celts have imported from other franchises. It ain't the same, but then again, what is?
Here's a sample of what I'm talking about. First, the Russell-era Celtics vs. "The Big Dipper":
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7ab6Tex4H1Y
next, the 10 greatest Larry Legend playoff highlights:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p_nfsq4pTpI
and of course, you can't talk about Bird without bringing up Magic:
http://www.bostonherald.com/sports/b...rts&position=0
The impending Clash of the Titans pits the reigning NBA Defensive Player of the Year in KG vs. the soon-to-be unanimous MVP in Kobe. Altho they won't be covering each other at all, it will be fun to watch these two operate. The Celtics won an NBA-best 66 games this season, including both meetings with LA. You can throw all of that sh*t right out the window, because it means nothing. That was then; this is now.
For the opposing viewpoint, I give you Jon Weinbach of the
Wall Street Journal:
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB1212...tml?mod=sports
Should be a really entertaining series. I just hope that there are no late night triple overtime games, as I'm already sleep deprived enuf from watching the Red Wings and Pens do just that on Monday evening/Tuesday morning.
Celtics in seven.
That's it "From the Swamp."
You can email me at:
swampy@udpride.com