I hate the Celtics- I have never hated them before this year, but yet somehow throughout this years playoffs I found myself strongly rooting against them, and by the NBA Finals I was a full-fledged Laker fan (and I hate Kobe- who I will be posting separately on soon enough). I have been trying to figure out why- I mean I actually like James Posey, and have always rooted for both Paul Pierce and Kevin Garnett. Yet despite this, I have hated watching them win and I think it is because of their fans. We have spoken about this briefly amongst the RDCM staff, but the Boston fans this year have really pissed me off. I tend to rather enjoy Bill Simmons, but his articles these days have become so "homer" it is nearly nauseating. I hate how Celtic fans felt like they deserved this, that they had to suffer for so long. I guess the previous 16 championships (nearly 30% of total championships in history) weren't enough. Or maybe it was because the Patriots winning 4 Super Bowls and nearly having an undefeated season wasn't enough (losing to the Giants as we all know). Or maybe it wasn't enough to have the Red Sox win 2 of last 4 World Series. I remember in 2001, as the Yankees were trying to continue their dynasty run, and I had just moved to Boston; all I heard about was the suffering Boston fans and how New Yorkers (in particular- Yankee fans) did not appreciate, even took for granted, winning so much. When a superhuman (read that as you wish) Luis Gonzalez dinked that bloop for the game-winning hit, I remember the relentless taunting I received. Now I see this smugness and sense of entitlement in Boston fans and I guess it makes me sick. I like to consider myself pretty fair and rationale fan of sports teams, even being happy and cheering for the first Pats Super Bowl as it was a great story, but I feel like there is just too much bad blood between these two sports cities.
Also- I would like to point out further what Simmons briefly mentions in his article today- about how the Celtics are basically a fantasy team. They have had 54% of their playoff scoring and 53% of playoff minutes by players who were not on the team in the prior year. If you include players who weren't on the year before, you are looking at 78% and 83%, respectively. (It is like buying a new NBA Live video game and starting a franchise and checking the fantasy draft button- yet somehow this is such a beloved team.) The reason all these players were acquired and this turnaround happened can be mainly traced to two significant happenings:
1. Former Celtic great Kevin McHale trading a still in his prime Kevin Garnett for Al Jefferson and a pile of crap
2. The 2006-2007 Celtic team saying F You karma and completely tanking the season to acquire the #5 pick and subsequently deal that (and some garbage) for Ray Allen.
All this is very bitter and I realize this, I just needed to vent. Now back to our regularly scheduled sanity.
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