Well, that is what it feels like as a Boston fan this morning, anyway.  Last fall the Red Sox won the World Series.  Then the Patriots had an undefeated season and made it to the Super Bowl yet again.  Then both the Bruins and Celtics made the playoffs.  And last night, the Celtics brought home a record 17th championship with an absolute thrashing of Kobe Bryant and the Lakers.

There is little left to be said of this storied season – the Celtics had the second worst record in the league last year, yet did relatively poorly in the lottery draft … yet again.  It was another lousy year in an era that seemed full of lousy years.  There were few standouts since Larry Bird and crew retired – Reggie Lewis who died too soon, and Paul Pierce were about all anyone could hold onto for hope.  The last twenty years – since the over-played ‘big three’ retired – have been filled with little other than disappointment.  It seemed that the Celtics were a thing of the past.

I still recall someone saying to me before the season that the Celts had a chance at being pretty good this year, and me being very doubtful.  But I decided to take a chance and use some of my precious free time watching some early games by my old favorite team.  Because while I might have worked at Shaeffer Stadium during the early Grogan years and spent many a game in the bleachers of Fenway, the Celtics were always my favorite team.  And I was glad that my time was well spent watching this new generation of Celtics.

Once the team started winning, all sorts of comparisons started happening between these players and players of the past.  That is the sort of nonsense designed to fill airtime and gain web hits but of little real value.  But one thing was sure – these guys were playing differently than other teams I was seeing.  Unlike the ‘wrap a team around an arrogant superstar’ model that seemed so prevalent and was built around heavy offensive power, these guys were playing like a *team* and defense was their #1 priority.  It was nice to watch them win.

And win they did – turning a next to last in the league performance to a league leading record with 66 wins.  That in itself was record setting – the biggest turn-around in NBA history.  But that is one of those nifty statistics that becomes meaningless if you don’t deliver in the playoffs (like the Patriots undeafeated season).

One thing the Celtics did get for having the best record in the NBA was guaranteed home court advantage throughout the playoffs.  And boy did they ever need it!  They were the only team to go to seven games in the first round – winning all four home games and losing all three road games.  In the second round they were also pressed to a seventh game and came out with a narrow win.  These were both against good teams, but teams they should have beat much more easily.  They had failed to win a game on the road in the playoffs.

Then they faced the seasoned Detroit Pistons.  Where the Celtics looked rough and unsure, the Pistons had loads of experience.  And when the Pistons handed the Celts their first home playoff loss in Game 2, it looked likely that the C’s would have to settle for ‘great season, better luck next year’.  But they turned it around the very next game, beating the Pistons at home.  Then they lost the next road game and won the following home game and returned to Detroit for Game 6 with yet another 7-game series looking likely.  But Paul Pierce had different ideas, and the other two of the ‘big three’ delivered the goods right along with him – and the series ended at six games in Detroit and the Celtics headed to the NBA finals for the first time in 21 years.

Against the Lakers.

Throughout my college years and into early adulthood, the Celtics and Lakers dominated basketball in an era now recognized as the NBA’s ‘Golden Age’.  One thing I am proud to have passed to my kids is the high value I place on sportsmanship.  As a youth baseball player I won the sportsmanship award more than a couple of times for always recognizing greatness and hard work and never stooping to be petty.  So I was never one of those ‘Yankees Suck’ people – and as a result, while I loved the Celtics and hoped for their success, I also cherish seeing Dr. J play, seeing Magic and Kareem and Isaih and Laimbeer and loads of others.  But to me the pinnacle of basketball was Bird vs. Magic during the 80’s.

So while I was glad to see the C’s in the finals, I was even more thrilled that they would play the Lakers.

I have to admit that while I haven’t followed the NBA all that closely in recent years, Kobe Bryant is the sort of person who exemplifies exactly *why* I haven’t.  Admittedly he is extremely talented, but he has also been coddled and given a sense of entitlement since a young age – and it shows.  He has had various accusations of improper behavior made against him, and his off court whining goes right along with it.  He seems to be campaigning for ‘better than Jordan’ as if he was in the Presidential race!  But despite all that, I was looking forward to seeing him in action just as I had enjoyed watching LeBron James.

The Celtics entered the series as underdogs.  The over-analysis by the pundits said that they couldn’t stop Bryant, that the bench matchup would favor the Lakers, and that in general the Lakers had more questions than the Celtics had answers.  Of course, all of that talk is nice, but most of us were just waiting for the seemingly endless season to continue.

The first two games proved the critics wrong – the Celtics won convincingly both times, with contributions from up and down the bench as well as the ‘big three’.  This was nothing like KC Jones playing his ‘big three’ into early retirement two decades ago.  But those games were at home, and once the series shifted to Los Angelos, the Lakers returned the favor and won game three and by halftime seemed ready to blow out the Celtics to even the series at 2-2 with the chance to go ahead at home in Game 5.

Then something miraculous happened.  Down by more than 20 points in the third quarter, the Celtics engineered a turn-around that will go down in the history books as one of the all-time great comebacks.  They turned a 24-point deficit with 18 minutes to go into an 8 point win.

So instead of tied at two with the momentum favoring the Lakers, the Celtics are up 3-1 and the media are preparing the eulogy for the demise of the Lakers.  Many assumed that the Celts would win the fifth game and there would be a parade in Boston on Tuesday, but the Lakers won a hard-fought match and forced Game 6 in Boston.

Perhaps they would have been better off losing that hard fought Game 5, because instead of going out with a bang they faded with a whimper.  They allowed the Celtics to add another entry to the record books, setting a record for the biggest margin of victory in a deciding Finals game ever at 39 points, eclipsing the old record of 33 points set back in the mid-60’s as, you guessed it, the Celtics defeated the Lakers.

I have to admit to loving watching games like this sometimes.  For while they are lousy in terms of competitiveness, it allowed me to savor the inevitable win for a long time (the last 10 minutes took more than an hour!) without the stressful chance of losing.

I was also glad that there weren’t any riots or other violent nonsense following the win – just fun celebrations.  Me?  I went to bed and woke up sleep-deprived but happy.  The Celtics are exhausted to be sure, but they are deserving champions who will get a hero’s welcome in Boston on Thursday.

Update: y’know, as I re-read and thought about this story, I realized something was missing – my family.  Through the Red Sox and Patriots seasons of late we have watched many games together.  But as was true in the ’04 and ’07 World Series, the games are on so late that my kids never get to see them – and my wife can never stay awake.  So this time around they didn’t even try.  It became 26 games of ‘what happened last night, Dad’? And me staying up until midnight just to get up a few hours later.  And while I understand that with a split-coast game you want to maximize the local viewing potential, what about on the weekends?  I was really annoyed that the weekend games were still 9PM starts and midnight finishes.  I know it is all about the money, just like everything else … but whereas the Super Bowl is watchable for all ages and baseball has a billion games each season to make up for the late playoffs, basketball seems to fall through the cracks.  For many kids it means missing out on a wonderful sport, which is a real shame.

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