Jun 18 2008
Celtics Cruise to Championship
The Boston Celtics won their record 17th NBA Championship. They did it with determination, defense and domination. Their win was so dominate in game 6, I won’t even dignify their opponent by mentioning them or their players by name. Instead, I’m going to focus on the Champs, the ones deserving of having their names highlighted.
Kevin “Big Ticket” Garnett finally broke through to remove the loser tag and the “great player, but can’t get it done” label. Clearly, he felt the pressure, and took action. He was dominate inside, and his one handed lob while being fouled in the second quarter demonstrated that he came to play. It is amazing how a guy can change his entire career image in just one game. Garnett will never again be Garnott.
Paul “The Truth” Pierce proved he’s worthy of his nickname. He rose to the challenge of winning a title for one of the most storied sports franchises. Pierce willingly shared the spotlight with two incoming stars. He laid his body on the line to take abuse on drives and defense. He asked for the ball late in games, not just offensively, but also defensively. He wanted to play the “best player” in the NBA man to man when they needed it most. In doing so, he walked away as the true MVP.
Ray “Jesus Shuttlesworth” Allen showed “He Got Game”. I wondered early in the playoffs if he was hurt, cause his usually consistent jump shot was off. However, as the playoffs went on he improved game by game, and by the time the finals were over, he was deadly, shooting 7-9 from 3 point range in game 6. Not only that, but when guarding the “Next Jordan” he was able to hold his own.
Doc Rivers succeeded where other recent former NBA point guards who became coaches failed. Byron Scott lost two finals and Avery Johnson lost one. The NBA seems to be developing a trend of hiring former point guards to be coaches, and many have been successful. Rivers even managed to out coach the “guru” coach with 9 championships as coach. Need evidence? In final 3 games, the Celtics were only outscored by their opponent in 2 of 12 quarters.
GM Danny Ainge probably only kept his job after last season because he was a former Celtic himself. However, he was smart enough to call good friend Kevin McHale and acquire Garnett. He traded away a large part of the team’s future by trading the 5th pick in the 2007 draft (Jeff Green) for Allen; in addition, the Garnett deal cost him Al Jefferson a promising young forward. He nearly gutted his team in that deal, but managed to keep two key guys, Rajon Rondo and Kendrick Perkins. While many thought he’d sacrificed his bench too much to get Garnett, he simply hit the free agent veteran market, and picked up two quality shooters who were willing to play defense as well, in James Posey and Eddie House. He didn’t stop there, during the season he managed to get PJ Brown to unretire, and acquire Sam Cassell. Cassell never quite fit, but he did bring a veteran, I’ve won before, attitude to the team.
All said, as a 76ers fan, I’m a bit depressed that the Celtics managed to pull this off. We had our chance at drafting Paul Pierce, but instead took Larry Hughes. I never did, and still don’t understand that pick. Seeing as at the time, Larry Brown was the Sixers coach, and he’s never quite cared much for young players, and Hughes was but a freshman, while Pierce was a 3rd year player coming from a big time program Kansas where Brown had won a title as head coach. Not to mention, I’m just old enough to remember some of the early 80s battles with Boston and the Sixers.
But nonetheless, I’m happy for them, because I have always respected Garnett, Pierce and Allen. And more importantly, the way they did it. Defense, determination and domination.
PS: Philly, please somehow, someway imitate Boston. The hapless Patriots became a dynasty, the “we haven’t won since World War I” Red Sox have two championships, and now the snake bitten (Len Bias, Reggie Lewis etc) Celtics have turned around and gone from first to worst. Come on Philly, get it together.
PSS: Celtics, nice running up the score, did Belichek call you and tell you to do that? Honestly, that was classic, mostly because of all the media focus on the “team that didn’t show up” prior to the Finals. I’m sure the Celtics knew that of the 10 “experts” ESPN polled for finals picks, only Tim Legler picked the Celts to win, and two “experts” picked the opponent to beat the Celtics in Boston in game 7.
