Celtics have only one title since 1986, but path to another clear
PHILADELPHIA — “Picking up the pieces of a sweet shattered (Bruins) dream . . . ”
With the Boston Celtics, it’s always about history.
Much as New England loves to celebrate the old Celtics dynasty, the fact remains that this franchise has won only one championship since dinosaur Hall of Famers Larry Bird, Robert Parish, Kevin McHale, Dennis Johnson, and Bill Walton roamed the parquet in 1986. That’s one banner in 37 years.
This comes to mind as I sit here in Philadelphia (watching the scalding-hot Red Sox), waiting for Game 4 of the Celtics-76ers conference semifinal series.
The Celtics are better poised to win another flag than at any time since they were the greatest team in the history of the NBA (50-1 at home) in 1986. And their own history won’t leave them alone.
Friday’s 114-102 Game 3 win over the Sixers (MVP Joel Embiid dropped to 1-10 in playoff games vs. Boston) pushed the Green to a 2-1 series lead. The Celtics are 14-7 in series against this franchise — bouts that included Bill Russell vs. Wilt Chamberlain, Bird vs. Julius Erving, and Paul Pierce vs. Allen Iverson.
Game 3 happened to fall on the same date (May 5) as the famous “balloon game” in 1969 at the Los Angeles Forum, when Russell got the better of Chamberlain one last time, winning his 11th championship in 13 seasons with a fourth-place team that was on its last legs. It turned out to be the final game in the careers of Russell (11 rings) and Sam Jones (10).
May 5, 1981, was the day when Bird rebounded his own miss and hit a jumper against the Rockets in the first game of the Finals (Red Auerbach called it the best play he’d ever seen). It was also the date the Celtics played their final game at the old Garden, a playoff loss to the Magic.
Fast-forward to today. The 2022-23 Celtics have a chance to win the championship by going through traditional rivals from Philadelphia, New York, and Los Angeles in the final three rounds.
There’s a long way to go. Nothing is a given. But the path is clear. We’ve been speculating and celebrating the talents of Jaylen Brown and Jayson Tatum, now in their sixth season together. Now is their time.
Sorry to be so optimistic, but after a four-year drought (Tom Brady, February 2019), it’s time to mount the duck boats. Mayor Michelle Wu’s first parade should roll around June 19 or 20.
(Very) high above courtside, Red’s
got to be puffing on a Hoyo de Monterrey and enjoying the show.
R Quiz: Beginning with the 1967 Red Sox, name nine players the Sox acquired who were named league MVP before they came to Boston (answer below).
■ Two weeks ago, these fingers typed, “Masataka Yoshida looks soft. Is this what the Sox get for $105.4 million? There was no weaker cleanup man in the bigs in the first three weeks. Like a lot of Japanese position players, Yoshida is vulnerable to the high cheese. Maybe he will get better, but thus far, he’s in the Jack Clark/ Pablo Sandoval pantheon.”
The day those words first appeared on the Globe website (April 21), Yoshida was hitting .189 with one homer, riding a one-game hitting streak. I’m pretty sure the man has not made an out since that moment. You’re welcome, Boston.
■ Love how the scalding-hot Sox vaulted from last to third in four days and topped their entire 2022 win total against the Toronto Blue Jays.
■ The Bruins aren’t going to hang one of those “Most Wins in NHL Regular Season History” banners in the Garden rafters . . . right?
■ Bet Bruce Cassidy is smiling as he coaches the Golden Knights in the second round against Edmonton. The Bruins and Jim Montgomery must cringe every time Vegas wins in these playoffs.
■ Montgomery’s suggestion that reporters check with “Goalie Bob” regarding the switch to Jeremy Swayman before Game 7 was unfortunate. Clearly, the Bruins have a goalie rotation/deployment system that places considerable heft on the opinions of longtime goaltending coach Bob Essensa, but Monty’s deflection made it sound as if the head coach was passing the buck on a huge decision (which turned out to be the right decision).
■ Hideous to see Bill Parcells and Warren Zevon both denied Hall of Fame admissions on the same day this past week. Zevon came up short in Rock and Roll Hall of Fame voting while Parcells was topped by Mike Vrabel in balloting for the Patriots Hall of Fame.
The Patriots don’t have a problem ushering worthy longtime assistant coach Dante Scarnecchia into their Hall without subjecting him to competition vs. popular players. The Patriots have a rule that “head coaches” have to be voted in by fans, while “assistant coaches” can simply be anointed. This seems like a convenient way to continue embarrassing Parcells (he has lost five of these fan votes).
I’m looking for the Tuna to lose the fan vote next year to either Tebucky Jones or Gunner Olszewski.
■ Love how Joe Mazzulla and all Celtic players refer to Marcus Smart as “Smart.” It’s sounds cold the first dozen times you hear it, but you come to realize that it’s how Marcus Smart wants to be addressed by his teammates and coaches.
■ The Charles Barkley ad with him sitting alongside his young self is pure genius. Love it when young Charles says, “Wonder how many championships I’m gonna win,” then stops and says, “Don’t tell me. I want to be surprised.” Old Charles (who never won a ring) nods and says, “Oh, you gonna be surprised.”
■ The last three general managers who left the Red Sox have done pretty well. Theo Epstein won a World Series with the Cubs, Dave Dombrowski got to the World Series with the Phillies, and Ben Cherington has the long-woeful Pirates in first place in the NL Central. Perhaps this bodes well for Chaim Bloom’s future.
■ It was great seeing the wife of the late John Havlicek, Beth, on hand to present Malcolm Brogdon with the “John Havlicek Sixth Man Award,” and it’s nice when TV shows McHale and Walton as previous recipients of the official league award. But it’s wildly incomplete because here in Boston, we know that Frank Ramsey, the “Kentucky Colonel,” was the original sixth man.
■ NESN’s Bruins coverage during (and after) the first-round meltdown vs. Florida was professional and informative. While the collapse unfolded (and afterward), Barry Pederson, Andy Brickley, Billy Jaffe, Sophia Jurksztowicz, and Andrew Raycroft consistently provided informed opinion and criticism, never insulting their audience by pretending it was anything less than abject failure. Baghdad Bob doesn’t work here. Fans are too smart and sophisticated.
■ Imagine the gall of Deion Sanders ripping NFL teams for not selecting more HBCU players in this year’s draft. Sanders took all the best Jackson State players with him when he went to Colorado. His subsequent banishment of players who were recruited to Colorado before he arrived is despicable. In a recent interview on “The Pat McAfee Show,” Sanders called those young men “old furniture.” Nice.
In the old days, Sanders’s ways would have landed the Buffaloes on NCAA probation and triggered Calipari-esque “vacancies,” but now that college sports are de facto professional sports, there’s no policing a guy like Deion.
Jackson State cornerback Isaiah Bolden, New England’s seventhround draft pick, played for Sanders and said, “Learning from the greatest of all time was a blessing and I believe he prepared me for this moment.”
Swell. Wonder how the kids Sanders bounced out of Colorado feel about the “blessing” of crossing paths with Prime Time.
■ When the Cardinals played the Angels in St. Louis Tuesday, it marked the first time in history that there was a game between these two franchises that did not include Albert Pujols.
■ The death of former Cardinals world champion/broadcaster/restaurateur Mike Shannon brought to mind that night in October 2004 when the Red Sox finally won the World Series. Shannon that night graciously gave free food and drinks to all those from Boston who came into his nearby eatery.
■ Nothing beats turning on ESPN and watching the network’s mock draft for 2024!
■ Congrats to the great Karen Guregian, who is leaving the Herald after 38 years, taking her talents to MassLive. She’ll be joined there by veteran baseball savant Sean McAdam.
■ Cedric Maxwell assures me he has never been to a hockey game. Not one.
■ Sorry to hear of the passing of John Underwood, who died in Florida in April at the age of 88. The longtime Sports Illustrated writer collaborated with Ted Williams on two books: “My Turn At Bat” and Williams’s bible of the batter’s box, “The Science of Hitting.”
■ RIP Gordon Lightfoot. Thanks for the “Carefree Highway” inspiration at the top of today’s column.
■ Quiz answer: Elston Howard, Orlando Cepeda, Don Baylor, Andre Dawson, Jose Canseco, Kevin Mitchell, Willie McGee, Dennis Eckersley, Rickey Henderson.