By the way I’m still in awe of that Celtics celebration. From everything I listed last night to Brian Scalabrine’s press conference. Just unreal and I’m not even a Boston fan.
Kevin Garnett. You rocked everyone’s world with that 3 minutes and 3 seconds of pure, raw emotion. Even though people thought your spontaneous ‘ANYTHING’S POSSIBLLLLLLE!’ was really you trying to do the adidas slogan. (I don’t buy it, plus how awkward would it have been for him to really yell Impossible is Nothing). And you know what….you deserved it. You earned it. You earned the right to hit on Michelle Tafoya, to drop a world record of 112 ‘motherfuckers’, to ask Bill Russell where to go tonight, to put Danny Ainge in a headlock. You earned it. After years of being one of the best players in the league you were finally able to climb the mountain top. And you did it being you. You changed the culture of the Celtics team. You brought an intensity and energy level that everyone had to meet. You made sure from the start that there would be no ego problems between you, Paul and Ray by making it mandatory that all three get interviewed at the same time. They couldn’t have done it without you.
Paul Pierce. Game 7 against Atlanta. Games 5 and 7 against Cleveland. Games 1 and 5 against Detroit. Games 1, 2, 4 and 5 against the Lakers. Those are all your signature games. At least 3 of those were classic performances. Somehow, someway you have made it to the mountain top. After years of floundering in Boston, nearly getting stabbed to death, having to watch Antoine Walker, Ricky Davis and Sebastian Telfair jack up jumpers. All the trade rumors and people doubting you. You wondering what your legacy would be…especially your legacy in Celtic lore. Coming into this year people were not going to remember you. Now you leave as one of the best Celtics ever. Not just because of the championship. But because of the way you did it. Finals MVP for a reason. Who on earth knew you could even play defense? Raise your hand if you did? Exactly. If you had bet me my house that Paul Pierce was going to aid in playing shut down defense on Kobe Bryant I would have laughed. And I’d be homeless. Granted you had a tremendous scheme, some help from your team and Kobe…but you guarded the hell out of the best player on he planet. It was your block of a Kobe fadeaway (how many people have done that?) that turned the tide and led to one of the greatest comebacks in history. They couldn’t have done it without you.
Ray Allen. The forgotten member of the crew. Known as one of the greatest shooters in the history of the game. Always viewed as a great player and a great person. The only problem with your legacy: you weren’t a winner. Despite all the accolades you never got it done at UCONN. You got to the Eastern Conference Finals with Milwaukee but couldn’t advance. Didn’t get past the second round in Seattle. You were quickly headed toward Reggie Miller-ville and everyone knew it. And you sure didn’t help yourself in the first two rounds. Against the Hawks you were shaky…against the Cavs you were MIA. You averaged 9.3 points, shot 32% and 16.7% from behind the arc. That’s Ray Allen making 4 three’s in 7 games? Nobody believed it. But we all wrote you off as ‘tired’, ‘old’, ‘washed up’. People were waiting for you to explode and you never did. Until Game 2 of Detroit…in a losing effort. Then something clicked in Game 5 (5/6 from behind the arc) and you never looked back. 22 three-pointers in the Finals, 7 in the clinching game (move over Kenny Smith) and now you’re a champion. They couldn’t have done it without you.
Doc Rivers. Everyone and their mom said you were going to botch this. Everyone. Little did they know that a lot of your problems as a coach were fixed. For one you had three great players. Secondly you had Thib to coach defense. Third you had limited options on the bench which forced you to play a rotation. Four you had veterans. Those were your flaws. And they were fixed. So now the same Doc Rivers who won Coach of the Year in 2001 in Orlando with a doo-doo platter of players (that team would be rated 58 in NBA 2K8) could come out this year. You reached their souls and they responded to you. They played with a certain passion that is not seen in professional basketball. Guys aren’t supposed to care that much. There were times in the playoffs where the Celtics played like high school seniors in their last state playoffs, desperately trying to win, giving every single thing they had. And it’s because you pushed them, you said the right things and they responded. Of course sometimes they were obvious (“Our goal is to to win”) or you made head-scratching decisions (leaving Rondo in too long, leaving Cassell in to long, not playing Eddie House) but you made the adjustments, you took your lumps and at the end of the day you can say you outcoached the greatest coach in the history of the game in the Finals. They couldn’t have done it without you.
Sam Cassell. Your signing was supposed to relieve pressure for Rajon Rondo. And give the Celtics a scoring backup. This didn’t happen. You jacked up bad shot after bad shot to the point where I’m convinced you just didn’t know the offense. At the end of last night’s game the camera kept cutting over to the bench and you were flashing that signature grin of yours. Which of course is you at your ugliest. I’m pretty sure they could have done it without you.
And that’s the beauty of the Celtics. I could have written about every single player on the team because they all had a moment this year. And that’s beautiful. They won because they were the better team. As corny as that sounds it’s true. The Lakers had all the talent in the world, the best coach, the best player and they could not figure it out. Because they don’t play well as a team and they didn’t want it bad enough.
By the way…Kobe is going to average 35 points, 17 smiles, 7 bad jokes and 5 awkward moments in Bejing. Seriously. The guy is going to be a monster. You don’t think he knows he missed out on a legacy making moment. Not only that but he had another terrible trip to the Finals. Also…if Pau Gasol has a 35 point game in the Olympics shouldn’t Kobe be able to legally beat him into a state of unconsciousness? Just wondering.