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Sometimes, sports are just sports. Sometimes, they're anything but that. This NBA Finals, for Celtics fans, lands somewhere in between. The league's most storied franchise is on the verge of bringing one of its greatest chapters yet, to a close.
By Spencer Galloway | May 28th, 2024
Photo by Greg Cooper/USA Today Sports
As the final buzzer sounded on Sunday night, bringing an inevitable finality to an Eastern Conference Finals series win for the Celtics over the briefly rivaled Pacers, a mild rush of relief washed over me, as I am sure did most other C's fans, wherever it is they stood.
No, we haven't won a championship. Not yet. I needed to see this one though. I needed to know that 2022 wasn't a fluke, one in which a little extra oomph on a Jimmy Butler three-point attempt almost stole right from us. I needed to know that this Celtics group, comprised of guys who have been together for as long as younger Celtics fans can recall, could do it again.
I have been a Celtics fan for as long as I have been passionate for the sport of basketball. No particular grouping though, has been as emotionally fulfilling, and deflating, as this one. It is because of the latter that I know we cannot rest for long.
"It's the hope that kills you." That very sentence may as well have been tattooed squarely on the forehead of Jaylen Brown when he was selected third overall in the 2016 NBA Draft. Brown, after the departure of Marcus Smart last offseason, is this team's longest-tenured member. It is 2024 now, and still, we as Celtics fans long to feel what those of us did when Paul Pierce finally was gifted his winning team, raising a banner in 2008 that ended the longest title drought in the franchise's history.
This team isn't very similar to the 2008 title squad though, is it? At least not in terms of how we got here. I don't have to go through the whole thing, do I? Many of you know exactly how it is that we got here. Rather, let me rattle off some names that have mattered the most along the way.
Danny Ainge. Marcus Smart. Brad Stevens. Isaiah Thomas. Jaylen Brown. Al Horford. Kyrie Irving. Gordon Hayward. Jayson Tatum. Kemba Walker. Time Lord. Romeo Langford? Ime
Udoka. GM Brad Stevens. Al Horford, again (You're forgiven.) Derrick White. Joe Mazzulla.
Sad Marcus Smart. Kristaps Porzingis. Jrue Holiday.
If that exercise has you undecided on whether to reach for a tissue box or celebrate vehemently, then that makes at least two of us. There are those of us who may not stop to think twice about who has been lost along the way, or what chess moves had to be made to get us to this very point, but at this very moment, it's almost all I can think about.
I mourn the losses of Marcus Smart and Robert Williams, as they were passion-filled, fire-breathing green-teamers who well may have been willing to give their lives to the parquet floor.
I revel in the fact that the Irving name is no longer stitched into the green and white.
I am thankful for contributions from those who weren't given a fair shake, albeit mostly because of their bodies failing them, from Isaiah Thomas to Gordon Hayward to Kemba Walker.
I celebrate under the umbrella of boldness by Danny Ainge, moving courageously in the faces of doubtful peers, to move the franchise into a new direction. One in which he no longer gets to be a part of the ultimate payoff.
Now, I anticipate what awaits this team. Just over a week from now, we get to see it all play out in the big dance for immortality. Great teams that never won it all are only remembered when the next great team that can't win it all comes along. (I swear if I have to see Brown/Tatum posted just below Stockton/Malone on another television graphic I may just come unhinged.) Champions, however, are remembered forever, no matter the difficulty, or lack thereof, of their Finals path.
The analyst that lives inside of me, bearing minimal amounts of bias, sees a favorable matchup lying ahead for the Celtics. The Mavericks are on the verge of eliminating once a talking-head favorite in the upstart Timberwolves. Down 3-0 in the conference final, well isn't that a feeling Celtics fans know all too well? For the Wolves' sake, they better wrap Anthony Edward's ankles tightly if they find themselves in an unlikely game seven.
The Celtics fan that lives inside of me, knowing only the things that I have seen through my child-like perception of this team since I was, well, a child, walks forward fearfully, with trace amounts of doubt lingering from years prior.
I won't get much meaningful rest between now and the final buzzer of the NBA Finals, its sound acting as a great relief valve. I know this, those closest to me know it. I didn't know it when I signed up for this, but if you told me what a ride I'd be in for at the start, I couldn't have said yes faster. This team tells a story about patience, perseverance, loyalty, joy, pain, celebration, suffering, success, and defeat. A story that's better than anything Hollywood could produce, or any author could think up. It's never just been about the basketball for this group. It didn't mad dash its way into a title through a splashy signing. Or through trading for a star at the peak of their powers. It has always been about the journey.
There will be Celtics seasons for so long as this planet spins, and there will hopefully be many more with this core that will soon be tested. Many of us may already be growing impatient to know what fate has in store for us this time around, feeling the stress of not knowing what lies on the other side.
For now, I can find enough relief inside the celebrations that came along with Sunday night's victory. A moment that encapsulates a flurry of memories and feelings that we have carried with us along the way.
Photo by Dylan Buell/Getty Images
One under-told story from the evening is one eight years in the making. One of recognition. Jaylen Brown having been completely taken aback to hear his name called as the Larry Bird ECF MVP, only to be overcome with incredible amounts of joy as he is ferociously celebrated by his teammates, makes for one of the best photos of not only the evening but of his career. On the same day that anti-Celtics commentator Stephen A. Smith repeated sentiments from a "source" that called JB's character into question, Jaylen was solidified by those closest to him as someone to be celebrated.
The energy is about to shift, folks.