Against expectations, The Celtics took one from the Cavaliers yesterday, on their home court. The boys in green now hold home court advantage.
Obviously, the huge factor is that LeBron’s elbow is bothering him so much. It goes without saying that their team is LeBron and a bunch of guys. The Celtics may not be able to beat The Cavaliers, but we can beat a bunch of guys at any time.
Other things going for us:
a) Rondo is amazing. Here’s a very small ferinstance. Glen “Big Baby” Davis steals the ball with an all-out effort. He runs down the floor with the ball, then drops it off for Rondo behind him. At that exact second I thought, “Rondo is going to get the ball back to Davis for an easy two. I don’t know how, especially since their whole team knows it, but he will.” Sure enough, Rondo drove and somehow slipped the ball back to Davis for an easy two. Rondo rewards the big men for running, every time.
b) The Celtics are healthier than they’ve been in months. Garnett looks like a deer out there, hopping around and jumping all over the place. Pierce isn’t playing that great, but he has the energy that’s been missing. Allen is a killer. Not only is he scoring consistent points, but he’s doing it efficiently.
c) Wallace? Rasheed Wallace? Sports Guy nailed him exactly. Wallace has sucked this year. Sucked to an incredible degree. I can’t count how many times I’ve yelled at the tv or snorted in disgusted. Last night, he was great. I’m not greedy, I don’t need him to be great. I just need him to not suck. Can you do that for me Sheed?
d) LeBron is injured. More important than any of this.
I will say this. If the Cavs get knocked out, LeBron will be downright suicidal. How much more can one man do? If they get knocked out due to a freak injury, that will be very sad for him.
I would still root for the Celtics. Loyalty is to the team. As amazing as Bird was, he was not the team.
I have never rooted for Stephon Marbury. Punk!
Muttrox … the question remains. If Bird had gone to, say, the Pacers — in the prime of his career (say, 1985) — would you have switched allegiances?
He’s the only player I can think of that has a chance to switch your allegiance. If Tom Brady moved, my guess is that a) you’d still be a big Pats fan and b) not really care one way or the other about Brady’s new team.
What about another related question … normally, if a player joins your favorite team, he becomes a player you root for because he’s on your team. In the extreme example, most Yankee fans rooted for the previously hated Clemens when he became a Yankee. My question is … are there any players you would still not be able to root for, even if they became a Patriot, or a Celtic? Michael Vick? Ben Rothlesberger? Ron Artest?
Bird: One thing I’ll say about him, he liked money. A lot. He’s one of the only people to hold Aurebach up and get away with it. If the rules were different back then, I suppose it’s possible he might have gone to some other team at the tail end of his career. But even then — he liked to win so much. He wouldn’t go to a terrible team and try to turn them around, that would be too frustrating. He would have to go to a contender. Or the Pacers, because he was always an Indiana man. But not the Lakers. Not the 76ers. Neither of those would ever happen.
ole, there is no loyalty, but it works both ways. In the 80s they wouldn’t cut an old vet the instant he was underperforming a little. They’d let him hang around a little. They’d find him a front office job, keep him with the organization somehow. That doesn’t happen much anymore. Paul Pierce has been a Celtic for 12 or 13 years. He’s the exception. Tim Duncan is the exception. No more loyalty in either direction.
great article on rasheed. rajon is a stud. mo williams is an all star and they have former all star jamison with a couple guys who can rebound – lebron has a good supporting cast to win it, unless his elbow remains impacted. not sure the nj nets / knicks fan comparison is even close to red sox / yankees. nets don’t have die hard fans do they? and do anyone view the nets as a rival? sorry. to brad,if there was the contracts and free agency system in the 1980’s like there is now, never say never on bird. but i will sleep believing that bird would never go to lakers. clemens to yankees, boggs to yankees, damon to yankees. money is money. fame is fame. no more loyalty in sports.
Many topics to address. One stands out though. Larry Bird would never go to The Lakers. Couldn’t ever happen. Nope, never. End of question.
The appeal of LeBron is amazing. I took five 10-year olds out for dinner on Saturday (my son’s birthday), and there were TVs everywhere showing sports. The big screen TV next to us was playing women’s softball, but the TV across the room was showing Celts/Cavs. The boys got up from the table and huddled around the TV playing the basketball game. So I asked the waiter to put the basketball game on our TV, and he obliged. So the boys all came back. Then I asked them who they were rooting for, and all five said the Cavs, all solely because of LeBron. And we live in New Jersey … it’s not like the Cavs are our local team. I asked my son what he would do if LeBron got acquired by the Knicks as a free agent. After some long hard thought, he conceded that he would probably switch allegiance to the Knicks. It’s rare that a player has such draw. Think about Roger Clemens … the Red Sox fans loved him, and then when he became a Yankee, they hated his guts. Imagine if Red Sox fans had become Yankee fans because Clemens swapped teams … almost infathomable. Yet it will happen if LeBron changes teams. Sure, the Red Sox and Yankees are maybe a bad example, since they are such bitter rivals. But the point is that LeBron loyalty supercedes team loyalty, at least for a lot of so-called Cavs fans. I can’t recall many players that had that kind of loyalty. Question to Muttrox — if Larry Bird had been a free agent in 1988 and gone to, say, the Utah Jazz, would you have become a Jazz fan over the Celtics? Or how about if he went to the Lakers? Would you have a) become a Lakers fan, b) still rooted for the Celtics but had a soft spot for Bird and the Lakers, or c) hated the Lakers and rooted hard against Bird?
Bron needs support. Think of the great players in history. Rarely have they been able to win championships with “a bunch of guys” supporting them. Jordan had Pippin, a strong point guard, etc. Magic had Kareem. Bird had strong support. I’m sure there are exceptions to this, but it is a strong enough trend that one can conclude it is, at least, very difficult for one player to slide through the NBA playoffs with no meaningful team support.