you're the good things

finally... dunno know about all four of you, but for me, waiting for the celtics playoff run to start has been arduous to say the least - it hasn't just been the past six months of regular season time killing, it's been roughly three years, or the last time the celts played a meaningful springtime game... and how can you not eat it all up? my first favorite team is an absolute, nationwide darling, getting the kind of press and love that is routinely reserved for teams like the lakers and spurs and suns... everyone - more or less - loves them to sweep atlanta starting tonight, then slightly sweat out the cleveland/washington winner before dispatching the flip-switching pistons en route to a dream, '80s-style title bout with the lakers (accordingly, that's exactly how i have it in my nba.com playoff pool bracket)...

anyway, now that i've gotten the prediction part out of the way, i need to take a moment to reflect on all this attention being showered upon the celts... i think the first time i saw the new gatorade commercial - the one where kg is deified as power ranger warrior who sweats sugary sports drink - it really hit me just how important and significant this team is... there's no way that the hype machine has exploded over the celtics the way it is now since those golden-hued days of the mid-80s, when larry bird ruled this town... when the celts made it to the eastern conference finals under jim o'brien before antoine walker put on 50 pounds back in 2002, it was fun and exciting and all, but no one really gave them much credit thanks to the presence of jason kidd in his prime on the other side of the series, the presence of shaq, kobe and phil jackson in pursuit of a three-peat on the other coast, and the fact that kenny anderson was the celtics point guard, tony battie manned the paint and vitaly potapenko was the team's third highest paid player... that series was pretty much a lost cause even though the celts were on the winning end of the biggest comeback in nba playoff history in game 3... the celtics played a pretty ugly style due to their personnel (your basic run down the floor and shoot a three-pointer regardless of game situation, shot clock or any other variable sort of thing)... there was a feeling of inevitability about that team - it was great to feel excitement about them after so long, especially so soon after the rick pitino debacle... but everyone knew that even though they made it farther than anyone not seriously disturbed could have fathomed, it was only a matter of time before the ride came to an end... the evidence was in the coverage - can anyone name a single commercial/tv spot/iota of publicity surrounding that team? except for antoine's adidas, "employee no. 8" ("i make baskets") ads, which i think arrived well before that season, i certainly can't... the celtics made it all the way the the nba's final four in 2002, yet still seemed to be the mystery guest that no one really wanted to sit next to at the table...

which leads us to this season which, the 2005 campaign notwithstanding, is the first time anyone has ascribed any playoff expectations to the celtics since before the original big three were gray and old... of course this has been a foregone conclusion ever since july 31, 2007 - the day kg arrived... now we have commercials and billboards and interviews and espn sunday conversations everywhere we look, a set of circumstances that has been the norm all year long... 38-year old sam cassell joins the ranks and has 73 articles written about him in a month... big baby davis gets a mohawk and its the lead item in a newspaper notebook... leon powe goes from being the last guy on the bench to the sixth man and has tommy heinsohn refer to him as a superior offensive force... big papi, dustin pedroia and mike lowell sit courtside for an 8:30 p.m. playoff game even though they have to be at fenway at 7 a.m. the next day due to marathon monday... and of course, pierce, garnett and allen rule the world...

over the past seven years, as the patriots have risen to the top of the ranks and the red sox have shed their demons to become the best and most popular team in baseball, it's felt at least slightly bittersweet due to the celtics being a step or two behind... now that they enter the playoffs carrying a similar cache (can't quite call it the same cache until they win) all feels right with the world... sure, we won't know the outcome for another couple of months and as talented as the celtics are, a lot will need to go their way for a 17th banner to be raised... but it's just the feeling, the genuine anticipation of something great being so close that's what's so cool... it could happen again, for the first time in 22 years... and it says here, it will.