Don’t shoot the messenger, but Boston sports fans may want to stuff their slogan hats and t-shirts under their mattresses for a bit.
The championships outlook for the big four professional teams hasn’t felt this bleak since the turn of the millennium.
Before Jayson Tatum’s injury in Game 4 of Round 2 against the Knicks, the Celtics were the lone bright spot in a market of rebuilds and dysfunction. The reigning champs’ long-term outlook was always uncertain given the impending ownership change, as well as the monetary and basketball penalties carried by the price of the roster under the modern NBA collective bargaining agreement. Now, with their All-NBA player possibly seriously injured, their immediate future looks totally different as well.
(UPDATE: The Celtics announced on Tuesday that, as feared, Tatum ruptured his Achilles tendon. He underwent surgery on Tuesday, and there is no timetable for his recovery.)
What an ugly dose of reality for anyone who decried the 2024 Celtics championship “an easy path.” Championships are never easy. Titles just look that way to Veruca Salts who skipped the 2018 Red Sox duck boat parade because they already took paid time off for the Patriots one in February.
Tatum’s long-term prognosis is the highest priority in any Boston sports conversation right now. He’s a generational player who was chasing Larry Bird numbers. He had already raised one banner, and the expectations were multiple. Considering his age and dedication to his craft, that standard is still very much in play - but the shock of going from point 42 against the Knicks to a wheelchair behind the stands hasn’t worn off. Once it does, we’re likely going to be left with a bit of nausea surveying the rest of the teams around here.
Start with the Real Housewives of Fenway. $313 million man Rafael Devers is refusing, for the second time in four months, to change his position for the betterment of the team. Devers’ attitude is lame, but the way the Red Sox have handled themselves is no case study for executive leadership. Communication has clearly broken down between the front office and their highest-paid player. And, oh yeah, they’ve missed the playoffs in five of the last six years.
The Bruins have to be the team sitting at the very bottom of the wheel of fortune. Six years after a Stanley Cup Final appearance, they’ve gone from historically great regular seasons to early playoff exits – and they’ve run two head coaches off the East Coast. The front office shipped Brad Marchand down to Florida, where he’s alive in the playoffs, and somehow ended up with their lowest possible lottery pick in the NHL Draft. Plus, the front office held a cringeworthy press conference reminiscent of a Tom Wambsgans congressional hearing in HBO’s “Succession.” Tough to feel confident about the direction of that organization.
The Patriots owned the NFL for two decades. I won’t lie. The vibes are alright around Foxborough these days. Players sound like they’re buying into Mike Vrabel being a hard ass coach, ownership spent real money in free agency, and the team has a talented, young quarterback. Their 2025 schedule looks exceedingly friendly. But this is a team who’s accrued eight wins over the past two seasons. That means the number of wins they’ve found over two years – including a Buffalo game that blew their draft position – still wouldn’t earn them a playoff position if they cobbled them all into one season. They haven’t earned the confidence required to declare a championship is anywhere on the horizon.
The last time the Boston sports market looked this bad was the year 2000 – the only stretch in the last 25 years when all of the big four teams missed the playoffs. The teams aren’t in as bad a position now. Obviously, the Celtics won the championship last year. But we’re now a far cry from six Boston championships between 2011 and 2018.
There are some reasons for optimism – just not right away. Again, Tatum has the right stuff in an exceedingly smart and responsible organization, and has access to the greatest medical care in the world. Brad Stevens is a wizard. He's willing to break hearts to do what’s right for the Celtics. The Red Sox are dramatic, and a rollercoaster athletically, but they have talent on the major league roster and kids waiting for their promotion out of Polar Park. On paper, the Patriots are making the right decisions; we just have to see it translate on the field. And the Bruins are also a team.
It feels like the bottom of the wheel right now, but the thing about that Greek myth is that it keeps spinning – in the face of fired coaches, torn tendons, and fractured locker rooms. It’s just a question of how quickly it can turn.