On the eve of the NBA Finals, let’s get one thing out of the way.
The Celtics have had a great year.
But as Tom Brady used to like to say when he was still the foundation of the Patriots Dynasty, we didn’t come this far to only come this far.
The time for acknowledging Boston’s already-banked 2022 accomplishments will come, but that time is not now. Now, is the time for the Celtics and their fans to get greedy!
Sure, if anyone told us before the start of the season that first-year coach Ime Udoka’s squad would earn an Eastern Conference crown by sweeping the Nets and then winning consecutive series over the Bucks and Heat in Game 7 fashion it would have been more than enough to please and appease Green Teamers and objective fans alike.
Certainly if such a run had been projected in December, before the calendar almost inexplicably turned the tides of momentum for Boston, it would have been seen as an utterly unfathomable feat tantamount to winning the lottery – the cash kind, not the NBA speculative pick party that the Celtics were on course for at one point.
These springtime riches of sending KD and Kyrie packing, out-bullying Giannis and besting of Jimmy Butler and Co. in a dogfight were an optimistic dream at best not too long ago.
So, maybe we should all just be content with the fun run that Jayson Tatum’s troops have given us. Maybe we should just accept it as another step in the development of a young core and its young coach on a road that will eventually lead to Banner No. 18 at TD Garden.
Nope. No chance. Not in Boston.
As Gordon Gekko said, greed is good. It’s just as good on Causeway Street as it is on Wall Street.
Forget the Warriors’ championship pedigree and past.
Forget the daunting combination of talent and experience that Steph Curry, Klay Thompson and Draymond Green bring or the new-look contributions of Jordan Poole and Andrew Wiggins.
Forget that Golden State is the team to beat and embrace for the here and now the fact that maybe Tatum, Jaylon Brown, Marcus Smart are the team to beat them!
Boston chose the current course it’s on, staying the course with its youthful core before playing out the regular season with an eye on one of the most challenging potential championship runs that basketball has ever seen. Udoka’s team wanted its mettle tested by Hall of Fame foes with championship rings in the first round. It wanted to go through a defending champion and former MVP. It wanted to dismiss a No. 1 seed along the way.
It wanted the road less traveled, one that if successfully navigated would certainly stamp the Celtics a team with a legitimate shot to win it all.
Clichés are clichés for a reason.
It’s not how you start, it’s how you finish.
It’s not supposed to be easy.
Anything worth having is worth fighting for.
You get the point.
Over the last month-plus the Celtics have proven themselves championship-caliber and championship-ready.
As Udoka noted in the immediacy of the Game 7 win in Miami to advance to the NBA Finals, this is still Boston and Boston is a still a place that accepts nothing less than championships and only truly celebrates rings. Whether that mentality is worthy of the moniker of Title Town or Entitled Town, as the man who kicked off the historic run of championships more than two decades ago would say, it is what it is.
Have the Celtics had a great year?
You’re damn right they have.
But there is no reason to celebrate that fact now, not sitting a mere four wins away from actual and irrevocable history. Four wins from actual greatness.
Forget what our expectations for the Celtics were not too long ago, the ultimate expectation in Boston is to win a championship, something the franchise hasn’t done in 14 years and that the region hasn’t achieved since the Red Sox last brought us a Duck Boat parade more than three years ago.
(Gasp! How have we lived through this debilitating drought?)
Regardless of what the hate-us-because-they-ain’t-us fans from other cities may think, we’re due for another title.
The Celtics can be the ones to deliver it through what’s already been an impressive run.
Let’s get greedy, Green Teamers! There is another championship to be won, after all.
