Wednesday, August 1, 2007
RED & THE LEPRECHAUN
Somewhere, the leprechaun is doing a jig, and Red Auerbach is sitting and smiling with a rolled up program in one hand and a victory cigar in the other.The Boston Celtics matter again.
With the additions of Kevin Garnett and Ray Allen to go along with Paul Pierce, the C's are suddenly contenders.
Three all-stars...none of whom have a ring...all of whom desperately want one. It should be fun.
It's been a difficult 20 years, with the deaths of Len Bias and Reggie Lewis, and missed opportunities in the draft lottery.
But I never stopped being a fan, because I never lost my appreciation for the only championship team I grew up with.
Once upon a time, they were the "sure thing."
The Red Sox teams I grew up rooting for were awful until 1967.
The Patriots were a joke.
The Bruins were also pathetic until Bobby Orr came along, but they owned the town. After Orr's arrival, you couldn't get a ticket.
(All-time favorite bumper sticker: Jesus saves, but Espo scores on the rebound!)
But the Celtics...they just won title after title. Eight in a row, 16 in all. And tickets were always available.
I grew up listening to Johnny Most turning Russell, Cousy, Sam and KC Jones, Heinsohn, Havlicek and so many others into hoop gods.
The Russell era gave way to the Havlicek-Cowens years, which morphed into the Larry Legend regime.
And all that time, through so many different owners, Red was baiting the refs, pulling the strings, and infuriating everyone else in the NBA by finding ways to keep his team on top.
The Celtics taught me about teamwork. They never had the league's leading scorer. They didn't care about stats. They cared about the rings.
And now they finally have a chance for jewelry with the new "Big 3."
(Two quick stories: one of my brothers worked briefly as a repo man when he was younger, and he had to repossess Johnny Most's car. Johnny was on oxygen at the time, and when he was led into Johnny's room, Johnny took off the mask, summoned what was left of his gravelly voice to state his case, and within minutes, my brother found himself saying, "Johnny, I was never here."
And when I was the sports guy at WPOP, I covered the Celtics' "home" games at the Hartford Civic Center. Players Don Nelson and Henry Finkel came down for a news conference to help announce the Hartford schedule, and when it was over, there were still 2 cases of cold beer sitting on a table. They asked if anybody would be drinking the beer. Getting no reply, each tucked a case under an arm, and left for the ride back to Boston. My how times have changed.)
So if what appears to be an ash falls from somewhere above onto your head...maybe it's Red...firing up another stogie, and having a good laugh with the leprechaun.
Posted at 12:34 AM by Gerry
2 Comments:
Thank you for so enthusiastically welcoming my very talented cousin to the Celtics.
You're welcome. No doubt you'll look great in a Celtics #5 replica jersey.
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