My Obligatory Celtics Post (Although I'm Not Happy With It)

I’ve been trying to write about the Celtics recent NBA Championship victory. As I said earlier, my Celtics’ loyalty runs deep. It meant a great deal to me that they were able to win their first championship in 22 years; basically, their first championship in my comprehensible lifetime.

In a way, it was more sweet than the Red Sox championship last year.

But what’s really important, is the sports dominance of Boston in the last decade. Boston is a sports-crazed town. The sports teams here mean a little too much. They represent something beyond just the toy chest of adult life. They unite New Englanders in a way little else does.

See, to be a New Englander means you are different than the rest of America. New England is isolated from the rest of the country. It is it’s own little corner of the country. Here is history; here is the foundation of American democracy. The New England townships represented the original democracies in America. The unique town-based government continues to this day. People are connected each other in legitimate ways in New England.

New England also represents the mixing bowl of America. There are towns and sections of towns all over New England which are still recognized as "Portuguese" or "Italian" or "Irish". Boston, the oldest of American cities, still has a "social register" of the most important few hundred families. Where else in America could an entire society have "Brahmins"? The old English "aristocracy" here still runs deep, though it has been increasingly replaced by a new upper class, best represented by the Irish Kennedy clan, who rule the social life on the image- and class-obsessed Cape Cod, Martha’s Vineyard, and Nantucket Island.

But across these class and ethnic divides, our Boston sports teams unite us. At Red Sox games, one can find Stephen King, any of the Kennedys, Matt Damon, as well as the thousands of New Englanders ranging from rich Boston bankers with accents reminiscent of the high society British royals, to Irish drunkards with the stereotypical Boston accent without "R"s. They’re all rooting for the same team.

The Celtics, Red Sox and Bruins all have tremendous, storied histories. The Red Sox were one of the original teams in the American League over 100 years ago, and they were the winners of the inaugural World Series in 1903 (they were known then as the Boston Americans). We all know the story of the Sox’ decades-long frustration until their recent success.

The Celtics have their own history, a much more successful one. In the ‘50s, ‘60s, ‘70s and ‘80s, the Celtics were the premier basketball franchise, holding a dominance over the NBA that can only be rivaled in sports by possibly the Yankees’ dominance in baseball. In one 13-year stretch, the Celts won 11 (ELEVEN!) NBA Championships. The legend of Red Auerbach and his victory cigars is one that will last for years in New England. Celtic Pride stretched from Connecticut to the upper reaches of Maine and Vermont.

The Bruins were one of the "Original Six" members of the NHL. They have slipped into mediocrity, but New Englanders devotion to the B’s still simmers under the surface, waiting for a revival like the C’s experienced this year. But many die-hards still fill the new Garden, cheering on a team that’s been all but abandoned by its ownership.

And while I personally am not a Patriots, one cannot forget their historic run of championships this decade, and their near-miss this season.

And see, whether you’re a sports fan or not, if you live in New England, you know all of this. When new sports leagues are created, the Boston market is always one of the first to get a team. People here crave sports. The New England Revolution were one of the original Major League Soccer teams formed in the mid-90s, and they too have been immensely successful, including 3 straight trips to the MLS Championship game.

Did you know there is Major League Lacrosse? And that’s right, Boston has a team. They play their home games in Harvard Stadium. Boston even has a professional football team. The one team Boston lacks is a female basketball team. Take that for what it’s worth.

I keep telling myself to soak this in, that it won’t last. The Red Sox won’t always be perennial contenders. The Celtics may fade back into mediocrity or worse. Boston sports won’t always be this dominant. Sports success is (usually) cyclical. Everyone who hates Boston now, because they don’t live in New England, will find some new dominant teams and cities to hate. The bandwagon fans will leave.

But for now, it’s really fun to be a Boston sports fan. Those who haven’t won can’t understand. See, Boston suffered for a while. Aside from the Celtics (who stopped winning by the ‘90s), Boston sports fans hadn’t seen their teams win in a long time until this decade. Now, it seems, all that sports karma has released a flood of championships.

It’s an incredible to stick with a team, to watch them for 80 games a season even when they’re starting Sebastian Telfair (who? Exactly.) at point guard, and then to see them reward you with the ultimate win. The Celtics victory parade last week was the 6th such parade in Boston in 9 years. It won’t last forever, but dammit, I’m enjoying it right now. Because it won’t last forever, and I know how that feels too.