Make that 5 out of 6.
I really hate rooting for the Celtics. Since I grew up in an Irish-Catholic neighborhood in North Jersey, I was surrounded by Celtics fans who were attached to the nickname and also racist and attached themselves to a team led by white guys. I lived in Boston for a bit of the Antoine Walker era (more like the Jiri Welsh era) and remember quite well more than a few games with less than 10,000 in attendance. Since I hated a lot of the people I grew up with, and the "Boston is America's best sports city" is a total lie, I hate that franchise.
The C's do get some points, though. Even though Red Auerbach was one of the all-time great sports villains, the teams' best player was an outspoken African-American playing in a then very racist area. And he invented fast-break basketball. Also, I love the way Rajan Rondo plays, and Doc Rivers seems like a good dude, even though the rest of that team is comprised of some truly hatable people.
But I looove what they’re doing to Miami. Miami was at their absolute worst last night. I remember at the local courts growing up the times when the really good players would all play on the same team against us scrubs just to try and humiliate us. And they’d always have one guy who would net-hang. And they’d call the most Mickey Mouse fouls. The Heat are exactly that. And not that the Celtics are scrubs or a rootable group of ragtag castoffs, but the Heat just want everything to be handed to them on a silver platter.
I loved Van Gundy calling out Wade for whining to the refs instead of getting back to play defense. Good for him. He’s great, even though his partner’s grotesque.
