Back to the Garden: A lot can change in seven years
Last Friday I went to a Boston Celtics game for the first time in seven years. That game back in 2000 was a pretty dreadful story. The Celtics played Chicago Bulls in the (final) post-Michael Jordan era. The Celtics stunk. The Bulls stunk. The game stunk. The crowd at hand was mostly interested in dancing their way onto the Jumbotron. I spent the whole game talking NFL with a co-worker.
It was a very different story last Friday, when the Celtics took on Atlanta Hawks. The Celtics now have a lot of talent, including the towering but athletic Kevin Garnett. The team entered the game with a 3-0 record, including a ridiculous blow out. The crowd was loud and supportive. All aspects of the floor show were excellent, and the Celtics now has a dance team, something it sadly lacked back in 2000. The Celtics are now demanding our attention, as Boston Globe sports columnist Bob Ryan put it last week.
After a somewhat slow and error-prone start to the game, Celtics took control and more or less cruised to a 106-83 victory.
Paul Pierce is an intriguing piece of the Celtics puzzle. He used to be the team’s only star, heck, at times he might have been the team’s only NBA-level player, but now he’s overshadowed by Garnett. He struggled a bit against the Hawks, but still ended up making bunch of plays and scoring a bunch of points. Not that I really know much about basketball, but perhaps a good portion of the Celtics championship chances hinge on Pierce’s performance throughout the season and in particular the play offs.
A most honorable guest at hand was Boston Red Sox Manager Terry Francona. The crowd was at its loudest when he was introduced by the announcer. Francona also took part in a down-time floorshow where he held the ball over his head, where Celtics Leprechaun mascot Lucky snagged it after jumping off of a trampoline (I imagine the “Lucky stole ball! Lucky stole the ball!”-joke has been done to death).
I also took a few pictures of the Celtics dancers.
