Something About That Green...

BY GABE SOUZA
EDITORIAL. PHOTOS BY AP NEWS

It gets me. It gets me Every single time I'm there.

When I look up to the rafters of the TD Garden, it sends a chill down my spine.

I hear the voice of Johnny Most, the famous Celtics announcer. I recall countless conversations with seasoned basketball fans, all of whom remember the guys in green dominating the hardwood.

It seems to grab any player or fan who enters the hallowed parquet floor. It’s not the regulation side hardwood, the leprechaun at midcourt, or the 20,000 raucous Beantown fans. It’s the 17 NBA Championship banners.

That’s right, count them. Seventeen. 

That’s the third most of any team in any professional sport, just behind the Yankees’ 27 in baseball and the Montreal Canadiens’ 24 in hockey.

First, 1965-1966 catches your eye. That year the Celtics breezed by the Los Angeles Lakers four games to one. But getting to the Finals was the hardest part and produced perhaps one of the most famous radio calls in sports history.

Up by one point in the final five seconds of Game 7 of the ’65 Eastern Conference Finals against the Philadelphia 76ers, forward John Havlicek would go down in basketball lore for one play.

“Five seconds left, Boston only has a one point lead,” Most crackled into the radio. “Greer putting the ball into play. He gets it out deep and…Havlicek steals it! He stole the ball, Havlicek stole the ball! It’s all over! It’s all over and Johnny Havlicek is being mobbed on the floor.”

Most was the voice of the Celtics from 1953-1990. If you listen closely, you can still here his voice, cracking with excitement, swooping throughout the rafters of the Garden.

Then there’s the longest game ever played: NBA Finals, 1976, Game 5 against the Phoenix Suns.

The team from Arizona was widely considered inferior to the Celtics. But the underdog Suns overcame a 22-point deficit to take the storied franchise to overtime.

It took three overtime periods to decide the winner of this game. In true Celtics fashion, it was an unknown bench player with little experience who clinched the game for the C’s. Rookie Glenn McDonald scored six points and Boston won the game 128-126, and took a 3-2 series lead.

After the marathon of a game, Celtics power forward Tommy Heinsohn collapsed in the locker room and spent the night in the hospital for dehydration and extreme exhaustation. But he managed to catch the flight to Phoenix the next day to close out the series and bring home the win.

In modern day sports, winning back-to-back championships is considered amazing. When the Los Angeles Lakers won back-to-back-to-back titles in ’03, ‘04’, and ’05, the “three-peat” enraptured the sports world and was the toast of Los Angeles.

From 1958 till 1966, the Celtics won eight consecutive championships. Eight. Yes, eight in a row.
That’s why no matter how many championships the Patriots win, or how many times the Red Sox break a curse, when it comes to Championships, this is the Celtics’ city. This is Red Auerbach territory.

For three decades they were the gold standard in the sports. They were cocky and they were arrogant. Above all, they were winners when they were supposed to win - which was most of the time.

They were hated by their opponents because they were cocky. But they knew they were going to win. 
Every time teams went up against the Celtics, they knew they were going to play harder than you, faster than you, and tougher than you. It was even estimated by numerous reporters and teammates that Havlicek would run three to five miles a game.

“On stamina alone he was be among the top players who ever played the game,” said long-time New York Knicks head coach head coach Red Holzman.

It was that kind of attitude that the Celtics shared. It was that attitude that depicted the entire team.

They heard every criticism imaginable. In the battle of centers, Bill Russell was just too small (6’9) compared to Wilt Chamberlain (7’0). Russell didn’t score enough and cared too much about rebounding. 
Heck, Wilt dropped 100 in a game as a member of the 76ers. Bottom line: Russell has 11 championship rings, nine as a player and two as a coach. Chamberlain? He managed just two.

Auerbach’s decisions were constantly questioned. Like when he drafted Larry Bird in 1978, a year before he would be eligible to play in the NBA. Sportswriters called it a wasted pick, some disgruntled fans worried Bird would be a bust. But instead, number 33 turned out to be one of the greatest shooters in history, a multiple championship winner, and an NBA Hall-of-Famer.

The chip on Auerbach’s shoulder materialized into victory cigars. He’d light them every time the team won – scratch that, every time he knew they would win. 
Red was so cocky that he would reach into his suit jacket, whip out an Hoyo de Monterrey and light it up with anywhere from five minutes to a couple seconds left in the game. When he knew the victory was in the bag, he lit up, and, according to multiple sources, he was never wrong. Not once was he left puffing in defeat.

It’s that type of chip on the shoulder that this year’s Celtics team has. 

They won the championship in 2008 and were just six minutes away from winning again last year. Yet, they aren’t even in the conversation of the elite teams this season. The Miami Heat have taken all the glory with the acquisition of LeBron James and Chris Bosh to go with established in-house star Dwyane Wade.

The Lakers - the NBA’s defending champions - are getting the other half of the attention.

Everyone seems to have forgotten about the boys at the Garden, and that’s okay with them.
This is a unique team. A blend of veterans who many think are beyond their prime – Kevin Garnett, Ray Allen, Paul Pierce, and Shaquille O’Neal mixing with misfits like Nate Robinson, Glenn Davis, Marquis Daniels and a cocky sparkplug in Rajon Rondo.

It’s a recipe for success. A team that’s having fun so far.
Just look at Robinson’s twitter videos performing mind-numbing slam-dunks over Shaq. The team is loose, cocky, and ready to win. And according to all the picksters out there, they aren’t supposed to win. The Oklahoma City Thunder at 14/1 almost have a better shot Boston’s 17/2 pick.

In my time, I’ve only seen the Celtics capture one championship: 2007-08. But there are plenty of people in this city who remember the teams of yore and while the names may have changed and there’s no longer any Havlicek, Bird, or Russel, there’s that same old Celtic swagger.

Red may be gone but his spirit isn’t. Just look up next time you’re in the Garden.