Sunday, May 23, 2010

Weekend (Very) Quickie

I don't need to prove or belabor my well-documented anti-Boston sports bonafides.

That makes it all the more awkward for me to note that this Celtics team is growing on me. They were considered past-their-prime, over-the-hill, on the down slope.

Now they are blowing the Magic -- the presumptive favorites (certainly mine) -- out of the playoffs and look good enough to keep up with the Lakers in the Finals. (God, that Rondo play where he chased down the ball in the backcourt, swiped it from Jason Williams, then zipped around for a nifty basket -- that was Rondo and the Celtics, encapsulated.)

They resemble -- if only fuzzily -- my favorite NBA title team of all time: The 1995 Rockets. Rudy T's "Never Underestimate the Heart of a Champion" team that won a title in '94 only to finish 6th in the West -- then went on to dispatch the 3-seed, 2-seed and 1-seed en route to obliterating Shaq's Magic in the Finals.

I'm not sure I can stomach the standard Boston fan triumphalism if the Celtics win the NBA title this year, but I find myself respecting their route to getting there more and more.

-- D.S.

No comments: