Doc Rivers was a big part of the knicks in the early 90’s. He was a thief, he would take the ball from you, he was a leader, he had an ugly jumpshot, but he would make it; New York loved him because he had the elegance of a general in the desert in WWII. He must be an excellent coach to do what he did with the Celtics.
Ray Allen has been our favorite for a long time. From the big east tournament we cut school to go see down at MSG, to always playing the Bucks on the Sega Dreamcast NBA 2K, to his exile in Seattle. We are more happy for him than Kevin Garnett, who himself is an amazing sort of guy. The sort of poster child for what happens when you give a young man a hundred million dollar guaranteed contract. Never misses games, always is running around, there are a million superlatives for a man like him, but they are all mostly true. He embodies the desire to win in ways that Kobe Bryant never will.
The finals was not a great series, but watching them play made us remember that there is nothing better than the NBA. No film or book or song can ever fully relate the essential struggles of men who sacrifice everything with a succinct goal in mind. These were the Celtics this year. A team brought together by Money, but not like the Lakers a few years ago, not like the Yankees for the past decade, because the guys they brought in, they were all spectacular humans. It is hard to find people that we can look up to, that we can find meaning in, but this group of guys did more than score points. They played defense, they moved the ball, they never complained about the refs; they listened to the coach, and when it came time to win: if it was Paul Pierce going off against Lebron in game seven, or stretching it out to seven games against a shitty Atlanta team, or coming home and disassembling the Lakers; they won.
Light one for Red.
