Jeff at CelticsBlog writes:
As soon as the final buzzer sounded, I knew I would remember this game for the rest of my life. When my children are playing sports and get down about playing poorly, I’ll tell them stories about this game. When I’m feeling overwhelmed and overworked, I’ll think about this game. When a friend is feeling low and comes to me for some words of encouragement, I’ll draw inspiration from this game.
OK, I wouldn’t go that far. It’s not like it was a baseball game. But that was amazing, astounding, inspirational — oh, I’ll stop stringing clichés together now.
When it looked impossible, I was clicking back and forth between the game and Olbermann. But that 20-point margin started shrinking, and all of a sudden it was a game.
It’s too easy to say that the Lakers are choking. Look at all the youth-league, high-school and college games even the lowliest NBA player has had to dominate in order to get where he is today. Is winning a high-school championship really any less stressful for a 16- or 17-year-old than winning an NBA title is for a 25-year-old? I don’t think so. But at least from where I’m sitting (that would be in our living room), it appears that the Celtics have more character and team cohesiveness than the Lakers.
One other thing. I suppose you can’t tell much about a person by watching him being interviewed on TV. But Doc Rivers, like Terry Francona, comes across as just a good, decent human being. Stuff like this tends to confirm that.
In Boston — and around much of the hoop world — this game will be known as the greatest comeback in NBA Finals history. In LA, well, there will be references to tight neckties.
And in fairness and as a reality check, I will remind all of us (Yankees fans don’t need it) that it is physically possible to come back from 3-0, let alone 3-1.
Universal Hub rounds up more Celtics commentary here.
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Suldog
Wow. It was really amazing, wasn’t it?”OK, I wouldn’t go that far. It’s not like it was a baseball game.”(*serious big grin*)UBUNTU!
Mass351
I felt this way about the Sox coming back in 2004 when writers like Shaughnessy said forget it, it was over. How Terry Francona told his team to just win one game. And the next day, just win that game. I’ve used that since to get through tough times myself – instead of looking at a bunch of overwhelming challenges at once, I think: just take them one at a time. Like the Sox. And it helps. I heard that last night from the Celtics after the game when they explained how they did it: just make one stop, one shot, compete and don’t look at the score. I think last night is one reason why our society is so connected to professional sports – we are inspired by the stories of our athlete heroes defying the odds. They may make millions, but they’re people too. If they can find success in trying times, maybe we can too.-bobb
Anonymous
Anyone who finds the Celtics playoff run less exciting than baseball in general has a strange worldview. The excitement level is not comparable. If you watch these games and you are even a marginal Celtics fan, this is white-knuckle stuff. (My Mom finds it too tense to watch at times.) For hardcore fans, it has been an emotionally draining and thrilling time. The pastoral national pasttime is pleasant background, but baseball is a snoozefest compared to playoff basketball. I love the Red Sox too but this is hardly deniable. Then again, there are people in this world who find Toad the Wet Sprocket to be an exciting rock band, so what the hell do I know?
joel
Second all that. And as for Doc – I also watched the baseball game last night, and happened to catch Francona’s post-game, which was warm and funny, and featured actual answers to most of the questions. Seeing the two of them in the same night just makes me think about how much more fun the last five years would have been if Belichick was like them.
Rich
It’s not like it was a baseball game.Exactly. Just it not being a baseball game made it at least five times better than anything that’s ever happened in a baseball game.
Bellicose Bumpkin
I’ll point out the Ubuntu is also a very user friendly and free distribution of the Linux operating system for those who would like to compute without bathing in the virus cesspool that is Microsoft Windows.