Maybe, maybe not. But strange things have happened to this team, and all of them started with Bias, whose ghost has haunted this franchise for the past decade. One story sums up everything: Volk was in his office preparing for opening night in November 1986, the night Boston raised its 1985-'86 championship banner and handed out championship rings before the first home game. Volk found something sticking out under a cushion in his sofa. It was an unused plane ticket the Celtics gave Bias when he visited Boston hours before his death.
"It must have fallen out of his jacket that day," says Volk now. "To find that ticket on the same night we were raising the '86 banner ... it was eerie. It really was."
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