All this seems so long ago now, doesn't it? 

When we think back to where we were as fans a year ago coming off a lost season, it really seems all the more amazing that this team just won the NBA title. Really, we'd love to say we saw this coming all along. Unfortunately for us our thoughts on the subject are on the record. Maybe it was residual angst from our days rooting for the pre-2004 Red Sox, but we didn't think this would actually happen - we probably didn't even think it could happen - until somewhere in the middle of the Detroit series. When they traded for Ray Allen, we were underwhelmed. When they traded for Garnett, we were happy, yet still skeptical. As they rolled through the regular season, we were pleased, but stayed guarded. Our confidence reached its peak towards the end of the season as they wrapped up the number one seed, but that was quickly reversed by the Hawks and Cavaliers taking them to the limit, shaking our faith in the team to its very foundation.

Chalk it up to whatever you wish - we're certainly not even going to try to understand it - but somewhere in there, this team just started playing amazingly good basketball. Each night it was someone else stepping up and having the big game. Tonight, it was Rajon Rondo, who was out-offensive-rebounding the entire Lakers team by himself. And if it isn't clear, the Big Three now have cemented their Hall of Fame status. People were getting on all three of them at various points throughout the playoffs, but now in retrospect, it really doesn't matter. This was a total team effort. And yes, that includes the much-maligned Doc Rivers.

The Big Three is getting old in basketball years, and many of the key role players are also on the wrong side of thirty. These Celtics, realistically, didn't have much of a window beyond this year. But they took advantage of it. Maybe it won't be another dynasty, but for the fans who remember pining for Greg Oden, the ineptitude of Mark Blount, the disastous Vin Baker deal, Rick Pitino's famous tirade, M. L. Carr as coach, times when the best Celtic on the court was either Dino Radja or Dana Barros, and the deaths of Reggie Lewis and Len Bias, this one should still be particularly sweet.

UPDATE: Here's video of Kevin Garnett's emotional, giddy interview with Michelle Tafoya:

All you need to know about how the Finals has been going so far (hat tip, Sons of Sam Horn):

It only took making the NBA Finals, but finally it seems the Celtics are the talk of this town.

The Finals begin tonight with the Celtics taking on the Lakers, a team with whom (as you may have heard by now) there's been some historic bad blood - Bird-Magic, Russell-Wilt, McHale-Rambis etc. That stuff makes good copy, but ultimately we prefer to focus on the here and now. Robert Parish isn't walking through that door, after all.

First off, let's give both teams some credit. For the Celtics, we were skeptical when they assembled the Big Three about their ability to hold up over the course of the season. And for a while there, it looked as though that skepticism may have been justified - Ray Allen looked like a shell of his former self during the series against Cleveland, and Kevin Garnett at times looked almost afraid to attack the basket. But they've put their struggles behind them, and anyone who watched the Pistons series would have some trouble defending the suggestion that they don't belong in the Finals. They're playing their best basketball right now, and fans have to be excited for what they're seeing.

Of course, then there's the cold shower that is the Los Angeles Lakers. We don't want to rain on the parade too much They've been merciless during the postseason - only losing three games so far. Their offense is virtually unstoppable, and they play defense almost as well as anyone on top of that. Also to say Phil Jackson v. Doc Rivers looks like a one-sided mismatch would be a brutal understatement. Any analysis, be it statistical or scouting, would suggest that this will be a romp. And if analysis is what you're looking for, read Hollinger or Basketball Prospectus or Henry Abbott or Brett Edwards or Tom Ziller. If you want a more offbeat take on things, read Free Darko or Basketbawful. We're just going to content ourselves with the role of "shameless homer" here, and say that the home-court advantage can overcome all of the Lakers' considerable talents, and call it for the Celtics in Seven.

BOARD GAMES
5 years ago
May 30, 2003 | Chris Wright extolled the advantages of an online social life.
“The thing is, my online social life has everything I could wish for. There's tenderness: ‘My condolences to you and your family.’ There's ribbing: ‘Chris, you are one dumb mule.’ There's fighting: ‘Of course I was insulting you, dumbfuck.’ There's flirting: ‘I got all dolled up for ya ... red silky panties & matching bra.’ There are confessions: ‘I shit myself at work yesterday and had to throw my boxers in the garbage.’ And there's outright weirdness: ‘Yeah, I don't shave my balls either.’
“Best of all, we can do this free of consequences. There are no diseases to worry about, no bar tabs to divvy up, no questions about where we'll meet or who's invited. We can sit around in our undies, zits on our faces and our hair in tatters, and make like we just stepped off the runway at a Prada fashion show.” Read Full Article

SOMEONE’S EXCITED
20 years ago
May 27, 1988 | Francis J. Connolly was awed by the Celtics’ playoff win over the Atlanta Hawks.
“By now, the astonishment having passed into memory and the riot of superlatives having subsided in the face of the new challenge from Detroit, it’s possible to put Sunday’s Boston victory over the Atlanta Hawks into some sort of realistic perspective. What we’re talking about here, remember, was only a basketball game...That Bird and the Celtics managed, through the force of sheer will, to prevail against a younger, faster, and more muscular Atlanta squad should be of little consequence in this hard and cynical world; Colonel Qaddafi, it’s safe to guess, was not impressed by what happened in the Garden Sunday afternoon, nor did news of the Celtic triumph have any noticeable effect on Wall Street, in the shipyards of Gdansk, or at the Vatican. What happened Sunday, after all, was just a game.

“All of which is like saying that the Titanic was a fairly big boat, that Astaire could dance a little, that Pavarotti can carry a tune, or that Marlene Dietrich had a decent set of gams. Boston’s victory over the Hawks was one of those exercises in artistry that demands understatement, precisely because there is no adequate way to describe it. Either you saw it, and you know what true athletic greatness is, or you did not, and the loss is yours.”

LOSE THE MUPPETS, MAN
25 years ago
May 31, 1983 | Owen Gleiberman found Return of the Jedi to be an unsatisfying end to the Star Wars trilogy.
“...the commercialism of Jedi isn’t what’s so bothersome...The truth is that, in trying to stage the ultimate Muppet-movie, Lucas has shortchanged his vision. The final chapter of the Star Wars trilogy is the last part of the saga that should have been gummed up with cuteness. We want grandeur in the climactic episode — blaring trumpets, an epic plot, a final duel so rousing we watch it with our hearts in our throats. Return of the Jedi is fun, but it isn’t a satisfying rave-up. Whenever the movie verges on the requisite sense of majesty, it’s interrupted by cuddly half-pints dancing around a treehouse like so many Winnie the Poohs. Just when you want George Lucas to get grandiose, he turns into a puppet master.”

EXTREME MAKEOVER
30 years ago
May 30, 1978 | D.C. Denison looked at the second generation of skateboarding.
“It may be dangerous, but it’s clean. And the effect of this fresh image on the sport is not lost on Skateboarder publisher Dave Dash. ‘There is no sex and violence, no dirty posters or condom ads in our magazine,’ he assures. ‘Parents can trust it.’ And they can also trust the new circle of skateboard heroes, who are careful to maintain an all-American image... In the words of Bill Riordan, the agent who steered Jimmy Connors to fame and currently manages 18-year-old Ty Page, one of the hottest skateboarders in the country, ‘To make this sport viable in America, you need to create national heroes to sustain it. Ty’s image is apple pie and ice cream. He’s clean-cut, wears proper safety equipment, and everyone wants to mother him. Jimmy Connors came up in the age of the anti-hero. It was easy to make a rascal out of him. Those days are over. We’re in the Goldwater phase of teenagers now.’ ”

This is an AP photo.

There's not much more that needs to be said at this point: Paul Pierce had the game of his life at the best possible time, helping the Celtics withstand an amazing effort by LeBron James. You can read more about it here, here, here, and (at some point today, presumably) here and here.

- Ryan Stewart