Hello, Internet

Background

I'm a life-long Celtics fan. I grew up in New England (Vermont, to be specific), and so most of my friends are Celtics fans as well. I recently moved across the country to Los Angeles, California, to go to law school at USC. With the three-hour difference and the fact that I'm no longer sitting in front of a computer all day, I figure it'll be hard to talk about all things green-and-white with my friends back east. This blog is an attempt to facilitate that kind of conversation, as well as to continue writing (I was a journalism major and worked as a trade journalist for five years after school) and to have a place to record my observations about the Celtics and the NBA. If I get some new readers and friends along the way, all the better.

I'm not sure how often I'll post. I plan on buying NBA League Pass and watching Celtics games over the Internet, and I'll try to post about every game. I don't spend a ton of time reading the other Celtics sites -- some of which I have added or will be adding to the links on the right hand side of the page. I suggest you visit those for Celtics news. CelticsBlog has a daily links entry that is quite useful.

I'm also not sure if I'll get around to sprucing this sucker up with graphics and features. We'll see what time allows.

Finally, I'm going to use "us" and "we" in this space to describe the Celtics. No, I don't play for the team. Deal with it.

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Like it was for many Celtics fans, the summer of 2007 was a roller-coaster. I had grown quite attached to the idea of getting Greg Oden or Kevin Durant in the draft, and was left to stare at the screen in shock when we fell to the fifth pick. I was intrigued by the rumors of trading for Kevin Garnett, but ultimately against it, since I thought Al Jefferson was too big a price to pay for a guy who wasn't going to put us over the top. I was fully behind the deal, however, once we traded the five and spare parts for Ray Allen. The moment I heard we shipped Jefferson et al to Minnesota for Garnett, I began thinking that we had a real shot at the title.

A buddy and I split NBA League Pass and I watched about 75 regular season games, and everything in the playoffs. A highlight was driving from DC to Boston with a couple of buddies to attend Game 1 of the Finals against the Lakers; my ticket cost me $350 on Stubhub and the experience was worth easily three times that amount.

I was born in 1980, and was not yet six years old the last time the Celtics won a title. My favorite Celtic ever is the late Dennis Johnson, but the truth is that I just don't remember all that much about the Cs in their heyday.

That made last year particularly special. While I am a fan of other sports teams that have had success -- the New York Giants are my favorite football team -- I don't care about the Giants the same way I do about the Celtics. Getting to spend a season following a team on their way to a championship was truly a life-changing experience for me.

Doc Rivers

I have been critical of Doc ever since we hired him, and for the most part, I continue to be. His rotations are terrible -- what he did with Eddie House and Leon Powe in last year's playoffs borders on criminal -- and I've watched too many Celtics games where the fourth-quarter offense consists of letting Paul Pierce go one-on-one to think that Rivers has any merit as an X-and-O coach.

That said, I've softened on him some. First of all, he is by all accounts a good guy, and the players like him. I actually stopped watching his pregame interviews because he's so damn likable, and it's hard for me to say the bad things I want to say about Doc when I know he's a nice guy.

Secondly, while I don't give Doc the credit some people do for getting the team to play together last year -- doing so doesn't give enough credit to the players, in my opinion -- he did coach us to a championship. While I once might have insisted that Boston won the title in spite of him, I won't say that now.

Finally, as pointed out in this uncharacteristically wordy piece (people in glass houses, I know, I know) from ESPN's John Hollinger, Doc had the sense and lack of ego to let Tom Thibodeau run the defense. As Hollinger says, "not many head coaches would be willing to cede this much control, but it couldn't possibly have worked any better."

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So now you know a little bit about me and this blog. I look forward to reading your comments as we shoot for banner number 18.