I think Boston is past the race thing....as far as Celtics image, etc..
First black coach and first all black starting 5, lets not forget, was the Celtics.
I think the problem is that it's a cold wintery place where everything shuts down at 1 am....
with a lot of fuddy duddy types and too many students. Bascially, it feels real small and unexciting
compared to Miami, NY, LA, even Toronto, which is frigid but bigger and more exciting and very international.
Boston is still preferred to the majority of NBA cities, just not the biggest ones with big markets, or the perfect weather or mild weather ones...including a Texas team or two.