When did you become a die hard?

[quidinqui33]

I was born in boston, so you could say it started then.  My parents moved to San Antonio when I was three.  A couple of years later the celtics had just won Bird's first championship and my dad was watching and said "That is the basketball team from Boston."  I was hooked.

[cool breeze]

It's almost that there are two questions:

1) When did you become a diehard?
2) When did you realize that you were a diehard?

Well, for me I became a diehard on Easter Sunday 1986(?). I believe they played the Bucks at the Garden. Afterward, my stepfather took me to the Scotch 'n Sirloin and I sat in amazement while the entire Celtics team dined at a huge table mere feet from me. I was hooked!

But alas, I didn't REALLY know that I was hooked until I found myself sitting in the Fleet Center Jan. 8 1997.. one of the C's 15 wins that year!

[munjman]

Well since I moved to NH at like 3 months of age, and since I'm so loyal, I guess you can say I've been a fan since then. But one of my first celts memories were of Billups and Mercer playing alongside on court...

- Munj

[WillyBeamin]

I actually didn't get cable television until my sophomore year of high school in 2000. At that point I could really start following the team and watching games, not just seeing the post-game rants of pitino.

Being born in '85 I barely even remember watching bird play at all, and without being able to watch the games I wasn't able to really get into the green.

But just as the OP said, it was the 00-01 run at the end of the season when they fell just short of a playoff spot under Jim OB that I fell in love with the green. whatever it was about that team... if nothing else I will always have an emotional attachment with those teams because they made me fall in love with the game of basketball as well as the celtics

[Vegas Green]

The first basketball game I ever watched from start to finish was the Bird vs. Magic NCAA tournament final.  Loved the competitiveness and loved Larry Legend from that point on.

[noelmayo]

 got introduced to the celts by my dad who's been an avid follower since 'ye olde russell and cousy days...grew up with the green "mystique" since then of the bird, maxwell, mchale and parish era...

[Cassidy122690]

I remember becoming aware and taking quite a liking to the Cs when Larry came aboard.  As a young Irish kid from a lower-middle class family who loved hoops, I had no other choice when the options were Cs, Lakers and Philly.  Though it was hazy, the Philly battles stick out as the springboard for my obsession.  By the time '84 rolled around I was a full-time fan, but the obession started in '85 when Kareem cleared the room by dominating in the Garden in Game 6.

It wasn't til '86 that my bedroom walls were COMPLETELY covered with Celtics paraphernalia.  In fact, as soon as I could figure it out, I printed "duplicates" of all 16 banners using the "Print Shop" feature on my Apple IIgs (pre-Mac, people).  Those hung proudly.

I saved every box score and press clipping from my local newspaper (the Times Picayune) during the '87 season thinking I was assembling a championship scrapbook.  The '87 team remains my favorite and probably marks the apex of my obsession with all things Celtics.  The guts that team showed was amazing.  With the injuries that we had, we had no business beating Detroit or taking two games from the Lakers, and we were on Magic baby-hook away from going back to LA up 3-2.  I still can't watch game 4 when it replays, just can't do it.

Needless to say, I stuck with this team all the way through to this day.  My championship scrapbook was put on hold for 21 years, but it's been completed, and I couldn't be happier.

[hardlyyardley]

it was in the year 21BR (before redz) that i went with my dad to a celtics-toronto huskies game;
then while working my after school job in 15BR listening to cousy score fifty in a 5 overtime game win on the playoffs (30-33 from the line)....was at the c's loss to jabbars skyhook in 2 ot's in 1974 and at the 3 ot game in 76 vs phoenicx in the finals....3 years later i got season tickets which lasted through the bird era....so i guess you could say a lifelong die hard

[Walter]

Sometime during Larry Bird's rookie season is when I fell in love with the Celtics, when I was 8 or 9 and growing up in Beverly, Mass. I'm a huge Boston sports fan, but for some reason the Celtics are the one and only team I've always been a slightly irrational fan of. I haven't always lived where I could see the Celts play regularly, so I didn't see the Dino Radja Celts too much, but even then I'd watch them whenever I came home to visit family. I remember several times sneaking off to the basement during family gatherings to watch the eventual 15-67 Celtics during Antoine's rookie year. That's when I realized I had become irrational.

[Cry Baby]

Became a Celtics follower during the '76 season in that triple overtime game againts the Suns... Got to witness the '70s Big 3 back then (Havlicek, Cowens, White)... That game got me hooked on the Cs ever... Brighter days and dark days, never followed another team but the Celtics... 

[TripleOT]

Take a look at my SN and you can easily figure it out. 

[ACF]

it was in the year 21BR (before redz) that i went with my dad to a celtics-toronto huskies game;
then while working my after school job in 15BR listening to cousy score fifty in a 5 overtime game win on the playoffs (30-33 from the line)....was at the c's loss to jabbars skyhook in 2 ot's in 1974 and at the 3 ot game in 76 vs phoenicx in the finals....3 years later i got season tickets which lasted through the bird era....so i guess you could say a lifelong die hard

Do you realize you're a dinosaur?
I mean that in the best possible sense.
I really do, no kidding what so ever.
That deserves a Tommy Point if anything does.

For those that do not know the Huskies:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toronto_Huskies
http://torontohuskies.org/


I started "being down" in May of 1988.
Celtics vs Hawks series. I fell in love
with a certain hick from French Lick.
I hope that qualifies me as a diehard? 

[Silas]

From Lawrence...grew up in Alexandria, VA.  Always a fan, but Hondo in the early 60s, Silas in the  early 70s and Bird being drafted in '78, confirmed me as a true die hard. 

[incoherent]

I didn't become a die hard fan until it was clear my own hoop dreams were over.


Die Hard Fan of the C's since the beginning of the 2005-2006 season.

[jay_jay54]

mid 60's