If Silver is smart, he’d set the Celts up as a dominant team. Leagues thrice on villains, and rival fan bases love to hate the Celts.
Agreed, Celtics are easy to hate as they are such a successful franchise. Problem is, this team is very likeable. Smart, Morris, and possibly Kyrie (for how he handled his ending in Cleveland) are the only guys I can see being disliked by other fans.
This team was put together through a series of shrewd trades and great drafting. I know people like to discredit Ainge for swindling an (in their eyes) incompetent Billy King, but he still had to hit on those picks (and use another pick to get Kyrie).
Will be interesting to see who fans root for if we get Celtics vs Warriors Finals.