I am off to the game, to represent Celtic Pride at the Garden, and to watch Paul Pierce finally hoist the trophy on Red Auerbach's parquet. This is the high point of my lifetime as a sports fan. A championship game, in a major professional sports league, featuring my favorite team in any sport, on my home turf, in the city of my birth. I have my holy relics; my fragment of the True Parquet, my Red memorial pin, my Parish shirt, my ticket stubs from the 1986 playoffs and playoff game A in 1993 (Lewis's last game), my Celtics pin from game 1 of the Atlanta series (representic the thrill ride that started with that game), and a few personal tokens of my years as a season ticket holder, sticking it out though the lean years, to be in this position.
I am as pumped as a sports fan can be. Everything is turning green.
Rise up, Celtic Nation, and look toward the promised land! The time of fulfillment is at hand! We, the Celtics fans, in homes, pubs, social clubs, and anywhere else, all over Boston, New England, and the world, and in the Garden tonight, will give this game to our team. With our unconditional support, as if this were the last game ever, the time is HERE! For the entire team tonight, and all Celtics players and fans, past, present, and future, and for Red, tonight will be a night for the ages. We will remember where we were tonight.