Did anyone else notice how often Bill Russell was included in the victory photos from the Garden on Tuesday night? The legacy has passed from Arnold to Bill. As the reigning Godfather of the Celtics, with his 11 rings, "Russ" performed admirably; inspiring Kevin Garnett to take his team mates with him, not by pulling them along, but by putting his arms around them and guiding them. How perfect, from the man who has lived all his life by the Ubuntu code.
Along these lines, this Ray Allen quote, addressing the reluctance to accept the label, "The Big Three," in Mark Murphy's column in this morning's Herald, stuck out at me.
“Any time there was that label, whether it was on TV, in a newspaper or we saw it traveling to another city, we just did our best to downplay it,” he said. “That’s because this is the Big 15. We have 15 guys on this team that have contributed all year.
“It’s not going to be the three of us that are ultimately going to win the championship,” Allen continued. “It took all 15 players....."
Mark also noted that Russell "has declined all requests for interviews from print reporters."
That we got solid contributions from all 12 eligible players is a tribute to Coach Rivers. The Atlanta series started with Doc shortening his rotation, but he quickly recognized that that wasn't going to work and started mixing and matching, so that Eddie House and Sam Cassell both contributed to wins backing up Rondo and were both ready to step in when Rajon was slowed by injury and perhaps a dose of inexperience. The same was true for the rotation of big men, when Perkins went down with injuries. Along with P.J. Brown, both Leon Powe and Glen Davis were ready to step up and as it had been all season long, it took at 12 players to complete the triumphant journey.
We hope you will join us tonight as we celebrate this magnificent season and testament to the Celtics tradition of selflessness and strength of will.
Pat Gilroy of ESPN and "Celtics Pride" will be with us early and we are trying to line up a surprise guest or two.....
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Topic: Celtics Stuff Live! Celebration-Tonight at 9:00PM, EDT. (Read 1716 times)