Most forgotten champion ever

[Roy Hobbs]

I don't think the general public will "forget" or discount this championship any time soon, mostly because of KG.  He's an immensely popular player who finally won a championship.  Throw in Ray Allen and Paul Pierce (both great players, although slightly less loved), the cache' of the Boston Celtics, and the fact that it was the renewal of the league's most historic rivalry in the Finals and you have a memorable team, in my opinion.

[BUTerrier]

I don't know...I always forget that the Heat won only a few years ago.  And what about the championships in the 70s? Who remembers that the Sonics, Bullets, Warriors, Blazers and Bucks all won?

The Heat are definitely the easiest champion to forget of recent years, mainly because of the robbery that was committed on the Mavericks. Also the fact that, aside from Dwyane Wade, they were a very old team when they won, and the next year immediately collapsed, and have been terrible since. The Pistons only won once and have underperformed ever since, but the fact that they are always dangerous, even though they may not be a legitimate contender, keeps them fresh in everyone's memories. The Celtics are years away from being irrelevant, therefore, they will not be forgotten as other teams before them have.

Question: Did the Pistons really win it that year and then underperformed thereafter or is it a case of they over performed to win it and have been right about where they should have been ever since?

Funny that people say that the Warriors, Bullets and Sonics championships of the 70's were forgettable, since I think just about every basketball fan knows those teams won it then because it was an era where a whole bunch of teams won that had never won before, thereby making it more memorable.

Now a real forgettable champion is the team that won in 1958. It was that city's only basketball championship and for the life of me I can only name one player on the entire team.

Really? Only one player? Because I'm 24, and even I can name off Petit, Cliff Hagan, Easy Ed McCauley (the guy who we traded to the Hawks to get the #1 pick in '56 that we used on Bill Russell), and Coach Alex Hannum, and that's without even looking it up. Quite frankly, I had no clue the Warriors won in 1975, and I only knew about the Bullets in 1978 from some random tidbit I picked up and the Sonics in 1979 because of DJ. I couldn't really tell you much about those teams at all.

Here's the greater question though: who gives a [dang] if the general public forgets or not? I mean this isn't a Tinkerbell situation; it doesn't stop existing just because no one believes in it. It seems like making a mountain out of a molehill. Frankly, I didn't share the OPs optimism going into last season. I mean, I was thrilled to have KG and Allen, but I didn't think that made us a championship team because I didn't think we'd develop a clear pecking order. To suggest that we were the unquestioned superpower from start to finish is crazy; a lot of those people proclaiming that now didn't seem so confident when we went to 7 games against Cleveland and Atlanta. Why is it such a crime for people to say, "OK, you guys weren't dominant in every game, and people have a game plan to beat you now. Let's see you make it to at least the Conference Finals again before we accept you as more than a one-year wonder?" Does anyone here really believe they can't at least make it to the ECF?

[LA_33]

For several reasons already mentioned by others, I think there is very little chance this is ever a "forgotten" championship, even if the C's fail to win another title in the KG-Pierce era (Ray is a worthy 3rd member of the Trinity, and a probably Hall of Famer, but Rondo is likely to be the 3rd most important player on any future C's title teams, even if they win in 2009).  Which, for the record, I find unlikely; I'd be surprised if they didn't win at least once more over the next 3 years.

KG is top-five all time at PF, and Pierce will likely retire as the #2 career scorer for the most decorated franchise in the sport.  The return of the Celts to the top of the mountain after 20+ years, and beating the Lakers to do it, will also be remembered.

Even beyond those circumstances, though, the team was just too dominant to be forgotten.  The 2007-08 Celtics were one of the ten best NBA teams of all time, by practically any combined regular- and post-season measure you can come up with. 

For comparison, the '71 Bucks sure as hell won't be forgotten as a great championship team by anyone who knows what they're talking about, because they're another of the ten best teams all-time, with the same 66-16 record and featuring too all-time-great players in Kareem and Oscar Robertson.  But they still lack the "4th Celtic championship generation"  angle that will end up being the strongest argument.

The other team that I see as a potential parallel is the '83 Sixers, another historically dominant regular season team (65-17, coupled with only one playoff loss) and provided the only NBA title for two league MVPs and Hall-of-Famers in the Dr. J and Moses Malone (Dr. J won 2 ABA titles with the Nets, of course, and lost in 3 NBA finals with Philly before Malone arrived in '82-'83)

Ultimately, though, I expect that all of this is moot, because as I already said, I fully expect the C's to win at least one more title while KG and Pierce are the star players, and that will cement their place as THE team of the late 2000's.   

[zerophase]

whenever a huge market team wins a title, they are never forgotten. aka boston, la, new york... if you want to talk about flukes, let's talk giants.

[TitleMaster]

Yes, this team is forgotten.

In fact, it's in stark contrast to the '83 Sixers which featured Dr J in his last two years, Moses in his prime, and Andrew Toney before the knee blow up.

Since '83, that team has been talk about ad nauseam and that had Toney's leg held up that they could have seriously challenged the Celts in '84 which of course, didn't happen but yet, so many hoops fans (even outside of PA/NJ) had kept that option perennially open.

Now, the '08 Celts have Paul Pierce, the most underrated all star since [ Unseld, Silas, fill-in-the-blank ], KG & Ray Ray (the senior citizens), and the rest but all the media does is harp on Kobe and the {Jim O'Brien}-like Lakers and how Posey left the C's benchless for '09.

[Edgar]

this guys for obious reasons
only their country care about them sadly

[Schupac]

I don't think this team or this championship is forgettable.  The league saw 3 of it's popular older faces get their first title, it saw it's two marqueue franchises match up in the finals (that did go 6 games even if it didn't seem that close).  Not to mention this was just a dominant, dominant team.

The multiple seven game series' might actually add to how memorable this team was, that it kept struggling and fighting before finally coming to form.  And the "greatest single season turnaround" thing is a bit catchy too.

This wasn't like the Heat championship a few years ago, a flash-in-the-pan team that was very lucky to win at all.  This team is exceptionally talented. 

If they don't win again, no they won't be considered one of the elite teams of the 2000s, not unless they get to the finals a few more times.  But they aren't "forgettable"

[screwedupmaniac]

wait a minute, someone tell me again, who won this past season??

haha, totally kidding 

[kw10]

This is unbelievable, just because everyone loves the Hollywood, do they have to hate on the Celtics? That's the feeling I'm getting here.

I think the Celtics just won the Championship in the most amazing NBA season in history, at least recent history. Not to mention the many records and how far the team's come along, demonstrating how basketball is meant to play, and the stories behind their 3 stars. If noone (I mean the rest of the world) thinks this team's a true champion and forget about them, I don't see much other true champions in history and worth remembering.