A picture for those who surrendered!!

[nickagneta]

I think there's a definitive difference between quitting on a team and not thinking that they are good enough to win a championship. Quitting on a team means you stop following about them, caring about them, reading about them, watching them, and talking about them. You become so discouraged about the team that you just could give a flying you know what about the team.

I was positive about this team though much of the season but about the end of March when they were obviously much healthier yet still showing no effort and complete apathy in their game and that extended into April, my belief that they were good enough to win it all disappeared. I still followed them, watched them, went to a couple of games and cheered myself hoarse on them, but I just think they weren't good enough to win it all.

My main concerns were effort and ability to beat the highest caliber teams and lo and behold they were going to have to face the best team in the second round. So they flip their switch and suddenly they are a game away from dispatching the regular season's best team. Well, if they can do that they can win it all. And now I believe they actually might be able to hang another banner with this team.

Will they? I don't know. Let's face it they still haven't beaten the Cavs yet and that was the obstacle I didn't think they could overcome. But if they do, anything and everything is possible.

I never stop caring and loving and cheering about this team and I NEVER quit on them. I just didn't believe deep down they were good enough this year. I'll be happy to say I should never have stopped believing but I will argue until I'm blue in the face with anyone who claims I quit on this team. That I never did and I think there is a very large mass of people whp looked at things the same way I did.

[vinnie]

TP, Nick.

[incoherent]

There is definitely a difference between saying your team has little chance to win versus Bill Simmons headline of "The Miami Heat Will Beat The Celtics".

[jdpapa3]

Only problem I had was a certain attitude some fans had. Being positive about the prospects of the team was seen as a green colored glasses point of view and I saw a lot of comments like "well, sorry to be a realist" as a response to the fans that had a problem with their particularly negative points of view.

This was bound to happen with the way this team played, though. Any other fan base would have had a group that went over the top with negativity.

[ManUp]

I think there's a definitive difference between quitting on a team and not thinking that they are good enough to win a championship. Quitting on a team means you stop following about them, caring about them, reading about them, watching them, and talking about them. You become so discouraged about the team that you just could give a flying you know what about the team.

I was positive about this team though much of the season but about the end of March when they were obviously much healthier yet still showing no effort and complete apathy in their game and that extended into April, my belief that they were good enough to win it all disappeared. I still followed them, watched them, went to a couple of games and cheered myself hoarse on them, but I just think they weren't good enough to win it all.

My main concerns were effort and ability to beat the highest caliber teams and lo and behold they were going to have to face the best team in the second round. So they flip their switch and suddenly they are a game away from dispatching the regular season's best team. Well, if they can do that they can win it all. And now I believe they actually might be able to hang another banner with this team.

Will they? I don't know. Let's face it they still haven't beaten the Cavs yet and that was the obstacle I didn't think they could overcome. But if they do, anything and everything is possible.

I never stop caring and loving and cheering about this team and I NEVER quit on them. I just didn't believe deep down they were good enough this year. I'll be happy to say I should never have stopped believing but I will argue until I'm blue in the face with anyone who claims I quit on this team. That I never did and I think there is a very large mass of people whp looked at things the same way I did.

Co-signed

[nickagneta]

Only problem I had was a certain attitude some fans had. Being positive about the prospects of the team was seen as a green colored glasses point of view and I saw a lot of comments like "well, sorry to be a realist" as a response to the fans that had a problem with their particularly negative points of view.

This was bound to happen with the way this team played, though. Any other fan base would have had a group that went over the top with negativity.

There definitely became a dichotomy of fandom here, especially in January and February. It got so bad in the game threads I tried to start a second game thread to get away from some of the excessively negative to bordering on trolling posters.

The realist vs optimist split did get heated and became, quite honestly, pathetic. We're all Celtics fans after all.

I don't blame people if they became like me and stopped believing they could win it all. I don't blame people for defending their opinion of the Celtics chances one way or the other. It was like a couple of kids debating the existence of Santa Claus. Some believed no matter the evidence to the contrary. Others through evidence at hand didn't believe. Both kids still loved Christmas morning and the presents. It's just some thought Santa brought them, others didn't and neither group could be 100% sure. Still, there just was no need to fight over it.

Kinda like Celticsblog over the last couple months.

[Master Po]

Sorry Nick...technically I still disagree with you.....when you say "my belief that they were good enough to win it all disappeared".....to me that is quitting/surrendering.....

Quitting doesn't you make a bad fan, a bad person...or a non-Celtic (It actually makes you human).....I do think it makes you POSSIBLY someone who maybe gives up too easily??? or doesn't enjoy fighting until the end. Who knows. Thus the analogy of a foxhole and the word surrender is what this means to me in context of the Celtics 2009-2010 journey .

There is nothing wrong with saying "wow this looks dark but we have to keep fighting until the final bell.....What you are saying however is akin to a poker player seeing a very short stack of chips left in a poker game and realizing you are up against other players with large stacks of chips.....your odds to win are very low and you  turn around and say "Ok I quit ....here are the rest of my chips because I can't win" You have to a some sliver of a belief that you can double up your chips a number of times and just keep plugging.

We are splitting hairs here  I know.....but I think there are a lot people now who "gave up" at some point earlier and are now trying to make themselves feel better by saying something less than what Rida just said. Hat tip to Rida for saying it and owning his "giving up" like a person who can admit mistakes.....nice job Rida

Now this is just a Celticsblog site, and this is just about basketball so we can't take any of this too serious ( I mean no harm in my joke).....but in real life I always gravitate towards people who either just keep fighting..... or people who make a mistake and simply say "Wow I was totally wrong.... or say "I gave up too easily" We are all guilty of these things at some point in life of doing this....just own up to it and hopefully learn from it. I hope I have.


 


   

[nickagneta]

Sorry Nick...technically I still disagree with you.....when you say "my belief that they were good enough to win it all disappeared".....to me that is quitting/surrendering.....

Quitting doesn't you make a bad fan, a bad person...or a non-Celtic (It actually makes you human).....I do think it makes you POSSIBLY someone who maybe gives up too easily??? or doesn't enjoy fighting until the end. Who knows. Thus the analogy of a foxhole and the word surrender is what this means to me in context of the Celtics 2009-2010 journey .

There is nothing wrong with saying "wow this looks dark but we have to keep fighting until the final bell.....What you are saying however is akin to a poker player seeing a very short stack of chips left in a poker game and realizing you are up against other players with large stacks of chips.....your odds to win are very low and you  turn around and say "Ok I quit ....here are the rest of my chips because I can't win" You have to a some sliver of a belief that you can double up your chips a number of times and just keep plugging.

We are splitting hairs here  I know.....but I think there are a lot people now who "gave up" at some point earlier and are now trying to make themselves feel better by saying something less than what Rida just said. Hat tip to Rida for saying it and owning his "giving up" like a person who can admit mistakes.....nice job Rida

Now this is just a Celticsblog site, and this is just about basketball so we can't take any of this too serious ( I mean no harm in my joke).....but in real life I always gravitate towards people who either just keep fighting..... or people who make a mistake and simply say "Wow I was totally wrong.... or say "I gave up too easily" We are all guilty of these things at some point in life of doing this....just own up to it and hopefully learn from it. I hope I have.


 


   

You're right. We will have to agree to disagree because this is basketball after all and we are talking about following a team not fighting for business, money, honor or a life here. People who quit in those things, I agree I avoid them like the plague.

But to come to analyze a team and come to a decision that they just aren't good enough to win it all is not quitting in your heart and soul. To me they are two completely different things.

In one you are using your brain to come to an analytical decision based on observation and stats, etc. In the other you are making a decision with your heart and emotion and soul.

I never gave up on the 1996-2007 Boston Celtics. never quit on them even once. But I knew in my mind do to an analytical decision that they weren't food enough to win the championship. I watched every game during that time. Went to hundreds. Lost my voice more times than I can count cheering them on. Bought uncounted hats, shirts and stuff. read the Globe and scanned the internet looking for Celtic news like a maniac.

Never once thought for a minute in all that time they were good enough to win a title.

Sorry, but coming to a decision in the middle of a season that your team isn't good enough to win it all isn't quitting. It's not even close.

And I think saying so only causes more divisiveness in the fandom. When things weren't going well and the "negative crowd" was calling me a blind optimist in the game threads(that did happen) I didn't agree with that or like it. And now that things are looking rosy again, I don't think it's any different to for those "positive" fans to call people who believed the team couldn't win it all "quitters". I don't agree with that and don't like it.

I NEVER quit on this team. NEVER!! NOT ONCE!!!

Maybe a different definition of quitting but I still find the accusation and term distasteful.

Again, I guess we will just have to agree to disagree.

Also, don't worry, if the C's lose to the Cavs or Magic or Suns or Lakers, you won't find me starting a thread saying "see, I knew they couldn't win it all".

[Master Po]

I guess I won't be at the top of your list for being in the Celticsblog HOF.....just a guess
 

agree to disagree......I have no issues with that

Peace

[nickagneta]

I guess I won't be at the top of your list for being in the Celticsblog HOF.....just a guess
 

agree to disagree......I have no issues with that

Peace

What???

You still the man Po. I have no personal issues here. Just a difference of opinion, it's all good.

Besides, you're already in

[Mike-Dub]

But I knew in my mind do to an analytical decision that they weren't food enough to win the championship.

I wonder what kind of food we were when we won the championship in '08 lol  !

[Brendan]

There's the mind and the heart.

As I posted in a prediction thread before this series - mentally I don't see how I could pick the C's over the Cavs - but my prediction was C's in 6. Sometimes you gotta play with your heart.

That doesn't mean I bet money on the prediction though

[nickagneta]

There's the mind and the heart.

As I posted in a prediction thread before this series - mentally I don't see how I could pick the C's over the Cavs - but my prediction was C's in 6. Sometimes you gotta play with your heart.

That doesn't mean I bet money on the prediction though

WOW!!!

We actually agree on something Brendan.

[GreenFaith1819]

Well, I always stood by my mantra of The Celtics not being out of contention until they were beaten in the playoffs, but even I questioned whether they could muster the fortitude to overcome the season.

Kudos to NickAgneta for his frequent reminders of The Celtics 1968-69 Season. I wasn't aware of this Celtics Team until Nick posted several times about their season.

I guess in a perfect world, we'd all follow our teams blindly, but Man The Celtics were hard to watch at times this season. I had even thought that MIA would give us trouble during the last series, due to their youth.

Well, here we are now - on the Cusp of One of the Biggest Potential Upsets in the NBA in several years. We are right there. I expect the fans to come back.

I believe there is more room on this bus.

All I ask is this: 5-10 years from now, when Our Celtics are playing another season, in the playoffs or whatever - just remember this season, especially the postseason. Remember how this team has come together, even Sheed. It didn't always look that way, but here we are.

For CLE fans: I'm not saying that this series is a Wrap for Boston. All I'm saying is that Boston has effectively taken Lebron out of his game, and overcome Great Odds - so far.

Great Things do happen in Sports, even to the most hated teams.

[Eja117]

To paraphrase Reagan I didn't leave the Celtics this year. The Celtics left me.

Now that they have decided to play basketball again and occasionally act like men with a modicum of pride I am back to watching them and enjoying them again.

But that in no way changes the fact that they insulted my eyes and themselves on a nearly nightly basis for about 82 games before the playoffs.

I've seen old men play much much much harder for free against younger guys on a random court for nothing but pride and the love of the game and for trying to pass a piece of it on because they understood what sports and basketball is.

The Celtics played 100% exact oppositte for virtually the entire season.

Asking me to somehow believe in or get behind the Celtics unconditionally before the playoffs was like asking me to get excited about sending the French army into battle. I know. Even a blind squirel finds a nut. The French army used to be great. Back in the 1800s when they had Napoleon and before that when they had Musketeers. But not in living memory.

The Celtics this year were the French army. That's just great that they're winning.  They have exceeded expectations.

But they were in no way, shape, or form owed a single thing by anyone going into these playoffs.

I'm the fan. I don't owe them anything. They owe me. It's about [dang]ed time they showed up.

Lafayette. We are here.

Good. What took you so [dang] long?