Most heartbreaking loss EVER for the city of Boston?

[Mr October]

Pats/Giants by far. Even though I am much more of a Celtic fan.

The Pats were supposed to win that game.

The Celtics weren't supposed to even be in the finals this year. It was a great run.

And with any loss, sports are a what have you done for me lately form of entertainment. The 09-10 season is already behind me, just like 08-09 and so on.

[Cman]

Pats/Giants by far. Even though I am much more of a Celtic fan.

The Pats were supposed to win that game.

The Celtics weren't supposed to even be in the finals this year. It was a great run.

And with any loss, sports are a what have you done for me lately form of entertainment. The 09-10 season is already behind me, just like 08-09 and so on.

Yup, and yup.
18-1 left me shell-shocked for a couple days.  Losing to the Lakers sucks.  It really sucks.  But that Giants loss sucked way more.  And this is coming from a guy, like Mr. October, that is a much bigger Celtics fan than Patriots fan.

[PeaceSignMoose]

I may be the only one to feel like this, but I think a severely underrated loss was the 2007 AFC Championship Game in Indianapolis.  The Patriots squandered a huge opportunity, p---ing away a gigantic lead to Manning and the Colts.  If they won that game, I have no doubt that we'd be talking about a 4 time Super Bowl winner as opposed to a 3 time winner.

That loss hurt for a long time, and I still can't really think about it without getting aggravated.  The Super Bowl loss isn't as bad to me, simply because the Giants outplayed the Patriots completely for most of the game.  Although I still despise Tyree.

[Redz]

Buckner

Hands down

The Pats and Celts already had won their share.  The Bruins this year sucked but it was sort of on an island of increased expectations due to wacky circumstances (and it wasn't fora title).

The Sox, at that point, had had so little good happen for them, and on the rare occasion when something good did happen they'd always screw it up.  They'd had so many clutch moments just to be in that position.  You HAD to believe they had conquered their demons.

For much the same reasons 2003 Sox ranks 2nd for me.

[Redz]

I gotta believe the younger crowd is pushing the Game 7 loss to the Lakers to the front of this poll because anyone that can remember the 1971 Stanley Cup or the 1986 World Series or the 1978 one game Yankees-Red Sox playoff game or even the SuperBowl XX(heartbraking on a grand scale because of the never before seen in this area hype of the SuperBowl and also for the absolute record setting, at the time drubbing the team took) game knows this last game just doesn't compare. Heck this isn't even the most devastating loss in Celtics history, the baby sky hook game in 1987 was the worst.

True Nick.  Some of those Canadiens losses were much worse than this years Bruins' debacle.

[guava_wrench]

Pats/Giants by far. Even though I am much more of a Celtic fan.

The Pats were supposed to win that game.

The Celtics weren't supposed to even be in the finals this year. It was a great run.

And with any loss, sports are a what have you done for me lately form of entertainment. The 09-10 season is already behind me, just like 08-09 and so on.

I partly agree, except that the Celtics hang their hat on history and tradition. History takes a big hit for us if the Lakers beat us to another banner.

There will always be controversy in the discussion since the Lakers played in 2 different cities and the Celtics won most of their titles when it was a lot easier since the sport wasn't taken as seriously by many teams. But the raw championship numbers are pretty powerful.

[Eja117]

I guess to be fair it was only game 6 and not game 7 when Buckner had his error, but still....they were one strike away.

And what was so hard about it was that God really just picked on the wrong guy. Way wrong.

It wasn't just watching one city or one team go through Hell. It was the pain of seeing one man break in an instant. It was horrific.

Imagine watching your own kid drop an easily catchable pass wide open in the end zone of the biggest game of his life against a hated rival after years of hard work....it was about as bad as that

It was the 100% exact opposite of Doug Flutie's pass.  Those two plays balanced out the Force.

[CDawg834]

Pats/Giants by far. Even though I am much more of a Celtic fan.

The Pats were supposed to win that game.

The Celtics weren't supposed to even be in the finals this year. It was a great run.

And with any loss, sports are a what have you done for me lately form of entertainment. The 09-10 season is already behind me, just like 08-09 and so on.

Yup, and yup.
18-1 left me shell-shocked for a couple days.  Losing to the Lakers sucks.  It really sucks.  But that Giants loss sucked way more.  And this is coming from a guy, like Mr. October, that is a much bigger Celtics fan than Patriots fan.

Agreed completely.  I think the thing that makes the Pats loss worse is the way the lost.  The Celtics just got beat, they didn't lose on a fluke play that probably couldn't be reproduced in 100 tries. Manning somehow avoiding getting sacked at least twice, followed by Tyree's absurd helmet catch - not to mention Asante Samuel flat-out dropping the game winning interception...  I think the fact that 19-0 was on the line, and also the way they lost, makes it worse than the Celtics loss last week.

[tenn_smoothie]

i've been thinking about this question just in terms of the Celtics - though the Buckner error to me is the worst heartbreak anyone could suffer.

but the 2010 Celtics would be close - just the way the whole thing went down withe the Celtics leading the whole way and somewhat in control until the officials just ripped the opportunity out of their hands in the 4th quarter. if you think otherwise, sorry, but you are fooling yourself.

the other Celtic losses that compare for me are '85, '87 & '73.

of those very painful losses, the East Finals game 7 loss to the Knicks is 2nd to the loss last thursday ....... because the '73 Celts were one of the best in history and only Havlicek's shoulder injury prevented them from winning that title and probably repeating in '74.

and guess who was a member of that '73 Knick team ??

yes, the King of Condescension - Phil Jackson.

[2short]

bucky dent
not close

[wahz]

its funny that the folks VOTING on the pole are showing that this Celtics heartbreak "wins." The folks commenting on the pole are almost unanimously picking other things. I swear its thw way it goes here: the majority comments seem to not represent that majority view and the difference is often wide.

[tfwhiteiii]

18-1. Also, a game that should be up there is the 2006 AFC Championship when the Patriots lost to the Colts.

Game 7 v LA isn't even in the top 5 painful Celtics losses.  Magic's junior hook is above Game 7 2010, imo.

[Kuberski33]

Buckner

Hands down

The Pats and Celts already had won their share.  The Bruins this year sucked but it was sort of on an island of increased expectations due to wacky circumstances (and it wasn't fora title).

The Sox, at that point, had had so little good happen for them, and on the rare occasion when something good did happen they'd always screw it up.  They'd had so many clutch moments just to be in that position.  You HAD to believe they had conquered their demons.

For much the same reasons 2003 Sox ranks 2nd for me.

What made the Buckner game so bad was it included a complete choke job by an already shaky manager.  All through the post season John McNamara had pulled Buckner late in games for Dave Stapleton who was a much better defensive infielder.  For whatever reason, he let Buckner talk him out of doing it in that game.

It also included a career defining meltdown by Calvin Schiraldi and Scal-like futility on the part of Bob Stanley.

All this with at the time nearly 70 years of Sox futility hanging over them. This was long before the pink hat red sox fans when the passion for this team had a much harder edge to it.  They were an out away from ending all that and choked in the worst way possible.

[thirstyboots18]

Buckner

Hands down

The Pats and Celts already had won their share.  The Bruins this year sucked but it was sort of on an island of increased expectations due to wacky circumstances (and it wasn't fora title).

The Sox, at that point, had had so little good happen for them, and on the rare occasion when something good did happen they'd always screw it up.  They'd had so many clutch moments just to be in that position.  You HAD to believe they had conquered their demons.

For much the same reasons 2003 Sox ranks 2nd for me.

What made the Buckner game so bad was it included a complete choke job by an already shaky manager.  All through the post season John McNamara had pulled Buckner late in games for Dave Stapleton who was a much better defensive infielder.  For whatever reason, he let Buckner talk him out of doing it in that game.

It also included a career defining meltdown by Calvin Schiraldi and Scal-like futility on the part of Bob Stanley.

All this with at the time nearly 70 years of Sox futility hanging over them. This was long before the pink hat red sox fans when the passion for this team had a much harder edge to it.  They were an out away from ending all that and choked in the worst way possible.

Buckner was injured and should never have been put in that position.

[Surferdad]

bucky dent
not close

For me personally and where I was when it happened (my dorm room with a bunch of Yankee fans), nothing close close to Bucky Dent.

However, Buckner is probably the most infamous heartbreasker overall.

All that said,  Pats-Giants really has to be the most disappointing.  Pats were the better team that year and had control.

So, though it pains me to say this, that puts this Celtics 2010 Game 7 as no higher than fourth.