A lot of the thrill left me that year Sheed was around and the entire team acted like they were just there to collect a check and didn't really care if he just jacked up 10 3s and made one of them.
They tried to flip a switch and almost got away with it, and it was very very hard to watch.
At that point it felt like I was watching one of the junior varsity Celtics championship teams. I had had higher hopes.
I tend to agree with this to some extent. I think the thrill is there when they put in the effort to win. They haven't done that in the regular season consistently since Sheed came to town and they developed the 'coasting' mentality.
This idea strikes me as less than genuine, blaming a loss of excitement in watching the team on a supposed lack of consistent effort. This old and weakened team is running solely on effort and heart. Grinding through the 2010 playoffs was solely on effort and heart. Kevin Garnett's ability to maintain his place as a legitimate force in this league even though he has almost no lift left in his legs is based solely on effort and heart.
To the extent the 2010 regular season was when fans lost their thrill in watching the team, I don't think it has anything to do with a lack of effort - it has to do with the beginning of the Celtics not getting results. The 08 Celtics were 66-16 and won the title. The 09 Celtics were 44-11 when Garnett got hurt. The 2010 Celtics started 23-5. That's a combined record of 133-32, just a ridiculous run. Nobody was talking about a lack of effort in December 2009.
But their age and lack of depth really started to catch up with them in the middle third of the 2010 season. They struggled to go on road trips and play back-to-backs. Garnett, who has always been the heart of this Celtics group and the key to their success, was playing on a surgically repaired knee and felt his mortality for the first time. The core of the team was old, which generally leads to more injuries.
They didn't stop trying, though it was easy to try to blame the struggles on that because Rasheed was here. The team just didn't have it in the tank anymore, and they weren't as comparatively great anymore. But the fact that they never lost their intense desire to compete is the reason they were able, despite being dead and buried by all national media accounts, to rally back and come within one quarter (and maybe an injury) of winning the 2010 Finals.
(To a lesser extent, it happened last year too. Though everybody was ready for the changing of the guard and the death of the Celtics, they came out and busted ass to the tune of a 46-15 record to start the year. But again, their age and injuries took a toll, and they looked like what national prognosticators had pegged them to be - an old team that couldn't compete with the likes of Chicago and Miami. Still, they didn't quit when they went down 0-2 to Miami and instead came out and pushed the Heat around in Game 3, even after Wade dislocated Rondo's elbow. I'll stand by my opinion that that Celtics team beats the Heat if Rondo had two arms - his second arm is worth at least a point in Game 4, and we saw Miami turtle when they got tied up at 2 by Dallas and no longer felt invincible. Celtics were in Miami's head. All on heart and effort.)
I look at this group and one of the reasons I'm glad Ainge didn't sell off the old guys is that they DO still have that effort and that pride. Whoever thinks the Celtics were getting a first rounder for any of the Big 3 is dreaming. They're too old and expensive for any team that is not currently competitive. And pretty much all of the contending teams that might want them either didn't have first rounders (e.g., Clippers, Dallas), or couldn't match salaries and/or would require the Celtics to take on a bunch of extra future salary to make the swap (Chicago, Miami, San Antonio, Orlando). There's not that much of a market for old players with high salaries who might or might not have a little left in the tank (see Camby going to Houston for a mid-second round pick). First round picks were highly valued this year by everybody except New Jersey. (Cleveland took on $6 mil in salary and gave up a decent point guard for a late first rounder; Golden State took on $12 mil or so in extra salary for a late first rounder.)
I'd prefer to see these guys play in Celtics uniforms while the next championship team is built because I don't know how long it'll be before we see another group of guys who are proud to wear the jersey and who I'm proud to have as the cornerstones of the team I follow, whether they're top title contenders or not. But I will appreciate these guys as long as I can. Pierce, KG, and Ray are proud to be Celtics and show it every night, whether their game is on or not. So I'll feel a thrill at watching them be part of the Celtics legacy until they're gone.
And in my opinion, if you've lost all pleasure in watching the Celtics, it can only be because of results, not how the game is played. In which case, are you really following a team / the players or do you just want to follow a team when it wins?
Topic: Realistically, is the Celtics "thrill" gone? (Read 8246 times)