Call it. Go ahead. It's over. The Boston Celtics, as we knew them, are dead.
Dead on opening night - Nov. 1, 2006 - when for the first time in franchise history, the team will present the Boston Celtic Dancers.
Legendary Celtic coach and current team president Red Auerbach once said that the team was waiting for him to die so it could get cheerleaders. I'm sorry Red. Sorry you're still alive to see this travesty occur. Sorry that a team that once stood for winning and integrity and social trailblazing will now just be another part of the plastic glitz that is the NBA.
Two distinct Celtics teams epitomize the decline and ascension of the Boston Celtics in the late 90's and early 2000's. The first team was during the dark age of He-Who-Shall-Not-Be-Named, that pretty boy former coach of Kentucky who nearly killed the Green. The 1997 Celts, with such B-list players as Pervis Ellison and Dino Radja, stunk up the season with a franchise-worst 15-67 record and a seventh place finish in the Atlantic Division.
Slick Rick retreated back to Frat Row in 2001, but he had left Boston with the seed of what could have been a great basketball team. Always a player or two away from real championship contention, the team nevertheless found underdogs and fan favorites in the likes of Walter McCarthy and Kenny Anderson. During this time future All-Star Paul Pierce finally found his swagger, while fans even started to forgive Antoine Walker for his always present (but rarely appropriate) strut, and under the tutelage of Jim O'Brien, the 2002 Celtics made it to a classic Eastern Conference Finals where they lost to the New Jersey Nets, 4-2. The team was back on track.
Then he arrived. The antichrist to Red Auerbach's genius, Danny Ainge dismantled the team that was so close to regaining the glory of Celtics' past, replacing journeymen like Eric Williams and Tony Delk with malcontents like Ricky Davis and Gary Payton. The few bright spots of Ainge's tenure have been the acquisitions of Doc Rivers as head coach and the drafting of rookie sensation Al Jefferson straight out of high school.
But that's about where the positives end. In the latest streak of embarrassments, the team's new celebrated point guard, Sebastian Telfair, has been accused of shooting rapper Fabolous. And now cheerleaders, the personification of everything spoiled with the game of basketball.
How, in a history-rich city like Boston, did a team that epitomized tradition go so wrong?
Some may point to the destruction of the Boston Garden. The Garden was the Coliseum, more hallowed than even Fenway Park, in my opinion. It should have been bronzed and left as a memorial for every generation of Boston fan to marvel at for centuries. It was old and cramped and outdated, but it was a legend, and you don't tear down legends. But the demands of a dollar-obsessed NBA required a bigger and better venue. So we got the FleetCenter.
I hated the FleetCenter when it first arose, but after a few years, it began to take on its own persona. It started a new chapter in Celtics history, and teams like the 2003 squad gave it an appeal of its own. It still felt like a museum, a place where champions used to come and play, but it was a start.
The FleetCenter sounds like the Vatican, however, in comparison to the blasphemy that occurred when it was renamed the TD Banknorth Garden. How did Tommy Heinsohn not die of apoplexy on air when this was announced? Bad enough the team had become even more corporate, but to call it the Garden was just too much.
There is only one Boston Garden. It's the Garden where Bird and Russell and Havlicek played. It's the Garden where 16 World Championships were won. It's where the Boston Celtics perfected basketball.
This cheerleader fiasco is simply the final nail in the coffin of the Boston Celtics. Now we're left with the Boston Sellouts, playing in their sham of a Garden, forever striving for that elusive 17th championship. Maybe this will finally be the year. Maybe new rookie point guard Rajon Rando will be this season's wild card, and maybe Pierce and Wally Szczerbiak will step up and put this team back into contention. Either way, the Team that Red built is gone.
The Boston Celtics are dead.
Andrew Bauld is a senior majoring in English and political science. He can be reached at andrew.bauld@tufts.edu.
