June 28, 2007 feels like it was eons ago.
The night lingers in my mind as a very distant memory -- it was the night of the NBA Draft that saw the selections of Greg Oden, Kevin Durant and Al Horford. For months, I had looked ahead to June 28 as the night that the Celtics, at long last, would themselves nab one of those three franchise players, and after a painful childhood, I would finally discover a basketball team in Boston worth watching.
But the draft lottery threw a wrench in that plan, and the Celtics fell to fifth, and when June 28 finally rolled around, I turned on my TV not to see Jeff Green or Corey Brewer trying on a green hat but GM Danny Ainge trading the pick to the Sonics for an injured 31-year-old guard named Ray Allen.
Needless to say, I yelled at said TV.
What (I yelled at any inanimate object that would listen) were the Celtics going to do with two aging perimeter scorers (that would be Allen and Paul Pierce), a bunch of raw young kids for a supporting cast and no first-round draft pick? With two guys on the wrong side of 30 and the rest of the team on the wrong side of 23, where was our window? When was this team actually supposed to win?
A lot's happened in the past 22 months. The Celtics then added Kevin Garnett in a blockbuster trade, used Garnett to lure in a pile of free agents, won 66 games, captured an NBA title and won 62 more games to return to the playoffs. Oh, and the Sonics moved. Like anyone cares.
Today, I write because that team is back.
Without Garnett, and without his backup Leon Powe as well, the Celtics fly to Chicago for tomorrow night's Game 3 in their first-round playoff series with the Bulls. They are the same team I thought they'd be on June 28 -- no veteran leader in the paint, no defensive heart and soul, no chance of winning a title. Allen and Pierce are great players, and Rajon Rondo matured much better than anyone had imagined, but without the big man inside, they're hopeless.
It was Allen who kept them in the series in Game 2 on Monday night, keeping them from falling down 0-2 at home by going off for 28 second-half points, including a game-winning three. For a night, I was happy. But let's get serious.
The SportsNation poll on ESPN.com that night asked "When will the Celtics playoff run end?" and 43 percent of voters had them losing to the Bulls right off the bat. Now, even if I think that 43 percent of the American people are overreacting, blithering idiots, I'm concerned.
The Celtics are blessed with an easy matchup in the first round -- they're facing a Bulls team with zero defensive prowess against their aforementioned perimeter scorers. Chicago's two best defenders are in the paint, where they're wasted on the likes of Kendrick Perkins and Glen Davis.
But there's no prize for making it out of the first round -- especially not in Boston, where championships have come to be expected, especially with the Celtics defending last year's title. And inevitably, this year's team will lose, whether it's to Orlando in round two or Cleveland in the conference finals. And the playoffs have always been an all-or-nothing game; second place is most definitely the first loser.
So forgive me if I'm a bit disillusioned about the playoffs this year. I've thought a lot about this team before -- this team with Pierce, Allen, Rondo and not much else. I know what it's capable of, and that's not much.
I've seen this team on my TV before, but this time it has me closer to crying than yelling.
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Evans Clinchy is a senior majoring in English. He can be reached at Evans.Clinchy@tufts.edu.
