Celtics Fan Banner Moments

On December 19, 2010, my mother had the opportunity to experience a once in a lifetime opportunity. I personally have not missed a single Celtics game since the 1996 season. I purchased season tickets in 2006 and I plan on having them for the rest of my life. One of my dreams has always been to experience Celtics basketball with my mother. My seats have always been in the balcony so having access to the court is always a little difficult, until my ticket rep David emailed me and told me I could shoot on the floor after the game on Dec. 19. I decided to keep the shootaround as a surprise for my mom, who had always dreamed of taking a shot on the floor. My mother is the strongest person I know and gives the world to me. She ended up scoring a layup and having one of her dreams come true!

I've been a season ticket holder since the 2008 playoffs, and saw the Celtics win it all in Game 6 in 2008. That game still doesn't compare to the first game I ever went to on March 15, 1992 as the Celtics took on the Portland Trail Blazers in the old Boston Garden. It was the last year of the Original Big 3 playing together, and though I wouldn't realize this until later years, the Original Big 3 had many injury issues that season, yet somehow the day after I turned 8 years old they were all active that day. My dad and I commuted from Cranston, RI, where we lived at the time, and the game had non-stop offense. I'll never forget how the Celtics were down 7 points with 2 minutes to play, and people were starting to leave. I begged my dad to stay, and since it was my first game, he did. We were rewarded with Larry Bird hitting a game-tying 3-pointer with 2 seconds left, 10 feet away from where I was sitting. I remember as though it happened yesterday. I also remember Kevin Gamble hitting another tying shot to take the game to double-overtime, which the Celtics eventually won 152-148. It turned out to be Larry Bird's last triple-double, 49 points, 14 rebounds, 12 assists. At the time, I figured it was just another typical great game for Larry Legend, little did I know how many injuries he had to overcome just to play that day, which makes it even more special. I've been to over 100 games since, but nothing, not even Game 6 of the 2008 NBA Finals, compares to my first game. Both had non-stop action and multiple Hall-of-Famers (or soon-to-be) on both sides, but nothing compares to the back-and-forth action that made your head spin, and it was the first game I ever went to.

I had the pleasure of attending the Cleveland game this January with my 12 year old son. It had been a long, cold winter already and my rides to work had been long, so I decided to take the train in from Bradford for a break. I must say, I wasn't really looking forward to the game. With Lebron gone, how good of an opponent would Cleveland be? I had heard Shaq was out for the game too. But I love the Celtics and being in the Garden is the best. Whenever they announced that Kendrick Perkins was back that game, the Garden exploded. To see him back on the court, it was as if he never left. He seems like a quiet man, but the applause he received was amazing. He took it all in stride and gave up a hands up to thank his fans. The Celtics are back, bring on the playoffs.

I have had season tickets to the Celtics for over 35 years, and have loved every moment. I saw Havlicek steal the ball and Bird steal the ball. I saw many Championship banners raised to the rafters. I witnessed many Banner Moments. However, the game that is most vivid in my mind is game 5 in 1984 in the old (and revered) Boston Garden. The temperature outside was in the nineties and inside, with the fans geared up to watch another Celtics/Lakers playoff game, it was easily 100 degrees. My daughter, who was a teenager, and I attended that game. The seats next to us were initially vacant but were soon filled by John Havlicek and his wife. There was no air conditioning and we were all very uncomfortable. To my embarrassment, my daughter must have asked Havlicek for his autograph three times. Being the gentleman he is, he gave it to her three times. We went on to win the series in a great game seven , but I will always remember Game 5, the heat, and a very classy former Celtics star.

When I first came to America as a child in 1995, watching Celtics games was one of the most important ways for me to learn about America and acclimate to its culture. I have since grown to love this team and when I contemplate my life in the US, it is often in reference to important Celtics moments in the last 16 years. Therefore, when I recently proposed to my girlfriend of 3.5 years, I decided that I would incorporate the Celtics in my proposal.

Here's the story: The first movie that Gaya and I watched together was Amelie, a French film about a shy and eccentric French girl who does good deeds for people while pursuing her love interest at the same time. At one point in the story, Amelie steals a garden gnome belonging to her depressed and lonely father and photoshops it into pictures of famous world attractions to make it seem as though the gnome has visited each of those places. She then sends these photoshopped pictures to her father, who is totally confused and thinks that the gnome is somehow traveling all over the world. This confusion eventually inspires the father to get out of his funk and travel himself. Anyway, I borrowed the garden gnome concept for the proposal.

A few weeks before we left for India, I re-watched Amelie with Gaya. Then I stole a stuffed toy that she owns (a Celtics bear called Mr. Clutch, the first gift I gave her) and photoshopped him into pictures of various places we were going to visit. I used these pictures to make postcards addressed from Mr. Clutch and slipped them to Gaya one by one over the course of the trip to make it seem as though the bear was always one step ahead of us. The last of these postcards was delivered from a placed called Dhanushkodi, a narrow strip of land in South India surrounded by different oceans on either side. Dhanushkodi is of special importance to us because it is the closest point in India to Sri Lanka, which is where Gaya is from. It is one of the most remote places I've ever visited. We rented a jeep that took us to the very tip of the peninsula, which was no more than a few feet wide. Once we got there, we found pawprints leading to Mr. Clutch (my parents helped with this part). Gaya picked up the bear in surprise and I asked her to check if he was ok. When she pressed its paw, she was surprised to hear my recorded voice proposing to her instead. At that point I dropped to one knee and opened the box containing the ring. She said yes! To celebrate the success of my proposal, I lit up a cigar, Red Auerbach style. I couldn't have made the proposal happen without help from Mr. Clutch, and more importantly the significant influence that the Celtics have had on my life. Green 18!

This year is the second time I got to attend a Celtics home game and I got to experience with my brother who I only met eight months ago. When me and my brother first met, the Celtics were in the playoffs last season and it was how we first bonded. Being a 20 year old girl and meeting you 16 year old brother for the first time, it's hard to have something in common to talk about. Luckily we are both crazy about the Celtics so whenever there was a game, we would text each other about what was going on. If I was missing a game because of work, he would text me to keep me in the loop. The Celtics games were a great way for us to establish some sort of communication even if it was only for the three hours they were playing.

For Christmas, I took him to a Celtics game so we could really experience it together instead of just through text. It was right before I went away for college this semester after having all these months to finally grasp that we were siblings. The game was a great way for us to finally do something together that we both enjoyed; true brother-sister bonding. It was only the second game he had ever been to also, so the experience was equal for both of us. That game gave us time to talk about a lot and really open up to each other which I am so grateful for. We had such a blast. Smiles didn't leave our faces. Since the beginning of our relationship, the Boston Celtics have helped us bond and really get to know each other.

Hands up in the air with the confidence of an undefeated fighter and jubilation of a kid after his first kiss, Paul Pierce stood perched on the foul line, very familiar territory for the captain. Pierce had just sunk a clutch free throw against the Milwaukee Bucks, giving him 20,000 points on his illustrious career. It was fitting that Pierce got point #20,000 at the charity stripe. After all, that's where he earns a substantial number of his points, using his nifty crossover dribble and treacherous up fake to get defenders in the air and earn two free points. I remember that tableaux vividly; the image of Pierce with both hands high in the air is permanently ingrained into my mind.

For as long as I have been a diehard Celtics fan, I have idolized Paul Pierce and his professionalism both on and off the court. When I was 10, I met Paul at a Tower Records in Burlington. He was escorted by a body guard and naturally wanted to be left alone to enjoy his shopping. However, due to the fact that I was 10 years old and that he was (and still is) my favorite athlete, I walked over and said hello and had him sign the Paul Pierce jersey fittingly draped over my body in a Green Sharpie. Rather than brushing me off like he would an undersized defender, Paul greeted me with a warm smile and we held a brief but meaningful conversation. I like to think today that I wouldn't be as dumbstruck if the same situation unfolded, yet I know I would act in the exact same way.

The magnitude to which I respect Paul Pierce has increased considerably as my understanding of basketball and life has augmented. An aspiring sports writer, I fully comprehend the nuances of the game of basketball. I was there for the 24-58 season and was lucky enough to witness the 42 game turnaround and championship run the next season. Ever since I first developed a fondness for the game, Paul Pierce has been my idol. Growing up in a bleak period for Celtics basketball, Pierce was always the star player on the team. Rather than taking his talents to South Beach to join the Miami Heat, Paul stayed with the Celtics, showing his devotion. His passion and dedication is evident both on and off the court. From initially sparking my interest in basketball, to "towering" over me at Tower Records, to bringing a banner back to Beantown, The Truth has been there every step of the way in my life.

Point number 20,000, although just a number, was a significant milestone for me personally. I can't honestly say I know the ins and outs of the games of Russell, Cousy, or even Bird. I wish I was alive to see banners one through sixteen, but I wasn't. But following Paul Pierce from his first season in the NBA up until his brilliant performances this season has completely enlightened me to exactly what it means to be a role model. 20,000 signifies a journey. The fact that all of those points were scored with the Celtics is more than a statistic. It's loyalty exemplified through basketball. Pierce is a true Celtic. In my 12 plus years of watching The Truth play I now know precisely what it means to bleed Green.

My Banner Moment and my 8 year old son's is from last year - Feb. 18, Celtics vs. Lakers. Of course we won, but the best part was that we sat behind Cedric Maxwell in section 20. My son was 7 at the time, and would go to every game if he could, but being a single mom, that doesn't happen too much. Anyway, my son was talking like a sports caster and Max got up an couldn't believe that it was a child that was talking, he just shook his head and said, "I didn't know that it was a child back here!" Then at the beginning of the 3rd quarter he turned around and gave my son a Hershey bar. I told my son, that is one of the only times you take candy from a stranger!! He still remembers that and to me that was one of my favorite memories ever.

It was early in my work day on April 20, 1986 when a soft spoken New England Physician I worked with mentioned he had two tickets to the basketball game that night, if I wanted them. Being that he was a Dartmouth alumnus and that we worked only a few miles from the college I gladly accepted the offer; I had not been to a college game since leaving the University of Vermont a couple years earlier. I walked over to his office shortly after lunch feeling grateful for having free tickets to watch basketball. He gave me the tickets, and at a quick glance I noticed the green color representative of the Dartmouth Big Green. Much to my surprise when I looked more closely, they were tickets for the Celtics! Playoff Tickets! I had watched many games on television, and listened to Johnny Most on the local AM radio station growing up, but I never dreamed of seeing a game at the Garden in person. The only time I was ever in Boston was for a class trip in elementary school to the Museum of Science.

One of my coworkers and I left immediately from work for the trip down to Boston. We talked all the way about the upcoming game which made the ride seem very short. Before long we were parked just outside the Garden. After grabbing a meal, we walked into the building. I paused to take in as much as possible knowing that this night would be something special. I took out our tickets and began the process of being ushered toward our seats. Go up this ramp, ask the attendant around the corner... I think the word surreal is overused today by most people. However, I can honestly say this was a surreal moment for me. I was standing inside the Boston Garden, looking up at the numerous banners hung overhead. I was standing in front of my seat, in the seventh row directly behind the Celtics bench! From that unbelievable position I had the opportunity to watch the players I admired - Bird, Ainge, Johnson, Parrish, McHale, Walton as they returned to the bench. I could hear the constant squeak of rubber on the polished parquet floor.

This alone would have been enough to make the late night trip home and the very long next day worth it. However, I was not prepared for how special that night would be. Larry Bird put on a passing clinic, Michael Jordan seemed to defy gravity. I clearly remember one jumper he took while on the Celtics end of the court. DJ left the ground shortly after Michael, his hands level with Jordan's all the way to their apex. Then DJ began to descend and Jordan appearing to float for seconds more, releasing the ball with DJ's hands clear of the shot. When it was all done Jordan had 63 points, but the Celtics were the winners of game two 135 - 131 in double overtime. Most importantly I have the lasting memories of an experience that was beyond my imagination. Thank you, Dr. Wells!

My friend Al and I got to know each other in college, partly because both of us were big Celtics and Larry Bird fans. When we graduated, Al, who had lived in Massachusetts his whole life, moved to Texas to take a job in the social work field. We kept in touch and a few years later, Bird retired. Al told me we had to go to the game when they did the ceremonial retiring of Bird's number as they have done with all the Celtic greats. He put me in charge of getting the tickets. Al hadn't been home in awhile and said to me, "You know, my whole family is depending on you getting these tickets, so I can come home." Thanks Al, that was as much pressure as DJ taking a jump shot from the top of the key in The Finals against the Lakers. I was like, "Al, I want to go just as much as you, but there are going to be a few million other people who want to go, as well."

They had a lottery for the tickets in which you had to mail in entries to a certain address. You could send in as many entries as you wanted. I think you had a week or two to send them in. So, I came up with a little strategy, I sent in 15 entries a day, every day until the lottery, thinking that would give me a better chance than just sending them all in at the same time. I told Al when I would be finding out about whether we got the tickets or not and he was going to be in San Francisco at the time. He gave me a number at a friend's house to call him. I almost fell over when I got the letter in the mail from the Celtics, saying I could purchase two tickets for Larry Bird Night. They were stadium seats in the old Garden that weren't that good, but we just wanted to be in the building. I called the number Al gave me and he wasn't there but his friend was. I told his friend to tell Al we won the lottery. He will know what I mean. His friend must have thought Al was a millionaire at that time, because I did not explain to him what it meant.

We went to the game, and by the end were able to walk down and sit on the steps a lot closer to the stage as Larry was giving his speech. Of course, everybody was given a green bag at that night with all kinds of souvenirs inside. One of them was a Larry Bird Night t-shirt. Al said to me a few weeks later, "When do you actually wear such a special t-shirt." Jokingly, I said, "I'll probably be wearing mine when I walk down the aisle." He said we should make a pact that we would both do that. A few years later, Al was getting married at a mansion in Texas. When I went out there with some of his friends to help him prepare for the ceremony, he had his tuxedo pants and shoes on, and was wearing his Larry Bird Night t-shirt. I could not believe my eyes. For the ceremony, he put his tux shirt over it. But later on at the reception, his best woman explained to the guests during her toast that Al was wearing the shirt underneath. I haven't been married, so have not had a chance to wear my shirt at such a ceremony. But that is something I'll never forget.