Your Time

From the Booth
By Sean Grande
Special to Celtics.com
June 5, 2008

[flying in the chopper to the roof in Die Hard, expletives deleted]
Special Agent Johnson I: "Just like Saigon ain't it, Slick?"
Special Agent Johnson II: [smiling] "I was in junior high."

I sat on the plane Friday night, early Saturday morning actually. It's the same seat I've been in for the last seven years. And really the all ten years I've been in the NBA. Superstition retains a very high value in the world in which I live.

About ninety minutes earlier, the most important quarter of Celtics basketball in a good two decades had just played out. KG hitting shots, Paul Pierce taking over, Posey's steal, Rondo's step-in jumper and the suffocating defense that won 66 games, not waiting for the Eastern Conference torch to be passed, but rather taking it from the Pistons, on their own floor.

In the moment, I sat quietly, pondering both the salmon in front of me and the Eastern Conference crown the C's now wore.

Both, it occurred to me, had just been poached.

And then, I tried to calculate the odds, the sheer improbability of the Celtics, one year removed from the gut-shot that was draft lottery night, and the Lakers, one year to the day from Kobe Bryant's trade request, meeting in the NBA Finals.

Then it hit me.

One of those philosophical questions.

What if the most extraordinary, inconceivable NBA Finals matchup ever, one played out through a truly impossible to dream, let alone predict, series of events, actually happened, for real?

And no one noticed.

Because as this tree fell in the forest, it hit me at 30,000 feet, somewhere over Rochester, New York, that instead of a celebration of how the NBA's most storied franchises returned to glory, we would bombarded, not with the return to glory, but rather all the old glory instead.

It wasn't hard to picture. The two logos, Celtics and Lakers splashed across TV screens. The images, the ones we've seen over and over again. Magic's sky hook, Nellie's lucky bounce, the hard foul on Rambis, all of it. The two backdrops; the endless panorama of 80's celebrities with their 80's hair on the west coast. The green and white t-shirts with their metaphorical blue collars back east.

In the days that followed, well, you've seen it for yourself. That's been pretty much it. Lucky guess.

Pin a rose on me.

But in these hours, as Game One finally arrives, the living breathing embodiment of what one year ago was a truly impossible basketball fantasy, I have a very clear thought about Russell and Chamberlin, about Larry and Magic, Havlicek and West, Kareem and Chief, Magic's hook, Max's back, McHale's foul, Nellie's bounce, unreleased balloons, overheated locker rooms, Johnny, Chick and everything Celtics-Lakers past.

One very clear thought.

I don't care.

Not today.

There are no two basketball franchises, no two franchises period, as storied as these. But those stories have an ending. They belong to the past, to your parents and grandparents, and to history.

This, is your time.

The insanely pressurized seventh game cauldron the Garden was against Atlanta four weeks ago, that crucible the Celtics stared down without blinking? That's yours. Paul Pierce and LeBron James' Game 7 Bird-Dominique reprise? That's yours. That simply epic fourth quarter comeback at the Palace Friday night in Game 6 with the Pistons? Rondo's jumper? Posey's steal? KG's perfect shooting? Paul Pierce's relentless attack of the basket? And that smothering, championship defense? All yours.

Does it matter that Magic hit the sky hook? Does it matter that Don Nelson's shot popped up in the air and back in? Does it matter that Gerald Henderson stole the ball?

Not today.

That, was thier time.

It matters that KG's runner beat Cleveland in Game 1, it matters that Paul Pierce's clinching free throw popped up and bounced back in at the end of Game 7. It matters that James Posey that stole the ball in Detroit. Why? Because that is the here and now. And the here and now...is your time.

To be a Celtic, to be a citizen of Celtics Nation, is to be a student of its history. And it's a history to be studied, learned, embraced and treasured. But the next two weeks aren't about treasuring history.

They're about making it.

You have the rest of your life to watch the tapes back and re-live what's about to happen. You only have the moment, the one chance to enjoy it in real time. And it's here.

Eric Montross is not walking through that door. Sherman Douglas could be in bare feet for all we know. Alla Abdelnaby, Acie Earl and the Big Ham? They are now the ghosts of Christmas past.

I wrote something here last August, as the new big three took the stage together for the first time.

That the Boston Celtics...had become the Boston Celtics again.

And now it's real. The NBA Finals. Back home in Boston where they're supposed to be.

Enjoy every second of it.

Because this is your time.

---

Just a quick note from Max and me. We've gotten a ton of e-mails over the last couple of months, and we truly appreciate every one, so thank you. In the last 48 hours since Game Six, a bunch of them have asked for copies of our open from last week's final game of the Eastern Conference Finals, so for all of you, enjoy. For the rest of you, feel free to click on the Dancers' page or whatever you'd normally be doing with this time.

CELTICS @ DETROIT - MAY 30, 2006 - EASTERN CONFERENCE FINALS - GAME SIX

WE ARE TRAINED TO BELIEVE...THAT ANYTHING THAT SEEMS TO GOOD TO BE TRUE... IS. IT'S A LESSON WE'RE ALL TAUGHT...OFTEN PAINFULLY IN LIFE...OVER AND OVER AGAIN.

EVEN THE START OF PAUL PIERCE'S NBA CAREER...WAS A LETDOWN. WHEN HE WAS DRAFTED BY THE CELTICS IN 1998....HE'D FALLEN ALL THE WAY TO 10TH. IT WAS A CHIP ON HIS SHOULDER HE PARLAYED WELL IN THE INSUING YEARS...BECOMING ONE OF THE GAME'S ELITE. BUT SINCE A NEAR MISS SIX YEARS AGO...HE'S FALLEN FARTHER AND FARTHER FROM THE ONE THING HE REALLY WANTED. 10 YEARS...6 ALL-STAR GAMES...18 THOUSAND POINTS.

BUT HE'S NEVER BEEN TO THE NBA FINALS.

RAY ALLEN HAD GAME LONG BEFORE SPIKE LEE TOLD US SO. HIS STROKE...LEGENDARY. THE NUMBERS FROM THE THREE...FROM THE LINE...HISTORIC. BUT SINCE A GAME 7 LOSS IN THE CONFRENCE FINALS IN 2001...HE TOO HAS FALLEN FARTHER AND FARTHER FROM THE ONE THING HE REALLY WANTED. 12 YEARS...8 ALL-STAR GAMES...19 THOUSAND POINTS.

BUT HE'S NEVER BEEN TO THE NBA FINALS.

KEVIN GARNETT WAS 15 YEARS OLD WHEN MICHAEL JORDAN WON HIS FIRST TITLE...THE INDELIBLE IMAGE OF HIM HOLDING THE TROPHY...THE TEARS OF JOY..AND RELEASE..AND REFIEF...MADE A PERMANENT IMPACT ON THE BOY...WHO WOULD SOON BECOME THE MAN...THAT WOULD CHANGE THE GAME IN SO MANY WAYS.. HE HAS LONG SINCE BECOME AN NBA ICON...LONG SINCE MADE A PERMANNET MARK ON THE GAME HE LOVES SO VERY MUCH. BUT AFTER A STAR CROSSED RUN TO THE CONFRENCE FINALS FOUR YEARS AGO...HIS FRANCHISE CRASHED AND BURNED...LEAVING HIM LIGHT YEARS FROM THE ONE THING HE'S ALWAYS WANTED. 13 YEARS...11 ALL-STAR GAMES...20 THOUSAND POINTS....AN MVP...AND A FIRST-BALLOT HALL-OF-FAMER.

AND YET... HE'S NEVER BEEN TO THE NBA FINALS.

WHEN THEY WERE JOINED TOGETHER TEN MONTHS AGO...EVERYTHING SUDDENLY SEEMED POSSIBLE. BUT REAL LIFE HAS A WAY OF DERAILING...OFTEN DECIMATING FANTASY.

BUT TONIGHT...THE 25 YEARS...THE THREE THOUSAND GAMES...THE SIXTY THOUSAND POINTS...COULD ALL TAKE SECOND POSITION ON THEIR RESUMES. FOR TONIGHT...ALL THREE COULD REACH THAT DESTINTION.

THAT MAY SEEM TOO GOOD TO BE TRUE...BUT MOST OF HISTORY PROBABLY SEEMED THAT WAY...JUST BEFORE IT BECAME...ACTUAL HISTORY.