Lessons from #Bernie2016 and the 2012 Celtics

The science is in: we love to root for the underdog. When we accomplish anything that not many people thought we could pull off, it makes us much giddier than if success was expected by most. How else do you explain Rocky V earning $120 a million at the box office and Buster Douglas getting his own video game? People have literally built careers and fortunes from one improbable victory.

New England’s own Bernie Sanders and the Boston Celtics are no strangers to the underdog role. Interestingly, Sanders’ bid for the presidency is peculiarly homologous to the Celtics’ surprising run to the seventh game of the Eastern Conference Finals in the 2012 NBA Playoffs. Now that the Independent Senator from Vermont conceded defeat and suspended his campaign, let’s take a look at some of those similarities.

Both Sanders and the Celtics ran into imposing juggernauts of their respective fields. Hillary Clinton — a former Secretary of State, former Senator from New York, the First Lady during the 1990s economic boom, a millionaire several times over, and one of the most famous people in the world — was being talked about as the presumptive Democratic nominee long before the Sanders campaign was even a concept. A CNN poll taken a month after Bernie announced his candidacy showed just how far behind he was in the beginning: he polled at 10 percent — a far cry from Clinton’s 60 percent, and even Vice President Joe Biden’s 14 percent. As we all know, Biden never even entered the race!

The Celtics’ situation wasn’t much better. Heart conditions cost key bench players Jeff Green and Chris Wilcox their seasons, and former All-Star Jermaine O’Neal and impactful second-year man Avery Bradley also suffered season-ending injuries. As if their decimated roster weren’t enough, they had to get through “The Heatles,” an impossibly stacked “super team” that boasted three of the top five picks of the historically great 2003 NBA Draft: a three-time MVP universally recognized as the best basketball player of his generation (LeBron James), the 2006 Finals MVP and 2009 scoring leader (Dwyane Wade), and a 27 year-old seven-time All-Star (Chris Bosh).

It should come as no surprise that pundits didn’t give the New Englanders much of a chance. The New York Times politely called the Sanders campaign a “long shot,” and some media outlets even went as far as declaring his candidacy “symbolic.” Just as basketball analysts thought the Celtics would be lucky to win a game or two against the Heat, political analyst Noam Chomsky opined that Sanders’ most likely triumphs would be to “press the Dems a little in a progressive direction” and to become “a thorn in the side of the Clinton machine.”

If they were truly that hopeless, why did so many people support them? Perhaps the major differences between them and their opponents made them more relatable to the average person. Hillary and the Heat were respectively derided as “corporate” and “Hollywood,” while Bernie was hailed as a populist who genuinely cared about working people and the Celtics as an unselfish, hard-working team that stayed away from the limelight. The feeling that they might have been operating within the confines of a rigged system determined to see them lose could have also created sympathizers. Remember how the Wyoming, New York, and California primaries provoked the ire of Berners everywhere? How about the alleged favoritism of the officials in the Heat-Celtics series? Not even Rocky had to deal with that kind of adversity.

Despite their comparable uphill battles, the most significant parallels between #Bernie2016 and the 2012 Celtics were their results. A team whose first two scoring options were a 36-year-old with a balky right knee and a fourteen-year veteran with a sprained MCL had no business beating LeBron and D-Wade three times in a row. Similarly, no one could have envisioned a self-identified socialist winning 22 states in a United States presidential primary.

The Celtics inspired aging weekend warriors everywhere to confidently challenge cocky young ballers and Sanders emboldened American youth to participate in the political process like no other candidate before him. Even if you’re not the biggest hoop head or political junkie, only good things can come from following the precedent set forth by Bernie and the Celtics!

Please, make it stop!

The Celtics have hit rock bottom. They can’t close out a game to save their lives. I had been noticing this trend since early in the season, but it just keeps getting worse, and last night was the culmination.

What happened last night? Oh, not much; just a blown 23-point lead against the Atlanta Hawks. I was in class during the first part of the game, but when I got back to my apartment, I checked the box score, and the C’s held a 66-40 halftime lead. Rondo had 14 assists, and I went to bed early with a smile on my face. When I saw the box score this morning, I couldn’t believe my eyes. Rondo didn’t score a point in the second half (he scored a grand total of two points), Kyle Korver shot the lights out, and the C’s were defeated once again. To make matters worse, this happened the day after the team held a meeting to discuss their late-game struggles.

If this is frustrating for me as a fan, I can’t imagine what it must be like for the players. In a classic example of misdirected rage, Evan Turner attacked Korver’s defensive abilities after the game. Who cares how good of a defender Korver is? The fact is no Celtic was able to stop him last night, so suck it up and move on.

Rondo has at least come forward and accepted responsibility. That’s all well and good, but he just has to play better. Yes, he’s leading the league in assists, and he’s rebounding the ball extremely well, but I expect more from a team captain with championship experience. Even though his main role is not that of a scorer, two points is not going to cut it. And I’m not even going to get into his free-throw shooting again.

Another thing that struck me is the fact that right before the season, Jared Sullinger said that this team was different to last year’s in that they won’t back down when facing a challenge. According to Sully, when the Celtics found themselves in tight spots last season, they stopped fighting and just accepted defeat. He swore this year would be different, but we’ve yet to see the results. His “no more lessons, no moral victories” speech from two weeks ago feels like it was delivered two months ago. Enough is enough!

It’s possible that the team’s attitude isn’t to blame for its struggles, but that would just mean it’s a talent issue. I would find that hard to believe, because even if the C’s don’t have a legitimate superstar on their roster, they have a good group of solid players who should be able to protect leads in late-game situations. Stevens has tried tweaking the lineup by replacing Kelly Olynyk with Tyler Zeller in the starting five, but that hasn’t helped in any way. Let’s just hope that Paul Pierce’s return to the Garden on Sunday will fire up the team and set them on a semi-decent run, because I don’t know what else they can do.

Paul Pierce is a great human being

His multiple late-game heroics. The time he nearly got stabbed to death and came back to play every game of the season. His passion for the game. His loyalty to the city of Boston and to the Celtics organization.

These are just a few of many reasons to love Paul Pierce, but he’s giving us a lot more of them lately. Everyone knows him to be an outspoken guy, but when he recently said that he probably wouldn’t get drafted if he came out of college today, he reminded everyone of just how honest he can be. It was not only a humble assessment of his own talent, but also a very astute observation on the current state of the game. The Truth lived up to his nickname when he commented that most guys who get drafted today are picked on potential and athleticism instead of basketball IQ and mastery of the game’s fundamental skills.

Next, he put up a vintage performance in a victory against the surprisingly good Milwaukee Bucks. I didn’t catch the game, but I could hardly contain my excitement when I saw the highlights. It’s a beautiful thing to witness one of your favorite players dominating a game long after his prime has passed. I can’t wait to see him on December 7 when the Wizards come to Boston!

What was so cool about that game – perhaps even more than his performance – was this gesture. It’s so awesome that it begs to be seen immediately, so I’m not even going to talk about it. Just click the link. NOW.

Revisiting the past

Like almost any other basketball fan in the digital age, I constantly watch YouTube videos in my free time. I particularly enjoy watching games all the way from the 1960s to the 1990s. That’s much more interesting to me than watching highlights of a game that I saw live just the day before, because those are the eras that I was either to young to have appreciated or not even born when they were happening.

Another thing about me is that I love to make lists. I got the idea for my next one as I watched this marvelous game:

While I was seeing KG and Tim Duncan dominate, I couldn’t help but think that they were clearly the best forwards in the league in the 2000-2009 decade. This made me think about the other players who I felt were the best at their positions during their respective eras, and the end result was my list of ideal eight-man rosters for every decade of NBA play since 1960. I chose eight players instead of 12 because teams tighten up their rotations during playoff time, and it would be fun to imagine these teams competing in a seven-game series against each other. Here goes:

1960s

Starters 

Wilt Chamberlain

Bill Russell

Elgin Baylor

Oscar Robertson

Jerry West

Bench

Willis Reed

Hal Greer

Sam Jones

1970s

Starters

Kareem Abdul-Jabbar

Elvin Hayes

Julius Erving

John Havlicek

Walt Frazier

Bench

Bob McAdoo

Dave Cowens

Rick Barry

1980s

Starters

Moses Malone

Kevin McHale

Larry Bird

Magic Johnson

Isiah Thomas

Bench

Robert Parish

Dominique Wilkins

Adrian Dantley

1990s

Starters

Hakeem Olajuwon

Karl Malone

Scottie Pippen

Michael Jordan

John Stockton

Bench

David Robinson

Charles Barkley

Gary Payton

2000s

Starters

Shaquille O’Neal

Tim Duncan

Kevin Garnett

Kobe Bryant

Allen Iverson

Bench

Dirk Nowitzki

Paul Pierce

Dwyane Wade

Bonus

I tried coming up with a 2010-2019 team, but it’s still too early to tell. Dwight Howard’s prime was from 2008-2012, and Anthony Davis’ seemed to have started in 2013. Which one will end up having the better decade? I have no clue. What I do know is that LeBron James and Kevin Durant are guaranteed to be in the two forwards spots.

So, who wins?

My money would be on the 1990s team. They have the best combination of athletic ability and basketball IQ. If the players from the 1960s had the same era-specific advantages (improved training and dieting techniques; living and playing conditions), it might be a closer battle, but otherwise, I don’t really see them hanging with the guys from the 1990s.

The Big Green Machine 2.0

Back in 2011, six retired NBA players participated in a humorous fantasy draft and selected their ideal roster of all-time. Former Celtics great Kevin McHale named his team “The Big Green Machine” and only chose players who had donned the Celtics uniform at some point in their careers. With the 2014-15 season only a few days away, this is a good time to revisit the past, and I have come up with my own 12-man roster of Celtics greats.

Instead of ranking them from 1-12, I’ll present a starting lineup, the next best five, and two wild cards. Note that the numbers I include next to each player’s name are their playoff stats, not their regular season stats. When you’re on the team with the most championships and Hall of Fame inductees in NBA history, you’re measured by what you do in the postseason, so this is clearly the way to go. Let’s get to it:

Starters

Bill Russell (1956-69) 16.2 ppg, 24.9 rpg, 43 FG%

The man with the most rings in NBA history, Russell changed basketball forever with his rebounding prowess and defensive ability. I don’t like his field goal percentage, but with the rest of the guys on this team, he’d never have to take a single shot.

Kevin Garnett (2007-13) 17.5 ppg, 9.9 rpg, 49 FG%

KG’s gets the starting spot over longer-tenured players (like Kevin McHale and Dave Cowens) because of his versatility and leadership. It’s still hard to accept that his six years as a Celtic are a thing of the past, but his trademark intensity, defensive skills, unselfishness, and offensive efficiency made the team one of the best of the late 2000’s and early 2010’s. Along with Paul Pierce, his willingness to play through injuries and sacrifice his personal stats for the Celtics were an inspiration to me and to countless other basketball fans.

Larry Bird (1979-92) 23.8 ppg, 10.3 rpg, 6.5 apg, 47.2 fg%

Three-time NBA MVP and three-time NBA champion Larry Bird was one of the toughest competitors basketball has ever seen, as well as one of its most complete all-around players. He also gets bonus points for being the greatest white player in the history of the game.

John Havlicek (1962-78) 22 ppg, 6.9 rpg, 4.8 apg, 43.6 FG%

Hondo starred in two separate eras, winning six championships in the 1960’s as the sixth man of the Russell-led teams and two in the 1970’s under coach Tommy Heinsohn. Were it not for Larry Bird, he’d be considered the most versatile player in the history of the team.

Rajon Rondo (2006-) 14.5 ppg, 6 rpg, 9.2 apg, 44.5 FG%

Here’s a stat that shows how good Rondo is: at 26 (he’s 28 now), he tied Larry Bird for the third most playoff triple doubles in NBA history. The difference is that Larry Legend got his 10 triple doubles in 164 games and Rondo got his in 92. Did I mention that he also holds team records for assists and steals in a single season? Rondo can be a polarizing player, but you’re just a hater if you don’t respect those numbers.

Bench

Dave Cowens (1970-80) 18.9, 14.4 rpg, 45.1 FG%

Cowens made up for his lack of size with his unmatched tenacity and grit. In just 10 years with the Celtics, he was an All-Star seven times and led the team to championships in 1974 and 1976.

Kevin McHale (1980-93) 18.8 ppg, 7.4 rpg, 56.1 FG%

Best known for his devastating post moves and deft shooting touch (he’s the only man in NBA history to shoot over 60 percent from the field and 80 percent from the free-throw line in the same season), three-time champion Kevin McHale was also a six-time member of the All-Defensive Team, and Charles Barkley constantly refers to him as the best player he ever played against.

Paul Pierce (1998-13) 20.9 ppg, 6.4 rpg, 4 apg, 41.9 FG%

David Dow/Getty Images

The man Bob Ryan correctly called the best pure scorer in Celtics history, Paul Pierce’s accomplishments speak for themselves. He’s the defining player of the post-Larry Bird Boston Celtics, and his 41-point performance against LeBron James in the 2008 playoffs, the three-point dagger he nailed LeBron’s face in the 2012 Eastern Conference Finals, and the classic elbow jumper that seemed to always go in (especially when LeBron was guarding him) will forever live in my (and every other Celtics’ fan) memory. The Truth is also one of only six players to average more than 18 points per game for at least 14 consecutive seasons. The others? Karl Malone, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Kobe Bryant, Hakeem Olajuwon, and Shaquille O’Neal. Talk about good company!

Sam Jones (1957-69) 18.9 ppg, 44.7 FG%

A dependable shooting guard who raised his level of play when it counted the most, Sam Jones is a 10-time NBA champion and one of the four best guards of the 1960’s (along with Oscar Robertson, Jerry West, and Hal Greer).

Bob Cousy (1950-63) 18.5 ppg, 8.6 apg, 34.2 FG%

Moving Cousy to the bench in favor of Rondo might be a little controversial. Cooz is a basketball pioneer who won six championships and lead the league in assists eight times, and along with Bob Pettit and George Mikan, he was easily one of the three best players of the 1950’s. However, this is a team for the ages, and Cousy’s poor outside shooting (look at that field goal percentage!) and lack of athleticism would make him a huge liability in today’s game. That being said, no one can deny his historical importance, and aside from Russell and Bird, he’s perhaps the most decorated Celtic of all-time.

Extras

Robert Parish (1980-94) 16 ppg, 9.8 rpg, 50.8 FG%

Along with Larry Bird and Kevin McHale, 9-time All-Star Robert Parish completed the greatest frontcourt the NBA has ever seen. His turnaround jumper was a thing of beauty.

Dennis Johnson (1983-90) 16.5 ppg, 6.8 apg, 44 FG%

His numbers might not jump out of the page, but DJ was a classic “glue guy”; the kind of player who facilitates things for his teammates by playing tough defense and making smart plays. Larry Bird called him “the best I’ve ever played with”, and their chemistry led to one of the most memorable moments in Celtics history.

Waiting in vain

Stop me if you’ve heard this one before: Jeff Green is ready to lead the Boston Celtics. It sounds like a broken record at this point, but us Celtics fans continue to give him the benefit of the doubt.

Since he can be alternately brilliant and awful, Green is simultaneously an interesting and frustrating player to watch. He’s a good three-point shooter for his position, but a bad rebounder for his size. Some people may have forgotten that he actually lead the team in scoring in the playoffs during the last season of the Garnett-Pierce era. After they were traded, Green declared he was ready to step up and lead the team, and most of us believed him. I remember my best friend (who is also a Celtics fan) and I talking about how we expected him to have an All-Star year.

Obviously, that didn’t happen. His play was marred by inconsistency and when it was all over, he admitted that he couldn’t handle being the go-to guy. When he was recently asked what he thought about the “inconsistent” tag that’s so often applied to his name, he replied with a succinct “blogs suck”, once again voicing his displeasure with people who dare to opine on the players they watch.

As John Karalis brilliantly wrote on Boston.com, Green needs to accept that the very public nature of his profession means that his performance will be deeply scrutinized. Fans will always analyze his game, and just because we get mad when he doesn’t play up to his potential doesn’t mean that we hate him, it means that we want him to succeed. I get the feeling that he takes criticism very personally, and that this has a negative impact on his production.

Now, with the 2014-15 season less than a month away, Green is again saying that he’s ready to be a leader. Coach Stevens thinks his confidence as increased, and this is a great sign for Celtics fans.

Although Jeff Green might not like me or what I do – I am, after all, a Celtics blogger – I’m on his side. I believe he has the tools to be an NBA superstar, but I’m not going to start celebrating until I see results.

Photo by Keith Allison and published under a creative commons license. Some rights reserved.

Alex and the Boston Celtics: A Love Story

If you’re wondering why a Puerto Rican who has only lived in Boston for a month is so obsessed with the Boston Celtics, congratulations, you’re one of many people who share this same curiosity. Surprisingly, most of them are my friends from back home, and not necessarily Bostonians. This post is for all of you.

From 2009 to 2013, I kept hearing that the Celtics were old, and not just from my peers, but from the media, too. Kevin Garnett, Paul Pierce and Ray Allen were well into their thirties, so it was true to a certain extent. However, whenever anyone implied that I should support a younger team, I quickly reminded them that those three guys had been my favorite players since I was in elementary school, and as long as they were still in the league, I would keep rooting for them (this turned out not to be true, but that’s another story for another day). The idea of forcing myself to like certain players just because their youth gives them a (presumably) better chance to win is ludicrous. You like who you like. Period.

Some of my friends also teased me when I told them how pumped I was to go to Celtics games once I moved to Boston and the season started. They said that the team is terrible, that I’d be better off saving my money and watching them on TV, and it that it didn’t make sense to be a Celtics fan now that the KG-Paul Pierce era is over.

I roll my eyes at such remarks. I might have fallen in love with the Celtics when they fielded a roster that included four of my all-time favorite players, but even after their departures, I’ve stuck with the team because I love everything that they represent. Whenever one hears the name “Boston Celtics”, words like tradition, loyalty, respect, hard work, dedication, passion, togetherness, and unity come to mind. These are all precepts that I strive to uphold in my personal life, so it only makes sense that I would root for the organization that embodies them.

The Celtics, their players, their coaches, and their fans are very easy to like if you know a little NBA history. Since the early days of the league, their players have been known to go out and compete even when the odds are stacked against them. Many of them are even willing to play hurt if they believe they can help the team. General manager Danny Ainge is not afraid to make unpopular moves in his never-ending quest to upgrade the roster. Their fans have even shown solidarity for their opponents in certain situations. This is simply a first-class organization in every way, and even though I was born in Puerto Rico, I’m a Celtic for life.

Don’t Look Back, Part II

(Continued from Part I)

This series meant a lot to me for many reasons, but two in particular stood out above the rest: my love for Rasheed Wallace and my hatred towards Kobe Bryant. Everything about Kobe screamed insincerity, from his blatant co-opting of Michael Jordan’s moves and body language to the phony “street” cadence he inflected in his speech. “Sheed”, on the other hand, was never afraid to be himself and always spoke without a filter. Even if his attitude occasionally hurt him and his teams, I admired his authenticity. The fact that three of my five favorite players since I started following the NBA closely in 1999 were Kevin Garnett, Paul Pierce, and Ray Allen (Allen Iverson was second only to Rasheed) only added fuel to the fire. I needed to see them beat Kobe again and shatter his dream of winning back-to-back titles as the leader of his team.

After five games, the C’s looked good with a 3-2 lead in a highly competitive series, but everything came crashing down (no pun intended) when Kendrick Perkins suffered a knee injury in the early moments of game six. Clearly distraught by this unfortunate turn of events, his teammates were unable to focus on the task at hand and the Lakers comfortably tied the series. Boston still had one more chance to beat L.A., but it would be considerably more difficult to contain seven-footers Pau Gasol and Andrew Bynum without one of their best rebounders and interior defenders.

Kevin Garnett (5) goes up for a jump shot against Pau Gasol, while Kobe Bryant (24) looks on. Photo (cc) by Eric Kilby and published under a Creative Commons license. Some rights reserved.

Driven by pride and a sense of urgency, the Celtics came out swinging. The sheer bliss I felt during the first three quarters of this game was similar to the one that every Puerto Rican shared on August 15, 2004. The Celtics were sharing the ball and working hard defensively while Kobe was forcing the issue and missing almost every shot he took. Lakers fans were not only watching their team lose, but their hero was tarnishing his legacy, perhaps irreversibly. There was a palpable silence in the Staples Center, but in San Juan, I was screaming my lungs out.

All of a sudden, everything began to fall apart. We started missing shots. Kobe and Gasol attacked the boards relentlessly. The C’s seemed to run out of gas right as the Lakers got their second wind, and the crowd went wild. How were we going to get out of this and regain control of the game?

To be continued…