Go Celtics!

The great thing about sports is that no matter how old you are, it brings you back to the memories you had as a kid, when all that mattered was Larry Bird's dominance in the NBA 3-point contest, or Roger Clemens striking out 20 batters in a game (presumably before he began taking steroids), or your own personal free throw percentage. Kids growing up in the Boston area these days think that Boston has always dominated the sporting world - afterall, they've experienced the Patriots' dominance in winning three Superbowls and seen the Red Sox win two world series. What kids don't know is that the Sox had an aura of choking moreso than than success for the prior generations and that the Patriots could've actually patented ways to lose games in the 90's because every week they found new an inventive ways to lose by 3 points (see the Dick McPherson years - entertaining years, but so stressful that I think his Patriots coaching era will be the single reason I die 10 years younger than I should).

Another thing they may not know is that the Celtics were actually the greatest team in town for decades. After 22 years of frustration though, the Celtics have now risen up, achieved the greatest single season improvement in NBA history, and are just one win away from winning their 17th NBA Championship. For those of us who *were* kids when they won their last championship, who got to live the Celtics/Lakers championship battles, and feel like that was the most important thing in the world, TONIGHT we all will get to feel like we did when we were kids - giddy, excited, nervous, hopeful, and scared.

With this excitement comes the gush of memories from 25 years ago:

- Hating the LA Lakers and actually all of Los Angeles, even though I had never been there,

- Sitting on the couch WAY past my bed time and my dad telling me "pay attention, you're watching the greatest player in the world. You'll never see anyone like Larry Bird again." (he was right, so far...)

- Thinking that Kevin McHale's clothesline foul of Kurt Rambis was one of the single coolest things that was ever done in sports,

- Wondering why Michael Cooper wore his socks so high,

- Practicing McHale's up and under baseline move (if Kevin Garnett practiced it half as much as my friends and I then this championship series would be over by now.)

- Chanting "Beat LA, Beat LA, Beat LA" over and over and over, and not getting tired,

- And lastly, being scared to death every time Magic Johnson touched the ball because even though we had Larry, they had Magic. And we all knew that Magic was the only person who could beat Larry. Sometimes he did, sometimes he didn't. Regardless, you shivered everytime he touched it.

Yes, these are the greatest things about sports - the emotions and the memories. I can only hope that in 7 years there will be some greatness in Boston sports that Brady will get to bask in and grow up with. I hope that I'll have the opportunity to tell him to pay attention because he's watching one of the greatest ever (and he's on our team!). Yes, sports is a wonderful thing.

So, today, all Bosonians get a pass from work to have a singular focus on Game 6 of the NBA championship. The night we've been waiting painfully for since 1986. Tonight, hopefully we will all get to celebrate a 17th Celtics championship (even better, at the expense of LA!)

BEAT LA, BEAT LA, BEAT LA.......