The Celtics have become hated in the NBA.
Slowly but surely, the Celtics have become the most hated team in the NBA playoffs.
A few years ago, everyone was excited for what the Celtics would do with their 20 million draft picks, even if no one messed with the fans… (*some Celtics fan racism edit)*
And now this year even with 64 wins in the season, everyone was unimpressed.
I guess it’s because Jaylen Brown has 4 months to win 5 championships.
The Celtics have always been ahead of the timeline. In 2018, making the conference finals with a rookie Tatum, hurt Kyrie, a super young Jaylen Brown wasn’t supposed to happen. And back then, the feeling was one of excitement.
But that big promise still hasn’t been fulfilled. **And it’s turned into something else, as you’re about to see.**
And he forgets that he’s 6’ 8”. Ok this bit is actually frustrating, just finish, stop with this rip thru, broooo——
Maybe it’s the Kobe imitation and corniness.
So now in their 6th year, another conference finals, their 2nd finals, but it’s exhausting to be behind them because we’ve now associated disappointment with this core Celtics squad. Even after their best regular season by far, I say for them the same thing I say for Harden and Embiid, let’s wait till the playoffs**.** Yet, there’s something that’s clouding judgement.
Even on YouTube, for the past two years, Jxmyhighroller, based on the numbers in the regular season, picked the Celtics to win it all.
And this year, Jxmy said it, I can’t pick them again and decided to say that’s it’s not possible to predict with only numbers. To that, I agree, but the Celtics made him lose so much faith, that he just couldn’t stick with his entire mantra.
Remember the term voter fatigue, the phenomenon where media members who vote on the annual NBA awards eventually tire of voting for repeat candidates.
And through these past few years, we’ve heard that Tatum and Brown might not want to play with each other, they might leave in 2021, but here we are 3 years later, with both of them here for at least another year.
But the ahead of the process timeline has warped our perspective. **So instead I’d like to show you something to bring it back down to earth.**
Here’s a chart of the youngest Finals MVPs in history. Magic is the youngest at 20, Tim and Kawhi started early at 22, but when you get to 26, 27, you start seeing names like LeBron, Shaq, Jordan, and Bird, all of who would go on to win 3 or more titles after their first.
But does consistent success early on in a career and not winning a chip mean that we don’t appreciate that they are still on the timeline with the greats of the game?
For as much of a polarizing player Tatum is, he’s only 26. Jaylen Brown is only 27. That’s the same age of Giannis and Jokic winning their first. I’m not saying that these guys are on the same level, I’m saying that it can take time to learn to win at the biggest stage consistently, that technically we should be excited that these finals are gonna give us a new Finals MVP. But there’s another issue that gets people so angry about the Celtics.
People are tired of the Celtics squandering their championship window since that doesn’t come as often, but also frustrated by this year’s sequence of events.
Maybe it’s that the Celtics don’t deserve to win like this. And I’ll agree with the fact that the Celtics had some insane luck, that it’s a luxury when your supposed best offensive player Jayson Tatum can put up 21.8 points per game on under 42% and still easily win a series.
Simply because the have so much draft capital that they tricked the Nets out of, that everyone has been waiting for that blockbuster move. But they got Jrue Holiday, an NBA champion, they got Porzingis, a consistent 20 and 7 a night.
So now if they outplay the Mavericks, they will have gotten over the hump, they will have sealed the deal. And then you have to respect them. You can hate how inconsistent they are, but they would have proved that they can win.
