Have you ever met any sports fans with strong takes on college lacrosse? Probably not. Now, that’s not to say there aren’t any, but most people who consider themselves sports fans are likely neutral on that topic. Compare that to Boston sports where most sports fans are either a passionate fan of the city’s teams or are filled with hatred against them. Before writing this piece, I texted a bunch of my friends who are not Boston sports fans asking why they hate Boston sports so much. Everyone said it was because the teams win too much (12 titles in the first two decades of the 21st century) and because the fan base is annoying/obnoxious. Ouch…. However, I’m here to tell you that even if you hate Boston sports, you should at least be rooting for the Boston Celtics to make the NBA Finals.
- Holding the Miami Heat Accountable
We’re in this era now of star players leaving their teams to join forces with other stars to form superteams in order to win multiple championships. This really started with the Miami Heat in 2010 when LeBron took his talents to South Beach. There’s been tons of criticism thrown at players for this because it’s looked at as “taking the easy way out” or whatever. It’s such a dumb criticism because it tries to downplay the legitimacy of championships won by these teams. Those who say that act like a superteam winning a title is equal to cheating on the SATs as if championships aren’t hard to win and aren’t typically won by teams with multiple good players. However all that said, the superteam era isn’t fun when you’re a fan of a team that isn’t the newly formed superteam. It’s not fun to watch a sport where you already know who will win the title before the season starts. There’s no enjoyment in knowing your team has zero chance at the ultimate prize. Given all that, we should hold this against the Heat for starting this whole thing and root against them!!!
Kevin Durant leaving the Thunder to join the Golden State Warriors after blowing a 3-1 lead to them in 2016 was one of the best things that ever happened for the Miami Heat. Comparing that move to LeBron teaming up with Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh in Miami is like comparing the shark in The Meg to the shark in Jaws. When people now think of impactful superteam formations, the Warriors are likely the first team to come to mind even though Miami really kicked this whole era off. Durant’s Players’ Tribune piece and the jokes about joining a 73-9 team after blowing a 3-1 lead against them have replaced The Decision and that “not 2, not 3, not 4….” obnoxious pep rally or whatever it was. I remember when the Heat were the most hated team in the league and had a plethora of annoying bandwagon fans. After LeBron won his first title in Miami and eventually left, the hatred towards Miami by other fans wasn’t as strong. It’s like they’ve gotten off clean from being the first to start the superteam era. Sure, there are no real superteams right now, but it’s likely only a matter of time before one forms again. When that happens, the Miami Heat can be blamed for it, so let’s not root for them in the playoffs because of this.
- Gordon Hayward’s Comeback Story
I’ve never felt bad for someone who makes $30 million a year more than I do for Gordon Hayward. He suffered an all-time horrible ankle injury in the first quarter of his first game as a Celtic. He was a shell of himself in his second season in Boston after he came back from the injury. Then this season he was really starting to resemble the All-Star he was in Utah until he fractured his hand in November. When he came back, he didn’t have the same impact. His bad luck with injuries continued in the bubble where he suffered another ankle injury in Boston’s first 2020 playoff game that kept him out until game three of the Eastern Conference Finals.
There’s no way you have a heart if you don’t want this story to have a happy ending. Hayward has played well since returning, and the Celtics are going to need him if they want to come back from this 3-1 deficit on the count of their roster is thinner than a stick figure. In order to finally win that championship with Brad Stevens which they came so close to doing in college, he didn’t even leave the bubble for the birth of his fourth child like originally planned. How can you not respect and root for someone with THAT level of commitment to his team? Just imagine the amount of crap he may catch for years to come for not being present for the birth. It’s all to win the title. Hayward should be rooted for.
- Fun Young Core
The Celtics are known for their young core of Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown. The young people are the future of this game. They are the ones who a new generation of basketball fans and players can look up to for inspiration. They are the ones whose influence will impact how the sport of basketball will be played for years to come. By the way, these aren’t actually my points for why you should root for the Celtics due to their young core. I just wanted to see how many boring sports clichés I could type about young players because why not.
In all seriousness, it’s entertaining to have the young team that’s ahead of schedule playing in the Finals. As a viewer, you start to think of things like “can they actually win it all this early” and “oh my God…this team might dominate the league for a while”. It was fun watching LeBron make the Finals with Cleveland in 2007 just as it was fun to see that young Oklahoma City team make the Finals in 2012. Sure, both those tenures didn’t have the best endings after those Finals appearances with LeBron leaving for Miami in 2010 (yes he came back and won it with Cleveland but I’m considering that a separate tenure) and OKC not winning a single championship even though they had three future MVPs on their roster. But in the moment, it sure was cool as a basketball fan wondering what the future held for all those young guys. If you hate Boston sports, maybe you should root for the Celtics to make the 2020 Finals considering the past history of things not working out in the long term for the young team who makes the Finals early.
- Jimmy Butler is Annoying
Seriously, when and how did everyone’s opinion change on Jimmy Butler? Is making one Conference Finals all it takes nowadays. He went from being considered difficult to determined after a whopping one season. Has everyone forgotten the infamous Minnesota practice? Has everyone forgotten the perfectly convenient ESPN interview after the practice? Has everyone forgotten his underwhelming season in Philly? Has everyone forgotten that he was never considered a superstar? Look he’s had a couple good rounds and he deserves his credit. But it just feels like all the people who bashed him and called him things like selfish last season are now treating him like this superstar media darling. I’ve heard so many comments like “Jimmy is just a tough basketball player” or “Jimmy is an elite closer” or even the wilder “Wow Jimmy’s entrepreneurial drive to start a coffee empire in the bubble is so remarkable. We should’ve known he had this type of playoff run in him” LIKE WHAT?!?!?! (okay I slightly exaggerated that last one).
This is the new thing I guess now in basketball. Someone can be a star who had underperformances in the playoffs, but the moment they have just ONE good postseason run we all of a sudden have to backtrack all of our previous comments and start celebrating them like how we do every time Pat Mahomes throws one of his crazy no-look passes (those are rightfully celebrated). Look at Kyle Lowry for instance because it happened with him. And if Paul George can ever get it together in the playoffs, it’ll probably happen with him too. Jimmy’s been good in the bubble, but that doesn’t remove his annoying 2018-2019 season. Because of that, I just fail to see why anyone wants him to keep winning.
- The Best Rivalry in Basketball (and maybe all of sports)
There are some sports fans that root for upsets no matter what and there are others that root for the intriguing matchups. Personally, I’ve always found it much more enjoyable to see teams with past histories go up against each other than watching some of these teams get bounced out by upsets before they could meet. For example, I’d much rather watch Duke vs North Carolina in the NCAA tournament as opposed to seeing Duke get bounced early from Mercer. This basically happened in this year’s NBA playoffs where EVERYONE (minus Nuggets fans) wanted to see a Lakers – Clippers Western Conference Finals which was ruined when the Nuggets came back from a 3-1 deficit against the Clippers. With the logic of rooting for the most interesting matchups, you should be rooting for the Celtics in the 2020 playoffs at least until the NBA Finals so we can watch basketball’s best rivalry: Celtics – Lakers.
Unless you’re a Denver or Miami fan, this is the Finals you should want from an entertainment and narrative perspective. The other potential Finals matchups don’t have that many interesting storylines going for them. Lakers – Heat would be interesting if there were actual players on the Heat from LeBron’s four years in South Beach outside of Udonis Haslem who I feel like his Wikipedia page is showing an error where it says he’s still on the roster. It’s not like we’ll be seeing LeBron vs Wade or anything. I know Spoelstra and Riley are still there from LeBron’s Miami tenure, but given they don’t actually play on the basketball court, there’s nothing to really get too excited about there. Any Finals matchup with the Nuggets would be so lackluster considering most would have wanted them to lose last round. Let’s stop dancing around it. We need Celtics – Lakers. The history of these storied franchises always makes this a compelling matchup like Red Sox – Yankees or Alabama – Auburn. On top of that we have LeBron’s history against the Celtics from before he joined the Lakers which makes this potential matchup even more captivating.
I think there are some fans of both the Celtics and Lakers who don’t want this matchup and are rooting for the other team to lose in the Conference Finals. These are the fans that ruin sports. How could you not want to play your biggest rival on the biggest stage? Sports is about freaking competition and beating your rivals. I hate this mindset of “I don’t care who we play”. Forget that! Let’s play the best. Let’s play our rivals. And the best rivalry is Celtics – Lakers. Root for that!!!