The culmination: 1 Takeaway from the pursuit of a CHAMPIONSHIP season

The culmination: 1 Takeaway from the pursuit of a CHAMPIONSHIP season

The Boston Celtics are NBA Champions.

I repeat. The Boston Celtics are NBA Champions!

A 16-year wait is over.

I debated sticking to the usual 10 Takeaways format. While many of you enjoy the analysis, today isn’t the right moment. We have the rest of this week to peel layers off of Monday’s mauling of the Dallas Mavericks.

Today should be a celebration. I want in on that. I want to feel the joy of being connected to a championship team from over 5000 miles away.

If you can remember the 2008 title, chances are you know exactly where you were. You remember what you were wearing, who you were with, what you were drinking and the scenes that followed the final buzzer. It’s etched into your brain. Diehard, fan or casual viewer — it doesn’t matter. Championships unite a fanbase. They create moments in history that live on within us for our entire lives.

They become stories we pass down through generations.

I remember where I was in 2008. I had not long moved in with my girlfriend, who’s now my wife and the mother of our daughter. The house was on a street called “Adams Hill,” which I always find amusing.

I was 20 years old. We didn’t have much money. However, the one luxury I always paid for was NBA League Pass. I stayed up that night. I wore a Rajon Rondo jersey, long Air Jordan shorts, and a New Era cap. I was drinking whisky. Jack Daniels, to be exact.

We didn’t have a television — we were young and had just moved. Instead, I had a computer monitor set up in the lounge. I sat there at 3 am. In the dark. On my own. Cheering on a team that I had grown to love since discovering them in 1994. I didn’t sleep that night. I’m guessing neither did many of you.

Monday night was different, though. I’m not 20 years old anymore. I have responsibilities in the mornings. I have to drive my wife to work and my daughter to school. I won’t risk their safety by watching a game live. Not on a work night. Not even when history is being made. So, I tried to stick to my schedule. 5 am wake up. Load the game. Watch and pull clips.

I couldn’t. I had to know. The next 4 hours were my version of celebrating the win. Waking up my wife and daughter. Rambling on about how the Celtics were champions. Pulling out my favorite team-branded clothing. Speaking endlessly about what this meant. They pretended to care.

I love them for that.

You see, we, as Celtics fans have all been on this rollercoaster with the Celtics together.

Many of us can vividly remember the trade. We sat through the Gerald Wallace and Khris Humphries Celtics. We can recall Jaylen Brown being drafted. We shook our heads when Danny Ainge traded out of the 1st overall pick in 2017.

We loved (or hated) Marcus Smart. We chose sides with players like Grant Williams, Semi Ojeleye or my favorite, Romeo Langford. We had our hopes dashed. We dared to dream. We fell in love with “the little guy.”

Through it all, there was a constant wave of media narratives.

‘This Celtics team aren’t winners.’

‘Tatum and Brown can’t win together.’

‘They’re not tough enough.’

‘Not gritty enough.’

‘Mazzulla-ball won’t win championships.’

The noise was deafening, and it was endless.

We sat through the Kyrie Irving saga, saw Tristan Thompson’s ‘the regular season doesn’t matter’ attitude poison the team, Gordon Hayward’s ill-feted debut, and Kemba Walker’s knee crumble.

There were so many false starts that it’s hard to keep track. So many difficult twists and turns. And through it all, the Celtics kept working behind the scenes. They kept improving.

A common concept in life is that personal development and growth aren’t linear. We all hit plateaus. We all take steps back before smashing through the proverbial glass ceiling. Every last one of us has experienced that stagnation before taking the next step forward in one way or another. Yet, Brown’s development on a basketball court shunned the usual path. He drastically improved, year-on-year.

Tatum found ways to add entire skill sets to his game. Al Horford adapted his game to become a legitimate perimeter threat. Derrick White is a catch-and-shoot nightmare after joining Boston with a questionable jumper. Brad Stevens left the sidelines behind for a seat in the front office — and he has been incredible. The list goes on.

Growth.

That’s what this championship represents. It represents hard work, desire, an indomitable will and consistent improvement in the face of adversity and self-doubt. It represents a fanbase that has turned up through thick and thin. A TD Garden that was just as loud when cheering on Brandon Bass as it was throughout this season.

I know I’m not from Boston. I know my view on the team isn’t the same because of that. I didn’t grow up in the City of Champions. I didn’t have sports radio shoved down my throat. I don’t get to experience the buzz around the city or feel the frustration in the air after a loss. I’m removed from all of that. Sometimes, that works in my favor. Sometimes, it’s to my detriment.

Honestly, not being in Boston — or the States — bothers me sometimes. It makes me question my work, especially due to the lack of access. But I do this because I love this team. I love basketball. Boston is part of me because of all of this.

I, like millions of others around the globe, ride that same rollercoaster. Because that’s what this Celtics team has been. From the moment the rebuild started until the final buzzer last night. Every step. Every stumble. Every trade. It was all twists, turns, loop-the-loops and one long, slow climb to the summit. Now, the rollercoaster has stopped at the top. The breaks are on. How long the Celtics can stay there is up to them.

That’s a question for another day. I want no part in looking past this very moment. A moment where all Celtics fans can finally agree on one thing: This feeling has been a long time coming.

The Celtics are champions. Their names are firmly set in the history books; nobody can ever take that away from them. Legends were born last night. I can’t wait to see how the next few chapters play out.

Enjoy today! Enjoy this week! Enjoy this summer! 16 years is a long time to wait, but it sure does feel sweet now that it’s here!

As an aside, I just wanted to thank everyone who has been reading these takeaways after every game. I was honored when Keith Smith asked me to take over from him last year. He had put these takeaways on the map. They were some big shoes to fill.

I tried my best to make the takeaway’s mine. To put my own spin on them. That meant more film analysis. More play breakdowns. Some of you liked it, some of you didn’t. I hope I found a happy medium by the end.

What I didn’t realize at the time was how much of a grind these articles were. Coming up with 10 different aspects from every game while getting 2 watches in and trying to post early enough that they still mattered was a lot of work.

Shoutouts to Oliver Fox and Bobby Manning for pitching in at times; they both helped me out when life got in the way or the pressure was building. It’s been a pleasure writing these for you this season, even if we haven’t always agreed. I hope everyone has an amazing summer!