Follow the Kelly Green Road

Considering Rondo's importance to the team, I have to commend this board for not panicking about his loss. It's a natural inclination, and I must admit that my initial thought when hearing about it was, "There goes the season." But I recovered almost instantly and started the "Positive Slant to Rondo's Injury" thread.

So now that we've gotten over the initial shock, we need to be realistic about the ongoing adventure. In a sense, the Celtics have just had a 43-game training season, and the regular season has started off with two very promising games. We need not to get down if they encounter some slips along the way, as they're confronted with the daunting but doable task of recovering and adapting on the fly.

This is the time when the team's veteran experience will become extremely important. This is the time when—despite the pundits' attempts to dampen our spirits with their predictions of mediocrity or worse—this team can reinforce what I've known for seven decades: Great team chemistry, implemented by highly skilled role players who are placed in a position to succeed by excelling in their respective specialties, can trump the presence of superstars on opposing teams.

And the keys to tying it all together are motivation and persistence. The motivation is already becoming obvious as the entire team now assumes ownership of their fate. As for persistence, if I weren't such a traditionalist, I'd be wishing the Celtics would erect an 18-foot-high green neon sign at the top of TD Garden, saying "REFUSE TO LOSE."

As for my old friend "continuity," I've always applied the theory of discontinuity to only the first game after a player is lost or returns. By the second game, it's the job of all the remaining players to band together as professionals, make the proper adaptations, and approach the ongoing path with tunnel vision intensity

As far as I'm concerned, the stadiums of the rest of the teams are now festooned with f'ing balloons in their rafters. I'm familiar with the exultation of underdogs after they've revealed such adornments as little more than bloated, defective condoms.

I have to say that I'm looking forward to April far more than at any time in this season.

Go Gang Green! Refuse to lose!

Sam