Post-Season Bliss - 2024 Edition

Bob


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For the city of Boston, this Celtics victory parade was a unifying event
By Gary Washburn Globe Staff,Updated June 21, 2024, 8:04 p.m.

https://www.bostonglobe.com/2024/06/21/sports/celtics-parade-championship/

There are so many narratives about the city of Boston, many based on past issues, previous controversies, and even some current problems. It’s a city that has been completely misunderstood on many occasions by those who have never spent more than a weeknight here.

My residence here has lasted 15 years, probably three times as long as I thought it would. But Boston has become home, and there is no better city in America in which to cover professional sports.

The passion is intoxicating. The desire to win is unmatched. And the rewards for winning a championship last a lifetime.

Friday was the Celtics’ victory parade for winning the 18th championship in franchise history and first in 16 years. While in most cities that gap doesn’t seem long, it was an eternity for the Bostonians who lined the city’s historic streets to celebrate in a breathtaking scene of revelry.

And it’s beyond Joe Mazzulla stepping off a duck boat, slapping hands with fans, or Jayson Tatum blowing kisses, spraying champagne or throwing basketballs to his admirers.

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The most moving part was the diversity. It was on display in all the ages, faces, races, nationalities, and genders who flooded the parade route. Boston’s true diversity, its true face, showed up in earnest and showed the unifying power of sports.

I recall my days as a UC Berkeley student, and on the occasions when the Golden Bears won football games, the student body collaborated and celebrated. When there was a touchdown, everyone rose to their feet and sought any hand to slap, regardless of race or gender or belief. The students collectively supported their university.

And on a much larger scale, this city collectively supports its basketball team.

Perhaps what shaped those racial perceptions about Celtics fans were those grainy old videos from the Boston Garden in the 1980s, which showed hundreds of white fans pouring onto the floor after that 1984 title win over the Lakers. It wasn’t a diverse environment. The most diverse aspect about Boston revealed in those old tapes was the team itself.

Those stereotypes may have made it difficult for the Celtics to attract major free agents. But the acquisitions of Kevin Garnett and Ray Allen in 2007 may have changed that.

In the past two decades, Boston has become a comfortable, desirable place to play for veteran players, regardless of how Kyrie Irving tries to shape the Boston culture. The team’s fan base has always been more diverse than those CBS game tapes showed.

But the Celtics more than ever are the city’s team. Friday’s scene was spectacular, as the media truck rode ahead of the first duck boat featuring Mazzulla, his family, and the coaching staff. The usually subdued Mazzulla was a different man, constantly pumping his fists, waving a large Celtics banner, and returning screams to the thousands of fans as the boats headed down Boylston Street to the Prudential Center, the heart of the city.

The beauty was the diversity. The beauty was that the Celtics players got a real opportunity to see those fans who perhaps can’t afford to pay exorbitant ticket prices to attend games at TD Garden. They saw fans who came out in perhaps dated jerseys with the names of past players because it may have been the only Celtics swag they own.

It was an opportunity for the players, who are sometimes understandably shielded from the communities for which they represent, to see the faces of those who threw watch parties or caught a Finals game on old TV or even tuned into Grande and Max on the radio to follow their remarkable playoff run.

Watch: NBA champion Celtics cruise through town on duck boats

The parade began on Causeway Street with lots of confetti and Joe Mazzulla. (undefined, undefined)
It was truly a reminder of how much these athletes are adored as role models and a reminder of the impact they have on people. Those fans just wanted acknowledgement, a blown kiss from Tatum, a hand slap from Mazzulla, a heart-shaped hand gesture from Jaylen Brown, an “LFG!” chant from Kristaps Porzingis.

Friday’s parade may be as close as some regular people will ever get to their heroes. And these may be memories that last a lifetime, for both sides. Victory parades don’t come often.

Days like these have to be cherished. All of Boston showed up and showed love for their team and each other. The common bond was green. That’s the only color that mattered.

The parade was overwhelming. The love and support were overflowing and the camaraderie and togetherness were overpowering. It was truly a victory parade, not only for the Celtics, but for those of us, regardless of race, color, political belief or culture, who make up this city of Boston.

https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/5582339/2024/06/22/joe-mazzulla-celtics-parade/?source=emp_shared_article



Joe Mazzulla takes to Boston’s streets as city embraces him for delivering Banner 18




BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS - JUNE 21: Boston Celtics head coach Joe Mazzulla during the Boston Celtics Victory Parade following their 2024 NBA Finals win at TD Garden on June 21, 2024 in Boston, Massachusetts. (Photo by Scott Eisen/Getty Images)


By Jared Weiss
6h ago



BOSTON — Joe Mazzulla needed to get closer.

Leading the Boston Celtics’ championship parade on the first duck boat Friday, he did everything he could to hype the crowd. Pointing, flexing, slamming the roof of the boat: He was amped in a way he rarely shows on the court.

But it wasn’t enough. So he jumped off the boat to take the streets by foot. Finally, a chance to connect with — or scream at — his people face to face.


Jared Weiss
@JaredWeissNBA
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Joe Mazzulla jumped out the window of his duck boat, ran through the streets hyping everyone up, then somehow jumped back into the duck boat even on a torn meniscus

https://x.com/i/status/1804204991579648227


This isn’t just a coach achieving his dream of winning an NBA title. This is a New England kid who manifested this moment through improbable circumstances. Mazzulla has gone from “Second Row Joe” to a Boston icon in the blink of an eye. The governor of Rhode Island announced Friday was “Joe Mazzulla Day” in his home state. The fans cheered every time Mazzulla pumped his fist at them at the parade.


A year ago, many of them wanted him gone. Forcing a Game 7 against the Miami Heat might be the main reason they didn’t get their wish. Mazzulla won the fans over not just by delivering a title but by being himself.

“You got to earn the right to show your personality as a coach,” Mazzulla told The Athletic in February. “You can’t just come out and just do whatever the hell you want.”

Now that the team was in lockstep, the community started to appreciate his plentiful quirks and unique perspective. The sarcasm that used to rub people the wrong way started to endear him to a fan base that embraces being brash and different.

“We finally got a coach that I feel like the city really stands behind in a different way. I think he’s perfect for the city,” said Dorchester rapper Cousin Stizz, who was at the parade.

Across Mazzulla’s chest was a black-and-white photo of Red Auerbach and Bill Russell celebrating a title of their own, a reminder of Mazzulla’s place in a long line of Celtics champions. After winning the NBA Finals, Mazzulla made sure to recognize all the Celtics who came before him. He wanted to show an appreciation for the footsteps he was walking in.

“I think the most important thing, something that’s really been going through my mind throughout this process, is you can’t lose sight of the people that came before us,” Mazzulla said. “And I want to make sure every person that’s worked for the Celtics, that’s played for the Celtics that didn’t win, knows that their work and what they have done has not gone unnoticed or it doesn’t play a part in where we are at today.”

After the Celtics returned from their post-finals Miami trip, Mazzulla took the Larry O’Brien trophy on a tour through the North End as fans screamed and chased after him. He visited his favorite restaurants, showing the trophy to the places in the community he calls home. Though he always deferred to his players when it came to taking credit for the team’s success, Mazzulla looked at home walking the streets of Boston with his prize in tow.


When his duck boat started to make the first turn off Causeway Street, there was a brief pause. He took that as an opportunity to likely break several municipal codes and jump on top of the roof and scream. He even inspired his young son, Emmanuel, to check out the view from up there, to the crowd’s delight.

Jared Weiss
@JaredWeissNBA
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Joe Mazzulla’s son was having the time of his life on top of the duck boat

https://x.com/i/status/1804203409760714807


Watching Mazzulla captain the parade was a special moment for Celtics fan Jack Bienvenue. You might remember him as the “Tattoo Kid” who had Banner 18 etched onto his arm before the 2022 playoffs.

“Everyone’s rooting for me, but the general public, it took them a lot longer to come around because haters gonna hate,” he said before the Golden State Warriors beat the Celtics in the 2022 finals.

That experience helped him appreciate Mazzulla’s unique rise as Celtics coach.

“I will run through a brick wall for that guy. Screw anyone who says they wouldn’t,” Bienvenue said at the parade. “He’s the exact kind of coach Boston needs. He may be a little different, but he’s Boston different.”

Mazzulla’s proclivities make him stand out from coaches of the past. Auerbach had his cigars. Doc Rivers loved his golf. Mazzulla regularly reveals something new that confounds the public.

“My favorite thing was him (on a podcast) saying that he doesn’t go through revolving doors because you’re a sitting duck,” Stizz said. “I’ve stopped going through revolving doors because of that.”

Boston has gotten to know him well enough to understand how his distinct worldview helped build a champion. He’s different, but that’s the team’s slogan this season: Different here.

That’s why, when Bienvenue’s tattoo finally came true, he didn’t want to just clean it up. Just like Mazzulla, these past few years have been an important part of his story. So he crossed out the “2” with red ink, to resemble a teacher marking a test, and drew a “4” with an asterisk.


Jack Bienvenue shows off his updated tattoo at the Celtics parade. (Jared Weiss / The Athletic)


“I was never considering lasering off the two and just putting a four,” Bienvenue said. “That would just be pointless at that point and destroy the whole story of everything.”

Some coaches like to become the distraction to take the focus off their players. When Mazzulla took the job under difficult circumstances, he insisted he was there to support the players as they tried to find a new identity under a new coach. But as Mazzulla started to show more and more of himself this season, his team got better and better. It wasn’t because the players needed him to take the heat off them but because his team and city now appreciate his authenticity.


Mazzulla didn’t feel like he could show his true self during his debut season because nobody would understand it. But he’s the real Joe, and the parade cemented why he was the right guy for the job all along.

“There’s a certain mentality and mindset it takes to win here,” Bienvenue said. “Joe encapsulates that better than anyone.”


Bob



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A championship in the time of talking heads


https://www.celticsblog.com/2024/6/24/24183465/boston-celtics-championship-in-the-time-of-talking-heads-jaylen-brown-jayson-tatum-espn-fox

It was inevitable.

By Bill Sy@deliberatepix Jun 24, 2024, 8:00am EDT 24 Comments / 24 New

Moments after Game 5’s buzzer, Jason Tatum seemed speechless. The euphoria of winning a championship had overcome his body. He told ESPN’s Lisa Salters how surreal it felt, then muttered three simple words, “we did it,” and when he couldn't think of anything else, he yelled them again. “WE DID IT!”

Jaylen Brown was tongue-tied, too. Both times that he won Conference Finals MVP and Finals MVP, Brown was at a loss for words in the biggest moment of his young career.

But when the confetti finally settled, they both struck a similar tone. Banner 18 felt like a vindication for them. It wasn’t necessarily a culmination of all their hard work or the trials of failed playoffs failure and now, tribulation of winning a Larry O’Brien. Winning a ring was a referendum on all the criticism and doubt they had received along the way. They unabashedly wanted to silence their critics.

It's athlete-speak to say that you don't check social media during the regular season or watch TV in the playoffs, but it's obvious that these two Gen-Zers had been reading their clippings.

A common refrain in the locker room celebration and postgame pressers was “what they gonna say now?!” They weren’t referring to the Heat, Cavaliers, Pacers, and Mavericks who they collectively lost just three games to en route to a championship. No, those comments were directed to the national and occasionally local media.



Jordan Brand already had a commercial queued up for Tatum’s triumph with the tagline “don’t stop disbelieving.” On Friday, Brown wore a t-shirt that repeated a May 26th tweet, imploring ESPN’s Stephen A. Smith to “state your source” who said that Brown wasn’t liked.



During the season, it even went so far as closing the door on Boston’s open-door policy of inviting alumni to the Auerbach Center on Kendrick Perkins, the starting center of the ‘08 championship squad turned hot take maker at ESPN. NBC Sports Boston’s Brian Scalabrine, a former teammate of Perkins, said that he wears a “scarlet letter” with the franchise after continuously trying to break the Jays up and calling Joe Mazzulla a “birdbrain.”

In the end, major media outlets eventually credited the Celtics for their dominant run in the postseason. Of course, some hedged and had qualifiers. “The East was in shambles,” they said. "They didn't play Denver,” some whispered. Others moved the goal posts of greatness and questioned if they were truly great and could repeat.

Maybe it's my bias working in this field, but this felt like the most critiqued run in this modern era of talking heads. Considering the numbers in front of them — frankly, the facts — the Celtics dominance isn’t even debatable.

Maybe this is just the state of play. The line between commentary and criticism has been blurred and smudged out by naysayers and Monday morning quarterbacks. Sports journalism has been more about predicting what’s going to happen and finding fault in failure rather than the actual game.

This isn't meant to be a criticism of the media. It's more nostalgia really. Growing up with Sports Illustrated and Jackie Mac and SportsCenter with Dan Patrick and Keith Olbermann, sports were celebrated. Sure, every game had a loser, but they weren't picked apart and overanalyzed. There was a grace we gave the game and at its best, sports taught us about the human condition and didn't highlight the ugliest of human nature. We didn’t make baseless assumptions on a person’s character or worse, pass judgement on who they were and even worse, who they could be.

In an interview with ESPN’s Ramona Shelburne, Tatum told her:

“We were always good and talented. The game needed to slow down. We got to the conference finals two out of our first three years, and it just seemed like we were all so much older than we actually are. Everybody was like, ‘Oh, they didn’t win it. They can’t play together. They should trade him.’ And I was always like, ‘I just turned 26 and he’s 27.’ Nobody wanted to give us no time.”

They’re teammates sensed that media-laden weight, too. Jrue Holiday said at the conclusion of the Finals, “they get scrutinized so much. And they get so much pressure put on them for not winning... It’s been great to experience on this side. Hopefully, it’s a burden off their shoulders. But another burden is doing it again.”




For this Celtics team, thankfully, the often harsh and unfair microscope that they’ve been under was shattered on June 17th. Finally, the roar of over a million fans filling the streets of Boston drowned out all the noise. Joy wasn’t dampened by the context of opposing teams’ injuries and the myriad of possibilities when it comes to conferences and matchups. Faith and loyalty were rewarded even though the haters and doubters had bigger microphones.

Sean Grande, the radio voice of the Celtics, put it best.

“Individually, they weren’t perfect for the last eight months. But collectively, they were. The result is one of the most immaculate seasons of all time. It’s no longer what could be or what might be. Now, it just is. The 2024 Boston Celtics are one of the greatest teams in NBA history. They were told they had to win. There’s only one thing you can do when expectations are that high: meet them. There’s only one way to stop being haunted by the ghosts and the legends and the champions atop this building: join them. Together they have and together they stand alone on top of the mountain for now. Once again, the Boston Celtics stand alone for all-time. It is Banner 18. The mission demanded is mission accomplished.”

Celtics star Jaylen Brown has already lost his NBA championship ring, and is offering fans a reward for their help as he scrambles to get the hardware back. Brown was named Finals MVP after he led the Celtics over the Mavericks in a series-clinching Game 5 win on Monday. But the forward has apparently lost his ring just days later during the team’s championship parade on Friday, as he shared with fans the following night. 2 days ago – via Daily Mail


Bob
MY NOTE:  It is NOT his Championship ring, they haven't been given that yet.  It's his personal ring.  It's pretty unique, I'm not sure how you would sell it.  No fence would touch it, certainly not in Boston.  They'd be torn apart like lions on a wildebeest if they tried to sell Jaylen's ring.





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Must Cs: Celtics throw out first pitch at Fenway Park

https://www.celticsblog.com/celtics-videos/2024/6/24/24185303/boston-celtics-visit-fenway-park-red-sox-throw-out-first-pitch-jayson-tatum-jaylen-brown

Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown emerged from the dugout together.

By Trevor Hass@TrevorHass  Jun 24, 2024, 8:21pm EDT  1 Comment / 1 New

Stay



A week after winning the Finals, the party is still going for the Celtics.

The latest stop was Fenway Park, where they took the field to a standing ovation and threw out the ceremonial first pitch prior to Monday’s Red Sox-Blue Jays game.

First, the Red Sox played a tribute video on the Jumbotron, honoring both the history and current success of the Celtics.



Then came the ceremony, starting with ownership, head coach Joe Mazzulla and the assistant coaches. Next was the players, as they each drew a hearty round of applause from the Fenway faithful.

Oshae Brissett was in the house. Luke Kornet rocked a Portland Sea Dogs hat. Sam Hauser was still buzzing.



Jrue Holiday and Payton Pritchard couldn’t make it, but the vast majority of the core was there.

Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown were announced in unison and emerged from the dugout simultaneously – Tatum still hoisting the trophy he’s clutched for dear life every night in the past week.



Mazzulla, Kristaps Porzingis, Derrick White, Brown, Tatum and Al Horford threw out first pitches. None were atrocious, but none were exactly fastballs down the middle, either.

White, who threw arguably the best pitch, joined announcers Dave O’Brien, Kevin Youkilis and Kevin Millar on the Green Monster in the second inning. He raved about the Boston fans and the parade, noting that he’s excited to keep it rolling.

O’Brien asked if he’s “all good” with his teeth now, to which White replied with a grin: “For now.”

https://nesn.com/2024/06/watch-celtics-continue-nba-title-celebration-at-fenway-park/