HBO and max have put together a docuseries, Celtics City, beginning with the Boston Celtics’ pre-dynasty years in the early 1950s to (at the point of the seventh episode) the current millennium.
It’s a good watch, and once episode three kicks in and episode 4 launches from there, Larry “Legend” Bird is a significant focus in the docuseries.
The Celtics, who made a run from the 1979-80 seasons through the 1986-87 season appearing in five championship series (winning two in 1981, 1986) returned to the NBA power forefront at a perfect time for me in my teenage years following the NBA.
During this same time period, my favorite team, the Cleveland Cavaliers – who lost to Boston in 4-2 in a best of seven series, were on a freefall, and in 1980 the franchise was sold to a megalomaniac local businessman (Ted Stepien) who ruined the franchise so severely, the NBA had to offer adult supervision to the squad.
The Celtics were an immense help alleviating the pain. This gave Cleveland area basketball fans something to watch after the Gund brothers bought the team in 1984, and the NBA augmented their depletion of first round picks (courtesy of Stepien’s incompetence) to rebuild with the likes of 80s/early 90s stars like sharp-shooting Mark Price, future NASCAR commentator Brad Daugherty at center, and Ron Harper (who eventually earned some rings in Chi-town).
In the meantime, the Celtic-Laker rivalry was back in full swing with the two historically iconic teams now featuring the 1979 NCAA finalists from Indiana State, and Michigan State: Larry Bird, and Earvin “Magic” Johnson, respectively.
It was a great battle to watch among the years I spent in high school, college, and during my early years in the U.S. Air Force while my Cavaliers re-emerged from the depths of Stepien, a man whom I could not berate enough while he doubled down on his stupidity turning my favorite into the NBA’s worst franchise in the 1981-82 season.
This was a perfect time to watch the Celtics and Lakers take turns earning championship rings (the Lakers earned titles in 1980, 1982, 1985, 1987, and 1988 with ’85 and ’87 being head-to-head against Boston).
I liked both teams, and the years Boston made it to the title game without facing the L.A. Lakers (1981, 1986) I rooted for them. When they faced the Lakers, on the other hand, gimme Showtime every time.
I always wanted Boston to emerge as the Eastern Conference champs in the 1980s, and it pained me to see the Detroit Pistons move them aside (violently at that) in 1988 because I wanted to see L.A. earn the first back-to-back titles since Boston’s 1968 and 1969 crowns at the hands of Boston.
I loved watching Bird, but I liked the fact Magic Johnson had a ring for every finger and thumb on one hand while Bird only had two in the 1980s.
I liked Boston coaches Bill Fitch (Cleveland’s coach in their Miracle in Richfield days) but hated K.C. Jones because I hated the Cavaliers’ division rival at the time, the Washington Bullets, where Jones spent several years before his stint in Boston. I both loved and hated general manager Arnold “Red” Auerbach. I loved him for the savvy deals he made and hated him depending on what team he screwed over in the process.
The two teams’ home crowds couldn’t be more polar than what fans saw in the 1980s. In the Boston Garden, you cold see “everyday people” in excellent seats while in L.A. the first few rows were Hollywood star-studded. Each crowd, though, did not need a loud PA announcer, nor did each crowd need noise piped in.
The Celtic City docuseries reminded me how each team gave me a reason to keep watching the NBA while my Cleveland Cavaliers were being eviscerated by Stepien, a thin-skinned, incompetent owner as despicable in many ways as former L.A. Clippers owner Donald Sterling eventually became.
If you haven’t watched it, the series takes you through Russell’s contribution to the dynastic run throughout the 1960s, a brief rebirth of sorts in the 1970s, and the aforementioned Lakers-Celtics rivalry resulting in one or both teams reaching the finals each season from 1980 through 1989.
As I watched, in my mind I thanked the Celtics for drafting Larry Bird, and for reaching the finals five times so I could see their showdown with the team I always switched caps to root for when the two teams met, the Los Angeles Lakers.
The chances of Boston and L.A. (who recently improved their quality of play) are still rather slim with the Warriors, Rockets and Thunder in the Lakers’ way in the West. Nonetheless, I would actually not mind seeing Boston get past Cleveland if the Lakers had a chance at winning the Western Conference title.
In the meantime, I still appreciate the impressive consolation these two teams afforded me while Cleveland steadily returned to respectability.