Paul Pierce continues to hang in the rafters, speaking about his drive for banner 18 while contemplating his inability to bring a championship to Boston a season ago.
As ESPN haunts me with their popular NBA playoffs commercial, it also reinforces a point which is all but finalized.
The Celtics aren't coming close to a championship this season either.
They have one game remaining in the 2012-2013 season and if the first three games of their opening round playoff series against the Knicks are any indication of what to expect, someone find me a broom.
What's perhaps most disheartening to the common fan is the way the Celtics have lost. Dismal shooting, bleak effort, the inability to stop Raymond Felton from dictating the flow of the game, this is not Celtics basketball.
You know that saying a picture tells a thousand words? Thanks to Comcast Sports Net, one telling image of Kevin Garnett opened up a can of Boston sports fan worms for yours truly. With the Celtics facing an insurmountable lead, an emotionally and physically worn out Garnett slumped at the waist, beads of sweat dripping to the parquet with his eyes only able to focus on the ground.
Kevin Garnett is a defeated man.
The soul of Celtics basketball and the backbone to a once-vaunted defense simply has nothing left to offer. Believe me, the will is there. The chest-thumping, scowl inducing, verbally abrasive Kevin Garnett has risen to the emotional level required to succeed in the playoffs. You can tell Garnett wants to win so badly and believes he'll find a way to pull it off. He defines the heart of a competitor, of a champion.
But what can Garnett do when he searches within himself for answers that are no longer there? When the mind and the body no longer operate on the same page?
I suppose this is what we asked for after all.
A year ago the Celtics came within one win of an improbable NBA Finals run, perhaps delivering their gutsiest playoff performance in the "Big Three" era. Danny Ainge could have left it all in Miami, as Ray Allen rode off into the sunset and Garnett and Paul Pierce made their last challenge.
But he didn't, and now we are here. One loss away from irrelevancy, one less away from another long summer.
This isn't how it was supposed to end.
Not for a team like the Celtics. In an age of young superstars and high flying offense, the muddied, gritty style of the Boston Celtics offered a throwback to previous era's of basketball. There wasn't often glitz and glam and rarely did they rebound, but man did the Celtics fight. Under Doc Rivers the Celtics scratched on offense, clawed on defense, and backed down to nobody.
Maybe that's why this past week has been so disheartening as a fan. Playoff basketball in Boston didn't mean turnovers and fragile mental psyche's, it meant 48 minutes of battle. This isn't how I wanted Paul Pierce to go out, missing nine shots and turning the ball over five times. Since when did Kevin Garnett pull in 17 rebounds and lose by 14?
Sunday may mark the end of an era. Granted, this has become an annual fear, but this could be the last time Kevin Garnett and Paul Pierce take the floor together, the final time the skeleton of a roster once rich with toughness takes the floor in a maddening season of basketball.
And I don't think I'm ready for it all to end.
A year ago the Celtics came within one win of an improbable NBA Finals run, perhaps delivering their gutsiest playoff performance in the "Big Three" era. Danny Ainge could have left it all in Miami, as Ray Allen rode off into the sunset and Garnett and Paul Pierce made their last challenge.
But he didn't, and now we are here. One loss away from irrelevancy, one less away from another long summer.
This isn't how it was supposed to end.
Not for a team like the Celtics. In an age of young superstars and high flying offense, the muddied, gritty style of the Boston Celtics offered a throwback to previous era's of basketball. There wasn't often glitz and glam and rarely did they rebound, but man did the Celtics fight. Under Doc Rivers the Celtics scratched on offense, clawed on defense, and backed down to nobody.
Maybe that's why this past week has been so disheartening as a fan. Playoff basketball in Boston didn't mean turnovers and fragile mental psyche's, it meant 48 minutes of battle. This isn't how I wanted Paul Pierce to go out, missing nine shots and turning the ball over five times. Since when did Kevin Garnett pull in 17 rebounds and lose by 14?
Sunday may mark the end of an era. Granted, this has become an annual fear, but this could be the last time Kevin Garnett and Paul Pierce take the floor together, the final time the skeleton of a roster once rich with toughness takes the floor in a maddening season of basketball.
And I don't think I'm ready for it all to end.
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