This past Tuesday the Boston Celtics finally got done playing Ronald Reagan to the Los Angeles Lakers Walter Mondale. For the week and a half that the series lasted the Celtics did everything right. They played tougher defense, they competed with a higher level of intensity, they executed their offense better, they hit the big shots, and their fans provided an atmosphere in which losing was probably impossible. The series has already been dissected too many times and every angle has probably been covered. Nevertheless, as a long suffering Celtics fan, I feel obliged to share the moments I will remember from these NBA finals and at least try to explain what made this team so special and why this championship is by far the most satisfying of the several that Boston teams have won recently.

1. Paul Pierce’s First Three After Getting Hurt in Game 1
Boston was buzzing with anticipation for game 1. A wild playoff ride was now guaranteed to culminate with a dramatic finals series against the hated Lakers. Three quarters into the first game the wheels started to fall off the wagon. Kobe was being Kobe, Ray Allen still appeared to be 2 parts expiring contract and 1 part washed up all star, the Lakers had a small lead and looked poised to steal game 1. Then Pierce went down and it was all over. The Celtics were going to be robbed of the moment they had worked for all year long.
Anyone who has watched Paul Pierce for these last ten years knew he would have to be killed to be kept off that court. He was coming back. The question was would he be effective at all, or would he just be a liability jeopardizing the rest of his career by playing with a serious injury? When he put up that first three pointer all the air went out of the arena. The entire series hung in the balance. When it rattled home off the back rim the place exploded. Pierce’s reaction was priceless, he turned back towards the celtics basket and calmly nodded his head as if to say “C’mon, after ten years of pain you thought I was gonna miss this? We’re gonna be just fine” The next trip down the floor he hit another three for good measure. Celtics go on to win game 1. Paul Pierce guarantees his number will be retired. Great moment.

2. Ray Allen Clinches Game 4 By Torching Sasha Vujacic
If you watch the NBA, and you aren’t a Lakers fan, you hate Sasha Vujacic. He is a pesky in your face defender who flops and whines. His hair is obnoxious. He celebrates by taunting opposing players. He is Ivan Drago without the steroids. With the clock winding down and the Lakers trailing by two in desperate need of a stop Sasha found himself one on one with Ray Allen. Allen had had a brutal playoffs but had found his stroke again in Game 2 of the Finals and had been playing at the top of his game. Ray Allen is the exact opposite of Vujacic. For the roughly 150 years that he has been in the league he has been nothing but a class act. He works hard on defense, never flops, hits big shots, and plays the game the right way.
It seemed fitting that the biggest moment of the most important game of the series came down to these two guys, one on one. Allen took the shot clock all the way down before blowing past Sasha for a game clinching layup. Vujacic didn’t even move his feet. He took a lazy swipe at the ball from behind then watched and yelled as Allen went up to finish the play. He spent the next tv time out pouting on the the bench. As Allen walked past him back up the floor to the celtics bench he didn’t even look at him. No trash talking, just a well earned fist pump and a satisfied grin. Good Guys 3, Bad Guys 1, Vujacic Exposed. I hope that moment haunts his nightmares for the rest of his career.

3. Boston Crowd Chants “You’re Not Jordan” to Kobe in Game 6
Kobe Bryant is a very good player. He’s also a dirtbag. He had the whole cheating on his wife thing a couple years back. He whined all off-season about how he wanted to be traded. He has never won anything without Shaq and for some reason commentators still insisted on comparing him to Michael Jordan who was (gulp) the greatest player of all time (apologies to Russell and Bird, I just damned myself to Celtics purgatory for at least a century after I die). Nevertheless, despite the wild comparisons and the promises of a Lakers romp by many experts, the Celtics had finished off the Lakers with the 4th quarter still to come in game 6. As Kobe found himself at the free throw line with the Lakers trailing by approximately a million points the Boston crowd reminded Kobe why Jordan was the greatest, he never lost in the finals, and he always came up big when his team needed him the most. As chants of “You’re Not Jordan” rolled down from the balconies and eventually spread across the whole stadium, Kobe could do nothing but shoot one more meaningless free throw in a game he had failed to take over. Then he had to watch the Celtics celebrate their seventeenth championship. The dream season slowly came to the perfect ending. The league’s best team triumphed over the league’s best player, and order was restored to the basketball universe.