It's Time Like These I Wish I Knew a Celtic Fan

Mr. Simmon's column does not disappoint. If, of course, you're in the market for diehard, “woe is me” Celtic whining about last night's draft. I'm not, really, outside of the schadenfreude factor, but it's to Mr. Simmon's credit as a writer that he can keep me enthralled even on such a topic.

However, really, at this point, it's wearing a little bit thin. I mean, it's been at least 15 years since the Celtics were credible. I barely remember it, myself, since the Bad Boy era was my particular formative point when it comes to basketball. It's tabula rasa before then. And the only reason I carry around such deep seated antipathy for the Celtics is not because I've personally seen them tearing up the league, but from absorbing the hatred and derision of other, older Piston fans who remember the Celtics in their prime. Mostly, I'm going to guess, the Bird era. But, man, that was like the 80s. When 89~90 is quickly become the distant past, that's the Stone Age. Maybe it's a Boston thing (Since, at least in recent years, for a Detroit fan, there's been no shortage of success. Except for the Lions of whom we will not speak again. Although even there you had those Barry Sanders, Herman Moore teams in the early 90s. It's just, unfortunately, those were also Scott Mitchell teams but they weren't just not a joke, they were close.) but exactly how long can you go on nostalgia?

Anyhow, as for the actual games being played, it seems Utah is in big trouble. I know I was bullish on them and, from what I've seen, so is virtually everyone else (I think San Antonio has used up any karma points they might have had, for one thing, and every neutral fan's set to despise them now by default.). It's always a bad sign when everyone's prefacing things with something along the lines of, “You know, Utah's not as bad as everyone thinks. In fact...” You can't be the pick everyone's sleeping on if everyone thinks your a sleeper pick! The series heads to Utah now and the Jazz were in a similar spot against the Rockets but, you know, I think my estimate of the series going six games was optimistic. And, again, the Pistons/Cavs series depends on if the Pistons actually show up for games. They didn't on Monday, we'll see what happens tomorrow night. They seem to be in cruise control mode now and that's when they get in trouble but it's more a matter of how many games it takes them to close this out and if they can avoid any big injuries before the Finals.

Speaking of Finals, I was thinking of the Ottawa/Annaheim NHL Final today. Because, well, I wanted a quick nap. My money, as it is, is on Ottawa if only because I'll root for the Canadian small market team over the American one. And the series promises to be a good one between two excellent teams. But I really can't work up any enthusiasm for it. And I'm not the only one. Generally speaking, I'm not of the mindset that the league is in huge trouble. It needs to get back to its core competency and maybe get rid of a few teams, sure, but what I think the best thing for them to do is to just put the best product on the ice. Chasing after big markets and media dollars is what got them in trouble in the 90s. So I'm not of the knee-jerk opinion that a series featuring two small markets – one Canadian, and one from a fair weather area with little in the way of hockey tradition – is automatically bad for business. But, thinking about it, I really would be much more excited if, say, the Finals featured the Rangers and my Wings. Not just because of the match-ups but because of the history, the pedigrees, the storylines involved (It's not a traditional rivalry but it's two original six teams. You've got Avery, who used to be a Wing. Shanahan, who used to be a Wing. Those long Cup droughts. And so on...). Hell, I remember the Wings/Flyers series and that was a blast compared to the ones against the 'Canes and the 'Caps. And it was largely because of the fans and media attention. So maybe there's something to the idea that the Finals are bad for the league after all and they should be tilting things, ever so slightly, in the favor of a handful of teams.