You are comparing the Celtics to some of the past teams, like the old Rockets that featured old and ready to retire players like Barkley and Clyde (actually Clyde probably could have played longer, but Chuck was fatter and slower then ever at that point in his career). Then the Lakers had Karl Malone, who was injured in the finals and would have helped tremendously, and Payton, who has been a problem on most of the teams he has been on. KG, Allen, and Pierce are all much younger then most of the examples you used, if they don't finish in the top three or four spots in the east then it will be a huge disappointment. The east is so weak that even if 1 or 2 of these guys misses some games they should still be at the top of the conferance. The east is horrible, therefore Boston will be one of the elite teams in the east. It is a good article though, very intersting.

makes the Celtics relevant again in Boston for the first time in five years (hell, maybe 20 if you talk to a diehard). I think a lot of the excitement lies in "hey, I can't wait to watch the Celtics this year." I totally get your point about them not being a complete championship contender yet. But you can't argue that they should win a lot more games than last year, and a lot of teams won't have an answer for the Big Three. Beantown shouldn't calm down, at least right now, because it's ok for them to get excited about hoops again.

Anyway, good article. There's always a columnist out there to attempt to piss on the parade, which is fine, because it's well-written.

I didn't realize somebody else wrote about this. My bad.