Loyalty.

           

           1-0 CELTICS!

     *****

     Several Lakers live here in the South Bay, and a new French restaurant is a block or two away from me.

     Pau Gasol and Sasha Vujacic were there the other day, and when I left Hennessey's, I guess I just missed them as I walked by. 

     I like Pau Gasol's game; I just hate the uniform that he wears.

     But I'm sorry that I missed them, because I would have snapped my "Celtic Pride" wristband at 'em, smiled, and told 'em to have a Lakers towel ready to dry their soon-to-be weeping eyes.

     Then I might have asked Pau if he had Kobe's thong in his back pocket, just for luck.

     Pau's 7' feet tall.

     I'm not.

     So?

     Finals humor.

     *****

     I have worn my "Celtic Pride" wristband since the beginning of the season, and won't take it off until the end.

     I'll leave it on long enough to see the championship trophy presentation, as Paul Pierce and KG hug Bill Russell and smoke Red's old cigars.

     *****

     Bruce "I'll Knock You Out" Bean and TBLMISBT had fabulous X's & O's on the blog yesterday. 

     Thanks, Coaches. Somebody asked me for my insights into the series the other day, and I showed them my Celtics wristband.

     That's my idea of strategy.

     The Celtics/Lakers match-up isn't the best rivalry in sports; that was, is, and probably always will be the Yankees/Red Sox.

     That one covered almost all of the 20th Century, continues today, and has been conducted for nearly the entire time in the enduring Twin Cathedrals of Yankee Stadium and Fenway Park, as America's Pastime.

    The NBA has never been that.   

    But this rivalry is next. 

    Ask my neighbors: I'm as loud in June as I am in October. 

    *****

    As a Celtics fan in a Lakers town, I used to be accused of being a "front-runner". Of course--given the C's recent history--that was before this much of my scalp showed.

    Same thing I've heard about being a Yankee fan.

    When I first loved the Celtics, though, they weren't the champions. Jo Jo White was there, but there were no rings. It was post-1969, and pre-Bird.     

    (A huge highlight was shaking Bill Russell's hand in Plattsburgh, NY in 1976 when the men's U.S. Olympic basketball team trained there before the Montreal Olympics. I had read where he didn't like signing autographs, but that he appreciated a handshake. I remember my hand in his; I would have lost a signed piece of paper long ago.)

    When I originally became a Yankee fan, Horace Clarke and Gene Michael defined them; again, not a "front-runner's" first choice. Pre-Reggie, pre-Thurman Munson.

    I was first a major Montreal Expo fan.  

    52-110 in their inaugural season.

    Stick with your team.

    (And forever mourn the Expos, sold out by the same greedy bastard who regularly screws Florida Marlins fans with his utter disregard for a franchise's community responsibilities, as he did when he systematically emptied Montreal's Olympic Stadium, trying for years to slink out of that lovely town before he was thrown out.) 

     ***** 

    You pick your teams when you're young, and if you are really a fan, you still love 'em when you're old. 

     *****   

    "Yankee Tradition". "Celtic Pride".

    Loyalty.

     *****

    See ya Sunday, Kobe.    

    Pau will be carrying your thong. Sasha's gotcher jock.

    (They're loyal that way.)