Polite Society

Remember how juiced I was when the 1986 championship DVDs first arrived? I think I watched game 1 three times. And then the 2008 Boston Celtics went on the road against Atlanta, and my stress level never receded enough for me to resume watching the '86 DVDs...until now.

I've only made it through quarter 1 of game 2. It's a tight game. But what I'm struck by is how calm everyone is in the stands. It's almost as if they've come to expect to see a) the best basketball ever played on the planet; and b) a blowout by 30 points. Instead, what they are watching through the first 12 minutes is a back-and-forth contest between two teams playing unremarkable basketball.

And I don't think those in attendance quite know what to do.

Compared to what we all just experienced at home over the last two months, one could almost mistake the 1986 Garden crowd for polite Elizabethan society studying a Shakespearean drama.

Odd.