"We are motivated," Garnett said. "We don't circle one game on the calendar, we circle them all."
As Pierce went to the Celtics' bench during a late timeout, he drew his hand across his throat, indicating the result had been clinched."Not tonight," Pierce said of the gesture. "We're not losing tonight. The last time we were in this building we lost. This was an emotional game. When we play Atlanta here, the crowd comes out. This was a good win for us - they had been talking about this game for a while."
The 1980s Boston Celtics were almost as memorable for their emotional letdowns as they were for their achievements, with the 1985-86 squad providing the best examples: The opening game loss to New Jersey, the pummelling administered by Portland, and the Christmas Day Debacle all come to mind.
I intended to write this piece about KG, and how the 1980s Boston Celtics suffered letdowns not suffered by KG and company. The reason? KG and his hallmark intensity, I planned to answer. But now I'm not so sure. I think we need to throw Paul Pierce into the mix as well. While we're at it, let's add Ray Allen, too.
The window for greatness is small for the current Celtics, relative to that of their predecessors. The 1980s Celtics could afford take a few nights off now and again because they never felt a sense of urgency, they never felt that their window of opportunity was closing, and, when they did, they didn't have enough talent around them to do anything about it.
I think the new Big 3 have lost so many games over their collective careers that they want to make up for it by winning as much as possible as quickly as possible. Win now, win tomorrow, win tonight. Win, win, win.
Oh yeah, I forgot to mention one other guy who I'm pretty sure is preaching this mantra.
Doc Rivers.
A born leader, as Danny calls him.
2 comments:
it's also one of the first things i heard from them: we got everything an athlete should dream, except winning! we want to win, and want to win a lot.
i guess it actually was a plus they are kinda "old": they know time is passing...
Definitely.
I don't care if Al Jefferson becomes the best player in the league 5 years down the road.
These last two years have been worth it.
Two years of excellence versus five or more years of trying to reach excellence.
I'll take the two years of excellence any time!
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