Official Basketball Thread

Celtics pride?

Many of us have seen the American celebs Leo DiCaprio and Ben Affleck cheer on their favored NBA teams --- the LA Lakers and the Boston Celtics (respectively). It's great when high-profile celebs join in on the media fun of rooting for hyped professional sports teams. This year's NBA season saw a darling-performance by the Isaiah Thomas-led Boston Celtics who stormed to a #1 ranking by the end of the season and even beat the two Goliaths (the LeBron-led Cavs and the Curry-led Warriors) during the regular season!

I'm a huge Celtics fan, and while it looks like Thomas is out for the playoffs (with a hip-injury), the Celtics staved off the Cavs in Game 3 to avoid a 0-3 deficit and now prepare for Game 4 (in Cleveland) behind just 2-1. Will Ben Affleck trek down to Cleveland to see if his Celts can tie up the series? It seems media-coverage of sports is simply more fun when there's more crowd-conversation. The Celtics would love a way to complete their darling season by pulling off great victories over the Cavs and Warriors (who many people are tired of --- talking over and over about huge salaries and endorsements).


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DICAPRIO: The Celtics won in 2008 with Paul Pierce, Kevin Garnett, and Ray Allen...
AFFLECK: Yes, but they deserve to wrestle out a win this year, after their incredible Thomas-led season.
DICAPRIO: I agree that Thomas led great talents such as Horford to Celtics glory during the regular season!
AFFLECK: Yes, and they still have what it takes to take the Cavs to Game 7 and pull out a series win (even without Thomas).
DICAPRIO: Oh, like how they pulled out a nice one in Game 3?
AFFLECK: Exactly.
DICAPRIO: I preferred the Celtics in the Larry Bird era when they rivalled my Magic Johnson-led LA Lakers...
AFFLECK: Everyone loves that Lakers-Celtics rivalry, but things are different now, and Kobe is gone!
DICAPRIO: Do you think a Celtics (without Thomas) team deserves to win, despite all the hype surrounding LeBron/Curry/Durant?
AFFLECK: Yes, I do. I do, because people are bored with the Cavs-Warriors rivalry (we've seen it the last two NBA Finals).
DICAPRIO: Yeah, but now the Warriors have the awesome Kevin Durant.
AFFLECK: I disagree. It's still the Curry-show, so they should be grateful Thomas may be out with a hip-injury...
DICAPRIO: If the Cavs-Warriors showdown repeats for the Finals (which everyone is predicting), the tie will be broken.
AFFLECK: That's true (the Warriors won in 2015, and the Cavs in 2016), but the Celtics ought to add some 'needed spice' this year!

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That Magic Feeling!



I really enjoyed watching the 2000 NBA Finals (Lakers-Pacers), because I followed the Pacers that season who were very entertaining.

I was a supporting fan of the Reggie Miller-Jalen Rose tandem on the Indiana Pacers which produced a great deal of solid basketball before the odious reign of Shaq began.

Miller was the truly hateful assassin, while Rose was the centered choreographer, and it made for a very entertaining Pacers team (and nifty basketball).

It wasn't until the Thomas-Celtics from the 2016-2017 NBA season (IMO) that I started feeling good again about teamwork-basketball, which was absent since the days of Charles Barkley, Patrick Ewing, and John Stockton.

Alas, my beloved Celtics are out of the playoffs now, but I remain hopeful for positive developments in the future of their storied franchise...



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