The Bill Simmons Podcast - The Celtics Win Banner 18 With Bill’s Dad

Episode Date: June 18, 2024

The Ringer's Bill Simmons is joined by his Dad after watching the Celtics win their 18th NBA title from TD Garden. They relive some key moments from Game 5, give Joe Mazzulla his flowers, litigate the Finals MVP, rank this title in Boston sports history, wonder what's next for the Celtics, and more. Host: Bill Simmons Guest: Bill's Dad Producer: Kyle Crichton Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Coming up, the Celtics have won their 18th title. I'm here with my dad next. This episode is brought to you by Prime Video. You know me, I can't go a day without sports. I really can't. And now Monday nights are all about hockey. That's right. There's a new exclusive home

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We're also brought to you by the Ringer Podcast Network, where we have a bunch of basketball pods. You can listen to all of them. Please do, because the Boston Celtics have won the NBA title. I have a new rewatch of us coming tomorrow night. That's why we did the Longest Yard. You like the Longest Yard? We do.

We've watched it on a bunch of things. I like the original one. Yeah, that's what we're doing. 1974 Longest Yard. That's coming Tuesday night, because we had to do a special Monday night podcast, because the original one. Yeah, that's what we're doing. 1974 longest year. That's coming Tuesday night because we had to do a special Monday night podcast because the Boston Celtics won

their 18th NBA championship. My dad is here. It's all next. First, our friends from Pearl Jam. All right, I'm here with my dad. It was 11.44 Eastern time. What happened today? You know, I'm still nervous. Did we actually win that game?

The game's over, right? The game's over, right? It's over. We didn't give up game? The game's over, right? The game's over, right? It's over. We didn't give up that 18, 20-point lead, right? 16 years ago, same day, June 17th, 2008. We were there. We were there. And the Celtics, you knew within probably the midway mark of the second quarter,

it was like they're definitely winning. And then the Lakers, you could see the Celts were up by like 40. The whole second half was a party. Never a doubt we're going to win. This time around, we're up 21 with three minutes left. And you and I are like, we got to stop Luka this time out. He might hit seven threes. Even when we were up by 21 at halftime,

I had still had trouble getting Friday night's game out of my head. I know. And what an anomaly that whole game turns out to be. We were terrific tonight. And I thought Tatum played the game of the year. Yeah, that was the most proud I've been of Tatum after a basketball game, including the 50-point Philly game,

including game six, Milwaukee. This was such a great... We're going to talk about him later. I mean, the big thing, Pritchard hits that three, heading into halftime. He comes in with four seconds left. I think Luka's shooting free throws. I think it was like

three and a half seconds. And it was going to be 64-46 at halftime. Pritchard comes in. He hasn't played the whole first half. He comes in. Everyone in the crowd, everyone who's ever watched the Celtics team this season knows what's going to happen. They're running some sort of Pritchard play. Dallas knows it.

The Celtics know it. And Pritchard makes the half court shot. And that was Bird steals the ball loud. And that was the first time I really was like, I think we're going to win. I think it might've been louder than Bird steals the ball because this is game seven of the finals. No, it wasn't. That wasn't the finals against Detroit, that series.

Nothing was louder than that. We thought the balcony was going to collapse. I thought this was pretty loud. This was pretty loud. It was definitely the loudest. You've been in more games than me in this building. That was the loudest I've ever heard in this building. Let's say it's the loudest since Bird stole the ball and fed Dennis Johnson.

What would have been a louder moment in the new building? So the last 20 years? Nothing. I can't think of anything. Nothing. Because like you said, the 2008 game six was not a close game. So there was never that opportunity for the crowd to roar. That was a roar in that crowd. Yeah. Cause people knew he was going to take a crazy shot. He pulled up even 12 feet further away than I was expecting. Nails it. And the whole Celtic bench ran to him like it was a game winner. It was halftime.

It wasn't even off the backboard. That was swish. 18 titles for the Boston Celtics that we miscounted. You've been a season ticket holder for 51 years for so long that we thought it was your 10th final. This was actually your 11th.

My 11th final. 7th title. 7 and 4. I think that's a pretty good record. And that was, we were in the house when they won in 84 and in 86 and in 08 and this one. 4. This was a team that we were with for a long time with Tatum and Brown.

And I think the difference between this and 08 where we had Pierce that whole time, but really that was it. Everybody else kind of showed up there. They just hired guns. This time, the Tatum-Brown, you've been watching those guys since they were 19. Although, again, Porzingis, White,

Drew Holiday, they did come on board from elsewhere. And Big Al, who was here for a while, left, came back. So he's kind of the third longest. You know, everybody looked so happy on the stage. Nobody looked happier than Al Horford. Yeah, I mean, the best part, because we've been fortunate enough to have been to a couple of these,

the best part is when the starters start coming out one after the other. Which is, if you win a title and it's a close game, you don't have that. In this one, it was like, okay, Dallas waved the white flag under three minutes left. So he took Horford out, and Horford just walked over the scorer's table, and he just looked at the whole section, had his hands up. And that guy's never won a title before, so that was great. Tatum and Brown came out together. And then Drew and Derek came out together. It was a nice way to do it. Porzingis had come out earlier. I guess maybe the second happiest person, everybody was happy, but Porzingis turning when they're on the stage,

turning to the crowd, waving to people in the crowd. Guy was so happy. I don't know if there's ever been a home Celtic player like him that engaged with the crowd. Right. Almost like watching when you're at like a fifth grade play and one of the kids is like waving to his parents in the stands. In his mind, he must be saying, last year I was in Washington. Right. Now I'm here. I don't feel like he's probably ever really truly been appreciated on a good team because even when he was on the Knicks, those teams were bad. He was in here. I don't feel like he's probably ever really, truly been appreciated on a good team.

Because even when he was on the Knicks, those teams were bad. He was in Dallas. Fans love him. Yeah, he came out before the game. And, you know, the team's out, they're shooting and shoot around. And then Porzingis,

because he's doing whatever, his treadmill thing or whatever he does. He has two doctors out there trying to decide if it's okay for him to play. Right. So he came in late and he walks in, the crowd goes nuts. Right. And then he just turns and he walks in, the crowd goes nuts. Right.

And then he just turns and he's just like waving. He's like this, say, hey guys, I'm here. Kid in the candy store. And, you know, statistically, it wasn't a great game, but he made a difference. He made a difference in second half. There was a stretch in the first half.

He was a little rusty. Yeah, he came in and Josh Green hit two threes and somebody else hit a three and he gave up a layup and doused. He's like, we're attacking this guy because you could tell he couldn't totally move and he little rusty. Yeah, he came in and Josh Green hit two threes and somebody else hit a three and he gave up a layup and Dallas was just like, we're attacking this guy because you could tell he couldn't totally move and he was rusty. Yeah, he couldn't move laterally the same way, but second half he seemed to loosen up

and I thought he played a lot, but he had a couple blocks right at the rim. It definitely was a difference than game four where you had those Tillman minutes. Tillman didn't play tonight because it was just a bad match. I mean, some of the stuff that was sitting there in game three, game four, like how impactful Lively was, wasn't impactful tonight. Well, we kept looking up at the stats. The whole night, the Celts were significantly out-rebounding Dallas.

And when you think about the Friday night game where we got killed on the boards, this was totally different. 51-35 rebounds, 15 offensive. The guards were getting... Holiday had four offensive rebounds. Derek White had four offensive rebounds. Derek White had his block. That was my favorite bet of the day.

Celtics to win with a white block was like even odds on Fandle. So they fixed a lot of the stuff, the issues they're having in game four. And then the other thing is I thought in the first half they really were like,

we're not, we're not letting Luka have 25 points in the first half. They were picking him up full court. Jalen, and we'll talk about

the finals MVP later, but one of the great things he did in this game, he didn't shoot well, but he was full court with Luka, really trying to make him work a little bit. So they had to go to the side guys. Green hit a couple of threes,

but it just wasn't the same. And Kyrie sucked. It was another stinker for him in Boston. A stinker and a couple of hero attempt three-pointers that didn't go in. He was five for 16. Green hit those three three-point shots. They made a difference a little bit, but I just thought Porzingis was a little bit out

of sync in the first half in terms of where he should be defensively, and they kind of cleaned it up in the second half. Yeah, it's interesting. He played 60 minutes, five points, one rebound. They didn't credit him with a block, but he's plus eight. I guess maybe he didn't touch the ball, but he changed the... He had that big dunk off the brown pass for the

alley-oop when it started to feel like in the second half, but I thought when you think he came in and they immediately went on like an eight-nothing run, but then it was plus eight for the game. He was a little impactful. Let's talk the Tatum game. Tatum was 45 minutes tonight, 31, 11 assists. I don't even remember him coming out of the game.

So he did come out for three minutes. I think he came out in the first half. 31, 11 assists, eight rebounds. He had nine assists in the first half. And two big boy drives in the fourth quarter. When Dallas, Luca was doing

the Michael Myers thing. He just, he'd chop his head off basically to get rid of him. He's pretty scary. I'm going to have nightmares of him all summer. Yeah, he's really scary.

He wins by, I mean, just eternal respect. It's like two years ago with Giannis in the Milwaukee series when we beat Milwaukee and we were like, we're going to use we this whole podcast.

He just got no help. I mean, Kyrie was not- On the road, nothing. Yeah. I mean, they made some threes, had a couple of corner threes, like we said, but it was all Luca. And I thought Brown did a tremendous job on him

despite the fact that Luca scored. I mean, he made him work. By about five minutes left in the fourth quarter, Luca could barely get up and down the court. He was gone. Yeah, I thought both sides seemed really tired in the fourth quarter. That thing, and we've been to a few of these big games

over the years, the energy of games like that and the games just feel longer than they actually are. And you keep looking up. That was one of those games. It reminded me of a game seven Oh four Yankees, red Sox. When it was like,

we're up nine to two, we need nine outs. And then you're just looking at it. It's like, now we need eight outs. And it just felt like it was going on for seven hours. And here I'm watching the clock. Yeah.

I remember looking up and it's not moving fast enough. I looked up at one point and it felt like the Mavs were starting to get ideas. And there was like four minutes left in the third quarter. It's like, oh my God, I feel like we've been here for five hours. You know, it's so significant though, to have that 21 point lead at halftime. Yeah. I mean, I guess we shouldn't have been so nervous. It would have been awfully hard for Dallas to come back. But that's the thing about this team. Basically tonight, and we got to talk about Tatum because now I forgot to do it twice,

but this team all year felt like they were up 20, 75% of the season. And you're always like, I wonder if they're going to finish this. I wonder if the other team's going to go. It was just weird because I think when you're tied to threes and the offense would slow down sometimes. It was weird. The crowd was excited but nervous in the fourth quarter.

Yeah. Which I think was probably mostly Luca. I mean, you and I said before the game started, this crowd is nervous. You could just feel the nervous tension in the crowd to begin the game. Before the game, I mean, I got there almost an hour earlier. It wasn't the loud crowding as we had in games one and two. This was a nervous crowd. You didn't want to go with me to the game because you were like,

I'm going to show up before the game because I'm nervous. I don't want to be around anybody. And then you showed up with like 45 minutes before the game, just throwing popcorn down like a champ. Sitting in my seat. Yeah. Yeah. I wanted to watch some of the players warm up.

You know, and it's interesting. Pritchett probably tried that shot three or four times because he's the only guy left out there before the game. Yeah. And that's his shot. The crazy half-court shot. Yeah. It's funny.

So we had an 84 in person. That was just a bloodbath of a series. Right. And a really, really great, exciting game seven. But those teams were really even. 86, there was just no question we were beating Houston. Like the Samson punches each thing

in game five. It's like we're definitely 100% beating these guys. 08 felt the same way. Felt like we should have finished it in five in LA. Felt like we were better than the Smackdown. This game, because of how bad they looked in game four. Right.

There was a weird energy. There was like walking around. There's a lot of people like, what do you think tonight, Bill? Nobody was like, we're going to do it tonight, Bill. Yeah. When I came in, the guy said to me, you know, we're down by 48 points on Friday. What do you think? You know, that didn't help my nervousness. Well, and then I talked to a bunch of like people who weren't rooting for

either side, like NBA people, people working for different media and all of them were just like, you don't want to go back to Dallas on Thursday. And I'm like, I'm aware. I'm positive. I don't want to go back to Dallas. But it was one of those things, the things we were looking at were, I remember texting this to one of my Celtics threads, rebounding. Rebounding.

Can we take care of that? Rebounding for me was the key. Drew Holiday revenge game for how bad he was in game four. And in the first half, he did good stuff on Kyrie defensively and made a couple shots around the basket so that was a plus he missed

three little bunnies and he doesn't usually miss those but he made a couple in the first half the threes we were watching they were 12 for 23 at one point

and then they missed eight in a row yeah they missed eight in a row but the threes were good and then the big thing was Tatum he was like

an orchestra leader out there wasn't he it was all the best parts of Tatum and you know at the end of the first quarter he had to do the quarters winding down I'm going to take my step

back three and he missed it and then in the second quarter same thing he made it and then the Mavs came back down Luca had the free throws and then the Pritchard three so there was like a flurry of action but he actually made the step And then the Mavs came back down. Luka had the free throws. And then the Pritchard three. So there was like a flurry of action, but he actually made the step back at the end of the quarter.

I was like, oh, he's feeling it tonight. He did make it. And then, as you said, Bontrake had the free throws, but he missed the second one. And the second one bounced and got the rebound. And they weren't ready. And they weren't ready when Pritchard had the ball, bringing the ball up the court.

Yeah. They cut Pritchard's minute. Pritchard got cut out. Tillman was cut out. Porzingis played. They basically went seven. Hauser was big. Hauser had a couple of huge shots.

In the first half. And then in the second half, he missed like two threes that would have just basically ended the game. And they rolled around. Both threes rolled around the room. Yeah. But Dallas, I felt like Dallas was just searching. Kid was still, it's game five.

And he's like, Exum? Gafford? And he just, he was playing roulette with all his role players and he couldn't find five guys. No, he was hoping one of the role plays would get hot. It never happened. Yeah, because Hench texted me that, my friend Kevin Hench,

that the Mavs averaged 93.5 points in the four losses, which in the modern NBA is basically a catastrophe. And that's a high-scoring team. Yeah. So they took away the threes, they took away the role players, and they kind of held on for dear life. We took away Lively in this game, and Lively was terrific in a couple of the other games. Yeah, he was never good in a road game, though. It was interesting. It was the home games. Yeah, he was never good in a road game, though. It was interesting. It was the home games.

And that's the thing. It's why home court advantage matters sometimes, especially with young guys and role players. Especially the young players and the role players. Yeah. Let's take a break, and then let's talk about the MVP thing. This episode is brought to you by Movember.

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debilitating tremors, Sunnybrook was the only hospital in Canada who could provide Andy with something special. Three neurosurgeons, two scientists, one movement disorders coordinator, 58 answered questions, two focused ultrasound procedures, one specially developed helmet, thousands of high intensity focused ultrasound waves, zero incisions. And that very same day, two steady hands. From innovation to action, Sunnybrook is special. Learn more at sunnybrook.ca slash special. All right, so my dad, we talked about it after game one, that if Joe Mazzulla led the Celtics to an NBA championship, my dad was going to officially promote him from second row Joe to first row Joe.

I was, for the record, I was all in on first row Joe after game one. I thought he coached a really good game tonight. What was interesting is he extricated himself from a couple of bad decisions. Like they went small ball in the second quarter at one point and it just, or the third quarter and just, it just didn't work. They took Corford out. They didn't have Porzingis out. They played Tannum and then Gafford got two dunks.

Somebody else got to lay up at the rim and he just immediately got out of it. A couple other good timeouts too, which he just didn't do last year. But that example of small ball is a great example of maybe Missoula's growth because you're right. It was a bad move. Dallas immediately scored, I think, eight points. He called a timeout and we never saw a small ball again. No. You will never hear me say second row Joe again. Oh. He's, he, he. I thought he did a great job.

I thought he, he coached a great game tonight. I guess, you know, we're 16 and three in the playoffs. Right. We had a, a sweep and three, five game series. 80 and 21 for the season. It's going to go down as statistically one of the best teams ever. A little like the 2015 Warriors. I mentioned this the other day on the pod.

People didn't really know what to think the whole time. I'm not going to even call him first row Joe. He's coach Missoula now. This is really, I'm like welling up. Jesus. Didn't realize this was the end of Terps of Endearment. Yeah. Unbelievable.

We won a championship. He's just Coach Joe. He's Coach Mazzola. Coach Joe Mazzola or Coach Mazzola. The team, I got to say, and I spent a lot of time with Boston people when I was in Dallas. And I just heard the same thing over and over again.

The players love him. The players respect him. He's really earned the admiration of everybody around him. And I can't remember. Obviously, we're hard on coaches and managers because that's what we do. That's what we do. We just complain. They know way more than we do.

We don't care. We complain about them. But I can't remember. We've been, the first season I remember anything was like the 74 Bruins and Celtics and just all the way through. I can't remember a coach or manager that we felt like this guy just doesn't have it who then did a 180.

Can you? Certainly didn't happen to the Red Sox. No, I can't remember. I mean, Patriots. Heinsohn, I always felt knew what he was doing. Bill Fitch knew what he was doing, but he wore it as welcome. Casey Jones was great with the players. I'm not sure he was a great technician, but. Yeah, he kind of killed us in 87. Well, he really killed us in 88. He didn't play Reggie Lewis. I'll never get over that.

My deathbed would be like the 11 thing I think of. Why didn't he play Reggie Lewis. Yeah. I'll never get over that. Yeah. On my deathbed, it would be like the 11 thing I think of. Like, why didn't he play Reggie Lewis in the 88 playoffs? The first thing I'll think of on my deathbed is Magic's hook shot in 85. 87. Oh, 87. No, I'm sorry.

There's Bruins coaches. I can't think of another example of this, but, you know, we were kind of out on Joe, but not all the way out because he was put in such a bad position last year that that was the hope. It's like, you know what? Nobody was ever in a worse coaching spot with that, with a team built to win the title. Ema gets bounced right before the season. Um, the, we lost Will Hardy from the season before too, who was the number one. So now we're down the top two coaches.

He's got Damon Stoudemire leaves during the season. And it just felt like we would look at the assistants on the bench and we were like, who are these guys? Well, not only that, but they all had been hired by the previous coach. Right. It wasn't Missoula's staff. And the end of the season, last season, they all left for the most part to go to Houston. And Missoula and Brad Stevens got to hire new assistant coaches.

And they were terrific. And I thought they really helped Joe Missoula mature as a coach this year. You can't put that aside. But some of the stuff we complained about with him last year, he just stopped doing. The stubbornness about I'm never calling a timeout. The guys have to play their way out of it. And it was like, no other coach does this, Joe. You can't, you have to, and he

did. He called, even today, he called a couple momentum stoppers. But I would say that the assistant coaches and Brad Stevens helped him learn those nuances of the game. And then the other thing, he was just so committed to the threes. And it's not something we certainly, that I certainly grew up with.

And you've spanned all eras of hoops. But it just seemed like, can you really win just jacking threes? How many did we jack up there tonight? Because we also went inside a lot. Really did. 13 for 39 from three. So we were. 33%, yeah.

But we were 12 for 23. So they were one for the last 16. And that's what started to make us nervous. Yeah. When they missed eight in a row and stopped going inside, inside out or outside in. Yeah. I'm looking at the play sheet and it's just a lot of a lot of misses at the top of the key actually it feels like we missed like all the top of the well most of those might have been jalen brown did he make any threes yeah it wasn't finished seven for 23 eight rebounds six assist

five for six and he was two for nine from three for nine yeah so we both and I don't really care and what sucks about this is that once again that this is now a Tatum Brown conversation because this is what the national media will do coming out of the finals probably they'll wait a day and then

it's like who's the best part in this team? Is Jason Tatum going to like the fact that he didn't? Is this going to split the team up? I think those guys are super tight. I thought it was close. I thought Tatum's game tonight, combined with all the other stuff he did in the playoffs, like the first half he played

in game three, which he was exceptional. Didn't have a good second half. Brown had the better second half. All the stuff he was doing with Dallas's defense, they were geared toward Tatum specifically, I thought, for a lot of it. And I just thought he should have won. But I'm also fine with Jalen,

and I'm happy for that dude too. Well, after game four, when we talked, excuse me, after game two at home and then game three on the road, we talked and we both thought Jalen was heading toward the MVP. But tonight, after that horrendous game on Friday, for Tatum to lead the team like he did tonight and play the kind of game he played tonight. And again, it was like the person leading the orchestra all night long.

I might have leaned Tatum's way. You know what? Now that I'm looking at it, so Tatum was 12 for 38 in the first two games. And for the series, he averaged 22, 8, and 7. And then Jalen averaged 21, 5, and 5. That's pretty close. Could have gone either way. Could have gone either way. It was one of those where it's like, can we just have them split it? Yeah, can we just have a split vote?

I'm good with it as long as Tatum's good with it. You know? I haven't really wavered with this. Because this happened, I remember, in 07 with Tim Duncan. Where Tim Duncan was the winningest player in the league in the 2000s. And was the best part in the Spurs by far. And they sweep a terrible Cavs team. And Parker played really well.

And it's like, our finals MVP is Tony Parker. And it's like, this is why in my book, I did a whole playoffs MVP. Cause I was like, cool, you have the MVP for a series, but we should also have a post-season MVP. And I think Tatum was the post-season MVP, right? Or would you say Jalen? No, I'd say Tatum, but ironically or interestingly, Brown got both of the MVPs. Yeah, maybe you're right. I really hope this doesn't start shit.

Who votes on the MVP? I was mad. I blame Tim Frank, whose son listens to this podcast, and Tim Frank didn't give me a vote because he said I didn't cover enough games. Yeah, I didn't give me a vote. Cause he said I didn't cover enough games. Oh yeah. I didn't get it. Okay.

Sorry. So you might've made a difference. I think I would have voted for Tatum. Cause I thought he was so spectacular tonight that I feel like that, that would have swung it for me. Well, that that's what was my thinking that after that debacle on Friday for Tatum to play the kind of game he did tonight,

it was so meaningful. And I didn't think Brown had a good game tonight. I mean, he didn't shoot well. He didn't have a good offensive game. He did have a good defensive game. He played really, really hard. Yeah, I thought he did some good stuff on Luka. I mean, so it's 98-75.

And I'm still nervous, 98-75. Well, I was writing down notes, 98-75, 631 left. That was when Tatum had a three-point play and a two and was just kind of, nobody else could make a shot anymore and the offense got stagnant and he was kind of just carrying it. Well, did you know the first three minutes of the fourth quarter, we scored the only two points? Right.

Yeah, it was 86-67. Nobody could score. Yeah, forever. But then Tatum then had those two fantastic drives in a row to make it 102-78 with 439 left. But those were like, I just don't think he would have done that two years ago. I think he would have done step backs. Those were bully ball drives to the basket. He wasn't going to be stopped. And this is the thing with him. And I keep saying this. Russillo and I always argued on my part. I just feel like he's so not a finished product yet. Right.

I think he's going to be stronger. I think he's going to have a post game. Well, I think you win a championship. Now the narrative is they're world champions. They're going to come back differently, I think. They're going to come back. They'll work hard in the game, I hope, this summer. And they'll have so much more confidence

as a world champion. Well, can I say selfishly, it might be a good thing that Tatum didn't win the finals MVP? Because now it's like a little carrot. Yeah, now it's like,

okay, even though we won a title, I'm not the finals MVP. Bird didn't win in 1981 and it was an interesting one because Maxwell was really good in that series. Yeah, he was really good. But Bird was the best player on the team. Right.

I don't know. It's a weird one because if you're just voting for the series only, and you're kind of ignoring who the actual best player on the team is. I just hope it doesn't become an issue. And I hope- Oh, you know, the local Boston shows tomorrow, you know they're going to have a... That would be like the second segment they do.

Could this be it for Tatum and Brown? Those guys, I was watching... First of all, Tatum, I think if I had to rank the happiest guys coming up, I think he was out of the five starters. I thought he was going to start bawling. He was so happy. He was hugging everybody. He lifted

Mazzola off the ground. He was so happy. He was hugging everybody. He lifted Mazzola off the ground. Right. He was so happy. Yeah. And then just in general, like first, I mean, we got to go through some of the dudes. Derek White, who it seems like is looming now for Team USA, because I had heard that before. I had heard that before too.

If Kawhi doesn't play. He hit a couple of key three-point shots when Dallas was making those mini runs they make with Luka. Terrific season. Yeah, wait. We better extend that contract. Yeah, I don't think that's a

question. And then Drew Holiday now. Four more years. I think with the way the barrier for the Hall of Fame has dropped, like Michael Cooper made it, Drew's probably a Hall of Famer now. I think. Two titles for two different teams. He was the third best player on the Bucs. And also the way he changed his game to play for this team.

Yeah. I mean, his game with Milwaukee was completely different. I mean, he was a second option scoring. Yeah. And had the ball a lot. Had the ball a lot. This team, that wasn't the case. There was a selflessness with this team that I think was my favorite thing about it.

I didn't always love the style of what they played, but I really felt like I thought every single player sacrificed something, right? Tatum, I think Tatum, if he wanted, could be a 30 plus point a game score. If he was just jacking up shots, Carmelo late 2000s style. He did have that season over 30, didn't he? Yeah, or close, yeah. And I think Jalen could be in the high 20s.

Drew could certainly score more. Porzingis on a different team could have been like a 25 points a game guy. My favorite part about this team is we sit near the bench. Yeah. And watching the closeness of the teammates, the camaraderie, it's so apparent. You don't see it on the other teams. We certainly haven't seen it on certain Celteltics teams no oh no yeah there was when hauser came in he had his first three and brissette was standing next to missoula and brissette who i thought could have played more

in this whole playoffs and was probably the biggest perplexing thing for like we just like why don't that guy's energy and he rebounds he tries hard why does he play more but he was always locked in as a bench guy right and hauser was shooting that three and brissette was next to him you could probably watch them equip he's just jumping up and down like he's like a like a cheerleader uh the chemistry in this team was unbelievable unbelievable uh and what what's your phrase about when a team wins, how hard it is to keep that camaraderie the second time? The secret. Well, it's the disease of more.

Yeah, the disease of more. This team will not have the disease of more. No, I don't think so. Jason Tatum's going to get a $350 million extension probably tomorrow. And Porzingis has been paid. Drew has been paid. Derek White has been paid. Well, Derek White needs to get the extension

well but he's going to get paid they're giving it to him and then i will say this i that wick who you could see he had the cigar out yeah two minutes to go he's freaking character uh just eating it up he was so happy uh is i think his original production company was called banner 17 or his company or his LLC. Then it became, I don't know what it is now, but that was 16 years. It was a long time, man. When they won the 2008 title, my son was eight months old. And now he has a summer internship and he's driving.

We also thought in 2008 that we were going to win the next two titles. I mean, we had the same team. We just had some bad health issues. Well, weren't you thinking about that in this run where it's like, yeah, I don't know if Porzingis is going to ever be healthy for an entire season again. You know, Drew's in his mid

30s now. We had really good health luck this year, except for Porzingis. You know that could go sideways. Should we just save Porzingis for the playoffs? Is that possible? Could you pay somebody $30 million a year just to play 16 games? I mean, that's kind of what they did

in this playoffs. Yeah, but I mean, it wasn't planned that way. You know, we only lost four regular season games at home. Is that true? Yeah. That's my memory anyway. I don't think that's true.

Is that accurate? No. I like that you think that, though. No, let's see. Oh, yeah. 37-4 at home regular season. But then they lost to Miami. Well, I said regular season.

Oh, yeah. 37 and four. Um, and then in the playoffs we lost two, we lost two games. But only the one to Miami at home. So they went. We lost, um, game two against Cleveland at home too. Oh, that's right. Yeah.

So six losses. That's pretty good. Pretty good. When did you think this team could win the title? I always thought this team could win the title. Do you want me to go throw out my text? I don't remember texting anything like that. I thought the addition of Porzingis and Holiday just made this team so different in terms of the approach.

My concern was we're so three-point happy. I mean, that's always been my concern throughout the season, but I thought this was possibly a championship team. Mike, the other thing that I did bring up to you repeatedly was I don't know if we could beat Denver. And neither one of us wanted to go near Denver and we never had to go near Denver. So that was fortuitous. I'd like to thank the Minnesota Timberwolves for coming back from 20 in a game seven. Yeah. It was a little rock,

paper, scissors-y with Minnesota, Denver, and Dallas. Cause I think Denver would have been Dallas. And for whatever reason, Minnesota was able to beat Denver and ran out of gas. And I keep thinking big picture about who knows. We talked about the health stuff, but then you think about Milwaukee. They're going to be back. They're going to have the eye of the tiger. We'll see what Philly does, if they can get Paul George or whoever. Miami can always pull some crazy move

out of their ass. Who knows if Orlando is going to sign somebody. So these will definitely be better. And then the Knicks, whatever they do, they're going to be a problem. So we should have six teams plus whatever happens with Cleveland. And then in the West, you have Denver, Dallas. Does Dallas team now have a full year? And I'm sure they'll add somebody. Minnesota, OKC, which I'm sure is going to do something. Memphis is coming back. The league's loaded. But the good thing is only one team can come out of the West, fortunately. They knock each other off. A lot of outside of Boston people will say we lucked out. We played a Cleveland team where Mitchell got hurt. We played a Miami team where Butler didn't play. We played an Indiana team where the point guard... I don't remember anyone saying this

about the 2013 heat. I'm saying that it's... When they were beating the Pacers without Danny Granger and it was basically just Paul George or Roy Hibbert and David West. And there was no other competition really. I want to repeat one thing we talked about in the other podcast because Adam Silva said it today. To the team that's won the most

championships, 18, won more than the Lakers. Yeah, the Lakers cheat though. Can we throw away the Minnesota championships? They count like five Minnesota championships. You know what I heard? I think they're going to count the in-season championship too.

So I think the Laker fans think they're still tied. Cut this out as a social clip. You guys can't count the Minnesota titles. They don't count. You stole the team from Minnesota. You don't get to count the titles. And you can't count the Minnesota titles they don't count you stole the team from Minnesota you don't get to count the titles and you can't count the in season tournament as a world championship

every time I argue with the Laker fans about this because I know a bunch of them obviously live in LA and they're like well we're still called the Lakers and Elgin was on the Minnesota team and I'm like okay do OKC fans count the 1979 Sonics team it's like ah well we got that one title with the Sonics like no they don't yeah so so in my mind they can screw off in my mind

it's 18 to 12. I took a lot of shit from the Laker fans both in my life and people who listen and read about how we had only won one title since 1986. That was a big, big thing. 2008. Right. Yeah. But it was like last 38 years, one title. By the way, our drought's over. Our five and a half year Boston title drought.

I know you're starting to get hairy about it. Well, I'm already thinking about the parade on Wednesday when it's 100 degrees out. It's going to be an interesting day. Are you going to go? You got to go. It's going to go right down the street. Whether in the game or in life, the right coverage can make all the difference. Securian Canada gives you that coverage. For more than 65 years, Securian Canada has been helping Canadians build secure tomorrows. Their insurance solutions are designed to help protect you and your loved ones financially, giving you the peace of mind to focus on what truly matters. Find their products through banks, credit unions, and associations.

Or visit SecurianCanada.ca. Securian Canada. Insurance designed for life. Metrolinks and Crosslinks are reminding everyone to be careful as Eglinton Crosstown LRT train testing is in progress. Please be alert, as trains can pass at any time on the tracks. Remember to follow all traffic signals, be careful along our tracks, and only make left turns where it's safe to do so. Be alert, be aware, and stay safe.

Do you see it? It just stares at me, smiling. On October 18, discover what hides behind the smile smile 2 today's brilliantly boring segment is

brought to you by PNC Bank some things in life should be boring like banking because boring is pragmatic and responsible level headed and wise all things you want your bank to be. So this Celtics team, which I think people were bored by the fact

that they would just take these leads. People were always expecting like, well, I don't understand this team because who's like, how can you win if there's a, you don't have one of the best guys in the league and Tatum's not one of the best forward? I think there was something boring about them because basically their top six was way better

than anyone else's top six. And that could overcome the fact that they don't have like Luka on their team, which is kind of boring to talk about. Well, it's how we won 16 games in the playoffs. Right. It's a team. I mean, we didn't rely on one person. No, you could win. This team could, the Mavericks, they could not win a game if Luka or Kyrie sucked. In game three, Holiday had 26 points. Right. I mean, so I think he was a high scorer for the Celtics and the next game or tonight, I don't know what he had, but we had pretty balanced scoring tonight though. you can do all the unboring things you want to do with it. PNC Bank, brilliantly boring since 1865.

Learn more at pnc.com slash brilliantly boring. Brilliantly boring is a service mark of the PNC Financial Services Group, Inc., PNC Bank, National Association member, FDIC. Could you say brilliantly boring or no? Probably not. I probably don't want to do it right now. Bob Cousy, no chance in his prime. By the way, shout out to Bob Cousy. 95 years old, Bob Cousy. He was like, I just want to see one more title. I love the long statement he had a few days ago about one more title, please, at the age of 95. I feel the same way, by the way. Well, I was thinking about that. I mean, you're in good shape and good health, but we're getting at an advanced age. Yeah.

The last one happened when you were 60. Same day, by the way, June 17th. June 17th. 617 area code, which I thought made us invincible. And then one of my friends pointed out that we lost game seven in the 2010 finals on June 17th. Oh, really? Yeah.

So maybe at home in 617. Well, that was a road game though. Yeah. Well, that was a road game, though. Yeah. Yeah, that was a road game. So at home, we're invincible. All right, so rank the teams. Let's hear it. Favorite Celtics teams of all time.

Favorite champs. We have seven to pick from. 74, 76, 81, 84, 86, 08, and 24. Give us your top three. I don't want to have a number seven and then feel bad for you. I'd say 86 is my top.

The bird apex season. Tonight's 2024 is my second top. Really? Over 81? And 81 is my third top. Yeah. Wow. Yeah.

Because I just always hoped for one more championship yeah you know it's so hard to get there it's so hard to get through all the rounds you have to get through hoping that you're going to stay healthy um the western teams have been pretty tough this whole season so whichever team we played was going to be tough and injuries, the Porzingis injury kind of made us take a step back. You know, is this going to cost us a championship? And it's so hard to win. It's just so hard to win. And the other thing is, I'm so happy that Brown and Tatum have been elevated. Yeah. And, I mean, it's great that Horford won a championship, but for Brown and Tatum,

they had to get over the hump nationally. And I think nationally, they're looked at differently as of tonight. They're champions. Yeah, we've seen that happen a few times over. Like, definitely 100% happened to Giannis. Yeah. Happened to Kawhi.

You've seen it happen. Trying to think other ones. That first Warriors title. Happened to Joe Mazzola tonight. Happened to our guy, Joe. Yeah, I was thinking about, I was walking around. I was so nervous today. I walked around all of Boston.

I walked to Cambridge. I walked through Charlestown where I used to live. I literally, I think I walked 27,000 steps. So you were as nervous as I was? Yeah. Well, Luca, it was so easy for him to score in game four that I just couldn't stop thinking about it. I was like, Luca might have like 48 tonight

and just like suck our souls out. And the history of basketball is sometimes if you have one guy on the other team, it was just awesome. They could just, so I was just walking around and thinking about that. And I was thinking about all the things that happened since we won in 08, when we felt like,

ah, this team's got at least one more, right? Then 09, KG gets hurt. Right. 2010. Perkins gets hurt in game six. Perkins gets hurt in game six. And freaking Rashid Wallace, who we couldn't stand that year. And then he has to play 35 minutes.

We blow game seven. Artis hits it that crazy three. 2011, make the Jeff Green trade. Rondo hurts his elbow in that Miami series, so that one's out. 2012, we're up 3-2, and LeBron just sucks our souls out in game six. Then Bosh hits him three in game seven.

13, 14, 15, 16, 17, we weren't going to win those years. 18, really good chance. Kyrie and Hayward's first season. Hayward's out in six minutes. We take Cleveland to a game seven anyway, and LeBron was just unbelievable, beats us. 19, 20, in the bubble, eh, maybe, but that team didn't feel like.

Kemba was really bad in the bubble. maybe, but that team didn't feel like... No, that didn't... Kemba was really bad in the bubble. Our defense was bad. 21, bad year. 22, I remember walking home with you after game five Milwaukee and we felt like we lost a title. Right. Because we were like,

the league's wide open, we're going to get this. Then they come back and win that and then Golden State just gets their mojo and they, they take it from us. 23, we lose a game seven at home in Miami. It is weirdly like a lot of,

a lot of downers. It's weird. Well, we, you made me do the podcast after we lost to Golden State. That was a tough one. Yeah. That was almost a human rights violation.

I couldn't believe you pulled it off. It was tough. I mean, I really thought we were going to win that year. Because one thing about my dad is he's still 100% in. With that Hershey, my friend Hershey was telling a story about when we were in the 2013, I was doing the finals for TV. So we're in San Antonio. Oh, I was there.

And we watched the Bruins Blackhawks game in the hotel lobby. Right. And it went in a double OT, I think, and the Blackhawks scored. And really like that killed the Bruins season. And you just said, I'll see you guys later. And you just left. And Hershey looked at me. It was like, I just want to care about sports

that much when i'm when i'm older um and now 10 years later still there but i mean we when we left game seven last year that miami tatum gets hurt in eight seconds it was awful yeah and we were just like what's gonna happen to this team the chemistry was off with marcus and grant and right you gotta credit these the the moves they made. The trading Marcus was, and Marcus's name wasn't mentioned for the last two weeks, but remember they trade him. Everybody's like,

who's harming the whole of the team? You know, you just remind me of something. You know who we haven't talked about? Brad Stevens. We should have. I mean, the moves he's made after that horrendous seventh game loss to Miami last year.

And obviously he knew that team wasn't going to get over the hump the way it was constructed. Which is how we felt as well. And we felt as well. But not every general manager is going to make the moves he made. I mean, they were risky. It started with the Horford trade. Gets Horford back, who seems like he's on his last legs

just to get rid of the Kemba contract. Gives up a pick for that right the way trade I remember when we found out there was a pick swap and it was only top one protected and like five years later and we were like oh my god what if Tatum's not here for a guy we never heard yeah like Derek White but Jesus yeah and then uh the Porzingis trade which was just a great trade. I still can't believe we got picks on that. And then that led to the Drew trade, which was the all-time no-brainer. Of course we have to do that.

But yeah, he did a great job. Great job. And a bizarre, they hire him as a college coach. They're going to tank for a couple of years. And he's such a good coach that they kind of audible in his second season, remember? They traded for Isaiah Thomas. And I think they got the eight seed and we were supposed to be losing intentionally. And it

was like, he was too good of a coach and then ran his course like a lot of coaches did. Well, it kind of ran his course in a weird way that you mentioned it earlier. The Kyrie Irving stuff would kill any coach. Yeah. Would you feel, Kyrie genuinely seemed remorseful about how he behaved when he was here, and I didn't know. How about with two minutes to go, two and a half minutes to go,

when Dallas emptied the bench, brought the starters out, and Kyrie went to the Celtic bench and hugged every Celtic. Yeah, and then he realized that would be ridiculous. I mean, really? Yeah, there was like two and a half minutes left. We're up 20, but still nervous somehow. Yeah, still nervous. Coming out of a timeout and Kyrie just go

and he's hugging Joe Mazzullo and he's hugging Tatum. And we're like, what the hell is he doing? And then we realized white flag and you're like, we just won the championship. I'm not nervous anymore. See, Kyrie, you knew when you saw Kyrie that we would win a championship. When he started hugging people and kissing people I knew we won the championship. Trying to think what else we have to cover. But what happens now? Well, you know, almost the whole team comes back

yeah and we didn't talk about wick grossbeck who i've gotten to know over the years but i give him so much credit for spending the money he's spending to give us this championship team yep yeah because you go back to the 2000s and he made all the typical usual mistakes a new owner makes. And then eventually the 08 happens. But I think he's clearly one of the three best owners in the league. But all you can ask for from an owner is like,

do you give a shit about the team? Will you spend money? Is money no object to get where you need to go? Are you going to hire the best people around you? One of the things that I, because I hung out with Boston people a lot when I was in Dallas, this organization has been together.

It's really rare to have an organization of people that have just been there for a while. Like they have the president, the CMO, the CFO. Like you go on down the line, the head of sales, they're all the same people that were there in the 2000s. And they really value like loyalty, continuity, the people they hired, like they're all in on the team. And it's really hard to pull off. And he pulled it off. No, you're right. I remember in 2010, when I went out to LA for games six and seven and got a chance to meet all those people, they're still here. They're still here 14 years later.

Yeah, it's incredible. And I think just big picture, like you have guys like Tatum or Brown, like they really do value certain character guys and maybe they learned the hard way that that's a good thing to look for. But I think Brad, I think that's the way you go after white. That's why you have to drew. So I don't know. Character guys. Yeah. I think the guys and character coaches. Well,

I was saying to somebody who was talking about Drew is with a basketball friend of mine. I was just like, Drew is like exactly the Oh three Oh four Patriots. When we had that, when we won the two Super Bowls. And we had all those dudes like Vrabel and Bruschi and Rodney Harrison. And it was just like guys who just wanted to fucking win. And that was it.

And Drew's just like that. He didn't care less what his stats are. It's like, what do we need me to do tonight? Do I have to guard Luca? Do you need me to actually handle the basketball? He just doesn't care. He's going to do what it takes. And it's obvious his teammates really love him.

And he impresses them with his character. Yeah, he was kind of like the quiet leader of the team. And then White was just such a delay. What a rollercoaster ride with that guy. Remember in 2022, we were like, is this guy, can we play this guy in the playoffs? Can he score?

Can he shoot, can he make a basket? He went cold for two straight weeks. And we were talking about like the Derek White face. Yeah. Shaved his head.

It feels like that helped him. It must have helped. And he, as a family now, he's a family man. I don't know. He got so much confidence this year.

Yeah. He credited Missoula for all of it. He's like, Missoula's willed me to be a great guy. And I watched when White came out tonight, he went over and he and Missoula really, very affectionately hugged each other with respect. Yeah. So for popular Boston teams,

0-4 Red Sox is at the top top. Always will be. Yeah, we're never topping that. The 15 pats, the deflategate, and then beating Baltimore at home, beating Indianapolis, and then beating Seattle coming back in the Super Bowl, I feel like,

and then having the whole deflategate thing and it became us against them. I think that was the most popular of all the Pats teams for me. Just like, and Brady's at the peak of his powers. And even though 01 was amazing, but that was like a sports movie. It didn't almost feel real. Bruins, 2011 for the modern version.

And then if you're going backwards, there's some of those late 70s teams or even the older teams. Unfortunately, in the last 13, 14 years, they just can't get over the hump. Right. They don't have the speed that all these other teams seem to have.

But you said it earlier, Celtics haven't won in 16 years. That's a long time. This means a lot to the city. Yeah, Tatum was 10 when they won. This means a lot to the city yeah Tatum was 10 when they won this means a lot to the city of Boston people listening to this are throwing up right now they're like you're fucking kidding me

how many titles two, six Pats two Celtics, four Red Sox and a Bruins so we've had 13 titles this century so I have like I mean I have like a Knicks Jets Mets fan So we've had 13 titles this century. So I have like a Knicks, Jets, Mets fan,

friends of my life. I don't have to worry about what you worry about. I don't have people in other cities. Yeah, that's true. You only get to see people from this city. I only see people in Boston. So I'm sorry that you have that problem, but I don't have that problem.

But see, we're on the cover of the Boston Globe on Friday. I was on Friday. They wrote a piece about longtime Celtics fans and ticket holders. And somehow there's a photo of you just staring out the window. It was a good photo. Do you think anyone under 50 saw the, did people under 50 get newspapers?

Well, it was also online. People read it online, but I might've bought a few copies of the newspaper. You got to start thinking about your personal brand now. You're like Tatum, Tatum and Jalen. I've been asking for my own podcast and you seem to be denying it. The Blue Plate Special.

I think out of all the biggest surprises from this year, if you had told me when Jalen got that contract, how is this going to go? There just would have been like, well, there's one scenario where they actually win the title and he's the second best player. There's another scenario where he tries to justify the deal and it screws up

our entire season. And we trade him in the summer. I did not have the scenario where it's like, he's going to go up a level. He's going to be one of the best two wear players in the league. He's going to be one of the best two-way players in the league. He's going to become one of the best forwards in the league along with Tatum. And he's going to win the conference finals MVP and the finals MVP. I did not have that on my bingo card.

No, I didn't either. And I thought the first quarter of the year, he was trying to justify that contract. Yeah, no question. And then eventually eventually somebody must have gotten to him or whatever. But he played differently in the

second half of the year. Because he's one of those guys, he was always in the border of frustrating Celtics territory. Right. Because I remember

going way back when we had the tickets in the late 70s, early 80s, Rick Roby. And I remember there was a couple of people in our section.

Rick Roby just drove them crazy. Remember the Goldbergs? Yeah. And it would be like, Roby would just fumble something out of bounds. And the guy who was like the nicest guy would be like, Roby! He was just so mad.

And over the years, you have these frustrating Celtics. And part of me always wondered, is Jalen that, so he's going to be this guy who's 20 points a game and a really good player, but frustrating. They had a, when they had the draft

where we picked Jalen Brown. Yeah, they booed. They had a draft party and I took your daughter, I took my granddaughter Zoe to the draft party. Oh. And they,

I guess we, I guess the fans who were at the draft party wanted Murray. And when they picked Jalen Brown, they booed. Which was stupid. Really stupid. But that's what you get with those stupid gatherings.

But yeah, that wasn't a great way to start. And obviously he knows all about that. I think a couple of times he's referenced it actually. You know, he does so many things within the city and I think people know some of it, but not all of it. He's been one of the most valuable off the court Celtics ever. And that's something I've talked about in the pod over and over again. Like you don't want to lose dudes like Tatum and Brown.

I mean, part of me thinks like now that they've won the title. They're not going anywhere. These guys could, this could be a Bird McHale situation. I saw, I saw Wick when I was in Dallas. I don't think I'm betraying his confidence by telling this, but like, you know, when, when that Brown extension comes up. You mean the Tatum one? No, Brown.

Oh, last year. Last year. Okay. You know, you could haggle with that one and try to get him for $299 or $289 or whatever. And I think he would probably say this. He was like, you know what? We're paying him what the extension is. Like, he's worth it.

He's one of the best players in the league. We're doing this. They didn't want to, because that last contract he had was a, was a little bit of a discount. Yeah. Right.

And it's like, he's like, this is one of our guys. We're not, I'm not trying to save a couple million a year on the salary cap. I want this guy to make what he's worth cause he's worth that much to us, which I think is a really great thing to do. And they're going to do with Tatum too.

And I think as an owner, uh, his relationship with the players reflects that And I think as an owner, uh, his relationship with the players reflects that kind of a decision. Yeah. Um, I think the players, also that he knew that the salary cap was about to go up. Well, in five years,

that contract is going to look like a discount. Ironically. Right. When Luca's playing for a hundred million dollars a year on Dallas. When the new, uh, television contract is settled with the three different bidders,

it's going to be crazy money. Well, I wonder, one of the things that happened with the Pats, and this is like, I know one of the dumb topics this week will be, is the Celtics, are they going to be a dynasty? We do this every year.

I remember doing a segment about Denver last year. Could they be a dynasty? It's really hard to just keep winning titles. But I think one thing that might happen is you might be able to grab a vet on the minute in a way, like the way the Patriots were always able to grab these dudes. You'd be like, oh, junior say out. Want to try to win a title with us. And I wonder if that could happen because one of the best things with them is the East is probably a little easier in the West. Like which conference would you rather be in?

I'd rather be in the East. And with Philly, who knows with Embiid. Milwaukee's old. Miami's, Butler's in his mid-30s. You start going down the line, it's like this is the safest bet in the East. Right. So could they steal somebody? There's some second apron stuff with them that it takes.

I think they could make it hard. Even with the second apron stuff that's going to surface, you could see a veteran taking a discount. I'm not sure the role players that we have now, who's coming back. I know. Well, they can, they have Hauser and a team option. So he comes back. They signed Pritchard. Cornette is a free agent.

Cornette, maybe not. Maybe not. But I'd like to see him come back. And why wouldn't he come back if he got a fair offer? Yeah, it seems like everybody loves those. Yeah. My daughter Zoe Simmons, who was a fetus during the 2004 Red Sox run, and then showed up, and within a couple years, the Celtics won,

and they just kept winning titles, and we always call her the good luck charm. And then she goes to school in Boston this year. She saw a lot of games. Starts going to Celtic games with you. Yeah. And then they win the title. I just, another feather in her cap. So we should give her all the credit.

We'll give her a little bit. You know what I noticed? She didn't fly back for game five. That is true, but I'm not sure she had a seat either. Are you going to give her your seat? Probably could have found one. Probably, yeah. But she was a good fan.

She's a good fan. So this, you had the combo of like, you got to go to a bunch of games with her, with your wife. We got to go to the finals. This is a great start to finish season for you. It was a perfect season. And our drought's over. I have no complaints.

I'm in on the coach. What more could I ask for? 51 years, 11 finals. Seven victories. Seven titles. What kind of hat, t-shirt thing are you capable of? I'd like one of those white championship hats. Yeah, those are pretty nice.

They look kind of neat. Yeah. All right. Well, thanks for taking me to all these games over the years. You're welcome, son. It was, I still think 86 was my favorite. I said that as well.

Yeah. I think that was the right call. The 81 whole playoff run was probably my favorite. The 81 is... Beating Philly was still my favorite series we've ever won. Beating the conference finals

against Philly is my favorite series. Yeah. But it wasn't... I moved this one up as my second favorite championship. And then probably best individual finals game we ever went to, I would say it was the Heat game in the 84 finals game five. When it was like 130 degrees and somehow Bird wasn't tired. Yeah. That was a great one and somehow Bird wasn't tired. Yeah.

That was a great one. And all the great stories. But this is, we'll remember this one, this game, game five is it'll be the Tatum game, right? It was like we wanted him to big boy game and it happened. Well, also it comes on the heels of a debacle three nights earlier. That nobody will ever remember. Nobody will ever care about again.

But it made me, you walked around Boston all day today. Yeah. I couldn't even watch TV. I was so nervous. So that's all gone. We won the championship. All right.

All right. Year 52 next year for you. Dad, thanks for coming on. We did it. Seven titles. This podcast was produced by Kyle Creighton and Steve Cerruti. I don't know when I'm coming back.

It'll be at least two days, but thanks for listening. Go Celts. And I'll see you later in the week. I don't have feelings within On the wayside I'm a bruised soul I never was I don't have feelings within