Hollinger Article This piece is interesting, if for no other reason than it echo's alot of what I've personally felt for a while. Like alot of stuff with Boston Media and Fans, most people are polar: They either hate it or love it. Seldom do you find those rational enough to say: "Let's see where he's going with this" or "This (X) needs more time to develop". It's nice to read something where someone actually admitted that what seemed odd to them at first, seems to be working itself out, rather than someone who continually sticks to the same mantra of "he'll screw it up somehow and I'll be waiting for him when he does".
Hollinger isn't the only one coming around. Just to bring a real life occurance into the picture, just today, I was talking to one of my bosses at work. This is a guy that busted me up to no end for the past two years whenever I strolled into work wearing my various Celtics apparel. He said that the C's were all done, that Ainge ruined the team, and all that other stuff that I'm sure you guys have all heard. He asked me to stay late, so I told him I could only work until 7 because I wanted to get home for the Celtics game. "Oh yeah, their really playing some good ball this year" he said. He told me he really liked what Ainge has done, and he loves the new style of play. I obviously gave him the whole "I told ya so" routine that you guys have no doubtedly been using lately. He almost admitted to me that I was actually right, but there's no getting that out of this guy. It was certainly nice to hear the one person that gave me the most junk about the Celtics actually praise them. But about the article, I love it. It's great to see a member of the media take a good look at all the moves that I've been defending and actually confirm what I've been saying all along.
I freely admit that I wasn't onboard with Danny for a long while. From the timing of his first press conference, to the trading Antoine before seeing how he could perform with this style of play; I didn't think he knew what he was doing. But, I've been coming around in the last couple of months. I'm still not sold on Banks or Perk, not by a log shot, but this years draft looks to have produced 3 studs and the style of play is entertaining as hell to watch. But, Hagrid, if you want to talk about the Boston fans and media, the bottom line is this: win and everything will follow. Look at Theo, if the Sox get swept in the ALCS he's an idiot for trading Nomar. They don't and now he's a god in this city. Boston likes winning. Thats the reason that people are down on Ainge - the immediate results of his moves were more losses. Danny's biggest problem was his timing. He came in when the team had been rebuilding since Bird left and now he wants to rebuild some more? People weren't/aren't willing to wait. The free pass and good will of the fans was gone, it was used by the previous regime. Fans understood tanking a season to get the number one draft pick and Tim Duncan - we couldn't understand not having a backup plan in place when the ping pongs went the other way. Now the team had finally come around in spite of all that and he wants to send them back to seacacus for a year? Nope, they're not having it. After years without even sniffing the playoffs they had made it 2 years in a row and now he goes and trades away our second best player. It was deja vu all over again. True, you and I and the people who watched every game, know that the team had gone as far at Toine and Paul could take them, but the casual fan or the columnist who only watched the team once every 3 weeks couldn't grasp why you would tear down what had been built up over the last few year. They saw the house, they couldn't see the weak foundation. Danny is going to be in everyone's dog house until this team gets back to the Eastern Conference Finals. He has to at least get the team back to where it was when he took over or else he's going to be considered a failure. And one other thing, I thought it was a great article, but I dont like that the team put a link for it on Celtics.com. It reeks of a "See how good we're doing!" and "The media thinks Danny is smart!" vibe. Let other people link to it, comes off as desperate.
<div class="quote_poster">Quote:</div><div class="quote_post">It was deja vu all over again. True, you and I and the people who watched every game, know that the team had gone as far at Toine and Paul could take them<font color="DarkRed">, but the casual fan or the columnist who only watched the team once every 3 weeks </font> couldn't grasp why you would tear down what had been built up over the last few year. They saw the house, they couldn't see the weak foundation. </div> I think you just managed to sum up my frustrations. Where I come from, there are no Celtic fans, UNLESS YOU'RE A DIEHARD. Everyone else is a Knick fan or whatever team was winning at the time (Bulls, Lakers, etc.). I grew up with the mantra "be real or get lost". I endured a life time of abuse like that which 44Thrilla talked about with his boss. I have such a big problem with fair weather fans, especially when it comes to the C's (and the Red Sox) that when I read the type of stuff that is typically part of the overall "win and we'll pay attention" mantra of Celtic fans and media, (mostly in Boston) that it makes me nuts.
<div class="quote_poster">Quoting hagrid:</div><div class="quote_post">I have such a big problem with fair weather fans, especially when it comes to the C's (and the Red Sox) that when I read the type of stuff that is typically part of the overall "win and we'll pay attention" mantra of Celtic fans and media, (mostly in Boston) that it makes me nuts.</div> I get the most frustrated when people who never watch the team puts them down. My brother-in-law, who is a Kings fan when its convenient, was talking the other day about how he thinks the Celtics are horrible and he can't stand to watch them and the overall NBA game is going downhill and blah, blah, blah... but when I asked him the last time he actually watched a full Celtics game, he had no clue. I get so annoyed when people who have no idea what they're talking about try and pretend they're an expert.
If there is one thing that pisses me off more than any other thing-it's when people start to jump on the bandwagon of the team I've stuck by. I just went through it with the Red Sox, and I'm afraid it might be happening again, but with the Celts. Sure, it's great for the team to get some more fans, but it's bad for us true fans. You would have to be the nicest person in the world in order to not let something like that bother you. I mean, you start rooting for a team when you're young and you stick with them through all the tough times. You learn to look for good things in a loss, when others don't bother watching. Every year you get pumped up for the season, and regardless of what the experts are saying, you think they've got a shot this year. You live through it all. But then, when the team starts playing really well you start to see more people jumping on board. The fairweather fans are there to enjoy the good times, and to make sure I can't get decent tickets for playoff games. I could never be that way, and as far as sports are concerned, I have no respect for those people.
