End of the Road

I haven't written in awhile, but not for the reasons you may think. As all of you know, my beloved Celtics were knocked out of the playoffs Sunday night in a very anti-climatic game 7 blowout by the Magic. I'm not that upset about the loss for many reasons. Number one, with Garnett and Powe out the Celtics weren't going to get past the Cavs anyway. It was really prolonging the inevitable. As much as I love Brian Scalabrini, if he is a guy that you need to count on as a key contributor you are not winning a title.

Another reason I'm not crying myself to sleep is simply because the Celtics won the title last year. For anyone who is a die hard fan of a sports team, you know you'd rather have 10 losing seasons and a championship, than 10 winning seasons and no title. As a sports franchise your one and only goal is to win championships, period. I was barely a year of age when the Celtics last won the championship, and seeing them not only win, but beat the hated Lakers was one of the best moments of my life.

I think above all else I am more mature now than I used to be. I realize that sports is in essence just a game and is cyclical anyway. Your team can't win every year, though my teams have had ridiculous success the last decade. There really is no sense analyzing the "what if's" of the series. The reality is the Magic were more talented than the Celtics. In fact, if they had more heart and were better coached the series would've ended sooner. Plus, the Magic should have probably won two of those games if not for epic meltdowns and Big Baby Davis. Dwight Howard really disappointed me in that series. I had never really watched him play that much but had heard he was one of the top 5 players in the league. After watching him play, he'd be lucky to be in the top 10. He has no offensive game besides dunking and layups. His defense is good but if you notice, almost every time he blocks a shot, he blocks it out of bounds instead of toward a teammate. As for rebounding, he is a great rebounder, but even those stats are inflated because he does not have any other rebounders besides Rashard Lewis on that team. I think the guy does not use half his talent and really hope that he dedicates himself to working on his post moves in the off season.

Michael Vick gets released from prison today. He will say all the right things but in reality he probably still doesn't think what he did was wrong. I have no respect for the guy at all. I understand that he grew up with dog fighting, but a lot of people grew up in a lifestyle then realize it is wrong and change. I hope no team picks him up, but alas some team will. Vick was one of the most wasted talents in sports history. The guy was blessed with skills probably no other played has ever had and wasted them. It should be very interesting to see the reaction he gets from fans around the country.

Usually when the Celtics are eliminated I have to start dreading two straight months of baseball, but I'm excited to see a potential Lebron vs. Kobe final. If Lebron and the Cavs don't win this year I would be shocked, but I guess anything could happen. More analysis of the playoffs next time. Thanks for reading!