Boston Celtics = Definition of Overrated
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(I left out my intro on race and the Boston Celtics, since it's not related to the following, but you can click here if you'd like to read the full article.)
Before any Celtics fans get upset, I just ask that you hear me out, because overhyping does not really help anyone except the league itself.
Thank you. I'll continue now.
The hype around this team is almost deafening. People are saying they're going to go to Eastern Conference Finals, or win an NBA championship. Is that so?
And this was before the season started. Now that they're 7 games in to an 82 game season, and they've played against 6 teams (one team twice), they're the champs? Let's look at who these 7 wins have come against: Washington, Toronto, Denver, Atlanta, New Jersey, Indiana, New Jersey again. Of those teams, only Denver has a winning record. Two of those teams - Washington and Miami - are off to a downright atrocious start. Their games for the rest of the month of November include Miami (1-7), Orlando (7-2), Golden State (0-6), Lakers (4-3), Charlotte (4-4), Cleveland (4-5), New York (2-5), and Miami again.
So after facing 6 teams, only one of which has a winning record, and with a pretty weak schedule for the rest of this month, we're supposed to believe that this team could . . . go . . . all . . . the . . . way?
Well, I'm sorry, I just can't get down with that. Not only are they less than 10% of the way done with the season, but they haven't even played 80% of the other teams in the league. They haven't won any championships. They haven't even been to the playoffs yet.
Individually, the so-called Big 3 have pretty weak playoff histories. To wit:
- This is Ray Allen's 11th year in the league, and he has been to the playoffs 4 times, 3 with the Milwaukee Bucks, one with Seattle Supersonics. The furthest he made it was one trip with the Bucks to the conference finals 7 years ago, losing to the Philadelphia 76ers
- Celtics Captain Paul Pierce has been in the league 9 years, been to the playoffs 4 times, all with the Celts, and made it to the conference finals in 2002, losing to the New Jersey Nets.
- Kevin Garnett is in his 12th year in the league, and he's been to the playoffs 8 of those years with the Minnesota Timberwolves, where they lost in the first round every year except in 2004 - their last playoff appearance - when they fell to the L.A. Lakers in the conference finals.
So, we have none of the Big 3 who has even been to a) the NBA finals -- ever, or b) the playoffs within the last three years. Not to mention that there are, like, 11 other people on the team, two of which also need to contribute to the team at all times.
The playoffs have as much to do with endurance as they do with talent. You must have a solid bench or you can hang up your chances of winning any kind of ring. Now, they do have some talent in Eddie House and Rajan Rando. And all it takes is one time to win a championship, no previous ones required. Got it.
But the Celtics still haven't won anything, may not have the tools to compete deep in the playoffs, haven't played any real contenders, and most of the teams they have played and will play this month have at or below .500 records.
What if the Celtics are just last year's #1 seed Western Conference Dallas Mavericks, who performed well in the regular season only to lose to a team like the #8 seed Golden State in the first round of the playoffs?
This is not to say that the Celtics won't make it deep through the playoffs, but I think it is entirely too early to start prognosticating like we have any idea at what level this team is capable of performing. They haven't even really been tested like that. Anyone saying that they're going to "take the East," and how great a feat 7-0 is for this team is only further contributing to rating the Celtics higher than they deserve to be rated, which would make them - you guessed it - overrated.
And thank you to SportsGerbil for posting this link to ESPN's season-long comparison of the record of this season's Celtics to the 72-10 record amassed by the 1995-96 Chicago Bulls team that did win the NBA Championship (and had a great bench). All I can say is "wow."
With Kobe-watch fading out of style, I'm sure the NBA wants a story and they chose this one, but let's wait until they actually show us what they've got.
All this bandwagon jumping is getting sickening.
(Cross-published at Pleats 'n Cleats)
| This user is a New York Knicks fan. |
