As regular readers know, Bill Simmons is a big Celtics fan and his recap has a couple of great bits.
Thursday night, the guys sitting next to me showed up halfway through the second quarter, spent the rest of the quarter taking pictures and saying things like, “Dude, check out Kobe,” disappeared at halftime and re-emerged during the third quarter with bags from the Celtics gift shop. From there, they proceeded to put on brand-new Celtics jerseys — one had Garnett, the other had Pierce — only they reacted happily every time Kobe did something. Thanks for coming, guys. It’s also worth mentioning that some soulless Boston fan sold his two courtsides right next to the Boston bench to two obnoxious L.A. fans who wore yellow Lakers jerseys and were hopefully beaten up after the game. I have stopped trying to figure out professional sports in the 21st century, I give up.
Shortly after Sam got pulled, there was a timeout and everyone was standing. I was watching the huddle and realized out of the corner of my eye that my Dad was inexplicably holding a small wad of bills in his hands and shuffling through them. There were a couple of 20s, a 10 and some ones. It’s not like he had $700 on him. He couldn’t have been counting them. I don’t know what was going on. When I asked him why he was shuffling through his cash, he simply shrugged and said, “I don’t know.” By the way, I am bringing defibrillator paddles to Game 2.
Much of the column is dedicated to Paul Pierce’s injury and “miraculous” recovery. It’s a pretty good description of what it was like to be a Celtics fan in the New Garden last night.
