A Quick Shout Out To Wyc

Roy Hobbs said:
  More importantly than him believing, was him spending.

Prior to last off-season, I didn’t think he had it in him. Thanks for proving me wrong, Wyc!

The most important thing Wyc, et al did was to make the decision to not be a Mark Cuban clone and to hire Danny Ainge to make basketball decisions (I think this was Steve Pagliuca’s doing).
The day Danny signed was the day this wonderful journey began.

Hear, hear! This town already appreciates Kraft and Henry. Wyc’s earning the same respect.

A good owner hires good people to run his team and then lets them do their jobs. If he would get rid of the dancing girls and the stupid mascot (pardon the redundancy) he would be borderline excellent. He is smart enought of a businessman to
know that winning and only winning puts the fannies in the seats
on a consistent basis.

I have to say that a year ago I thought Wyc and those guys were yet another group of investment bankers who bought a team to milk money off it, without a concern, a care or an idea how or if winning was even necessary. I wondered, frankly, after what was clearly the worst team in Celtics history if this great franchise was more like the Clippers than its historic predecessors.

Then, the Ray Allen deal and my eyebrows went up. Then, we got Garnett for Al and basically nothing. Then, Ainge began putting terrific pieces around them.

A year after this franchise hit rock bottom, look where we are.

Thank you indeed.

In sports as in business, great (as well as good) organizations begin at the top. If the leadership is top notch, over time you generally succeed. If the leadership is less than top notch (i.e. Paul Gaston) even with a run of good fortune, you eventually sink.

These guys had a plan, stuck with it, and had faith in the guys they picked to run things. They deserve all the satisfaction that comes from going from bottom of the barrel awful to NBA Finals in one year — keeping in mind that what has happened was actually the result of a multi-year plan that was successfully executed.

Great job guys.

Ownership and management have to be praised relentlessly here.

They made the right moves this past off season and you have to give credit where it is due.

They brought in the necessary pieces for this team to have the possibility of a deep playoff run and the entire team has come together to make it happen.

Kudos to C’s management and coaching staff.

Yeah I noticed that and cringed too libermaniac. You know Havs knows his name, doesn’t he?

As a Laker fan, you know where my loyalties lie. But I do hafta say congrats. Never been
a big Celtics fan, in fact I hated you guys in the ‘80s and didn’t care when you sucked,
but I have a great deal of respect for this team. It’s hard not to like KG. That’s why
we wanted him so bad. Paul Pierce is a Cali guy. He’s the only Celtic jersey I ever
bought. Ray Allen languished in Seattle so long that I felt sorry for him. The team
works hard and went through such depths of losing that if I had suffered through that
I might’ve killed myself.

The other thing is …. and I don’t want to turn this into a race discussion so I’ll tip-toe around it …
is that as an African-American it’s also hard not to pull for this team. I know most NBA teams are filled
with black players but it’s seems moreso in Boston’s case. Plus these are players everyone can be proud of.
They work hard, no off-the-court stuff, they respect the game. This is a team Jackie Robinson would be
proud of. They have young black coach. He’s gone through ups and downs and been criticized but his biggest
success was to get three supremely offensively talented players to believe in team defense. This is his
first experience with a loaded team and he’s in the Finals. Not everbody can say that (read: Flip Saunders and
Mike D’Antoni).

All I’m saying is enjoy it Celtic fans. It’s a blessing to have a team like that. And although I’ll be rooting against you, I definitely respect you.

See ya in the Finals!

I also like the fact that Wyc is at every home game, and doesn’t try to seek the limelight like some owners in sports. I hope this feels better than he ever envisioned.

I agree with Greg37: can the stupid dancers! And no need for the blaring music during every stoppage of play, either. Give it a rest. All these folks that like that stuff (supposedly the vast majority) sure are a Nixon-esque “silent majority.” Almost every real fan I know (and who else even has an opinion?) hates that stuff.

A quick note on the Dancers… EVERY TEAM in the NBA has them!!! In fact the Celtics were the last ones to get them. Get over it! It is just as much about entertainment as basketball today. If you want to yell at someone, yell at L.A. they started the whole dancer thing.

Greg37 said:
  A good owner hires good people to run his team and then lets them do their jobs. If he would get rid of the dancing girls and the stupid mascot (pardon the redundancy) he would be borderline excellent. He is smart enought of a businessman to
know that winning and only winning puts the fannies in the seats
on a consistent basis.

I, too don’t care for the dancing girls, mascot and the introduction pyrotechnics (except for KG’s powder explosion). I agree that winning is what really puts the fans in the seats and brings them to the radios and TV’s. But this ownership has done everything you say they should do. The other stuff is for the people who might like it. It doesn’t detract from the team. It’s not taking money away from team building.

wyc et.al. knew enough to hire danny and thay have supported this team with $$. they are also mostly local boys and seem to be respected by the sports execs in this town. it is great to see all the boston teams supporting each other.