Countdown To Tipoff

Man, I'm pretty much emotionally drained and we haven't even played the first game yet.  This absolutely feels like the week leading up to the Super Bowl with all the hype and the avalanche of media attention.  I have to admit, I haven't read even half of the articles that FLCeltsFan links to every day.  Somehow I picture her downing her thrid cup of expresso and screaming as 6 more articles pop up on her screen that she didn't see before.  Bless you FLCeltsFan, you have been so wonderful for us all year.

And what a year it has been!  From the momement we found out that Kevin Garnett was coming to Boston, this was the dream.  No, not a "dream," more like the goal.  It is like we were given the opportunity to trade our beat-up station wagon for a McLaren F1.  We knew we had the fastest car, but we still had to drive the track to win the race.  A lot of things can happen along the way, so there's always that nagging worry.  What if someone gets hurt?  What if they don't play well together?  What if we have our worst stretch of games at the worst possible time?  Well, that last part did happen and we still made it to the Finals.

And here we are!  Standing on the footsteps of history.  We've come so far and the end goal is right there in front of us.  I thought about running down the days gone by that has led us to this point; from Bias to ML Carr to Pitino to Greg Oden.  But why should I bother?  You were there.  In fact, you were here with me for much of that time.  You were my daily therapy as I poured my heart out onto this keyboard.  I was shocked and increadibly thankful when some people started returning the favor and writing back in the comments.  And now here we are, members of a huge online community of Celtics fanatics.  I couldn't be more humbled and thankful.

I can't wait to get this thing started and enjoy the games as they play out.  But I just wanted to pause and say thanks once again to all the people that make this such a great community.

Now the fun begins again.  The excitement and pressure of the playoffs gets turned up another notch in the Finals.  What seemed like life or death now seems trivial in comparison. 

This is the NBA Finals!  This is Celtics vs. Lakers!  Really, do I need to say any more?

Let's get this thing started!!!  Beat LA! Beat LA! Beat LA!

p.s. You can hear me preview the Finals on the HoopsAddict podcast along with some other bloggers.