Celtics Central

The headline is meant as the double entendre it suggests. Marbury is joining the Celtics today.

There is a particular irony in this event. Stephon Marbury is largely the reason why I am a blogger today. He and Isaiah Thomas. He was the catalyst that drove me to the internet message boards.

When newly hired Knick President Isaiah Thomas traded for him, it focused my frustration with the Celtics. The Celtics had been my team since I was a child in the sixties. It was enough to facilitate the unexpected discovery of sports message boards. Celtic ones, to be exact.

I found a whole new world. It was a gold mine (or was it bitchfest?) of similar minded fans with a common interest – the frustrating world of the Boston Celtics.

It wasn’t that I thought Marbury was sliced bread or anything. Honestly, I really didn’t like him or his game. I did understand his talent level. But the magnitude of the deal and the dearth of stars trading teams due to the complicated world the Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA) made it all jump out at me.

How the heck did Thomas, a brand new executive, shake the NBA tree and watch talent of the highest level fall into his lap? Other team GM’s weren’t able to facilitate deals of such magnitude. Big talent changing teams was more rare then. Certainly not like we have seen since Danny Ainge developed a new model for teams to emulate.

I live in the marketing area of New York tabloid newspapers of the New York Post and the Daily News. It was splashed all over the front and back covers of those sentinels of New York sports.

I thought…why can’t the Celtics do something like that? They were a fairly unwatchable team at the time. They had two chuckers named Pierce and Walker and over achieved with largely nameless and uninspiring role players. They had the mixed honor of being an over achieving team that underperformed compared to past Celtic greatness.

I found a few Celtic boards and started posting. That began my journey. Never did I think I would be so connected to the Celtics and my new found friends, the die hards who posted on Celtic boards, now five years later. The discoveries along the way have been many.

Little did I know at the time that, that signing was the beginning of a long and completelypreposterous 5 year journey through hell for Knick fans. It was a three ring circus and daily soap opera that put black marks on the reputations of three of the games biggest names in Isaiah Thomas, Larry Brown and of course, Stephon Marbury. Neither New York Knicks fans, nor the NBA deserved that ride.

At the same time, Danny Ainge was just hired and it would be the beginning of one of the most interesting 5 year journeys that any sports fan could go through. Thank you Danny Ainge. What you have done is simply incredible… Auerbachian even.

Except for being under the weather, I would be at tonight’s inaugural game of Marbury becoming a part of….the Boston Celtics.It even seems funny to write that. I will hopefully be able to see him on Sunday instead, against the Pistons. It will have a strange and significant meaning. Surreal, almost. Life has many strange turns.

Stephon Marbury will join the team in Waltham for shoot around, meet the press, and sign with the Celtics for a prorated portion of the veteran’s minimum of $1.3 million to help the Celtics win a second championship. Life is never boring.