Not Time to Panic About the Celtics

I moved to Washington, D.C. from Boston in 2002, and one of the first things I did when I got to our nation’s capital was take a look at the Boston Celtics schedule and see when they were coming to town.  

For one of the games, I could not find a ticket to my liking through the Wizards’ ticket office, especially when figuring in all the fees that get added on top of the ticket price. 

So I went to EBay, and wound up getting very good seats from a season ticket holder.  He sold the tickets for more than he paid for due to the discount he received as a season ticket holder.  I paid less than face value (and avoided all the fees).  A win-win situation.   

The next time the Celtics were in town, I e-mailed the same person and asked him if he would be willing to sell me the tickets for the same price as before.  He readily agreed, and we kept this arrangement for almost every subsequent Celtics-Wizards game in D.C. 

Until this season.   

About a month before this season began, I received an e-mail from the person and he told me that he wouldn’t be selling me the tickets to either of the Celtics-Wizards games this season at the Verizon Center. 

He wanted to go to one of the games himself. 

For the other game, he wanted to keep it on EBay because it would be one of the most sought after tickets.   This was the first real sign that for a Celtics fan, this season was going to be very different than anything I have really experienced in over a decade. 

I am reminded of that now because after losing three straight games coming out of the All-Star break, I sense a small level of panic among some Celtic fans.   

Is the team worn out?  Did they peak too soon?  Where is the energy?  Have the other teams caught up to them?   

I just want everyone to relax. 

We were spoiled in the first few months of the season, watching the Celtics storm out of the gate to a 9-0 record on their way to a 29-3 mark that took the team into January.  Since then they are “only” 13-9.  Even though the team is no longer on a 70-win pace, this team continues to provide me with more excitement than I really could have predicted entering the season. 

A year ago, when people at work would ask what I watched on TV last night, and I said “the Celtics,” I would invariably get laughed at.  This happened even a few years back, when I returned to Boston for a year.  In Boston, during the 2006 season, I vividly remember my boss thinking I had to be joking when I told him I had plans to watch the Celtics on TV that night.   

Now it has all changed.  Between the hype around this team leading into the season and then the Celtics ripping off blowout victory after blowout victory in the first few months, teams now are geared up to play the Celtics.   After beating the Celtics last week, Allen Iverson said, “Winning this game puts a lot of pressure on us, because if you can beat a team like this, then you can beat all the other teams.” 

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