That all changed once the playoffs hit this year. How could I not watch? 66 wins in the regular season, they had a great group of guys (UBUNTU!), played defense, the longtime local star, the transplanted superstar and class act, the three point sniper, and a lovable group of bench guys. There was no better time to watch. The thing was... was that I STILL didn't think they could win it all. I figured they had blown their proverbial load in the regular season. I was half on the bandwagon. I was still tentative to become enamored with these guys. I thought they were going to hook me in and let me down.

They almost confirmed my thoughts in the Atlanta series. Then they almost did it again in the Cleveland series. I mean, if these two teams take us to 7 games, what will Detroit and L.A./San Antonio do us? Put it this way: I wasn't quite refferring to the Celtics as "us" and "we" yet. In my book, when you refer to a team as "us" instead of "them" or just "the Celtics," you've put yourself into the team. I actually can't stand it when a fan of one team starts rooting for another in the playoffs and uses "we" and "us" to refer to them (that's not your team!).

Anyways, it wasn't until Game 1 of the Detroit series that I broke the "we/us" wall. After Game 2, I was legit worried (not legitimately, LEGIT). That's when I knew I cared about this team. Pierce was quickly becoming my favorite player (he's like the sorta ugly movie star that still always gets the hot lead actress in all his movies and you're left wondering how the heck it happened... he's not ripped, he's sorta goofy looking, he doesn't appear that athletic, he has ugly free throw form... yet he gets it done no matter how ugly it all looks or how its done), KG was a madman, Cassell was fun to make alien references about, Leon Powe was Leon Powe, Big Baby was big, James Posey had that swagger, Ray Allen sorta sucked, but you almost willed him to do well, PJ Brown played out of his ass out of nowhere, and the list goes on. I still wasn't sure if they could win it all, but I was finally on the Bandwagon.

After the Detroit series (we won a road game!), apparently everyone else was too. It was about that time I started to see Celtics stuff EVERYWHERE. Walking to work, taking the T, online, at work, billboards, commercials, everything. Boston had hit Celtics madness. They were back. I had never witnessed the Celtic greatness from the past, but it was probably sorta like this... maybe.

Anyways, from there, I was with the die hards. The ones who stuck with the Celties through those tough years and were finally getting rewarded for their hardships. There aren't many though I tell yah, but goddamn I gotta give "em mad props yo.

In the end, maybe this is what it took to breed a new line of die hard Celtics fans. It was a great ride and, though I may be a genuine Celtics Bandwagoner, I couldn"t be happier that I finally jumped on it.

S. Boston has 6 Championships since 2002. That's an average of one every calendar year since then. What an amazing time to be a Boston sports fan. Now all we need is the Bruins. Eek.