DaveZdyrko.com

I’m just unbelievably over-joyed right now. The Boston Celtics just came out and steamrolled the LA Lakers 131-92 tonight to win the team’s 17th NBA Championship and first since 1986. This not only ended their 22 year championship drought, but my own as a fan of professional sports, as the Orioles haven’t won since ’83, the Flyers since ’75 and the Dolphins since the ’73 season (the Flyers and Dolphins have never won a title with me as a fan).

The best part about it was this didn’t seem possible even a year ago. We had just finished one of the worst seasons in team history where we tanked the last half of the season in the hopes of getting the 1st pick in the draft lottery to land Oden or Durant. Then the lottery balls don’t fall our way and we end up getting stuck with the 5th pick of the draft all but ending our hopes of building a championship team for years to come. But then Danny boy traded that pick for Ray Allen, which was universally DOGGED on draft day by all the experts, and then used the leverage of having Ray Ray convince Kevin Garnett to accept a trade to wear Celtic green. And, well, the rest is history. We’re the 2008 NBA Champions!

PS – I think this means that The Curse of Dave Z might be finally over!

It was most likely a boring game for pure fans of NBA basketball that didn’t have as stake in either team, but I enjoyed the crap out of it. I just needed a game where the Celtics came out strong and just held the lead throughout, so yesterday’s 94-80 victory over the Pistons in Auburn Hills was a Godsend. I just hope that they can bring the same intensity in Game 4 because just getting back home court advantage doesn’t mean shit against a team like the Pistons. I’m just praying we can somehow end this thing quickly because my stomach wouldn’t be able to handle the stress of this thing going too deep. Detroit’s too good and too experienced for my liking and even though a Game 7 would be in Boston, you wouldn’t be able to count them out, as the Spurs showed against the Hornets in the last round. Monday’s game in Detroit is gonna be huge.

Whilst the football teams haven’t done their part to help curb my alcoholism, my hockey and basketball teams have made great strides after horrid seasons last year. The Flyers have gotten off to an excellent 15-9-2 start to lead the Atlantic after finishing last season as the worst team in the league by a whopping 11 points. The acquisition of Daniele Briere has been paying off mightily, Biron’s been strong in the net, and they’ve just been a lot more fun to watch than they were last year. I’m not a fan of the dirty hits and all the suspensions, but am liking the team’s chances at making a run at the cup.

The Celtics are doing even better thanks to the trades for Garnett and Allen, plus the signings of a bunch of key role players that have been exceeding initial expectations. At 15-2, the green are already more than halfway to their win total for all of last year and are showing that they have a legit shot at representing the Eastern Conference in the NBA Finals and possibly even winning it all.

I’m just thrilled that they’re relevant again and so damn fun to watch. I haven’t really enjoyed watching them play much since Reggie’s death, except for maybe brief spurts during the Pierce/Walker days, but this C’s team is as fun to watch as the ones in the Larry Legend days.