Close only counts...

 There is a phrase that is often used among sports writers when it comes to describing a close championship game. Sadly, as a Boston fan, I have heard it too many times in the past 3 years. The phrase is: 'Team X was within X minutes of winning a title.' This is to say that a certain team blew a fourth quarter lead and lost the game in the final minutes. It's happened to 3 Boston teams in the past 3 years, most recently the Celtics - although unlike the other two instances, it wasn't an upset, just a very tightly wound game where on team ran out of gas.

 I had the unique opportunity of watching the game at work. When I say watching, I mean following the score on ESPN Gamecast. I didn't really want to watch it, I only wanted to witness the score on the Boston side go up. I have seen too many games during the playoffs where sloppy, 'who wants the ball?' basketball takes over, instead of playing the game like a team and thinking before that errant pass is made. For all of his growth this season, Rajon Rondo still displays that 'I'm gonna do what I wanna do' attitude at ill times, like when he throws the ball up in the air and hopes it goes in. I'm sure he practices that shot, I just wish he'd practice a jump shot instead.

 So the Celtics were playing sloppy basketball that was winning games, barely. Celtics fans were waiting for the team to re-create one of those blowout games, where the defense takes over and the offense is flowing. Unfortunately for Game 7, the defense took over, but the offense never did. I saw the score tightening up just as I heard people in my office screaming for the Lakers (not a lot of Boston fans in New York). I was trying to avoid thoughts of the game at all costs, but eventually I just had to turn on the TV on my desk and take it in. I turned on ABC just as Derek Fisher set up for the 3 pointer that would tie the game.  Here we go again.

 So the Celtics lost, and I spent the final, waning moments of their season walking through the streets of Chelsea avoiding the game visuals but frustratingly trying to find the score on my phone. The network was dead, I would have to wait for confirmation of the inevitable.

 This will be an interesting season for Celtics fans, because the trade that wiped out the Celtics and brought in two All-Stars had a 3-year window, and now we've reached that point. Fortunately, we do have young stars like Kendrick Perkins,  Glen Davis, and Rondo. These players are going to keep getting better, even when members of the 'PGA Tour' retire. That's the good news. We just have to find a team on the West coast that can end the Lakers' reign of terror. The visual of Bill Russell handing any trophy over to anyone wearing Gold and Purple is not a sight I ever want to see again. You got that, Phoenix?