I’ve been very fortunate as a serious sports fan. In my lifetime, I’ve been lucky enough to watch:
Six New England Patriots Super Bowl championships
Seven New York Yankees World Series championships
One Boston Bruins Stanley Cup championship
And up until last night, four Boston Celtics NBA championships
The Yankees and Celtics won other championships in my lifetime, but I was too young to enjoy those.
I’ve also witnessed eight AFC Championships victories in Gillette Stadium. Still, I’ve never had the joy of watching one of my favorite teams win a championship in person until last night.
Thanks to a boss who wouldn’t give my friend’s son the day off, they had an extra ticket to the game last night, so I was lucky enough to watch the Celtics win their 18th championship in the Garden in the company of friends and my former student.
It was one of those nights that you never forget—a joyous, uproarious, electric, raucous, festive night of victory and celebration.
When Paytton Prichard hit a three-pointer from half court as the buzzer sounded, ending the first half, the crowd went wild.
I don’t know if I’ve ever heard the Boston Garden so loud.
Added to the joy of this championship was my love for this particular team. I’ve watched nearly every game this 2023-2024 season, and Charlie and I attended games in person throughout the season.
It was his first time watching professional basketball live.
Many an evening was spent watching the Celtics play on TV as I texted about the game with my friend, falling increasingly in love with the team as the season went on.
I watched one playoff game on a flight back to Boston. The screen was small, but the plane – filled mainly with Boston fans – was going as wild as possible at 32,000 feet.
Even the long walk back to my friend’s apartment was fun. The streets were filled with Celtics fans, and happily, thankfully, I didn’t witness one moment of overly exuberant celebration.
Celtics fans were ecstatic, but they did behave like monsters.
Twenty championships in 52 years is pretty good. A championship every 2.7 years.
Probably better than most people.
Lucky me. I’ve been fortunate enough to celebrate many sports championships in my lifetime, including my own Little League and high school track and field championships.
But I will remember this night for the rest of my life.
Witnessing your favorite team win a championship requires many stars to align:
- You need to love a sports team enough to care about them winning and losing
- Your team needs to be good enough to survive the playoffs to the championship game or round
- Unless you’re traveling to the opponent’s city, your team needs to be playing for the championship on their home turf
- In the case of baseball, hockey, and basketball, you need to attend the game in which the championship is actually decided.
- Your team needs to win that game.
If the Celtics had won their previous game, I would’ve celebrated the championship in an Atlanta airport sports bar amongst strangers.
Had the Celtics lost last night, I would’ve celebrated their championship from the comfort of my couch alongside Charlie.
I needed the Celtics to win the first three games of the series, then lose game four so they could return to Boston to claim their championship on the night I happened to be in attendance.
Happily, that happened.
You also need to somehow acquire tickets. If you’re a season ticket holder, that’s easy, unless you’re an NFL season ticket holder like myself. Those season tickets will only get you as far as the AFC championship game.
Super Bowl tickets, plus travel and lodging in the host city, are an additional, considerable hurdle.
For me, I needed some know-nothing monster of a boss to refuse to grant my former student the day off so they could attend a Boston Celtics championship game, thus allowing me to sit in a seat originally designated for him.
The stars were aligned last night for the Boston Celtics and me. It was an incredible night of sport and celebration that I will never forget.
Despite less than three hours of sleep, I woke up this morning smiling.
