Confetti falls from the sky after Boston Celtics 106-88 win against the Dallas Mavericks in Game Five of the 2024 NBA Finals at TD Garden on June 17, 2024 in Boston, Massachusetts.
But reality is different. We can evolve. We can change our stories. We can learn. And failure, as much as we hate to admit it, can be a wonderful teacher. But if you want to know why the 2023-24 Celtics can sing “We Are The Champions” for the first time since 2008, you need to first tell the story of their failures.
They came unglued in the 2022 NBA Finals against the significantly more battle-tested Golden State Warriors. Many Boston fans and media outlets openly questioned if the Celtics would ever get it together. Maybe the “Jays” just weren’t built for this. Maybe they had the wrong coach or team-building strategy. Whatever it was, we couldn’t take many more shortcomings. They’d hurt us too much.After the 2022 Finals loss, Tatum continued his quest to transform his body into one that could carry the Celtics.
That’s the beautiful thing about sports. They’re not just games and meaningless pursuits to distract us from the real world. They show you who you are when the pressure is on — and when you get knocked down, and you can usually tell who’s “built different."For seven years, this Celtics squad has been like a bunch of kids learning how to ride a bike.