My son (11 years old) has been feeling under the weather lately. Well, that’s putting it mildly. He puked seven times throughout the course of a night recently. Not fun times. Anyway, he was sitting on the couch with me Saturday afternoon and he pointed out a Celtics DVD on our shelf. It was the commemorative 2007-08 championship DVD and to my shock and shame, it was still the cellophane wrapper! I guess when I first got it, I didn’t need to watch it because I lived it and covered it. But now, I had a new generation to share it with. He has heard the names, watched the ceremonies, and all that. But he hasn’t been exposed to much of that team’s unique feel. So, this was a perfect introduction to some semi-recent history. (He didn’t have to twist my arm to watch it.)
So naturally while watching that video, I started doing that sports fan trope of comparing that team to this year’s version. There certainly are some similarities but this team is very much uniquely their own as well.
I’ll start out by pointing out the obvious. This isn’t really a fair comparison since this year’s squad hasn’t accomplished anything yet while the ‘08 team won the title (and I firmly believe could have won the next year as well).
Still, it is fun to dream and project a little shine onto this version of the Celtics.
Photo by Brian Babineau/NBAE via Getty Images
Similarities
Defense: You can’t compare these teams without starting with the defense. Both were elite squads led by Defensive Player of the Year winners (Kevin Garnett and Marcus Smart). Both could lock down teams for entire stretches of games and slow down elite offensive players.
Complete buy-in to the coach: Doc Rivers preached Ubuntu and got the star players to buy in from Day One. Ime Udoka brought the accountability and tough love approach that the players asked for. It took a little…
Click Here to Read the Full Original Article at CelticsBlog – All Posts…