Coming up, the Celtics have won their 18th title. I'm here with my dad next. We're also brought to you by the Ringer podcast Network, where we have a bunch of basketball pods. You can listen to all of them. Please do, because the Boston Celtics have won the NBA title. I have a new rewatchable that's coming tomorrow night. That's why we did the Longest Yard. You like the Longest Yard?

I do. I want a bunch of things. I like the original one.

Yeah, that's what we're doing. 1974 Longest Yard. That's coming Tuesday night because we had to do a special Monday It's a Monday Night podcast because the Boston Celtics won their 18th NBA Championship. My dad is here. It's all next. First, our friends from Pearl J. All right, I'm here with my dad. It was 11:44 Eastern Time. What happened today?

I'm still nervous. Did we actually win that game? The game's over, right? The game's over, right? It's over. We didn't give up that 18, 20-point lead, right?

Sixteen years ago, same day, June 17th, 2008.

We were there.

We were there, and the Celtics, you knew within probably the midway mark of the second quarter, it was like, they're definitely winning. Then the Lakers, you could see that Celtics were up by 40. The whole second half was a party. Never a doubt we're going to win. This time around, we're up 21 with three minutes left, and you and I are like, We got to stop Luca this time out. He might hit seven threes.

Even when we were up by 21 at halftime, I had still had trouble getting Friday night's game out of my head. I know. What an anomaly that whole game turns out to be. We were terrific tonight, and I thought Tatum played the game of the year.

Yeah, that was the most proud I've been of Tatum after a basketball including the 50-point Philly game, including game 6, Milwaukee. This was such a great... We're going to talk about him later. I mean, the big thing, Pritchard hits that three, heading into halftime. He comes in with four seconds left. I think Lucas shooting free throws.

I think it was three and a half seconds.

It was going to be 64-46 at halftime. Pritchard comes in. He hasn't played the whole first half. He comes in. Everyone in the crowd, everyone who's ever watched the Celtics team this season, knows what's going to happen. They're running some Pritchard play. Dallas it. The Celtics know it. Pritchard makes the half-court shot. And that was Bird steals the ball loud. And that was the first time I really was like, I think we're going to win.

I think it might have been louder than Bird steals the ball because this is game seven of the finals. No, it wasn't louder. That was in the finals against Detroit, that series.

Nothing was louder than that. We thought the balcony was going to collapse.

I thought this was pretty loud.

This was pretty loud. It was definitely the loudest. You've been in more games than me in this building. That was the loudest I've ever heard that building.

Let's say it's the loudest since Bird stole the ball and fed Dennis Johnson.

What would have been a louder moment in the new building?

So last 20 years? Nothing.

I can't think of anything.

Nothing. Because like you said, the 2008 game 6 was not a close game. No. So there was never that opportunity for the crowd to roar. That was a roar in that crowd.

Yeah, because people knew he was going to take a crazy shot. He pulled up even 12 feet further away I was expecting, nails it, and the whole Celtic bench ran to him like it was a game right here. It was halftime.

It wasn't even off the backboard. That was swish.

Eighteen titles for the Boston Celtics. We missed You've counted. You've been a seasoned ticket holder for 51 years for so long that we thought it was your 10th final.

This was actually your 11th.My 11th final.7th title.

7 and 4. I think that's a pretty good record.

That was we were in the house when they won in '84, in '86, in '08, in this one, four. This was a team that we were with for a long time with Tate and Brown. I think the difference in this in '08, where we had pierced that whole time, but really that was it. Everybody else showed up there. Showed up. Hired guns. Yeah, Garnett. This time, the Tate and Brown, you've been watching those guys since they were 19.

Although, again, Porzingas, White, Drew holiday, they did come on board from elsewhere.

Big Al, who was here for a while left, came back. So he's the third longest.

Everybody looked so happy on the stage. Nobody looked happier than Al Warford.

Yeah, the best part, because we've been fortunate enough to been to a couple of these, the best part is when the starters start coming out one after the other, which is if you win a title and it's a close game, you don't have that. In this one, it was like, okay, the Dallas Wave the Way flag under three minutes left. So he took Horford out, and Horford just walked over the scores table and he just looked at the whole section, had his hands up. And that guy's never won a title before, so that was great. Then Tatum and Brown came out together.

Then Drew and Derek came out together. It was a nice way to do it. Porzingas had come out earlier. I guess maybe the second happiest person, everybody was happy, but Porzingas, when they're on the stage, turning to the crowd, waving to people in the crowd. The guy was so happy.

I don't know if there's ever been a home Celtic player like him that engage with the crowd. Almost like watching when you're at a fifth-grade play and one of the kids is waving to his parents.

In his mind, he must be saying, Last year, I was in Washington. Now I'm here.

I don't feel like he's probably ever really truly been appreciated on a good team because even when he was on the Knicks, those teams were bad. He was in Dallas. Fans love him. He came out before the game. The team's out, they're shooting and shoot around. Then Porzingas because he's doing whatever, his treadmill thing, whatever he does.

He has two doctors out there trying to decide if it's okay for him to play.

He came in late and he walks in, the crowd goes nuts. Then he just turns and he's just like, waving. He's like, Hey, guys, I'm here.

He was hidden in the candy store. Statistically, it wasn't a great game, but he made a difference.

He made a difference in second half. There was a stretch in the first half. He was a little rusty. Yeah, he came in and Josh Green had two threes, and somebody else had a three, and he gave up a layup in Dallas. He was just like, We're attacking this guy because you could tell he couldn't totally move, and he was rusty.

Yeah, he couldn't move laterally the same way. But second half, he seemed to loosen up, and I thought he played a lot, but he had a couple of blocks right at the rim.

It definitely was a difference than game four where you had those Tillman minutes. Tillman didn't play tonight because it was just a bad match. I mean, some of the stuff that was sitting there in game 3, game 4, like how impactful Lively was, wasn't impactful tonight. Not tonight.

We kept looking up at the stats. The whole night, the Celts were significantly outrebounding Dallas. When you think about the Friday night game where we got killed on the boards, this was totally different.

51-35 rebounds, 15 offensive. The guards were getting... Halladay had four offensive rebounds. Derek White had four offensive rebounds. Derek White had his block. That was my favorite bet of the day. Celtics to win with a white block was like even odds on Fandil. They fixed a lot of the stuff, the issues they're having in game four. Then the other thing is, I thought in the first half, they really were like, We're not letting Luca have 25 points in the first half. They were picking him up full-court. Jalen, and we'll talk about the finals MVP later, but one of the great things he did in this game, he didn't shoot well, but he was full-court with Luca, really trying to make him work a little bit. They had to go to the side guys. Green hit a couple of threes, but it just wasn't the same, and Kyrie sucked. He was another stinker for him in Boston.

A stinker and a couple of hero attempt three-pointers that didn't go in.

He was five for 16.

Green hit those three three-point shots. They made a difference a little bit, but I just thought Porzingis was a little bit out of sync in the first half in terms of where he should be defensively. They cleaned it up in the second half.

Yeah, it's interesting. He played 60 minutes, five points, one One rebound. They didn't credit him with a block, but he was plus eight.

I guess maybe he didn't touch the ball, but he changed the- He had that big dunk off the brown pass for the alley-up when it started to feel like in the second half.

But I thought when you think he came in and they immediately went on an eight-nothing run, but then it was plus eight for the game. So he was a little impactful. Let's talk the Tatum game. Tatum was 45 minutes tonight, 31, 11 assists.

I don't even remember him coming out of the game. So he did come out for three minutes.

I think he came out in the first half. 31, 11 assists, 8 rebounds. He had 9 assists in the first half. Two big boy drives in the fourth quarter. When Dallas, Luka was doing the Michael Myers thing, he just to chop his head off, basically, to get rid of him.

He's pretty scary.

I'm going to have nightmares of him all summer. He's really scary. He wins by just eternal respect. It's like two years ago with Yannis in the Milwaukee series. When we beat Milwaukee and we were like, We're going to use we this whole podcast.

He just got no help. On the road, nothing. They made some threes, had a couple of corner threes, like we said. But Tatum. It was all Luca. I thought Brown did a tremendous job on him despite the fact that Luca scored. I mean, he made him work. By about five minutes left in the fourth quarter, Luka could barely get up and down the court. He was gone.

Yeah, I thought both sides seemed really tired in the fourth quarter. That thing, and we've been a few of these big games over the years, the energy of games like that, and the games just feel longer than they actually are, and you keep looking up. That was one of those games. It reminded me of a game seven 04, Yankees, Red Sox, when it was like, We're up 9:00 to 2:00. We need nine outs. And then you're just looking up. It's like, Now we need eight outs. It just felt like it was going on for seven hours.

Here, I'm watching the clock.

Yeah, I remember looking up.

It's not moving fast enough.

I looked up at one point and it felt like the Mavs were starting to get ideas, and there was four minutes left in the third corner. It's like, Oh, my God. I feel like we've been here for five hours.

It's so significant, though, to have that 21 point lead at halftime. I guess we shouldn't have been so nervous. It would have been awfully hard for Dallas to come back.

But that's the thing about this team. Basically, tonight, and we got I got to talk about Tatum because now I forgot to do it twice. But this team all year felt like they were up 20, 75% of the season. You were always like, I wonder if they're going to finish this. I wonder if the other team is going to... It was just weird because I think when you're tied to threes and the offense would slow down sometimes. It was weird. The crowd was excited but nervous in the fourth quarter.

Which I think was probably mostly Luca. You and I said before the game started, this crowd is nervous. You could just feel the nervous tension in the crowd to begin the game. Before the game, I got there almost an hour earlier. It wasn't the loud crowding as we had in games one and two. This was a nervous crowd.

You didn't want to go with me into the game because you were like, I'm going to show up before the game because I'm nervous. I don't want to be around anybody. Then you showed up with like 45 minutes before the game just throwing popcorn down like a champ.

Sitting in my seat Yeah. I wanted to watch some of the players warm up. It's interesting. Pritchard probably tried that shot three or four times because he's the only guy left out there before the game. That's his shot.

The crazy half-court chat. It's funny. We had an '84 in person. That was just a bloodbath of a series and a really, really great exciting game seven. But those teams were really even. '86, there was just no question we were beating Houston. That Samson punches each thing in game five. It's like we're definitely 100% beating these guys. '08 felt the same way. Felt like we should have finished it in five in LA. Felt like we were better then laid the smack down. This game because of how bad they looked in game four. There was a weird energy. There was like walking around. There's a lot of people like, What do you think tonight, Bill? Nobody was like, We're going to do it tonight, Bill.

When I came in, the guy said to me, We were down by 48 points on Friday. What do you think? That didn't help my nervousness.

Well, then I talked to a bunch of people who weren't waiting for either side, like MBA people, people working for different media, and all of them were just like, You don't want to go back to Dallas on Thursday. I'm like, I'm aware. I'm positive. I don't want to go back to Dallas. But it was one of those things, the things we were looking at, where I remember texting this to one of my Celtic threads, Rebounding.Rebounding.Can we take care of that?Rebounding.

For me was the key.

Drew holiday, revenge game for how bad he was in game four. In the first half, he did good stuff on Kyrie defensively and made a couple of shots around the basket. So that was a plus.

He missed three little bunnies. He doesn't usually miss those.

But he made a couple in the first half. The threes we were watching. They were 12 for 23 at one point.

Then they missed 8 in a row.

I think they finished. Yeah, they missed 8 in a row, but the threes were good. Then the big thing was Tatum.

He was like an orchestra leader out there, wasn't he?

It was all the best parts of Tatum. At the end of the first quarter, he had to do the quarters winding down. I'm going to take my step back three, and he missed it. Then in the second quarter, same thing, he made it. Then the Mavs came back down. Luca had the free throws, and then the Pritchard three. There was a flurry of action, but he actually made this step back at the end of the quarter. I was like, Oh, he's feeling it tonight. He did make it.

Then, as you said, Bontrick had the free throws, but he missed the second one. The second one, Bounce, he got the rebound. They weren't ready. They weren't ready when Pritchard had the ball, bringing the ball wing the ball off the court.

They cut Pritchard's minute. Pritchard got cut out. Thelman was cut out. Porzingas played. They basically went seven. Hauser was big.

Hauser had a couple of huge shots.

In the first half. Then in the second half, he missed two threes that would have just basically ended the game. They rolled around.

Both threes rolled around the room.

But Dallas, I felt like Dallas was just searching. It's game five, and he's like, Exum? Gaffard? He was playing roulette with all his role players, and he couldn't find five guys.

No. He was hoping one of the role players would get hot. It never happened.

Yeah, because Hinch texted me, my friend Kevin Hinch, that the Mavs averaged 93.5 points in the four losses, which in the modern NBA is basically a catastrophe.

That's a high-scoring team. Yeah.

They took away the threes, they took away the role players, and they held on for dear life with Luca.

We took away Lively in this game, and Lively was terrific in a couple of the other games.

Yeah, he was never good in a road game, though. It was interesting. It was the home games, and that's the thing. It's by home court, advantage matters sometimes, especially with young guys and role players.

Especially the young players and the role players.

Let's take a break, and then let's talk about the MVP thing. All right, so my dad, we talked about it after game one that if Joe Missoula led the Celtics to an NBA Championship, my dad was going to officially promote him from second-row Joe to first-row Joe. For the record, I was all in on first-row Joe after game one. I thought he coached a really good game tonight. What was interesting is he extricated himself from a couple of bad decisions. They went small ball in the second quarter at one point, or the third quarter, and it just didn't work. They took Kouherford out. They didn't have Porzingas out. They played Tateum. Then Gaffer got two dunks. Somebody else got to lay up at the rim, and he just immediately got out of it. A couple of other good timeouts, too, which he just didn't do last year.

But that example of small ball is a great example of maybe Missoula's growth because you're right, it was a bad move. Dallas immediately scored, I think, eight points. He called a timeout, and we never saw a small ball again. No. You will never hear me say second row Joe again. I thought he did a great job. I thought he coached a great game tonight. I guess we're 16 and three in the playoffs. We had a sweep and three five game series.

Eighty and 21 for the season. It's going to go down as statistically one of the best team ever. A little like the 2015 Warriors, where I mentioned this the other day in the pod, people didn't really know what to think the whole time.

I'm not going to even call him first row Joe. He's Coach Missoula now.

This is really my... I'm welling up. Jesus. I didn't realize this was the end of terms of a derby.

Yeah, well, unbelievable. We won a championship.

He's just Coach Joe.

He's Coach Missoula. Coach Joe Missoula or Coach Missoula.

The team, I got to say, and I spent a lot of time with Boston people when I was in Dallas, and I just heard the same thing over and over again. The players love him. The players respect him. He's really earned the admiration of everybody around him. I can't remember. Obviously, we're hard on coaches and managers because that's what we do. That's what we do. We just complain. They know way more than we do. We don't care. We complain about them. But I can't remember. The first season, I remember anything was the '74 Bruins and Celtics and just all the way through. I can't remember a coach or manager that we felt like this guy just doesn't have it, who then did a 180. Can you? Certainly didn't happen the Red Sox.

No, I can't remember. I mean, Patriots. Hindson, I always felt knew what he was doing. Bill Fitch knew what he was doing, but he wore it as welcome. Casey Jones was great with the players. I'm not sure he was a great technician, but- Yeah, he killed us in '87.

Well, he really killed us in '88. He didn't play Reggie Lewis. I'll never get over that. On my deathbed, it would be like the 11th thing I think of. Why didn't he play Reggie Lewis in the 88?

The first thing I'll think of in my deathbed is Magic's Hook Show in '85.

87.

Oh, 87.

No, I'm sorry. There's Bruins coaches. I can't think of another example of this, but we were out on Joe, but not all the way out because he was put in such a bad position last year, that that was the hope. It's like, you know what? Nobody was ever in a worse coaching spot with that. With a team built to win the title, Eme gets bounced right before the season. We lost Will Hardy from the season before, too, who was the number one. So now we're down the top two coaches. He's got Damon Stoudermier leaves during the season, and it just felt like we would look at the assistants on the bench and we were like, Who are these guys?

Well, not only that, but they all had been hired by the previous coach. Right. It wasn't Missoula's staff. At the end of the season, last season, they all left for the most part to go to Houston. And Missoula and Brad Stevens got to hire new assistant coaches, and they were terrific. I thought they really helped Joe Missoula mature as a coach this year. You can't put that aside.

But some of the stuff we complained about with him last year, he just stopped doing. The stubbornness about, I'm never calling a time out. The have to play their way out of it. It was like, no other coach does this, Joe. You can't. You have to. He did. Even today, he called a couple of momentum stoppers.

But I would say that the assistant coaches and Brad Stevens helped him learn those nuances of the game.

Then the other thing, he was just so committed to the threes, and it's not something that I certainly grew up with, and you've spanned all errors of hoops, but it just seemed like, can you really win just jacking threes?

How many did we jack up there tonight? Because we also went inside a lot.

Really did. Thirteen for 39 from three.

So we were 33%, yeah.

But we were 12 for 23, so They were one for the last 60.

And that's what started to make us nervous when they missed eight in a row and stopped going inside, inside out or outside in.

Yeah, I'm looking at the play sheet, and it's just a lot A lot of misses at the top of the key, actually. It feels like we missed all the top of the.

Well, most of those might have been Jalen Brown. Did he make any threes?

Yeah, it wasn't. Jalen finished Seven for 23, eight rebounds, six assists, five for six, and he was two for nine from three.

Two for nine, yeah.

So we both, and I don't really care, and what sucks about this is that once again, this is now Tate and Brown conversation because this is what the national media will do coming out of the finals. Probably they'll wait a day. Then it's like, who's the best part in this team? Is Jason Tate going to like the fact that he didn't? Is this going to split the team up? I think those guys are super tight. I thought it was close. I thought Tatum's game tonight, combined with all the other stuff he did in the playoffs, like the first half he played in game three, which he was exceptional, didn't have a good second half. Brown had the better second All the stuff he was doing with Dallas's defense, they were geared toward Tatum, specifically, I thought, for a lot of it. I just thought he should have won. But I'm also fine with Jalen, and I'm happy for that dude, too.

Well, after game four, when we talked, excuse me, after game two at home and then game three on the road, we talked and we both thought Jalen was heading toward the MVP. But tonight, after After that horrendous game on Friday, for Tatum to lead the team like he did tonight and play the game he played tonight. Again, it was like the person leading the orchestra all night long. I might have leaned Tatum's way.

You know what? Now that I'm looking at it, so Tatum was 12 for 38 in the first two games. For the series, he averaged 22, 8, and 7. Then Jalen averaged 21, 5, and 5. That's pretty tight.

So it was really close. Could have gone either way.

Could have gone either way. It was one of those where it was like, Can we just have them split it?

Can we just have a split vote? I'm good with it as long as Tatum is good with it.

I haven't really wavered with this because this happened, I remember, in '07 with Tim Duncan, where Tim Duncan was the winningest player in the league in the in the 2000s and was the best part in the Spurs by far. They sweep a terrible Cavs team, and Parker played really well. It's like, Our finals MVP is Tony Parker. It's like, this is why in my book, I did a whole playoff's MVP because I was like, Cool, You have the MVP for a series, but we should also have a postseason MVP. I think Tateum was the postseason MVP, right? Or would you say Jalen?

No, I'd say Tateum. But ironically or interestingly, Brown got both of the MVPs.

Yeah, maybe you're right. I really hope this doesn't start yet.

Who votes on the MVP?

I was mad. I blamed Tim Frank, whose son listens to this podcast, and Tim Frank didn't give me a vote because you said I didn't cover enough games. Yeah, I didn't get it.

Okay. Sorry. So you might have made a difference?

I think I would have voted for Tatum because I thought he was so spectacular tonight that I feel like that would have swung it for me.

Well, that's It was my thinking that after that debacle on Friday, for Tatum to play the game he did tonight, it was so meaningful. I didn't think Brown had a good game tonight. He didn't shoot well.

He didn't have a good offensive game.

He did have a good defense.

He He played really, really hard. I thought he did some good stuff on Luca. It's '98, '75.

I'm still nervous, '98, '75. I was writing down notes, 98:75, 6:31 left.

That was when Tatum had a three-point play and a two and was just... Nobody else could make a shot anymore, and the offense got stagnant, and he was just carrying it.

Well, did you know the first three minutes of the fourth quarter, we scored the only two points? Right.

Yeah, it was 86, 67. Nobody could score. Yeah, forever. But then, Tatum then had those two fantastic drives in a row to make it 102, 78 with 4,39 left. But those were like... I just don't think he would have done that two years ago. I think he would have done step-backs.

Those were bully ball drives to the basket. He wasn't going to be stopped.

This is the thing with him, and I keep saying this. Roussillo and I always argued on my part. I just feel like he's so not a finished product yet. I think he's going to be stronger. I think he's going to have a post-game.

Well, I think you win a championship, now the narrative is they're world champions. They're going to come back differently, I think. They're going to come back. They'll work hard in the game, I hope this summer, and they'll have so much more confidence as a world champion.

Well, can I say selfishly, it might be a good thing that Tatum didn't win the finals MVP? Because now it's like a little carrot. Something that is a stragler. Yeah. Now it's like, okay, even though we won a title, I'm not the finals MVP. Bird didn't win in 1981, and it was an interesting one because Maxwell was really good in that series. Yeah, he was really good. But Bird was the best player in the team. I don't know. It's a weird one because if you're just voting for the series only, then you're ignoring who the actual best player in the team is.

I just hope it doesn't become an issue.

I hope- The local Boston shows tomorrow, they're going to have a... It'll be the second segment they do. Could this be it for Tatum and Brown? Those guys, I was watching. First of all, Tatum, I think if I had to rank the happiest guys coming up, I think he was out of the five starters. I thought he was going to start bawling. He was so happy.

He was hugging everybody. He lifted Mazola off the ground. He was so happy. Yeah.

Then just in general, we got to go through some of the dudes, Derek White, who it seems like is looming now for Team USA because I had heard that before.

I had heard that before, too.

He was reported that if Kawhi doesn't play.

He had a couple of key three-point shots when Dallas was making those mini runs they make with Luka. Terrific season. Yeah, wait. We We better extend that contract.

Yeah, I don't think that's a question. Then Drew holiday now.

Four more years.

I think with the way the barrier for the Hall of Fame has dropped, like Michael Cooper made it, Drew's Probably a Hall of Famer now. Two titles for two different teams. He was the third best player on the Bucks.

Also the way he changed his game to play for this team. His game with Milwaukee was completely different. I mean, he was a second option scoring. Yeah, and had the ball a lot. Had the ball a lot. On this team, that wasn't the case.

There was a selflessness with this team that I think was my favorite thing about it. I didn't always love the style of what they played, but I really feel like... I thought every single player sacrificed something. I think Tatum, if he wanted, could be a 30 plus point of game score. If he was just jacking up shots, Carmelo, late 2000 style.

He did have that season Over 30, didn't he?

Or close, yeah. I think Jalen could be in the high 20s. Drew could certainly score more. Porzingas on a different team could have been like a 25 points a game guy.

My favorite part about this team is we sitting near the bench and watching the closeness of the teammates, the camaraderie. It's so apparent. You don't see it on the other teams.

We certainly haven't seen it on certain Celtics teams.

No.

When Hauzer came in, he had his first three, and Brissette was standing next to him, Missoula. And Brissette, who I thought could have played more in this whole play-off, and was probably the biggest perplexing thing for... We just like, Why don't that guy has energy and he rebounds and he tries hard. Why does he play more? But he was always locked in as a bench guy. And Hauzer was shooting that three, and Briceet was next to him. You could probably watch them on the clip. He's just jumping up and down. He's like a cheerleader. The chemistry in this team was unbelievable.

Unbelievable. What's your phrase about when a team wins, how hard it is to keep that camaraderie the second time? The secret.

Well, it's the disease of more. Yeah, the disease of more. This team will not have the disease of more. No, I don't think so. Jason Tatum is going to get a $350 million extension probably tomorrow. Porzingas has been paid. Drew has been paid. Derek White has been paid.

Well, Derek White needs to get the extension.

Well, but he's going to get paid. They're giving it to him. I will say this, that Wick, who you could see, he had the cigar out. He had the cigar out with two minutes to go. He's a freaking character. Just eating it up. He was so happy. I think his original production company was called Banner 17. Or his company or his LLC. Then it became, I don't know what it is now, but that was 16 years. It was a long time, man. When they won the 2008 title, my son was eight months old. Now, Now he's a summer internship, but he's driving.

We also thought in '08 that we were going to win the next two titles. We had the same team. We just had some bad health issues.

Wouldn't you think about that in this run where it's like, I don't know if Porzingis is going to ever be healthy for an entire season again. Drew's in his mid-30s now. We had really good health luck this year, except for Porzingis. You know that could go sideways, whatever.

Should we just save Porzingis for the playoffs?

Is that possible? Could you pay somebody $30 million a year?

Just to play 16 games?

I mean, that's what they did in this playoffs.

Yeah, but it wasn't planned that way. We only lost four regular-season games at home. Is that true? Yeah. That's my memory anyway.

I don't think that's true. Is that actually? No. I like that you think that, though. No, let's Oh, yeah. 37 and 4 at home, regular season. But then they lost Miami.

Well, I said regular season. Oh, yeah. 37 and 4. Then in the playoffs, we lost two games.

But only the one to Miami at home.

So they went- No, we lost game two against Cleveland at home, too.

Oh, that's right. So six losses. That's pretty good.

Pretty good.

When did you think this team could win the title?

I always thought this team could win the title.

Do you want me to go throw my text?

I don't remember texting anything like that. I thought the addition of Porzingis and holiday just made this team so different in terms of the approach. My concern was we're so three-point happy. I mean, that's always been my concern throughout the season, but I thought this was possibly a championship team. Mike, the other The thing that I did bring up to you repeatedly was, I don't know if we could beat Denver. And neither one of us wanted to go near Denver, and we never had to go near Denver. So that was fortuitous.

I'd like to thank the Minnesota The Denver Wolves for coming back from 20 in a game seven? Yeah, it was a little rock, paper, scissorsy with Minnesota, Denver, and Dallas, because I think Denver would have been Dallas. For whatever reason, Minnesota was able to beat Denver and ran out of gas. I keep thinking big picture about who knows? We talked about the health stuff, but then you think about Milwaukee, they're going to be back. They're going to have the eye of the Tiger. We'll see what Philly does, if they can get Paul George or whoever. Miami can always pull some crazy move out of their ass. Who knows if Orlando is going to sign somebody? So these will definitely be better. And then the Knicks, whatever they do, they're going to be a problem. So we should have six teams plus whatever happens with Cleveland. Then in the West, you have Denver, Dallas. This Dallas team now have a full year, and I'm sure they'll add somebody. Minnesota, OKC, which I'm sure is going to do something. Memphis is coming back.

But the good thing is- The league is loaded. Only one team can come out of the West, fortunately. They knock each other off. A lot of outside of Boston people will say, We locked out. We played a Cleveland team where Mitchell got hurt. We played a Miami team where Butler didn't play. We played an Indiana team where the point guard.

I don't remember anyone saying this about the 2013 heat.

I'm saying that it's- When they were beating the Pacers without Danny Granger, and it was basically just Paul George, or Roy Hubbard, or David West.

There was no It's a competition, really.

I want to repeat one thing we talked about in the other podcast because Adam Silva said it today, to the team that's one of the most championships, 18, won more than the Lakers. The Lakers cheat, though. Can we throw away the Minnesota Championships?

They count five Minnesota Championships. You know what I heard? I think they're going to count the in-season Championship, too. I think the Laker fans think they're still tied. Cut this out as a social clip. You guys can't count the Minnesota titles. They don't count. You stole the team from Minnesota. You don't get to count the titles.

You can't the Inseason tournament as a World Championship.

Every time I argue with the Laker fans about this, because I know a bunch of them, obviously, live in LA, and they're like, Well, we're still called the Lakers, and Elgin was on the Minnesota team. And I'm like, Okay, Do OKC fans count the 1979 Sonics team? It's like, Oh, well, we got that one title with the Sonics. No, they don't.

So they can screw off. In my mind, it's 18 to 12.

I took a A lot of shit from the Laker fans, both in my life and people who listen and read about how we had only won one title since 1986.

That was a big thing. 2008.

Right. But it was last 38 years, one title. By the way, our drought's over. Our five and a half year Boston title drought. I know you're starting to get hairy about it.

Well, I'm already thinking about the parade on Wednesday when it's 100 degrees out. It's going to be an interesting day. Are you going to go? You got to go. It's going to go right down. You're doing a job. It's going to go right down the street.

Today's brilliantly boring segment is brought to you by PNC Bank. Some things in life should be boring, like banking, because boring is pragmatic and responsible, level-headed and wise. All things you want your bank to be. So this Celtics team, which I think people were bored by the fact that they would just take these leads. People were always expecting like, Well, I don't understand this team because how can you win if you don't have one of the best guys in the league and Tatum is not one of the best four? I think there was something boring about them because basically their top six was way better than anyone else's top six. And that could overcome the fact that they don't have Luca on their team, which is boring to talk about.

Well, it's how we won 16 games in the playoffs. It's a team. I mean, we didn't rely on one person.

No, you could win. The Mavericks, they could not win a game if Luca or Kyrie sucked.

In game three, Holladay had 26 points. I think he was a high scorer for the Celtics. The next game or tonight, I don't know what he had, but we had pretty balanced scoring tonight, though. Yeah.

Well, that's the thing. Sometimes boring wins. That's why PNC Bank strives to be boring with your money, because when your money is doing what you need it to do, you can do all the un boring things you want to do with it. Pnc Bank, brilliantly boring since 1865. Learn more at pnc. Com/brilliantly boring. Brilliantly Boring is a service mark of the PNC Financial Services Group, Inc. Pnc Bank National Association member FDIC. Could you say brilliantly boring or no? Probably not.

I probably don't want to do right now.

Bob Coosy, no chance in his prime. By the way, shout out to Bob Coozie. 95 years old Bob Coozie. He was like, I just want to see one more title.

I love the long statement he had a few days ago about, One more title, please, at the age of 95. I feel the same way, by the way.

Well, I was thinking about that. I mean, you're in good shape and good health, but we're getting at an advanced age. The last one happened when you were 60. Same day, by the June 17th.

June 17th.

617 area code, which I thought made us invincible. Then one of my friends pointed out that we lost game seven in 2010 finals on June 17th. Oh, really? Yeah. So maybe at home in 617.

Well, that was a road game, though. Yeah. It's a road game.

At home, we're invincible. All right, so rank the teams. Let's hear it. Favorite Celtics teams of all time. Favorite champs, we have seven to pick from. 74, 76, 81, 84, 86, 08, and I'd say over 24. Because think of us as your top three. I don't want to have a number seven and then feel good.

I'd say 86 is my top.

The Bird apex season.

Tonight's 2024 is my second top.

Really? Over 81?

And 81 is my third top. Yeah. Wow. Yeah. Because I just always hoped for one more championship. It's so hard to get there. It's so hard to get through all the rounds you have to get through hoping that you're going to stay healthy. The Western teams have been pretty tough this whole season. So whichever team we played was going to be tough. And injuries, the poor Zingas injury made us take a step back. Is this going to cost us a championship? It's so hard to win. It's just so hard to win. And the other thing is, I'm so happy that Brown and Tatum have been elevated. It's great that Horford won a championship, but for Brown and Tatum, they had to get over the hump, nationally. I think, nationally, they looked at differently as of tonight. They're champions.

Yeah, we've seen that happen a few times over. Definitely 100% happened to Yannis. Happened to Kawhi. You've seen it happen. Trying to think other ones. That first Warriors title.

Happened to Joe Mizzula tonight.

Happened to our guy, Joe. Yeah, I was thinking about, I was walking around. I was so nervous today. I walked around all of Boston. I walked to Cambridge. I walked through Charlestown where I used to live. I literally, I think I walked 27,000 steps.

So you were as nervous as I was?

Yeah. Well, Luka, it was so easy for him to score in game four that I just couldn't stop thinking about it. I was like, Luka might have 48 tonight and just suck our souls out. In the history of basketball is sometimes if you have one guy on the other team, it was It was just awesome. I was just walking around and thinking about that, and I was thinking about all the things that happened since we won in '08 when we felt like, This team's got at least one more. Then '09, KG gets hurt.

2010, PerkinsPurkins gets hurt in game 6.

Perkins gets hurt in game 6, and freaking Rasheed Wallace, who we couldn't stand that year. Then he has to play 35 minutes. We blow game 7. Artis hits it, crazy three. 2011, make the Jeff Green trade. Rondo hurts his elbow in that Miami series, so that one's out. 2012, we're up 3-2, and LeBron just sucks our souls out in game 6. Then Bosh hits them three in game 7. '13, '14, '15, '16, '17, we weren't going to win those years. '18, really good chance. Kyrie and Hayward's first season. Hayward's out in six minutes. We take Cleveland to a game 7 anyway, and LeBron was just unbelievable. Beats us. '19, '20, in the bubble. Maybe, but that team didn't feel like... No, that didn't. Kemba was really bad in the bubble.

Our defense was bad.

'21, bad year. 22, I remember walking home with you after Game 5 Milwaukee, and we felt like we lost a title because we were like, The league's wide open. We're going to get this. Then they come back and win that. Then Golden State just gets their mojo, and they take it from us. 23, we lose a game seven at home in Miami. We It's weirdly like a lot of downers. It's weird.

You made me do the podcast after we lost to Golden State. That was a tough one.

Yeah, that was almost a human rights violation. I couldn't believe you pulled it off.

It was tough. I really thought we were going to win that year.

Because one thing about my dad is he's still 100% in. My friend, Hershie, was telling a story about When we were in the 2013, I was doing the finals for TV, so we were in San Antonio.

Oh, was there.

We watched the Bruins Blackhawks game in the hotel lobby. It went in a double OT, I think, and the Blackhawks scored. Really, that killed the Bruins season. You just said, I'll see you guys later, and you just left. Her, she looked at me. It was like, I just want to care about sports that much when I'm older. Now, 10 years later, still there. But I mean, when we left game seven last year that Miami, Tatum gets hurt in eight seconds. It was awful. We were just like, What's going to happen in this team? The chemistry was off with Marcus and Grant. You got to credit the moves they made. The trading Marcus was... Marcus I guess his name wasn't mentioned for the last two weeks, but remember, they trade him. Everybody's like, Who's hard as a whole of the team?

You just remind me of something. You know who we haven't talked about? Brad Stevens. We should have. I mean, the moves he's made after That horrendous seventh game lost to Miami last year. Obviously, he knew that team wasn't going to get over the hunk the way it was constructed.

Which is how we felt as well.

We felt as well. But not every general manager is going to make the moves he made. They were risky.

It started with the Horford Trade, gets Horford back, who seems like he's on his last legs just to get rid of the Kemba contract, gives up a pick for that. The way Trade, I remember when we found out there was a pick swap and it was only top one protected, and five years later, we were like, Oh, my God. What if Tateum's not here?

That's an awful lot for a guy we never heard.

Yeah, we were like, I like Derek White, but Jesus. Then the Porzingas Trade, which was just a great trade. I still can't believe we got a pick on that. Then that led to the Drew trade, which was the all-time no-brainer. Of course, we have to do that. But yeah, he did a great job.

Great job.

To hire him as a college coach, they're going tank for a couple of years. He's such a good coach that they're audible in a second season, remember? They traded for Ezea Thomas, and I think they got the 8 seed, and we were supposed to be losing intentionally. It was like he was too good of a coach, and then ran his course like a lot of coaches did.

It ran his course in a weird way. You mentioned it earlier, the Kyrie Irving stuff would kill any coach. Yeah.

Would you feel Kyrie genuinely seemed remorseful about how he behaved when he was here, and I didn't know.

How about it with two and a half minutes to go when Dallas emptied the bench, brought the starters out, and Kyrie went to the Celtic bench and hugged every Celtic Yeah, and then he realized that would be ridiculous. I mean, really?

Yeah, there was like two and a half minutes left. We're up 20, but still nervous somehow.

Yeah, still nervous.

Coming out of a time out, and Kyrie just go, and he's hugging Joe Mizzula, and he's hugging Tate We're like, What the hell is he doing? Then we realized white flag and you're like, We just won the championship.

I'm not nervous anymore.

See, Kyrie, you knew when you saw Kyrie, we would win a championship at some point.

When he started hugging people and kissing people, I knew we won the Championship.

Trying to think what else we have to cover. But what happens now?

Well, almost the whole team comes back.

Yeah. We didn't talk about Witt Grossbeck, who I've gotten over the years.

I give him so much credit for spending the money he's spending to give us this Championship team.

Yeah, because you go back to the 2000s, and he made all the typical usual mistakes a new owner makes. Then eventually, the '08 happens. But I think he's clearly one of the three best owners in the league. But all you can ask for from an owner is, do you give a shit about the team? Will you spend money. Is money no object to get where you need to go? Are you going to hire the best people around you? Because I hung out with boss people a lot when I was in Dallas. This organization has been together. It's really rare to have an organization of people that have just been there for a while. They have the President, the CMO, the CFO. You go on down the line, the head of sales, they're all the same people that were there in the 2000s, and they really value loyalty, continuity, the people they They're all in on the team. It's really hard to pull off, and he pulled it off.

No, you're right. I remember in 2010, when I went out to LA for games 6 and seven and got a chance to meet all those people, They're still here.

They're still here 14 years later. They're all still here. It's incredible. I think just big picture, you have guys like Tatum or Brown. They really do value certain character guys, and maybe they learned the hard way that that's a good thing to look for. But I think Brad, I think that's the way you go after White. That's why you go after Drew. So I don't know.

Character guys. Yeah, I think- Character guys. And character coaches.

Well, I was saying as somebody who was talking about Drew with a basketball friend of mine. I was just like, Drew is exactly the '03, '04 patriots when we had that when we won the two Super Bowl. We had all those dudes like Vrabel and Brusky and Rodney Harrison. It was It's like guys who just wanted to fucking win, and that was it. Drew is just like that. He didn't care less what his stats are. It's like, What do we need me to do tonight? Do I have to guard Luca? Do you need me to actually handle the basketball? He just doesn't care. He's going to do what it takes.

It's obvious his teammates really love him, and he impresses them with his character.

Yeah, he was like the quiet leader of the team. Then White was just such a delay. What a roller to ride with that guy. Remember in 2022, we were like, Can we play this guy in the play-off?

Can he score? Can he shoot? Can he make a basket?

He went cold for two straight weeks. We were talking about the Derek Whiteface. Shaved his head. It feels like that helped him.

That must have helped. As a family now, he's a family man. I don't know. He got so much confidence this year.

Yeah, he credited Missoula for all of it. He was like, That Missoula willed me to be a great guy.

I watched when White came out tonight, he went over and he and Missoula really very affectionately hugged each other with respect.

For popular Boston teams, 04 Red Sox is at the top top.

Always will be.

Yeah, we're never topping that. The 15 Pats, the Deflate Gate, and then beating Baltimore at home, beating Indianapolis, and then beating Seattle, coming back in the Super Bowl, I feel like, and then having the whole Deflate Gate thing, and it became us against them. I think that was the most popular of all the Pats teams for me. Just like, and Brady's at the peak of his powers. Even though '01 was amazing, but that was like a sports movie. It didn't almost feel real. Bruins, 2011 for the modern version. Then if you're going backwards, there's some of those late '70s teams or even the older teams.

Unfortunately, in the last 13, 14 years, they just can't get over the They don't have the speed that all these other teams seem to have. But you said it earlier, Celtics haven't won in 16 years. That's a long time. This means a lot to the city.

Yeah, Tatum was 10 when they run.

This means a lot to the city of Boston.

People listening this are throwing up right now. They're like, You're not even fucking kidding me. How many titles? Two, six Pats, two Celtics, four Red Sox, then a Bruins. We've had 13 titles this century. I have a Nets, Jets, Mets fan, friends of my life like Sean Fennison.

I don't have to worry about what you worry about. I don't have people in other cities.

Yeah, that's true. You only get to see people from this city.

I only see people in Boston. I'm sorry that you have that problem, but I don't have that problem.

But see, we're on the cover of the Boston Globe on Friday.

I was on Friday.

They wrote a piece about long-time Celtics fans and ticket holders. Long-time. Somehow there's a photo of you just staring at the window.

It was a good photo.

Do you think anyone under 50 saw the people under 50 get newspapers?

It was also online. People read it online, but I might have bought a few copies of the newspaper.

You got to start thinking about your personal brand now. You're like, Tateum. Tateum and Jalen.

I've been asking for my own podcast, and you seem to be denying it. The Blue Plate Special.

I think out of all the biggest surprises from this year, if you had told me when Jalen got that contract, how is this going to go? They just would have been like, well, there's one scenario where they actually win the title and he's the second best player. There's another scenario where he tries to justify the deal and it screws up our entire season and we trade him in the summer. I did not have the scenario where it's like, he's going to go up a level. He's going to be one of the best two wear players in the league. He's going to become one of the best forwards in the league along with Tatum. He's going to win the conference finals MVP in the finals MVP. I did not have that on my bingo card.

No, I didn't either. I thought the first quarter of the year, he was trying to justify that contract. Yeah, no question. Then eventually, somebody must have gotten to him or whatever. But he played differently in the second half of the year.

Because he's one of those guys, he was always in the border of frustrating Celtics territory. Because I remember going way back when we had the tickets in the late '70s in the early '80s, Rick Roby. I remember there was a couple of people in our section. Rick Roby just drove them crazy. Remember the Goldbergs? Yeah.

It would be like, Roby would just fumbled something out of bounds.

The guy who was the nicest guy would be like, Roby. He was just so mad. Over the years, you have these frustrating Celtics. Part of me always wondered, is Jalen that? So he's going to be this guy who's 20 points a game and a really good player, but frustrating.

When they had the draft where we picked Jalen Jalen Brown. Yeah, they booed. They had a draft party, and I took your daughter. I took my granddaughter Zoe to the draft party. I guess the fans who were at the draft party wanted Murray. When they picked Jalen Brown, they booed. Which was stupid. Really stupid.

But that's what you get with those stupid gatherings. But yeah, that wasn't a great way to start.

Obviously, he knows all about that. I think a couple of times he's referenced it, actually.

He does so many things within the city, and I think people know some of it, but not all of it. He's been one of the most valuable off-the-court Celtics ever. That's something I've talked about in the pot over and over again. You don't want to lose dudes like Tatum and Brown. I mean, part of me thinks now that they've won the title-They're not going anywhere. These guys could be a Bird McHale situation. I saw Wick when I was in Dallas I don't think I'm betraying his confidence by telling this, but when that Brown extension comes up- You mean the Tatum one? No, Brown. Last year. Last year. Okay. You He did haggle with that one and try to get him for 2.99 or 2.89 or whatever. I think he would probably say this. He was like, You know what? We're paying him what the extension is. He's worth it. He's one of the best players in the league. We're doing this. They didn't want to... Because that last contract he had was a little bit of a discount. He's like, This is one of our guys. I'm not trying to save a couple of million a year on the salary cap.

I want this guy to make what he's worth because he's worth that much to us, which I think is a really great thing to do, and they're going to do with Tatum, too.

I think as an owner, his relationship with the players reflects that a decision. I think the players- Also that he knew the salary cap was about to go up. Well, in five years, that contract is going to look like a discount, ironically.

When Luca's playing for $100 million a year on Dallas.

When the new television contract is settled with the three different bidders, it's going to be crazy money.

Well, I wonder, one of the things that happened with the Pats, and this is like, I know one of the dumb topics this week will be, is the Celtics, or they're going to be a dynasty. We do this every year. I remember doing a segment about Denver last year. Could they be a dynasty? It's really hard to just keep winning titles. But I think one thing that might happen is you might be able to grab a vet in a way like the way the Patriots were always able to grab these deals. Because they want to play for this team. You're like, Oh, Junior, say, I want to try to win a title with us. I wonder if that could happen because one of the best things with them is the East is probably a little easier in the West. Which conference would you rather be in?

I'd rather be in the East.

With Philly, who knows with Embiid, Milwaukee's old, Miami's, Butler's in his mid-30s. You start going down the line, it's like this is the safest bet in the East. Could they steal somebody? There's some second apron stuff with them that it takes.

I think they could make it hard. Even with the second April and stuff that's going to surface, you could see a veteran taking a discount. I'm not sure the role players that we have now who's coming back.

Houser in a team option, so he comes back. They sign Pritchard.

Cornet is a free agent. Cornet, maybe not. Maybe not. But I'd like to see him come back. Why wouldn't he come back if he got a fair offer?

Yeah, it seems like everybody loves those. My daughter Zoe Simmons, who was a fetus during the 2004 Red Sox run, and then showed up. Within a couple of years, the Celtics won, and they just kept winning titles, and we always call her the Good Look Charm. Then she goes to school in Boston this year. She saw a lot of games with me. Starts going to Celtic Games with You, and then they win the title. It's just another feather in her cup.

So we should give her all the credit. We'll give her a little bit.

You know what I noticed? She didn't fly back for game five.

That is true, but I'm not sure she had a seat. Are you going to give her your seat?

Probably could have found one.

Probably, yeah.

But she was a good fan.

She was a good fan.

So you had the combo of you got to go to a bunch of games with her, with your wife. We got to go to the finals. This is a great start to finish season for you.

It was a perfect season.

Our drought It's over.

I have no complaints. I'm in on the coach. What more could I ask for?

51 years, 11 finals.

Seven victories.

Seven titles. What hat, T-shirt thing are you capable of?

I'd like one of those white championship hats. Yeah, those are pretty nice. They look neat.

All right. Well, thanks for taking me to all these games over the years.

You're welcome, son.

I still think '86 was my favorite.

I said that as well.

Yeah, I I think that was the right call. The '81 whole playoff run was probably my favorite. Beating Philly was still my favorite series we've ever won.

Beating the conference finals against Philly is my favorite series. But it wasn't... I I move this one up as my second favorite championship.

Then probably best individual finals game we ever went to, I would say was the heat game in the '84 finals, Game 5, when it was like 30 degrees, and somehow Bird wasn't tired. Yeah. That was a great one.

And all the great stories.

But we'll remember this one, this game. Game 5 is it'll be the Tatum game, right? It was like we wanted them in a big boy game, and it happened.

Well, also, It comes on the heels of a debacle three nights earlier. That nobody will ever remember. Nobody will ever care about again. But it made me… You walked around Boston all day today.

Yeah.

I couldn't even watch TV. I was so nervous. That's all gone. We won the championship. All right. All right.

Year 52 next year for you. Dad, thanks for coming on. We did it. Seven titles. This podcast was produced by Kyle Creighton and Steve Cerruti. I don't know when I'm coming back. It'll be at least two days. But thanks for listening. Go Celts, and I'll see you later in the week..