I hate Boston.
Let me be clear, I hate the Boston Celtics. More than that, I hate Paul Pierce.
A little history and background on me and why I have SUCH a natural hatred for all things Boston.
As a kid growing up in Cleveland in the 80’s I hated seeing the Celtics, their smug, cocky and arrogant fans and their cigar-puffing late owner in Red Auerbach, their banners and that fabled parquet floor at the old Garden. You would seemingly hear non-stop about their history, leprechauns and countless replays of Havlicek stealing the ball that I’d roll my eyes constantly.
We get it, already! The Celtics have the most NBA banners, the Garden and seemingly eternal luck on their side. Just made me hate those f$#^ers even more.
Aside from that, I was a young Cavs fan at that time growing up, but even so, my disdain from the loudmouths from Beantown was ingrained in before I was born when the Celtics beat the Cavs in seven games in 1976.
Fast forward 16 years, and another loss to those Massholes from Bah-stahn in 1985—when my Cavaliers finally broke through in beating the C’s—as well as sending Larry Bird into retirement—down at the now-gone “Palace on the Prairie”, the Richfield Coliseum, thanks to some heroics in front of a raucous crowd from Mark Price, Brad Daugherty and Larry Nance Sr., as well as Steve Kerr’s notable 48-foot bomb buzzer-beater.
Like every young black kid growing up, my adopted second team was the Los Angeles Lakers and watching the exploits of Magic Johnson, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and James Worthy. So, aside from being a Cavs fan and watching Showtime play seemingly every Sunday on TV, hating Boston came natural for me.
Fast forward 16 more years later to 2008, and that is where my first bad experience of hating the Celtics’ latest trash-talking loudmouth to wear their ugly-ass green and white—with some black—jerseys, in some kid—from Inglewood, CA, no less!—in Pierce.
From the start, there just seemed to be something that rubbed me the wrong way about Pierce, the spitting incident, the shade between the two would forever be cemented. While Pierce did outlast LBJ in their classic seven-game duel—and win his only NBA title in 2008, their long-standing feud would continue to the present day.
Even though LBJ’s “No Regard For Human Life!” poster on KG was NICE!
Now an analyst for ESPN, Pierce has—in typical petty fashion—continued his beef with LBJ in recently leaving LeBron of his top-ten all-time greatest list and recently dropped another absurdly hot take claiming that if LBJ and the Lakers are somehow swept and bow out in the first round to the eighth-seeded Portland Trail Blazers that any talk of LBJ being the G.O.A.T. needs to end right there.
Sad part is….The Truth is right.
In an effort to further continue his long-standing rivalry with LeBron, Pierce added more fuel to the always-heated Celtics-Lakers rift.
As if it needed any more!
Consider the fact that the Lakers, by many, are the odds-on favorite to win the title, Los Angeles also traded multiple young assets in Lonzo Ball, Brandon Ingram, Josh Hart and three first-round picks.
Thanks to the recent tour de force Michael Jordan documentary, The Last Dance, a whole new generation of NBA fans were introduced to MJ and his heroics. James is 3-6 in NBA Finals, Jordan is 6-0, LeBron has never lost a first-round series, Jordan has been swept six times in the playoffs. LeBron has the edge in stats (points, rebounds, assists, etc) while Jordan is undefeated in the Finals. SIX. AND. ZERO.
Never lost.
If, and I mean—if–LBJ somehow gets past the pesky Blazers, he’ll likely have to face another long-time nemesis in Kawhi Leonard, who has won 25 of 45 meetings between the two, and defeated LeBron back in 2014 and claimed his first NBA Finals ring and MVP and his expense.
They say that the truth hurts, and while Pierce’s remarks may come across as another diss towards his long-time rival, in this case, the truth prevails. In regards to my hate for Boston, never wearing green and Lucky Charms cereal, that’ll never change either.
This article also appears over at our sister site, The Spectator here.