Here's an article from bloomberg today saying how Red Auerbach would prolly be turning in his grave at the current Celtics team and management...And the Garden!! The Celts have become what the Lakers were and still are (a flamboyant team that Red despised). During Auerbach's time, The Celts were the team of the proletariats while the Lakers were the one portraying glamor and all the flavors of American narcissism. Hey, the Celts even had no cheerleaders or any "magnificent" half-time shows or anything pompous at all. They were the working class heroes.
That was all back in the good ol' days...Today, there's no difference!! What the Lakers put up in extravagence, the Celts match it in every aspect. Damn, the Celts even have a Hollywood actor wannabe, Paul Pierce in the team. A player who fakes an injury and puts on a limp that would even make soccer players blush with shame. As per Sleepy, "He's more Tara Reid than Willis Reed." HAHAHHA
GO LAKERS! Beat these hypocrites!! ...Beat 'em like I beat my eggs and eat 'em for breakfast!
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601109&sid=a0Xx52QuT2C0&refer=home
What Would Red Say? Celtics Embrace Los Angeles Glitz (Update1)
By Tom Moroney
June 17 (Bloomberg) -- The Boston Celtics were blue-collar favorites and the Los Angeles Lakers the darlings of Hollywood when they last played for the National Basketball Association title 21 years ago.
Celtics fans came by subway from working-class Dorchester. The Lakers had actor Jack Nicholson. The Celtics played in an arena without air conditioning. The Lakers had what they called ``the Fabulous Forum.'' Los Angeles had cheerleaders. Celtics Coach and President Red Auerbach didn't allow them.
As the two face each other again for the championship, the lines have blurred. For Nicholson, there are Celtics fans Matt Damon and Ben Affleck. For the Laker Girls, there are the Celtics Dancers. Boston has Lucky the Leprechaun, and, on some nights, fireworks.
``Unfortunately, watching Boston today is almost the equivalent of watching L.A.,'' said Karl Lawson, 33, a Boston sheet-metal worker and lifelong Celtics fan. ``I liked the game I used to go to with my father when I was a kid. I don't like all these Hollywood bells and whistles.''
There will be bells and whistles aplenty when the best-of- seven series returns to Boston tonight, with the Celtics up three games to two. Starters will take the court one by one through fireworks smoke. The video scoreboard will blare, and flash player montages in high definition.
No Marketing Needed
Boston was one of the last NBA teams to provide entertainment beyond the game itself, said Marc Ganis, president of sports-marketing consultant Sportscorp Ltd. in Chicago. Because players like Bill Russell, John Havlicek and Larry Bird led the Celtics to a record 16 titles, gimmicks weren't necessary, Ganis said.
``They won with mythic figures, and therefore did not have to market, promote or entertain,'' Ganis said.
The Celtics lost to the Lakers in 1987 and haven't won a championship since beating the Houston Rockets the year before. The drought meant the club could no longer rely on team performance to draw fans and remain financially sound, said Celtics President Rich Gotham, 43.
``When the Celtics were hanging consecutive championship banners, winning took care of everything,'' he said. ``But we had a 20-year period there where the team didn't win at a very high level. We had to run a business that was independent of the winning percentage.''
Gotham was hired as vice president of sales and marketing shortly after the team was purchased in 2002 for an NBA record $360 million. Wycliffe Grousbeck, former general partner of the Boston venture capital firm Highland Capital Partners, and Stephen Pagliuca, a managing director of buyout firm Bain Capital LLC in Boston, led the buying group.
$10 Million System
The new owners decided early on to improve the Celtics' ``second-class operation when it comes to the fan experience,'' Gotham said.
The old Boston Garden, hot in summer and cold in winter, had been torn down five years earlier. Its replacement was a $160 million arena, now known as TD Banknorth Garden, which features a $10 million sound, lighting and video system. The new owners introduced the prancing leprechaun and T-shirt cannons that fire freebies into the crowd.
In an end-of-season survey last year, a majority of attendees said their enjoyment had nothing to do with the outcome of the game, Gotham said.
Total revenue has jumped 35 percent since the new owners took over, he said. This year, as newcomers Ray Allen and Kevin Garnett helped make the Celtics a contender, revenue rose 20 percent and ticket sales 10 percent, said Gotham, who wouldn't discuss dollar figures.
Red's Resistance
The Celtics posted revenue of $117 million, 11th in the NBA, and operating income of $18.3 million for the 2006-2007 season, Forbes magazine said in December, citing its own estimates.
``The generation you and I are of would say we lost something in the way the Celtics have changed,'' said Larry Moulter, 57, who was president of the Boston Garden from 1987 to 1996. ``But my 25-, 22- and 19-year-old, they didn't lose anything. They are living in the moment and enjoying it.''
A prime reason the Celtics resisted the frills for so long was Auerbach, according to sportswriters who cover the team.
In 2004, when he ended his career as Celtics president, Auerbach told the Boston Globe: ``They're waiting for me to die so they can get cheerleaders.''
Auerbach passed away two years later at the age of 89. Four days later Boston became the last team to introduce cheerleaders, the Celtics Dancers.
Auerbach, who coached the Celtics for 16 years, gave his consent to the dancers, said Gotham, the team president. ``The reality is, he understood the fact that entertainment was part of the sports landscape,'' Gotham said.
Riley's Air Conditioning
He also understood that the old Garden had its advantages, said Richard Johnson, curator of the New England Sports Museum, located in TD Banknorth Garden.
When then-Lakers coach Pat Riley complained to the NBA in 1984 that the visitors' locker room was unbearably hot, Auerbach promised Riley would have air conditioning, according to Johnson, 52.
``And, sure enough, when the Lakers walked in that first day, there it was, sitting in the middle of the floor, still in boxes,'' Johnson said.
To contact the reporter on this story: Tom Moroney in Boston at tmorrone@bloomberg.net
Last Updated: June 17, 2008 07:03 EDT
