The last NBA championship won by the Boston Celtics was in 1986. Since then it has been the curse of Len Bias as the team has floundered. This past year a combination of injuries, a poor start and some questionable coaching resulted in the team compiling the second to worst record in the NBA.
Bias of course was the Maryland star who the Celtics picked in the 1986 NBA draft. He was the second over all pick after Brad Dougherty. I can't remember exactly how the then defending NBA champs managed to have acquired this pick. I do remember that he was to be the heir apparent to Larry Bird and would extend the domination of that great Celtic club. The rest of course is history as two days later Bias was dead of a cocaine over dose.
Since then it has been one disappointment after another. I have included a link to a Bill Simmons column that goes into great detail, the pain that Celtic fans have felt. http://proxy.espn.go.com/espn/page2/story?id=1216291
Tonight marks a point in time when things could turn around. A genuine moment when we can look back and say it was at that moment that we came full circle.
Finishing second to last gives the Celtics a 38% chance of getting one of the 2 franchise players available this evening. That means that if we capitalize on that chance then we will either get Kevin Durant of Texas or Greg Oden of Ohio State. Both are freshman but each is destined to be a marquee player in the NBA.
We were in this situation once before when we had a chance to get Tim Duncan and the lottery gods failed us miserably. Duncan went to San Antonio and we went into the dumps. He won rings and we won disappointment. Perhaps with a little change of luck we will either be getting a genuine 7 foot pivot man in Oden or a dynamic 6'10" athlete with unlimited up side potential in Durant. I am not even thinking about anyone else.
