'81 EC Finals

[Robert Bowman <rbow@mn.mediaone.net>]

caught game 7 on espn classic last night. boy was that a game! made me
appreciate again what a fantastic squad that was--bird, parrish, mchale,
max, tiny, henderson, ford, carr, robey all played significant minutes.
max tends to get overlooked sometimes but he was all over the place.
aside from the pure enjoyment of watching the fellas scratch and claw to
come from behind to win it, the thing that struck me is how valuable on-
court leadership is and how we need to have someone (hopefully 2 or 3)
step up and take on the role on this current edition. caldwell jones had
to have had at least 5 or 6 blocks including 2 on the chief and at least
1 on bird. he didn't do much else but what a presence inside. it was
also fun seeing how young all those guys were--mchale was a rookie!
anyways it was a rewarding trip down memory lane. i was even yelling at
the refs and nearly cussed out max when he missed 4 consecutive fts.

i, like many, am optimistic about the upcoming season. aside from our 2
set pieces i am hoping that one of the rooks (better still all 3)
develops quickly and takes on an important role (6th man?). also, i am
hoping that battie is 100% and has his head on straight (see max fight
for rebounds on both ends). he can be a very important piece. blount and
pot can fill in the gap(hustle, play hardnosed d and foul somebody).
none of them are gonna be able to handle shaq, who can? and besides the
celtics aren't ready to challenge for the title yet anyways. kenny,
kenny, kenny--suck it up, show some leadership and finish out your
career with a flourish. give us 25-30 hard minutes and play team ball.
there's other scorers (see tiny pass and penetrate). maybe they all
should watch that game 7 and catch the spirit of celtics teams past so
they can envision what they might become.

just a little celtic pride for these dog days of summer. bob