Thank You (Falettinme Be Mice Elf Agin), Celtics

It was near midnight when I jumped into the car and went home. Celtics Defeated the Warriors in Game 1 of the final.

When you turn on the car, Sly & The Family Stone’s “Thank you (Falettinme Be Mice Elf Agin)Was just beginning and seemed like the best song for the Celtics to find themselves right now.

It took a long time for the Celtics to return to the finals. Twelve years have passed, during which time the other seven teams have won the title. It’s been nine years since Ainge blew up an old core and started over.

Our people of Norwegian ancestry are known to keep South Dakota’s long winter nights away with “Ole and Lena” jokes.

One of my favorites is to find me and Lena reunited in heaven and they roam around and enjoy all the beautiful scenery. Lena tells me, “Isn’t it so beautiful so far?” I answer: “Sure, as you know, we could have come here sooner without a nursing home that would give us all oatmeal.”

And that’s the Celtics. As long as you enjoy this trip to the finals, you can’t escape the idea that this team (or its variations) may have come here earlier. But the problem is that we need to let go of that idea.

Photo by Garrett Elwood / NBAE via Getty Images

It’s all water under the bridge, and C had to work hard to get here, so you might not take it for granted.

They may think it’s a late arrival, but nothing was absolutely easy for these guys. And yes, you can look at a significant portion of their trial and point out that they were self-harming, but is it really important because we are here now?

Like Bird and Russell, I always think I need to join the league with an exclamation point, but I also forget that I was a veteran before I became a rookie. Bird was a fifth-year college student before joining the Celtics, and Russell had already led USF Don to two NCAA titles (and 55 consecutive wins).

Jalen and Jason? In two years they moved from playing against children aged 16 and 17 to playing against Lebron.

No other professional league will throw a rookie from the edge of the dock that way, but because it’s been around for a long time in the NBA, when a player joins the league with some experience that actually influenced the game. I forgot that there was.

Now let’s reset the clock a little. Let’s go by age, not NBA experience …

Jayson Tatum, like Larry Bird, will play in his first final at the age of 24.

Given that Tatum received four years of hands-on training instead of a college career, it’s a little easier to overlook some of the growing pain he experienced.

Both Ainge and Stevens, but especially Stevens, would have known that growth was not a linear process for these children. Stevens saw it directly as a college coach.

Photo by Stephen Ryan / Getty Images

There is an actual adjustment period from being able to control a player of sufficient age to obtain a driver’s license to being able to control a player who is professional for more than 10 years.Will take Year Even the best players to make that transition perfectly.

There is a conflict between how good you think you are based on your past experience and how good you are based on your current competition, and that conflict can sometimes be frustrating. It will require mental growth as your physical ability is not enough to get over you. And along the way, you need to develop thick skin. Because the mistakes you make aren’t buried in a match against Backmarker’s Division 1 program during the explosion. They will be made in front of a sold-out crowd in a big city. There, the men literally find the mistakes of you and your teammates and make a living.

It’s not a linear process either, and none of us have the right to expect it.

But the Celtics were stranded by their young men. In most cases, neither coaches nor front offices expected the young core of the team to meet unrealistic standards, regardless of what we were thinking as fans. They made them find their own way to greatness.

If C can hold this and win, it’s because Ainge, Stevens and Udoka made them themselves.