Awash in joy, gratitude and, yes, confetti, Celtics fans put their emotions on parade savoring Banner 18
It’s unfair to compare, but this Celtics celebration felt a lot like the glory days of the 1980s.
This is a stand-alone moment to revel in right now, a championship and a parade to savor. And don’t you know Boston has mastered the art of savoring during this region’s glorious sports century.
The Celtics’ parade — more of a rolling fiesta, of course, aboard the duck boats that remain perfect for the occasion — weaved from TD Garden past City Hall Plaza to Hynes Convention Center Friday, thrilling a crowd that giddily basked in the 18th NBA title in franchise history and the idyllic June weather.
It was one more delightful reminder that Boston never looks better than when confetti is fluttering from above.
We’ve now done this 13 times — 13 times! — this century, beginning with the Patriots’ Super Bowl victory in February 2002, and while the Celtics ended the region’s five-year title drought this year, the practical details of a championship celebration in this city are permanently familiar.
We know the route by heart, and the beats — chants that are sometimes vulgar, sometimes hilarious, and often both; players acknowledging handmade signs and shouts of their names; an assortment of, uh, refreshments being consumed aboard the duck boats and off — are standard features of the rollin’ good times.
On a day like Friday, there’s no need for the “energy to shift,” to paraphrase a prescient Jaylen Brown quote from the 2022 Celtics’ run to the Finals. The energy is already impeccable.
This full moment, this day in Celtics lore, from the brief speaking event at TD Garden before players and personnel boarded the duck boats, through the parade and its associated hijinks (Brown tossed basketballs to fans; Derrick White, perhaps advised by his “cousin from Boston,” tossed beers), stands on its own as one to cherish.
But there’s a comparison that is impossible to resist, and this particular comp is not a thief of joy.
What we’ve experienced over the past couple of weeks with the Celtics reminds me so much of how wonderful it felt around here during the ‘80s glory days of Larry Bird and the Big Three.
I have no higher sports compliment to offer than that, and I’m sure I never will.
The intention in this space on parade day was to let these new champions have their independence, to celebrate what Brown, Jayson Tatum, and their talented teammates pulled off rather than focus on where it fits or what it compares to in the franchise’s unmatched history.
But then the first speaker at Friday’s pre-parade event, Governor Maura Healey, invoked history almost immediately.
“We are in love with this team,’’ she said. “Basketball is a team game, everybody has a role, everybody has a part … and as great as they are on the court, these men are better as human beings.”
She then shifted tense, from present to past, remarking on the beloved Celtics players that she grew up admiring, saluting Bird, Kevin McHale, Robert Parish, Cedric Maxwell, and even the legendary narrator of that era.
“If you close your eyes,” she said, “you can hear Johnny Most.”
It is irresistible to avoid such comparisons, to avoid thinking about other special times in Celtics history, while celebrating the newest one. And I don’t think that’s a bad thing, even as I tried to resist.
The next few seasons, of course, will determine whether these Celtics can approach the three titles of the Bird heyday. And even if they do, sentimentality and nostalgia from my generation and Governor Healey’s will likely prevent them from being as beloved.
But so much of what’s happening now does feel like what happened then, even if the particulars have changed. There were no “rolling rallies” in the ‘80s; the Celtics addressed fans from City Hall. On Friday, the Celtics did not address fans directly at all, which feels like something of a missed opportunity for further connection and perhaps some good-one liners.
(Even the pre-parade speaking event was short on good quips, though Tatum did get in a decent dig on Miami that you’ve probably seen 15 times by now. Maybe 20.)
But it’s the similarities that will stay with me. The sea of fans, decked out in green and white, for as far as the eye can see. The willingness of the players and coaches to let loose, showing the less-serious side of their personalities. The beautiful weather in a beautiful city, the ideal backdrop to revel in a team that earned this admiration. Even the ‘80s-style championship caricature shirts worn by many Celtics employees were a welcome flashback.
The joy. The overwhelming, gratitude-filled joy. That is exactly the same.
For my particular generation of Celtics fans, the ‘80s were the good old days.
But Friday’s festivities delivered a welcome reminder. The good old days?
We’re in them right now.
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