UBUNTU!!!!

Ubuntu!!!

My friends, my friends, my friends: ubuntu!

The Celtics defeated the Lakers tonight by just-about 40 points to win the Celtic's 17th NBA championship finals; their first in 22 years.

This is the first Boston team championship game to be won in Boston since the sports reign began in 2001 with the Patriots. All the other championships (Patriots & Red Sox) were won away.

I've been staying away from blogging and email and the internets in general for the last five days. It makes me more productive in certain ways, hence the lack of blogs for a bit. But I couldn't help but hop on tonight to celebrate.

Personally speaking, this is also the first time that I was actually in the city of Boston when a Boston team won the championships, as well. I was sitting at home watching the game solo when I decided, mid-first quarter, that if they should win, I would not be alone. I began to get ready to go out to West, and I am glad that I did, for I was in good, enthusiastic company there.

Truth be told, I sort of started to laugh at the end of the 3rd and all the way through the 4th because...well, it was almost comical how poorly the Lakers played and how definitively they lost. If I didn't hate Kobe so much, I would almost feel bad. But I do hate Kobe, and I do love this team of Celtics, so I don't feel bad, at all. Instead I feelt elated. Buoyant. Effervescent. I feel as though the world is at hand and we can all take from it what we will, provided we do so with a spirit that is generous, thougthful, determined, kind, hard-working and diligent. Whoas. I just got way deep there.

On another note, someone even bought a round of champagne at the bar upon the winning. That was cool, since I love the bubbly. Also, we all agreed that the "pink shirt" of Doc's, after Pierce dumped the red gatorade on him, would, like the bloody sock, become part of the Basketball Hall of Fame.

What a lovely lovely thing to happen. Someone at West said, and I completely agree, "What a great way to start the summer!"

My how the rest of the country will so much more defintively hate Boston, upon the THIRD sports team's championship win in the last 7 years.

I quite like being spoilt when it comes to my favorite teams winning or being enviably the best. I hope this continues and spreads. [Hint, hint Bruin's ownership.]

So, to bgein to wrap up, thank you MVP Paul Pierce, KG Kevin Garnett, Ray Allen, Big Baby, Rondo the 12 year old, Voldemort AKA Sam Cassell, and all the rest, and - even though I don't really like him (for some indefinable reason) - thanks to Danny Ainge, but most especially thank you thank you thank you to Doc Rivers. I know a lot of people have their doubts about him. I know that he gets very short shrift from the masses. But I also know that, were he not the big thinking/ detail orientated (my favorite type description, BTW) coach that he is, this wonderful, wonderful team would not have achieved as much as they had achieved this reason.

Thanks, Doc, for the Big Three, for the Dribble Drive Motion and, most importantly, for bringing ubuntu to a talented group of enthusiastic players and applying it to a team & a town who would so entirely and whole-heartedly embrace such philosophy. (Even if they didn't know they were.)

And finally, a last, personal note. It was my dad's birthday last Monday. And Sunday was the first Father's Day I ever spent without my father. These wins and losses in sports may often seem insignificant, but it is times like these when I miss my dad so much. Because, as oil-and-water or fire-and-ice as we were, we could always come together in our celebration in the triumphs of the sports teams we so loved. Forever, for me, each loss, like this year's Superbowl, and each win, like this year's NBA championships, will bring me closer to the spirit of my dad. For back in February, when the Pats lost, I knew we would have been mutually despairing. And tonight, regardless of any other difference of opinion or disposition we may have had, this win would have made us both celebrate and be happy and tranquil (truly a happening) together.

And that, among a million other reasons, but this being of the top most, is why I love sports.

Ubuntu, Celtics, ubuntu.

Good night! Let us meet again at the same time next year for the same joyous reason!