The Celtics' 18th NBA championshio last June was followed by a parade through the city.
The Celtics' 18th NBA championshio last June was followed by a parade through the city.Barry Chin/Globe Staff
If this is how an era ends, if the Celtics’ present is about to become their past, remember this:
All the frustrations and disappointments along the way, Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown’s precocious youth, Isaiah Thomas’s magic, Kyrie Irving’s slippery departure, Al Horford’s essential return, the long and winding journey from the lessons and lows before the highs . . .
Worth it. All of them.
Every one, every moment, everything.
If ever there is a doubt, here’s the solution: The next time you’re in the Garden, look to the rafters. Banner 18, captured last June and raised in October, is the confirmation and the reminder:
Flags do fly forever.
The core Celtics of this era weren’t just champions of the 2023-24 season. They’re champions forever, and when these players’ careers are long done, they will be reminded of that every time they come to Boston.
Maybe that isn’t easy to appreciate right now, in this sleepless aftermath of how their title defense ended, a condition president of basketball operations Brad Stevens mentioned having more than once in his coda-to-the-season media availability Monday.
The Celtics’ six-game loss to the Knicks in the Eastern Conference semifinals didn’t just give New Yorkers something they savor the most — bragging rights over Boston. It tagged this season — and possibly, if not probably, this era — with a hideous final scene, one foreshadowed by blown 20-point leads in Games 1 and 2 at TD Garden.
Worse than the series loss was a personal and personnel one. It could be a year before we see Tatum set foot on the parquet again, the Celtics’ superstar having suffered a ruptured right Achilles’ tendon in Game 4 — an injury on the short list of the most worrisome for a professional basketball player. A week later, it remains surreal that it even happened.
The injury to Jayson Tatum had a massive impact on the series against the Knicks, but it could have an even bigger role in the future of the franchise.
The injury to Jayson Tatum had a massive impact on the series against the Knicks, but it could have an even bigger role in the future of the franchise.Danielle Parhizkaran/Globe Staff
If the injury itself isn’t cruel enough, it also may be an accelerant to change. The Celtics did the right thing and retained everyone notable from their championship core, but that ensured a massive luxury-tax bill was going to come due eventually.
The Celtics likely would have pared a veteran or two from the roster no matter the ending to this season in order to get below the dreaded and punitive “second apron” of tax. Now, given Tatum’s status, the calculus could be changed on this. It’s possible that the Celtics take the drastic but justifiable route and get below the tax threshold altogether. Not to be too dramatic, but if that’s the path, it would require the kind of roster bloodletting that would have us on AJ Dybantsa Watch by next January. (By the way, I will never get why the Players Association agreed to this deal.)
I’m very curious how pending owner Bill Chisholm views this. The kind of person who can rustle up $6.1 billion to buy an iconic basketball franchise surely has a history of making ruthless decisions. But I doubt he wants to come in and look like the bad guy right away by gutting the roster.
Stevens didn’t give away much regarding his thinking on Monday, saying he would have more information on how the Celtics plan to proceed by NBA Draft time in June. He probably isn’t even certain of the future ownership’s wishes at this point. But it was at least somewhat notable that he turned several questions about the team’s future into praise for the current roster. (“We have a lot of good players” . . . “I never put a ceiling on a group of players” . . . “We have an amazing group of guys” . . . “The character in the room is incredible.”)
It will be fascinating to see how Stevens proceeds. As a dealmaker, he’s proven a worthy successor to Danny Ainge, with the kind of savvy and evaluation skills Red Auerbach would have appreciated. But Ainge could be — here’s that word again — ruthless; when he said he would have traded Larry Bird and Kevin McHale if he were Auerbach, we believed him.
We’re going to find out if Stevens is similarly unsentimental. He might be a nice Midwestern guy, but I do trust that he can make painful decisions. And I am curious to see which unheralded players he might pursue. He got it awfully right with that unassuming Spurs guard, Derrick White, three seasons ago. The Celtics are going to be counting on Stevens’s player-procurement wizardry more than ever.
Acquiring Derrick White from the Spurs in February 2022 is a feather in the hat of Brad Stevens.
Acquiring Derrick White from the Spurs in February 2022 is a feather in the hat of Brad Stevens.Danielle Parhizkaran/Globe Staff
If ownership chooses to shed enough salary/talent to get below the second apron, the Celtics should still be a playoff team, even if Jrue Holiday (how I wish that guy was a Celtics lifer), Kristaps Porzingis, and Sam Hauser must move on.
If they choose to hammer the reset button, well, that’s sobering, but In Brad We Trust.
It’s just too bad that the championship window for this particular admirable group of players — this team, in every sense — will likely close after just two years.
Colleague Dan Shaughnessy wrote a wonderful book, “Wish It Lasted Forever,” about his time covering the 1980s Celtics.
We knew this era wasn’t going to last forever. It would have been nice if it could have lasted a little longer.
But as long as that banner flies, the wonders of this era will be just a glance to the sky away.
The Boston Celtics are NBA champions, a title years in the making
The Boston Celtics win title No. 18 with a blowout win over the Dallas Mavericks. (Randy Vazquez, Olivia Yarvis, Jaeel Beato/ Globe Staff) (undefined, undefined, undefined)
Chad Finn can be reached at chad.finn@globe.com. Follow him @GlobeChadFinn.