Bandwagon Jumping 101

This past Thursday was the NBA Draft. Like last year's, I saw it happening on TV at a bar, since the event seems to coincide with my annual participation in the Corporate Sellout Race Around Back Bay. That means it was about a year ago when the Celtics traded for Ray Allen, which seemed really dumb at the time. However, after the addition of the obviously insane Kevin Garnett it turned out to be the first step in turning the horrific game-tanking 24-win squad of the previous year into a legitimate championship contender this year.

The Celtics' run culminated last week at whatever the Boston arena is called these days against the Lakers, when they won their 17th championship. As you can see from the highlights, the Lakers barely bothered to play defense in the deciding game.


Being a half-assed NBA fan, I held off on fully jumping on the Celtics bandwagon until it was too late: my parents were in town for the finals and we were in Montreal for Game 6. That didn't stop me from repeatedly telling LimeyG about how MY TEAM was finally playing for THE CHAMPIONSHIP and I had waited SO MANY YEARS until WE WON. This started in the first round of the playoffs, so the hilarity level built as the weeks passed.

Anyway, upon returning from Canada I did get a chance to show off my fair-weather fandom during the Celtics celebration before last Friday's Red Sox-Cards game at Fenway. The celebration was planned to preceed the start of the game, just after the playing of the Anthem. Unfortunately at the very moment the three green duck boats carrying players and staff came out from centerfield a rainstorm began. As we were sitting unprotected in the bleachers, we ran for cover down to the concourse.



We did come back out after the rain let up a bit and the duck boats passed in front of our area. So I got to yell "WOOO, PAUL PIERCE!" like everybody else and I really did feel like I got the perfect fair-weather fan experience: I got to cheer when it was convenient for me to do so.

(By the way, I should note that the Celtics Leprechaun mascot is not really a small person like LimeyG first thought, but rather a normal-sized person standing next to the likes of Big Baby Davis. He's actually taller than Dustin Pedroia. I know that doesn't say much.)

I am currently taking the same approach to the Euro 2008 tournament. Thanks to England's shameful elimination in the preliminaries I felt free to support whichever team struck my fancy. I settled on Spain because I speak the language, I like their food and they've made it to the finals. If they beat the Germans on Sunday I expect to parade in front of Dalí yelling "¡Que viva España!" because that is the type of soccer fan I am.