The year was 2007, and I sat squished alongside five friends in my buddy’s single dorm room. The seating arrangements could have been (much) better: sitting six people into a Skidmore College single is like fitting 17 in a Toyota Corolla. But I was in New York, I didn’t get Fox Sports New England, and my buddy Harry was the only person I knew who shelled out enough money for the cable package that included NBA TV. I wanted to, needed to, watch the new-look Celtics open preseason against the Toronto Raptors in Italy.

The C’s had just suffered through “The Gerald Green Year,” a youth movement of sorts that — combined with Paul Pierce’s injury-riddled campaign — left the Celtics with the NBA’s worst record, Doc Rivers with a bulls-eye on his back that columnists regularly took aim at, and fans with a “please lose as many games as possible so we can select either Greg Oden or Kevin Durant” mentality. When the NBA Draft lottery came and the Celtics were granted the fifth pick, I pondered my options. I could …

1) change allegiances and become a fan of some other team — ANY other team that wasn’t destined for failed season after failed season. But that really wasn’t an option, because, really, what kind of fan switches teams?

2) continue my existence as a miserable Celtics fan, blame Sebastian Telfair for everything bad that happened in life (“my keys got lost — screw you Telfair, you overhyped, underachieving son of a bitch!”), ask God daily why he ever mustered the cruelty to place Green, Telfair, Tony Allen and Wally Szczerbiak on the same team, and fall asleep each night muttering, “Allan Ray. Seriously?”

Or

3) talk myself into fully embracing Yi Jianlian, who Danny Ainge was reportedly enamored with at the No. 5 pick.

I chose the third choice. A seven-foot tall Chinese dude with soft touch and decent athleticism? Forget Durant and Oden! Yi’s the future of basketball! The Celtics got lucky to fall to the No. 5 pick!

FML.

The events that took place following the Draft lottery can only be described as stunning. The Celtics traded for Ray Allen on draft night, turning from laughing stock to “hmm, that team might be fun to watch” literally overnight. Rumors about the C’s acquiring Kevin Garnett shortly followed. I checked into HoopsHype 759 times per day from the computer where I worked at the local swimming pool. On the umpteenth day of The Garnett Watch, HoopsHype afforded me some ridiculously good news, which can only be judged by my reaction: in front of 75 kids, 15 mothers, three hot mothers and my boss, I loudly screamed “F*** YEAH” at the top of my lungs. I almost got fired, but who cares about a job in a time like that? The Celtics had just paired Kevin Garnett with Ray Allen and Paul Pierce. Thank you, Kevin McHale. Would you like chopsticks with your pu-pu platter?

The Celtics quickly became the hottest ticket around town, but it’s important not to forget: there were serious question marks about whether they could contend in year one of the Big Three era. Ray Allen was 32 years old and coming off double ankle surgery. Paul Pierce had just finished his own injury-prone season. Kevin Garnett was still one of the five or six best basketball players in the world, but could the three of them really carry Rajon Rondo and Kendrick Perkins on their backs? Remember, at that stage, neither Rondo or Perk had accomplished anything in their NBA lives. We knew very little about them. Rondo was young, uber-athletic and showed flashes of unadulterated brilliance, but lest we forget, he spent his rookie year backing up Telfair. And I assure you, it’s never a good sign when your team’s starting point guard was known as “Sebastian Telfair’s backup” just months ago. Perk was hulking, he frowned a lot and he had worked hard during his early years to cut a load of baby fat. But his offensive game was less complete than my latest Rubik’s cube, and it was difficult to calculate his defensive capacity. For so long, his defensive acumen had been hidden alongside young, immature teammates with nary a clue about how to play defense.

I really just used the word nary. But I digress.

For the first time, packed into the tiny dorm room, surrounded by the hot stench of my friends’ body odor, I saw the new-look Celtics in action. A few truths were immediately evident: Kevin Garnett looked odd wearing anything besides Minnesota Timberwolves colors, but he treated even preseason games like the NBA Finals. Ray Allen shot like a goddess, even when he missed, and also has enormous calves. James Posey would help everything, so much, even when he didn’t score. Eddie House had a quicker release than a virgin on his first time. But mostly, I watched and marveled at one thing: in the Celtics offense, the ball moved from side to side like a crowd’s eyes at Wimbledon. Back and forth, forth and back, the Celtics moved the ball like a Pete Carril Princeton team. You could never tell that two of the Big Three had recently been ball-stopping superstars with the basketball constantly in their hands. On this team, surrounded by so much talent, everyone wanted to keep everyone else happy. Maybe even too much so. The C’s passed up a few open shots to make the extra pass. But that was a trivial matter that more practice time would take care of. After watching Gerald Green for the previous year, this was like updating from Soulja Boy to Tupac.

At that point, watching NBA TV in that crowded, hot room, I still had no idea where the Big Three era would lead me. I didn’t know the Celtics would forge so quickly and rattle off 66 regular season wins, more than any team (1985-86, 67 wins) but one in Celtics history. I didn’t know they would struggle to beat the Hawks, barely nudge past a locked-in Lebron, find their inner playoff warrior against the Pistons and embarrass the Lakers in Game 6 to take home the franchise’s 17th title. I didn’t know “Anytthhinngggg isssss posssssiiibblllleeeee.” I didn’t know the slew of what-ifs that would follow in the coming years. What if Garnett didn’t get hurt? What if Perk never tore his ACL? What if Danny Ainge never traded for Jeff Green, or Rajon Rondo never dislocated his elbow? I didn’t know how joyful it would be to root for this Celtics team, even in the playoff losses, always so valiant and selfless and inspired, even if certain regular season games — especially the second night of back-to-backs — have been frightful to observe. I didn’t know Paul Pierce’s transformation into a mature man would finish. I didn’t know Rajon Rondo would blossom into one of the league’s most exciting, creative players, and also one of its most confounding. I didn’t know just how nice it would be to watch Ray Allen spot up on the wing in transition. I didn’t know Eddie House would become one of my favorite Celtics ever, James Posey’s hugs would be etched into my memory forever, or that Perkins — with his jaw that always seems set for war — would prove his worth and then some. I didn’t know losing to the Lakers in Game 7 would hurt so bad. I didn’t know I would come to love Tony Allen, even if I still hated him half the time. I didn’t know Stephon Marbury would be so strange, Glen Davis would make me feel the entire spectrum of human emotions, and Sam Cassell would never, ever stop shooting ill-advised shots. I didn’t know P.J. Brown would play such a crucial role in the only Celtics championship of my lifetime.

I didn’t know four years later, the NBA lockout would threaten to bring the Big Three era to a close without us seeing it through to the end. This glorious era that began when the Celtics got screwed in the NBA lottery might have just one season left. For the love of Scott Pollard, let us — let me — enjoy it.

Mostly due to the city’s history of racial inequality, partially due to cold and snowy winters, the Boston Celtics have never signed a truly significant free agent. Bill Russell, Bob Cousy, Larry Bird, Paul Pierce, John Havlicek, Dave Cowens, Kevin McHale — name a Celtics superstar and he was acquired via trade or through the draft.

The most important free agent signing in franchise history was probably Don Nelson; before he became a zany, successful and entirely unpredictable coach, Nelson was a key figure, albeit a role player, on five Celtics championship teams. But even Nelson came to Boston with little fanfare and few other options — the year before joining the Celtics, Nellie averaged 2.4 points per game for the Los Angeles Lakers. And with the Celtics, he never averaged more than 15.4 points, 27.4 minutes, or 7.3 rebounds. The most important free agent acquisition in the history of the NBA’s winningest franchise never made a single All-Star game.

But Boston’s free agent luck might be changing. According to Stephen Jackson, players are beginning to look at Boston differently than ever before.

“When I first got in the league, I would never have thought about Boston. Ever,” Jackson told ESPN the Magazine’s Ric Bucher. “The way they embraced KG was a big part of changing that.”

The Celtics also have a coach, and a black one at that, known for treating his players well. The Boston players begged Doc Rivers to stay every time rumors flew saying he might take a leave of absence, according to Bucher.

“That’s a big piece of it,” one agent told Bucher. “They’d run through a wall for him.”

As the Celtics attempt to transition from the Big Three era to the “Rondo and whoever else” era, becoming major players in the free agent market has never been more important. The Celtics currently have only three players under contract for the 2012-12 season. That means Danny Ainge will have millions of dollars to play with in the summer of 2012, but convincing Dwight Howard or any other marquee free agent to sign in Boston will mean erasing five decades worth of free agent whiffs. And if Ainge does fail to upgrade the team through free agency, the Celtics could begin a long rebuilding process, one that could revive painful memories of Ricky Davis, Gerald Green and Sebastian Telfair. Either that, or Ainge could settle for second-tier free agents and the Celtics could become mired in what I will call “The Antoine Walker Zone,” where the Celtics make the playoffs every year but never have a chance to contend for a championship.

In his piece, Bucher discussed the possibility of a Jeff Green-Paul Pierce-Rajon Rondo core.

“A nucleus of Green, Rondo and Pierce ‘is definitely a playoff team, especially in the East,’ says an Eastern Conference executive who spoke on a condition of anonymity because the league has a $1 million gag order on its employees during the current lockout,” wrote Bucher.

But the playoffs are not supposed to be the end, not for the Boston Celtics, winners of 17 championships, but the means to the end. The Celtics are supposed to fight for championships, not resign themselves to mediocrity. The Antoine Walker era produced many memorable moments — banked three-pointers to win games, a trip to the Eastern Conference Finals, shimmies and shakes galore– but the era that came after it, the Gerald Green era, was more beneficial to winning a title than anything Walker ever accomplished in Boston. With Walker, the Celtics were stuck in quick sand, not going anywhere fast, pretending to make moves that would result in a championship but never really inching any closer. But after gutting the team and rebuilding with young talent (err, if you can call it talent), the Celtics were able to trade assets, contracts and draft picks to acquire the Big Three and bring Boston its 17th title.

In the summer of 2012, when Kevin Garnett and Ray Allen become free agents, Danny Ainge might have a choice to make: sign second-tier free agents and maintain a semblance of competitive mediocrity, or gut the entire roster and attempt to rebuild through draft picks and trades.

Or maybe, if the Celtics get lucky, if Stephen Jackson’s sentiments are shared by the rest of the NBA, or at least by the marquee free agents of 2012, the Celtics could skip the rebuilding process and simply reload.

What say you, Dwight?

(Gotta love Tommy’s cackle.)

Damn it, guys. The best free agent left on the market has decided to take his talents to Russia. (Pro Basketball Talk)

Insanely athletic players like Gerald Green tend to get more NBA chances than most, but for the second straight year Green will ply his trade in Russia. According to the team page for BC Krasnye Krylia (via Inside Hoops), Green has been signed by the club after playing for Lokomotiv Kuban last year.

I’m so pissed. I always thought Gerald Green was the perfect answer to Lebron and Dwyane Wade. He’s just as athletic as all those guys, he can shoot from outside and he has all the tools to be one hell of a defender. I’ve thought all along that the Celtics should have scooped him up as their answer to the SuperFriends. He would have been cheap and he has enormous upside.

P.S. – I’m just kidding, guys. When it comes to basketball, Gerald Green is illiterate.

It looks like Green is trying to blow out a candle on the rim. But nobody can do that...

Reading Jessica Camerato’s piece about Gerald Green, it seems like Gerald — who is playing for the Los Angeles Lakers during the NBA Summer League – is a changed man. He seems to accept the error of his past actions, sounding like a man determined to change his ways in order to finally succeed in a sport that, physically, he was built for. (WEEI) Read more »

(Monkey bread on the side, you know how the family do it.)

Families. Some are good, others are bad. Some are loving, others aren’t. Some are supportive, others not so much.

And some families just respect the hell out of the Big Three and want their father to remain coach of the Boston Celtics as long as the current group of players is intact. (Boston Globe)

“All of them were like, ‘Dad, you got a special group and you worked your whole career to have a group like this and you can’t walk away from them. We’re all right. We’re doing great,’ ’’ Rivers said last week. [...]

Austin (editor’s note: Doc’s son, who is pretty damn good at basketball) offered his dad some astute advice on whether to keep coaching.

“He told me, ‘If it were a different group [of players in Boston], I’d tell you to come home. But with this group I think you should stay and play it out and see what happens and don’t put a time clock on it,’ ’’ Doc recalled. “That was basically our conversations. It’s amazing how much thought they had put into it compared to me. I was just kind of waiting, trying to get a gut [feeling]. You could tell they had a lot of talks about it as a group, which was great for me. It was good input, I needed it.’’

You’ve gotta stay to coach the Big Three. Gotta. This ain’t Gerald Green and Sebastian Telfair that Doc is coaching nowadays. The opportunity to coach three Hall-of-Famers at once doesn’t come around very often. (Is Doc actually coaching four Hall-of-Famers? Or did I just jinx the shit out of Rondo?)

Thank you, Doc’s wife and children, for understanding that the Boston Celtics are far more important than family.

P.S. – Today was a big day for family. Avery Bradley’s family remained a great support system even after his parents split up.

Cue the three-peat, the Hollywood parade, and Celtics fans in tears. The rest of the NBA might as well forfeit next season: The Lakers just signed Gerald Green to their summer league roster. I know it’s only summer league, but have you ever seen Green play? There’s no doubt he’s going to make the real team too.

The man! The myth! The legend! Is there a better summer league signing in NBA history? I mean, this is a guy who once blew a candle out while he dunked a basketball! Who once dunked between his legs with only socks on his feet! Who spent two years playing for the Boston Celtics and ALMOST learned the plays!

I thought the Lakers were going to be tough to beat, but now it will be almost impossible. They have Gerald Green — the next T-Mac! — on their roster now. The three-peat is in the books.