The man needs no caption.

Hate Lebron for the way he Decided where he would “take his talents” next season. Hate him for being an egotistical prick. Hate him for being disloyal to Cleveland. Hate him for no-showing against the Celtics in Game 5. Hell, I don’t care, hate him for picking his nails or because you get annoyed by his goddamn puppet.

But should you really hate him for choosing to play with two of the NBA’s top ten players?

Of all the things Lebron is getting backlash for, choosing to play with Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh is far and away the most unreasonable. The most pressing argument against it is usually, “Michael Jordan never would have done that!” But the argument isn’t that Lebron has to win on his own. It can’t be, can it? Because Jordan happened to have Pippen. And Bird had McHale and Parish. And Johnson had Kareem, Worthy and a host of other stars. So it isn’t just that people don’t want Lebron to play with another star. It’s that people fault Lebron for playing with another star on that other star’s turf.

But it’s not Lebron’s fault the Cavaliers couldn’t add another star in Cleveland. It isn’t his fault he HAD to leave in order to play with a quality sidekick. He saw what many others saw; the Cavaliers weren’t built for playoff prosperity, and they didn’t have much flexibility. Say what you want about Lebron failing to deliver a championship after the Cavs tore through the regular season, but when you look at his supporting cast you can see it would have been a miracle if Lebron HAD won a ring in Cleveland. They won a ton of regular season games, sure, but when it came down to it they weren’t built to win in the playoffs. Antawn Jamison would have been the worst second-fiddle in history to ever win a title, am I wrong? He was murdered by the half-KG we saw this season. And Mo Williams was always hit-or-miss. Neither were the reliable options Lebron needed to be flanked by if he wanted to win a championship, and Lebron knew that as well as anybody else.

People hate Lebron for his oversized ego, but then think that same ego should have been bigger. By that, I mean that people believe Lebron should have stayed in Cleveland. He should have felt he could win a championship on his own, supporting cast be damned. Even if said cast was flawed. Even if the Cavs had little flexibility for the future and might have already peaked in early defeat. But with the knowledge of all the Cavs’ shortcomings (and there certainly were shortcomings, despite leading the league in regular season wins), should we really blame Lebron for leaving? I don’t think so. Could he have gotten things done in Cleveland? Yeah, it was a possibility. But it wasn’t his best opportunity to win championships. It wasn’t his best chance for immortality.

But Michael Jordan wouldn’t have done that. With superstars, especially those who play on the wing, it always seems to come back to Jordan. And His Airness never would have gone to Miami, common knowledge says, because he was too competitive. He wanted to tear the hearts out of his closest competitors, not win championships with them. Hell, Jordan even said it himself.

“There’s no way, with hindsight, I would’ve ever called up Larry, called up Magic and said, ‘Hey, look, let’s get together and play on one team,’” Jordan said after finishing tied for 22nd in the American Century Championship golf tournament in Stateline, Nev. “But that’s … things are different. I can’t say that’s a bad thing. It’s an opportunity these kids have today. In all honesty, I was trying to beat those guys.”

There’s one aspect of the above quote that hasn’t been talked about much: Jordan qualified it with the phrase “with hindsight.” Obviously, Jordan can say that with hindsight. Six championships in Chicago later, Jordan can obviously look back and say he never would have played with those guys. He did it on his own terms, in Chicago. He didn’t need to go anywhere else, he didn’t need to join forces with another super-duper-star. But what if Pippen had never developed into one of the game’s best players? What if Jordan had hit what he thought was a dead end? Wouldn’t the fiercest competitor ever, a man who wanted to do nothing but win, have wanted to go somewhere else so he could earn a ring? Wouldn’t he have wanted to do that? We don’t know and his quote can’t tell us, because he chose to qualify it by saying “with hindsight.”

But let’s just pretend Jordan never said “with hindsight.” Let’s say he wouldn’t have wanted to go anywhere, no matter what. Let’s say Jordan wanted to win a title in Chicago or die trying. If so, is it really wrong of Lebron to choose another route? Is it wrong that he doesn’t follow the path Jordan laid out? Is it wrong he wants to establish greatness in another fashion?

I’m sorry (actually, no I’m not), but you shouldn’t blame Lebron for taking an alternate route to greatness. You shouldn’t fault him for joining a team that, in time, could stake its claim as one of the greatest ever to grace the hardwood. Because, really, the same reason Lebron chose to travel to Miami is the same reason we were drawn to his game in the first place: He’s unselfish. He gets that basketball is a team game. Even during his time in Cleveland, Lebron always tried to foster his teammates along the way. He passed to open teammates with games on the line. He took pictures with them before games. He celebrated with them after wins and after big plays. What Michael Jordan took several years to realize, that he would need teammates to help him along the way, Lebron instinctively knew.

He just didn’t think his old teammates were good enough. Or he didn’t think he could pass up an opportunity to play for a team that could prove to be one of the best ever assembled. Or maybe there was some other reason we don’t know about. Whatever it was, Lebron chose the place where he felt he would have the best chance at multiple championships. 

And he sucked up his elephant-sized ego to do it. By leaving Cleveland, Lebron admitted he wasn’t good enough to make a dynasty there. He wasn’t good enough to do it by himself. He wasn’t good enough to carry Antawn Jamison and Mo Williams on his back, even though that very back is emblazened with the tattoo, “The Chosen One.” Lebron’s decision was at once the most egotistical thing to happen to the NBA in years and an admission: I can’t do it alone.

So take Lebron’s decision (not the production of it, but the actual choice) whatever way you want. Call him a coward for seeking out help or intelligent for joining the team with the best chance of multiple championships. Or cowardly intelligent, if you wish.  

But just realize what Lebron knows: If this SuperFriends experiment goes to plan, if Lebron James wins as many championships in South Beach as he envisions, he’ll put this all beyond him on his way to immortality. Just ask Kobe: Winning has a curious way of curing public perception.

In the end, isn’t a winning-driven immortal all we ever expected Lebron to be? Or did we somehow expect more of him than even that?

Hugs all around. The Big Three era ain't over yet.

The final buzzer blew and tears flowed. Not only did the Boston Celtics lose a heartbreaking Game 7, but they didn’t know what lay in store.

Futures were in limbo, and it was unclear whether the Big Three era would live to play another day. In the locker room Doc Rivers told his team, the grown men bawling in front of him, “You’ve still yet to have a true chance to defend your title because Perk wasn’t there.” And the saddest part was, we thought they might never get that chance.

Luckily, we underestimated the loyalty these men hold in their hearts for the Boston Celtics. Paul Pierce opted out of his contract, and we briefly believed he might head elsewhere. But he never even spoke to other teams. There was plenty of talk about Doc Rivers’ potential retirement. But Doc came back, saying, “We want to go after this one more time, and we have Kevin [Garnett] and Paul [Pierce] and Ray [Allen] hopefully all coming back, so why not? Let’s see if we can do it one more time.” Ray Allen, too, was rumored in talks of leaving. He was recruited by Lebron James to be the King’s right-hand man. But Ray couldn’t leave, either. “I’m happy to be returning as a Celtic,” he told WEEI.com via text message. “There’s no other place I wanted to be.”

Since the original Big Three era fell apart toward the end, breaking into 22 years of mediocrity, the Celtics have sometimes been criticized for keeping the crew together. Red Auerbach should have traded those guys away, some fans say. They should have rebuilt. But shouldn’t teams show the same loyalty to their players as they would expect from their fans? Didn’t Larry Bird, Kevin McHale and Robert Parish deserve to be Boston Celtics as long as they wanted to? With their devotion to the Celtics and the city of Boston, didn’t those players earn the right to stay put?

To this day, Bird remembers Auerbach’s loyalty to that Celtics core. “Sometimes you’ve got to show loyalty in this business, and Red (Auerbach) did that,” Bird told the Boston Herald. He did it for a number of years.” In some way, isn’t that loyalty more important than winning dozens of championships?

Many bad aspects of sports have been exposed during this NBA free agency. Egotism. Selfishness. Greed. A stunning lack of humility and grace. Everywhere you look, it’s Lebron this, Lebron that or Big Three this, Big Three that. Due to marketing, the media and whatever else, individuals have become more highly regarded than teams, even though teamwork is the backbone of sport.

But while free agency kicks off, the Boston Celtics — the same team that knocked both Lebron James and Dwyane Wade out of the playoffs — quietly re-formed to take another run at a championship. And they did it because of one thing: Loyalty. 

Paul Pierce and Ray Allen could have chased money. Ray could have chased a title as Lebron’s sidekick. Doc Rivers could have went home to his family and relaxed for the first time in years. Danny Ainge could have blown the whole thing up and started the rebuilding process.

But they’re all back. And I have a funny feeling it’s mostly because they share a deep, deep love.

Living the dream.

He grew up just outside of Boston, with a parquet floor in his bedroom and a pair of Hondo Havlicek’s shoes on his dresser. Can you imagine what Tony Gaffney felt when the Boston Celtics called and offered him a contract?

“Our whole lives,” Gaffney said in a June interview with Henry Abbott, speaking of both he and his brother, “we dreamt of walking on the floor of the Garden — where Bird played, where Parish, McHale, Danny Ainge, all the Celtics greats played.”

If he keeps playing like he did yesterday, Gaffney could very well get that chance. Despite possessing a very raw offensive game, Gaffney manages to affect games in a variety of ways. Yesterday, drawing the draft’s number two selection as his defensive assignment, Gaffney limited Evan Turner’s production while chipping in 10 points and 5 rebounds of his own.

While those may seem like paltry stats for an NBA player participating in summer league, stats have never done Gaffney’s game justice. There were the two charges he took on Turner, wiping away two potential buckets. There was the blocked shot, the two dunks. And the hustle, the always present hustle. There are holes in his game, sure, but Gaffney does his best to make up for them in other ways. He doesn’t run the floor in transition, he sprints. He doesn’t take plays off, he doesn’t hang his head if he misses a jumper, and he relishes playing the role of defensive stopper.

“They told me before we came here,” said Gaffney, who has defended Turner and James Harden in the Celtics’ two games, ”that I was going to be matched up with the best wing on every team. My eyes lit up when they said that.”

Gaffney’s length (“He’s like a spider out there,” described NBATV announcer Rick Kamla), athleticism (“He’s a gazelle,” proclaimed summer league coach Austin Ainge), and work ethic (“I love working hard,” said Gaffney) have all allowed him to come a long way very quickly. Two and a half years ago, Gaffney was a junior at UMass averaging 4.8 points per game. The next year, he was a double-double guy every night, playing center and blocking the third-most shots in the nation. Now, he’s a small forward with a contract (albeit non-guaranteed) to play basketball for his hometown Celtics. Is that even real life?

But Gaffney’s journey isn’t done. He still hasn’t fulfilled his childhood dream, still hasn’t stepped foot on the Garden floor to play a real game. If he ever does, if he gets the opportunity to share the parquet with childhood idol Paul Pierce, there won’t be many men in the world happier than Tony Gaffney.

“My entire life, my whole family has lived Celtics,” explained Gaffney in June, standing on his bedroom’s parquet floor. “To be able to wear a Celtics uniform right now and hopefully for years to come, it’s pretty special.”

It sure is.

Editor’s note: Introducing Nick Williamson as Celtics Town’s newest writer. Enjoy his work.

Legends.

After the Los Angeles Lakers finally eclipsed the Suns in game 6,  Arash Markazi of ESPN Los Angeles asked Kobe Bryant to comment on the upcoming installment of the historic Celtics-Lakers rivalry. Kobe’s response, “I’m playing in it. I don’t give a damn about it. That’s for other people to get excited it about. I get excited about winning.”

When taken at face value, Bryant’s comment seems downright moronic–as if, at the exact moment he was responding, Ron Artest’s mind was telepathically controlling Kobe’s mouth. Such an occurrence would require considerable brain power and seems highly unlikely, as Artest is obviously illiterate. I mean c’mon, you saw his Tweets about Phil Jackson during the Utah series.

If you didn’t, or just want to laugh your ass off again:

“Finally Phil Jackson didn’t mention me in media before talking me Now I can build on game 2. Hopefully he talks to me before media.”

“Ever since phil mention things about me in media before coming to me first I was weird. So every pray he can somehow close his yapper and now say AMEN.”

Really, dude? Do you want us to buy you hooked on phonics? No wonder Phil Jackson gets so fed up with Artest’s crap. You have Coach Jackson, a prolific reader and published author, attempting to communicate with a man who can barely understand the scoreboard. Aw, now I understand why Artest hoisted that three when could have run out the clock. He can’t read good.

Assuming that Jedi-mind tricks weren’t at work, we can only conclude that Kobe is making a concerted effort to downplay the influence of Celtics-Lakers history. Despite his best efforts to project otherwise, there is no doubt that Kobe Bryant wants nothing more than to play and beat the Celtics in the finals.

As Markazi points out,

If you grew up as a Boston Red Sox fan, you dreamed of hitting the walk-off home run to beat the New York Yankees. If you grew up as a Washington Redskins fan, you dreamed of scoring the winning touchdown to beat the Dallas Cowboys. And if you grew up as a Lakers fan, as Bryant did, you dreamed of hitting the game-winning shot to beat the Celtics. (or Visa Versa)

Downplaying the importance of Celtics-Lakers is like calling Marilyn Monroe ugly. You’re talking about a magnificent duel between two fundamentally different teams, cities….coasts. Every player involved in this years Finals carries the weight of the wars waged by previous generations of superstars. For Kobe Bryant, this series is about his legacy as an all-time Laker great; the ring that would tie him with Magic Johnson.

For the Celtics, nothing would be sweeter than tarnishing that legacy.

Doc Rivers is well aware of the historical significance of this rivalry. He didn’t mince words during a WEEI interview on the Dennis and Callahan show.

I know the history. I love the history of the game. To be part of it is huge for me, personally. But you feel a responsibility. You don’t want them to beat you. And that’s just the bottom line. Let’s say you were playing Phoenix. You still would want to win the world championship, obviously. But you’re playing the Lakers, and it’s like you’re thinking more about you want to beat them and less about wanting to win the title. And that’s probably good.

Being that the C’s are such a cohesive unit, it’s safe to assume that Doc’s sentiment trickles down through the line up. Pierce, KG and the rest of the squad are well aware of the tradition ingrained in Celtic green.

As for Boston fans, there is no doubt that this rivalry resurrects the passions of past match-ups, as the triumvirate of Bird, McHale and Parish gives way to Pierce, Garnett and Allen.

Oh yeah, Rondo is pretty good too.

As I sit here, watching the Red Sox play the Athletics, a night before the NBA Finals even begin, audible cheers of “Beat LA” reign out over Fenway Park.

Let the show begin.