The Boston Celtics are the most storied gloried franchise in the history of professional basketball.  Winners of a record 16 NBA titles with 29 Hall of Famers, the Celtics mystique and tradition in recent times has gone the way of the old Boston Garden and its parquet floor.

     The decline of the Celtics has seemingly coincided with that of the NBA.  Some might say that Red Auerbach got off easy and you can sure as hell bet he's rolling in his grave all the way to China. Sure they won a division title two years ago, but anyone attune to NBA history knows that a team with a tradition from Bill Russell and Bob Cousy to John Havlicek to Larry Bird, Kevin McHale and Robert Parish, division title doesn’t cut it.

     Of course every team goes through their dry spells, until you notice that since the last Celtics won a title in 1986, the Red Sox have won a World Series and the Patriots have won 3 Super Bowls.  In fact the only team in Beantown saving the Celtics from complete embarrassment is the Bruins, because let’s face it misery loves company. 

     The decline all started back in 1987 when a young superstar named Len Bias, an All-American out of Maryland whom the Celtics chose with the 2nd pick overall, died of a cocaine overdose before he would ever lace ‘em up for Boston. 

     Then the team continued to get older, Dennis Johnson retired, Danny Ainge was traded for the immortal Joe Kline, Larry Bird’s back and Kevin McHale’s knees were shot and Robert Parish couldn’t log the minutes of a starting center anymore. 

     Perhaps the biggest blow to the team was the death of their leading scorer all-star forward Reggie Lewis in 1993.  When practicing in the off-season Lewis collapsed and subsequently of cardiac arrest. 

     After many ensuing losing seasons, the Celtics could not even rely on the luck of the lottery balls to turn themselves around.  After going 15-67 during the 1996-97 season the one silver lining was that Tim Duncan was going to be the number one overall pick.  The San Antonio Spurs inexplicably won the lottery and the rest as they say is history.

     During this time the rival Los Angeles Lakers had fallen apart as well after the Magic Johnson era was over.  However as the Lakers started to rebound with Shaq and Kobe, the Celtics continued to stumble over their own feet making poor coaching hires in M.L. Carr and Rick Pitino as well as poor draft choices.  Even when they hit on an occasional good pick like Chauncey Billups and Joe Johnson, the organization would become impatient and trade them away for journeyman vets.   

     Recently the Celtics have gotten back to some semblance of respectability reaching the playoffs the last 4 seasons in a row.  Paul Pierce has become a huge part in that revival as the face of the franchise and the teams’ lone all-star.  However during this time the Celts have been unable to find another star to compliment Pierce in order to put them over the top.  Thus this season has become the start of another re-building era.

     Granted the Celtics have some promising young players in Al Jefferson, Delonte West, Gerald Green and Ryan Gomes but it appears that a championship team is still light years away. 

     Perhaps what is ailing the Celtics is that they need another Larry Bird just like the NBA needs another Michael Jordan, because neither has been the same since.  What Boston, a city that has had a contentious relationship with its own black athletes in the past including even amazingly Bill Russell, needs a young star black superstar like LeBron James or Kevin Garnett to sign with them.  Much in the way that Reggie White broke the stereotype in the early 1990’s that superstar black athletes didn’t want to play in Green Bay when he signed with the Packers and ended up winning a Super Bowl, restoring that franchise back to its past glory. 

     Like Charles Barkley said on TNT during the NBA all-star weekend last year, the NBA sorely needs the Boston Celtics and New York Knicks to be elite playoff caliber teams.  Barkley is absolutely right, I say forget competitive balance.  New York and Boston making the playoffs virtually every year works for baseball and last time I checked St. Louis and Detroit were playing in the World Series, so you can have your cake and eat it too.

     It would also help if big market franchises with storied traditions had winning records, such as the Los Angeles Lakers, Chicago Bulls and Philadelphia 76ers.  You’ll have to excuse me if I don’t exactly care for parity in the NBA and think that they including the other 3 major pro sports leagues could use some contraction. 

     Imagine how much more enticing the league would be with Shaq in New York, KG in Chicago, LeBron in Boston and Duncan in Los Angeles.  Talk about some star studded teams and rivalries to boot, which would really add some much-needed juice to the league. 

     A giant step toward a great revival for the NBA is to have your most historic cornerstone franchises return to a level of greatness.  One that seemingly starts with restoring Celtic Pride in Boston.