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Seams to me that the Boston Celtics are being hated on a stack this year...by the league (??), oppsoing players and fans of other teams. Why??

Is it because we are last seasons Champs? Because we are good? Because we are the Celtics? Did Larry's great 80's teams get hated on as much? KG is a nut, in a good way and I can see why he **** people up the wall....but Larry had to be worse....

Curious if some of u older guys who can still remember the days of acid wash and mullets can recall if Larry's teams got hated on as well.

Personally, I think the C's are stacked with good character guys...RA is a good guy, Scal is a some one you would like your daughter to date (??? ), BBD is a teddy bear, LP seams tops and paul and kevin seam decent when off the court at least. I believe the league is way better for having a good Celtics team, than a bad one.

I honestly could care less who likes us or who hates us. Few years ago when we had horrible seasons, when we started to re-build nobody would mention us, now that we are the face of the NBA once again, and after we won our 17th championship everyone is hating. But that is fine. Deep down I know why majority of other fans hate C's and us the fans. Not because we are cocky or whatever but because our team is just that damn good, period. They don't want to admit this, but all these haters know this, I guarantee you. I realized something tho, now that nobody can touch us, majority of these haters are supporting the Lakers and think Lakers will beat us, and Lakers are better than us. I can't wait to shut them all up on Dec 25th. BUT again, I love this game, I love the NBA, and I love the superstars that we have in this league. Without haters it would be just boring. So let them hate. They have the right to.

When you are good people hate you!

Joekickass2008 wrote:
Curious if some of u older guys who can still remember the days of acid wash and mullets can recall if Larry's teams got hated on as well.

The Celtics were hated in the 50s, hated in the 60's, hated in the 70s, hated in the 80s, and they're hated now.

It's a sign of harmonic balance.

All is well.

DieselCeltic wrote:I honestly could care less who likes us or who hates us. Few years ago when we had horrible seasons, when we started to re-build nobody would mention us, now that we are the face of the NBA once again, and after we won our 17th championship everyone is hating. But that is fine. Deep down I know why majority of other fans hate C's and us the fans. Not because we are cocky or whatever but because our team is just that damn good, period. They don't want to admit this, but all these haters know this, I guarantee you. I realized something tho, now that nobody can touch us, majority of these haters are supporting the Lakers and think Lakers will beat us, and Lakers are better than us. I can't wait to shut them all up on Dec 25th. BUT again, I love this game, I love the NBA, and I love the superstars that we have in this league. Without haters it would be just boring. So let them hate. They have the right to.

c/s


That's exactly why clowns like barkely, smith, and the espn haters are trying to focus on the lakers, they have always hated the Celtics, and now that they are obviously the best team and Basketball's Official Rep's they can't stand their job, the only thing they cling to is wishing on a star that maybe the lakers can beat them at some point and they can make Celtics fans mad by saying the lakers are better...that's what they're trying to do and why it's so hilarious, they are so frustrated with how GREAT this Celtics team is that they want to use their national exposure to make Celtics mad, but nobody cares about them because obviously they've been some of the worst sports analysts ever since they started a few years ago.


I expect the Celtics to treat the fake show's defense like they did Toronto's today, the lakers are actually softer then Toronto, Bynum is going to get Man-Handled by BIG PERK...unless the refs try to protect the soft fakers.

Its because of several things:

1. Winners gets the most praise AND the hate. Its how the world works. A lot of players/their teams fans, etc., are hating the best and call bloody murder on everything they can, as well as nitpicking. Like KG hate, by looking to general GM threads it looks like he is the most hated guy there is, while he one of many trash talkers in NBA, and not even close to bad boys like Artest, Shaq or Rasheed. So why 1000+ hate posts and loads of theads on KG and only few about the real bad boys? Because they arent the winners atm.

2. The fans. Every team have few arrogant guys who goes arround slapping other fans "in the face" and pissing on them, what reaction do you think it draws? If we are respectful and mature, in most cases we would receive similar reaction, except few fan(atics), who will be haters no matter what, just ignore those. Personaly I just add them to ignore list and save myself some time by not reading the trash.

Remember how KG was the lovable loser in Minnesota? That's all changed now - he is morphy into a Randy Moss type character.

If there is one thing I have noticed it's that people really don't like dominance as much as they used to. The media wants to see whatever team hasn't won in a long time win. As that would be "nice." The Devil Rays are a classic example - they have a crappy fan base and they don't even sell out games but the media was rooting them on like crazy.

Pete

Hate - Jealousy

I have to admit, I was around when the Celtics had Bird in the 80's. We got a lot of negative press back then, but as someone said earlier, you get hated on when you are the best. It's unavoidable.

The league was different back then, and Bird's teams were very physical and had his attitude. That led to a lot of not-so-flatering quotes from other teams, (outside of Boston) press, articles, etc.

During his career, Bird was one of the most vocal trash talkers in the league. Other players always commented about how bad Bird was, and a lot of them really hated him. He always played with a chip on his shoulder. He predicted he would win the 3 pt shotout one year, by announcing in the locker room before the event, that everyone was playing for second. He got into a shoving match/fistfight with Dr J who was an elder statesman and everybody in the league respected at that time.

The Pistons were the most physical and tried to intimidate everybody back then. But not Boston, Chief punched Lambeer in one famous playoff skirmish. That and losing to Boston so much back then, led to the Detroit team and Isaiah saying the only reason Bird got any recognition as a good ballplayer was because he was white. They all took it back the next day, but trust me there was a lot of hating going on.

That brings me to the Fakers. They complained about Boston all the time. They said that Red made sure they did not have AC in their locker rooms of the old Boston Garden during the first of the Bird/Magic finals (it was HOT, mid-upper 90's, and I do think Red did it). They complained about Boston's physical play all the time. There was the famous McHale clothesline of Kurt Rambis, that a lot of people say turned the momentum and won the Celtics the championship that year. That was talked about a lot after we won. In the 80's, NBA teams played very physical and there were a lot more hard fouls, and altercations back then. It lead to intense rivalries, a lot of trash talking between teams and the teams fans, and it lead the league to change the rules so there are harsher punishments as we see handed down today.

I enjoyed the old intense rivalries. I didn't consider it hating, as much as just more trash talking by the press and fans.

Here's an example. Jack Nickolson, famous Laker fan used to give Bird and our other players the choke sign late in games. He hated the Celtics, and was quoted in the press as much as one of the players. One year in the finals after the Garden started chanting F U Jack, Jack Nickolson dropped his drawers and mooned the whole place from his seat. The rivalries and the fans were pretty intense back then. I never considered it hating. I just thought it was to be expected if you are the best. Someone's always going to find something to talk trash about.

PS: I respected Jack a lot more after that because he had the nuts to do it.

We were even called racists.

I don't hate the Celtics. I have a lot of respect for your players and your team.
Do you really think that people hate because you are good? I never noticed it.

Now talking about the Lakers...them I hate. F'ing hollywood fans, showing up in the middle of the second quarter, riding Kobe's jock like he is better than MJ. Can't stand those dudes. The Celts are great in comparison.

The Celtics have always been hated by the rest of the league, from the opposing teams all the way up to the commish and league officials. It's weird because the Celtics are to the NBA what the Yankees are to MLB...the winningest franchise with the richest tradition, most all-time great players, etc. Yet MLB bends over backwards (and has for decades) to help the Yankees out while the NBA bends over backwards (and has for decades) to screw the Celtics, going consistently all the way back to Red's days on the bench in the 1950s.

I think it's just intensified now because we're good again and people hate on all the Boston teams. National media hates the Sox. They actively and openly rooted for the Patriots demise all season last year (which still makes me wonder about the Super Bowl, hmmmm) and are doing it to the Celtics. I think a lot of it is sour grapes...everyone made all these predictions about how the Big 3 would fight with each other and Rondo sucked and wasn't good enough and our bench sucked, and Doc sucked, etc, and we rolled to 66 wins and the title. Then they said losing Posey would be our demise, and we're rolling again now. They got proven wrong MULTIPLE times and are now getting pissed off and getting "revenge" in the only way they can, by being negative.

But as the poster above said, you'd only be worried if the NBA WASN'T trying to screw the Celtics somehow!

Hmm...again...I've never seen this bias before. Do you guys have some specific examples?

We have never had a Celtics "hate-fest" in the nearly four years I've been on the GS board and I've never witnessed it anywhere else.

Are you sure that you aren't just being a bit paranoid?

Look at how many titles NE teams have won in this decade. I think that explains it. People are jealous and I don't blame them.

St.Nick wrote:Hmm...again...I've never seen this bias before. Do you guys have some specific examples?

We have never had a Celtics "hate-fest" in the nearly four years I've been on the GS board and I've never witnessed it anywhere else.

Are you sure that you aren't just being a bit paranoid?

Well just off the top of my head, being the ONLY TEAM EVER forced to carry TWO DEAD PLAYERS on our cap (Bias and Lewis) while other teams didn't have to (NJ with Drazen Petrovic, Minny with Sealy). Hell, Miami got relief from Zo's contract for his kidney condition, which didn't even keep him out of the league. These examples are some of the most heinous and are huge reasons all Celtics fans loathe David Stern and will for eternity. There are numerous other examples, going back to Red's day, for instance the league GIVING THE KNICKS extra draft picks in the 1960s when they stank to prop them up...Red voted against it because, in his own words, "if the Celtics ever need help like that in the future, we won't get it"...and he was right. I could go on and on...

I don't think the "hatred" for the C's is league wide it is more about the Atlantic division, but that makes up about 80% of the media coverage of the league on a daily basis. I would imagine that it is somewhat the same for Lakers on the West Coast.

But yes the C's were just as hated in the 80's and I know I sure as hell hated Jordan and the Bulls in the 90's and the Lakers always.

I didn't hate Jordan and the Bulls, I marveled at them, even though I was of course rooting for the C's. But the Lakers, Pistons, 76ers, those teams are always on my "anti" list!

MyInsatiableOne wrote:There are numerous other examples, going back to Red's day, for instance the league GIVING THE KNICKS extra draft picks in the 1960s when they stank to prop them up...Red voted against it because, in his own words, "if the Celtics ever need help like that in the future, we won't get it"...and he was right. I could go on and on...

I was just reading about this. It seems that Walter Brown felt the Knicks being good would help the sport, so he was in favor of it. It was one of the few arguements Brown and Red ever had. Did any of those extra picks work out well for New York?

Celtsfan1980 wrote:

MyInsatiableOne wrote:There are numerous other examples, going back to Red's day, for instance the league GIVING THE KNICKS extra draft picks in the 1960s when they stank to prop them up...Red voted against it because, in his own words, "if the Celtics ever need help like that in the future, we won't get it"...and he was right. I could go on and on...

I was just reading about this. It seems that Walter Brown felt the Knicks being good would help the sport, so he was in favor of it. It was one of the few arguements Brown and Red ever had. Did any of those extra picks work out well for New York?

I believe they eventually led to the "Knicks dynasty" in the early 1970s

I am always baffled as to why there is so much hand-wringing over the Knicks and how they NEED to be good for the league. Other than the location and the arena, there is nothing too special about that franchise to warrant it being constantly called a "flagship/cornerstone" franchise of the NBA...