BOSTON — Basketball legend Red Auerbach died and took the victory cigars with him.
When you stand alongside 73-year-old center Bill Russell, the big man no longer seems as large as when he filled a TV screen.
But Celtics green? That’s forever.
“The leprechaun logo is so much a part of the NBA, it’s integrated in the environment,” said Celtics guard Ray Allen, a new star on the dream team assembled to put the shake, rattle and roll back in the Shamrocks. “You walk on the court in Boston, you don’t really even notice the green paint, because the color has been synonymous with the game for so long. All you know is it looks like basketball.”
The Celtics are plunking down a whole lot of green to buy back their mystique.
Powerfully intense Kevin Garnett, slashing scorer Paul Pierce and the sweet-shooting Allen are three old friends with 22 trips to the All-Star Game among them. But not a single NBA championship. Yet.
The tab for putting these three big names on the parquet floor? $55 million. Per year.
They share complementary talents and the drive to win a ring. But how far the Celtics go might depend more on how three strong and distinct personalities coexist on the team bus.
Garnett is the energizer.
Pierce is the grouch.
Allen is the philosopher.
“The best players always have to carry the team bus,” Boston coach Doc Rivers said. “Now, we have three of them to share the load.”
The energizer
Raise your hand if you think the association ain’t what it used to be. You’re nostalgic for pro basketball when the shorts were shorter, the hair was longer and the big three in Boston were Larry Bird, Kevin McHale and Robert Parish.
Well, get in the complaint line, buddy.
If a true hoops lover wants to remember how the game should be played, buy a ticket to watch Garnett.
For the NBA to be more in Beantown than an expensive way to kill time between victory parades for the Patriots and Red Sox, Garnett must be the energizer whose brilliance inspires his highly paid fellow starters and dazzles the dim bulbs of a downtrodden Eastern Conference.
“I do know the elite is the elite for a reason,” said Garnett, who arrived in a blockbuster July trade after averaging 20 points and 11 rebounds in 11 seasons with Minnesota. “The ones who want it are the ones who get out of bed. The early bird gets the worm. You know the saying. But I run on the beach in the summertime. The reason I like to do it early in the morning is because I like my footprints to be first in the sand.”
With his infectious commitment to everything from diving for loose balls to sweating buckets at practice, Garnett can make the Shamrocks feel lucky again.
“I’ve never seen a guy with as much energy as Kevin in my life. This guy does not have tired moments,” Rivers said. “You hear him loud and laughing. All the time. And that kind of draws the personality out of Ray and Paul.”
If Boston finds a way to win 55 games, who will be the league MVP?
Garnett. Guaranteed.
The grouch
On a recent October morning when all properly sports-crazed Bostonians were lighting a candle or carrying a torch for their beloved Sox in the World Series, Rivers distributed handsome beaded bracelets emblazoned with an exotic, powerful word from the African Bantu language.
“Ubuntu” was the word. The Celtics chant the word when breaking a huddle.
Pierce was asked to explain the significance.
“You don’t know?” grumpily replied the Boston veteran of nine often-frustrating NBA seasons. “We’ll keep that in-house.”
The attitude of Pierce can be as sharp and prickly as the 30-year-old captain’s slashing drives to the rim.
He is one competitive cuss, which can be a valuable trait while grinding through an 82-game regular season – or an insufferable flaw when the weight of Celtics disappointment fell on Pierce and Pierce alone for way too many seasons.
“Paul is a grinder,” Rivers said. “I don’t think people realize how hard it is for that one star on a team. You have to do everything.”
The grouchiness is a symptom of how much Pierce cannot stomach losing, which seemed hopeless when Boston dropped 58 games last season.
So there’s every reason to believe Pierce is telling the whole truth when he insists championship No. 17 for the storied franchise would be much more rewarding than another all-star commendation for him.
Pierce, however, owns the ego that will probably be forced to sacrifice the most glory to keep Boston’s offense flowing. He figures to have the toughest job.
Although Pierce would be the last to tell, the secret of ubuntu means that collective success over individual reward celebrates the humanity of all.
“The No. 1 thing that Kevin and Ray have done for Paul is the reporters of the world aren’t going to Paul every time, win or lose. The ink gets spread around. I’m joking, but it’s true,” Rivers said. “Now, Paul can play a game, take a shower, get dressed and go home.”
Maybe, just maybe, the magic of ubuntu can finally grow a smile on the face of a grouch.
The philosopher
While Bruce Springsteen promises to be the hot concert ticket throughout Europe for dates late in 2007, the Celtics have already been there and received the rock-star treatment. The GAP Band of Garnett, Allen and Pierce found its rhythm by playing dates from Rome to London, during an autumn NBA tour across the Pond.
To a man, the new big three of the Celtics say powering down their cellphones on the bus in England and sharing plates of pasta in Italy made possible the best exchange of dreams that could have happened to them.
“That’s why it’s great to take a family trip every year,” said Allen, known in NBA circles for being both a quick-trigger sniper and a deep thinker who enjoys examining the long, strange trip of a pro athlete.
“If you want to promote productivity and togetherness, you take a trip, maybe somewhere in the mountains, or to a country where people don’t speak English. That makes people learn to be a team.”
Allen long made it rain 20-foot jumpers in Seattle. But Boston general manager Danny Ainge traded for the 32-year-old guard a month before acquiring Garnett, in hopes of providing the Celtics with the offensive finesse that can kill a foe softly.
“Ray is arty,” said Rivers, laughing at the fashion sense Allen has brought to the Celts, whose kangaroo court has started rambunctiously judging the attire worn by players on the road. “And that doesn’t go unnoticed by his teammates, believe me.”
Here’s hoping the Celtics can score some major style points for the long disrespected Eastern Conference, which could use some new heroes as Miami’s Shaquille O’Neal shows sign of age and King LeBron James seems stuck with too many court jesters in Cleveland.
In the league’s junior varsity division, these three kings of Boston should rule by default.
Right?
“Junior varsity wouldn’t be accurate, because these guys in the East do get paid a lot of money, too. And they’re really good. Miami, Detroit. There are teams over here that have won it all. So I wouldn’t call it the junior varsity. I wouldn’t dare disgrace it like that,” Garnett said.
“There’s no cakewalk in this league. Maybe in some other leagues, but not this one.”
Mark Kiszla: 303-954-1053 or mkiszla@denverpost.com
