What a night for the league’s premium franchise
Bob Cousy can die happy.
The Celtics legend told Dan Shaughnessy of the Boston Globe this week that “I’m 95 f---ing years old with one foot in the grave and I can barely move. I know I’m in overtime. So everything in your life becomes more meaningful. And one of the last things I want to be able to see is for the Celtics to hang up banner No. 18.”
He got his wish Monday night as Boston took it to the Dallas Mavericks in Game 5, winning 106-86.
It was never really close. Boston put on a dominating performance throughout.
Former Blue Devil Jayson Tatum had a brilliant game, nearly ringing up a triple-double: he finished with 31 points, 11 assists and eight rebounds. He played a beautiful game and especially down the stretch, where he showed a killer instinct and he is now the eighth Blue Devil to win an NBA championship.
For Dallas, Brotherhood member Kyrie Irving had 15 points and nine assists and played with a lot of heart. Dereck Lively, who starred for Duke just last season and is just 20, had two points, four rebounds and a block.
Jaylen Brown won the MVP Award and immediately called out Tatum as his “partner in crime,” which was pretty cool.
With the championship, Tatum is now on track to have his jersey eventually raised with the other legends in the TD Garden rafters. As we’ve said before, as Cousy reiterated, titles are the standard for the Celtics greats.
Irving was frustrated by those standards - he called it a “cult” this week - but Tatum embraced them and has now lived up to them. So congratulations to him. It’s well-deserved.
By the way, you should read the article linked above. Cousy is always interesting, and he, along with Satch Sanders, are two of the last links with the first great Celtics dynasty. He is 95 but still sharp and has some firm opinions about the game.
