The only excuse I can offer is that I was 14 years old, an adolescent embroiled in a struggle against my own hormones, and therefore at the mercy of my tear ducts. Also, I was a nerd without a whole lot going on socially, meaning this event was pretty much the center of my entire universe.

I cried. The Celtics beat the Lakers in the NBA Finals and I cried. Big elephant tears and snot leakage that I wiped from my face with the sleeve of my Garanimals.

When I close my eyes, I can still here the words of sympathy and consolation spoken by my sister as I sat on the floor in front of our giant Zenith TV set and wept. “Jesus, Danny! Get a grip. It’s only a stupid basketball game.”

So naïve, my sister. It most certainly was NOT just a basketball game; it was my entire life.

Sports were not encouraged in my home. They were misunderstood, unappreciated, and deemed to be a pale, hollow time-suck when compared to what really mattered to my parents: my education, including the thrilling after-school opportunity to sit in a Hebrew school classroom and learn why orthodox Jews where those silly hair curls that look like Arby’s curly fries.

I hated Hebrew school, and I didn’t much care for Sequoia Junior High either. I was bored. Uninspired. I marched through many days like a drone, going where I was supposed to go only because I was supposed to go there, not because I wanted to go. School for me was an isolating, lonely existence. But what alternative did I have?

I needed something of my own. Something outside the vacuum of relentless educational focus. Something I could control and enjoy on my own terms. Basketball was a perfect fit for me. More specifically, the Lakers. Magic Johnson. Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. “Big Game” James Worthy. I lived and died with those guys. My dad hung a backboard and an orange hoop on the roof above our garage, and I was out on the driveway everyday after school, pretending to be Michael Cooper or Byron Scott. In my mind I could hear the crowd going wild every time I nailed a long-range jump shot from cinder block wall that delineated the boundary between our property and the next-door neighbors’.

In my heart, I was a Laker.

In my heart, I hated the Celtics. Especially after this crap:

When the Celtics beat LA, something inside of me broke. I’d never had a girlfriend dump me or lost someone close to me, but the pain I felt seemed greater than any other.

And I cried.

Starting tonight, 24 years later, the Lakers and Celtics will again compete for the NBA championship. I opened the newspaper this morning and saw a color photo of Magic and Larry Bird grappling for position under the basket at The Fabulous Forum, and it all came back to me. The hoop out front. The crowd going wild for me. The tears.

I’ll be watching tonight. Might even grab an order of curly fries to snack on during the game.

Go Lakers.

Comments

Go Lakers!!! I will be thinking of you when I watch the game tonight.

Your sport of choice does nothing for me but I remember vividly the elation and tragedy of Ireland's performances in the European championships in '88 and World cup in Italy '90 and USA in '94.

Blood, sweat and tears.

...and beer.

Wipe your nose you wussy West Coast boy. The Celtics are taking them down AGAIN...

Oh...love your blog...from MA.

I liked Hebrew school...even got a scholarship to SAJS.
And as a native east coaster from a town with no real basketball team, I'll have to side with the Celtics.
Try not to cry too hard this time?

I'll never look at Arby's curly fries the same way again. Hilarious.

The only reason I am pulling for anyone is because I like KG. We kept him here in MN for so long and didn't give him much help on the court. So I will be cheering for the Celtics, well more for KG than anything else.

Actually, why DO they wear those curls? Seriously, as an ignorant gentile, I have no idea.

And even though they beat the Pistons, I'll be rooting for the Celtics this time... if only because the Lakers were gifted this berth by their old friend, Mr. West. No Gasol, no finals. It's that simple.

(Nevermind that Boston got Garnett from McHale.)

Just moved from Massachusetts to Illinois, but I'm certain my 9-year-old will be a lifelong Sox/Patriots/Bruins/Celtics fan after spending his formative years in that environment. I snuck into his room minutes after he went to bed following the Patriots' loss in the Super Bowl this year and took a picture of him...sound asleep, but with tears still wet on his face. As much as I treasured seeing the joy on his face following the Sox wins (wins! plural!) in the World Series, I think that the heartbreak is just as important. Anyone can love a winning team...but the growth happens when the team you love loses. (Which is why I grew to love the longtime Red Sox fans I knew in MA...so delusional for so long, but eventually vindicated.)

It's so weird for me to see the other side. Me being part of the Red Sox Nation, I'm also for anything "Boston" and I've hated the lakers for years. Seething hatred.

I'm not stupid to think no one likes the lakers (~wink~) but through my hatred of them, it simply doesn't make sense to me.

I'm giving the celtics a 40% chance at winnning. But you better believe I'll be rooting for them 100%.

Let the best team win.

Kevin McHale Rocks......Best Cloths line i have ever seen Go Boston!!

I will only watch professional basketball again if they bring those shorts back. :)

GO LAKERS!

My husband said he cried when Magic announced he had AIDS. It was such a sad day in sports history! His all time favorite is Big Game James.

I am, by some lesser-known Southern California ordinance, required by law to say here and now, GO LAKERS.

But off the record, I may or may not have ever really watched. (Sorry. Very, very sorry. And forgive me, for I have both sinned and probably broken some law by saying that. Amen.)

Your blog is the highlight each monotonous work say I spend in a cube. It has actually kept me from losing it and going postal many a times. However, that said, the Lakers do not have a snowballs chance in hell against the celtics.

My husband is rooting for the Celtics. I won't tell him, but I'll root for the Lakers just for that little boy that's still inside you.

BEAT L.A. BEAT L.A. BEAT L.A.

Ohhh, this is gonna be good (or at least it should be)

C's need this more than the Lakers (the city of Boston might not, but the Celtics do).

Chad Finn provides a nice look down (not so great memory lane for the Celtics since that last title.... http://www.boston.com/sports/touching_all_the_bases/2008/06/22_years_ago.html

I'm totally with Willmsy here. KG really deserves a championship after being stuck with the Wolves for so long. And I like the Lakers ALMOST as much as I like the Ducks, which is very little.

I abandoned my love for the Lakers when then abandoned Minnesota. (Now there is an Old Wound.) Been a Celtics fan ever since. For spite. But when the players started wearing culottes, I gave up all together.

I don't really care all too much about basketball, but I'm going to root for the Celtics because they are (geographically) the only professional basketball team in my area. That, and they have sucked royally for many years.

I hope you can hold it together tonight.

Curly fries... snort
Nice callback!

I'll just admit it right off the bat. I love the teams that everyone else seems to hate - the Yankees and the Cowboys. I grew up in Baltimore where we had no NFL team when I was growing up (thank you, Robert Irsay!) and where it was socially unacceptable to like the Redskins, so I just opted for the Redskins' rivals - the Cowboys. As for the Yankees, well I simply can't stand owner Peter Angelos, so again I went shopping for a team and settled on the Yankees and their delicious shortstop, one Mr. Derek Jeter.

All of this shallowness aside, I have shed many a joyful tear in the past 15 years during the Cowboys' and Yankees' respective dynasties. But I never...NEVER...cried harder than I did the night the Yankees lost the 2001 WS to the Diamondbacks in Game 7. I think part of the emotion was tied to the events of 9/11/01 which were still so fresh and raw, especially in NY, but I know that a lot of it was the tremendous sense of loss and disappointment. I was NOT disappointed IN "my Yankees" but rather FOR my Yankees. I couldn't imagine what they were feeling and thinking...or rather, I thought I could and it made me tremendously sad.

I just spent a week in Orange County (Newport Beach) back in February for a conference - it was a lovely place! Couple that with the fact that as a respectable Yankee fan, I cannot EVER root for any Boston team, and you've got one more fan cheering for the Lakers! GO LAKERS!

Since I despise all things Boston I am right there with you right now. Go Lakers.

BEAT L.A.!!!

I'm going to Game 2 and when KG, Pierce and Allen rip the hearts out of Lakers fans everywhere, I'll be thinking of your tears and how the collective grief of all those soft, 2nd quarter arriving, wussy west coast fans sustains me!

And the appalling part of that clip isn't McHale's awesome clothesline of Kurt Rambis, it's James Worthy inexplicably pushing Rambis into the cheerleaders when Rambis attempts to defend himself!

May Larry Legend, Kevin "I gave KG away for .25 on the $1" McHale and now The Big Ticket haunt your dreams forever.

By clothsline standards that was pretty mild. Rambis feet hit the floor before any other part of his body so there wasn't much chance of him being hurt. Heck even the announcer says "...that's part of the game..." near the end of the clip. Man up dude, I've been hit with worse then that playing AAU ball and there wasn't an NBA championship on the line.

This series could be pretty interesting as the teams match up pretty well. I'm not a huge fan of either of the teams, though I was a Laker fan as a kid, the Celts have Paul Pierce though and as a big time KU fan I've got to give my support to Pierce. By the way, did you see the SI all time Laker and Celtic teams? Three Jayhawks on the combined rosters, JoJo White, Paul Pierce and of course the Big Dipper.

Those tears were definitely justified at 14, but what do you plan to do this time when the Lakers lose? :)...I'm a new reader and I love the blog, BTW.

Christ, Danny. Bird helped Rambis up, I don't know what your beef is about!

Danny.
We do not follow the NBA in our home...NOR in my husband's exwife's home. Somehow my 8 year old step son has decided to live and breath by the Celtics.. We live in MO.

Right now he is in the hospital recovering from a burst appendix surgery.
Tonight we'll sit in his hospital room and watch the game with him.

SO..cocksucker...You Lakers are going to fall flat on their face...and when the Celtics WIN tonight take a chill pill and realize there is a very excited little boy in the hospital.. You got that?

hey, bro. I'm here for you. anytime. really. just like always.

Remember the Kleenex. For the tears of joy, of course (*cough cough*), and the greasy fingers.

Sorry, man, but I've got to side with the LA-Haters and hope that you'll once again be snot-mopping with the sleeve of your Gar"man"imals.

BAH!

Go Celtics!

Love ya Danny, but I'll be sure to send you some new hankies.....with the Celtics logo, of course!

Dude? Seriously? You were still wearing Garanimals when you were 14???

So...if orthodox Jews' silly hair curls look like Arby’s curly fries...what does the Arby's horsey sauce look like?

Great post though. I've been reading for a while and have never commented. Apparently I have no gonads. As for the post, I can relate. Mr. 23 was it for me. And being a 5'6" little white boy sporting a 2nd hand Bulls jacket, I have shed those same tears, my friend...

So this is for you...Go Lakers!!

So when Jews are frustrated, they also say, "Jesus"? Interesting.

For the record, snot leakage is WAY better than anal leakage. Just sayin'.

HOW ABOUT THEM RED WINGS!!!!!

Yeah, try being a Mets fan. The Magic is back, they said once. Where have you gone, Rey Ordonez and Doug Flynn??

OK, Kris, if Bird hadn't helped Rambis up, I think we ALL know that he would have opended up a can of whoop-ass on the whole lot of 'em. I actually referenced his white rage in a Laker related post a couple of months ago (and paid Dad Gone Mad some props).

I'm having similar flashbacks. I was watching the '85 finals on ESPN Classic from the gym treadmill at lunch, and almost started screaming. This is War.

Larry Bird was and is ONE CLASS ACT.

I live in Yankee Nation. I don't give a rat's ass about any team my children don't play on, although I would ditch my hub for a brief fling with Andy Pettitte and his dimple, even though it looks like ol' Andy may be dumber than a bag of bayou mud).

Wondersis, what happened to your blog? And why did you allow your brother to wear Garanimals at age 14?

I had that same experience, kind of, tearing up and throwing things around the living room when the ball rolled through Bill Buckner's legs and countless times during Bruins/Montreal playoff games, but I'm a girl. Tell Hot Wife to get out the hanky, since I assume they don't make Garanimals in your size, and prepare to cry it out, Sally!!!

I grew up in Boston and my brother didn't cry that night...he cheered! His lifesize (and I mean lifesized) picture of John Havelcheck (sp?) was carefully untaped from the wall and actually sitting on the couch next to him and his bag of Screaming Yellow Zonkers. Dad said if the Celtic's won, bro could cut the curly fries off and lose the tfellin, too.

you'll be sittin' shiva on this one, too - I am afraid.

www.swirlgirlspearls.blogspot.com

I hope all of you poor, misguided Celtics fans will have the gonads to come back and eat some crow after my boys kick their asses.

As someone else already said...BEAT LA...BEAT LA...

C'mon, the ghost of Red Auerbach will NEVER let Phil Jackson beat his record. Phil Jackson! PSHAW.

As a transplant from So. Cal. you'll be happy to know that on Sports Day at the elementry school 4 of my boys rolled to the bus stop in Laker Jersys. I asked if anyone gave them a hard time & they said, "Yeah, but we told them it was a Laker thing. They just don't respect real teams here." Their daddy was choked up.

I'm a Hebrew school dropout myself.
Go Lakers.

Danny:

I am about half-Irish, plus I like Boston (as a city), so I am kind of a Celtics fan by default. Still, I grok what you are saying. I felt the same way when the Orioles lost the '96 ALCS (I live near Baltimore). I hope for a seven game series, and just for you....Go Lakers!

I went to summer school at Sequoia one very LONG summer. I see why you weren't enamoured of the place. I went to Hale myself.

Sorry, but I'm a Bostonian now. I was born in LA, but it's long gone out of my system. So I say "Beat LA".

Watching the game right now. Just when did James Taylor become the professional national anthem singer?

Wow. Easy to tell that's old...

Aside from the thigh-high socks, and the junk-flashing shorts, half the guys on the court were white!

DD

Sweet post! Tough to articulate the way a sports team gets all wrapped up in your identity. Good stuff.

Lakers Schmakers! You had me at "here" (for hear) and "where" (for wear). Love your blog any"weigh!"

I have a feeling I will have a 42 year old man sitting in my living room wiping his big giant tears with the sleeve of his sweatshirt if the Lakers don't win this one. I'll be rooting for them if for no other reason than to keep Mr. C from sulking for the whole off-season. ;)
GO LAKERS!