Celtics Title Town

For all the time I've been writing here at Celtics Title Town, I've criticized Danny Ainge for what I see as his lack of loyalty to players.  As I've explained repeatedly, I'm not claiming that players shouldn't be traded.  Without trades and free agency, teams would be stuck with players and players would be stuck with teams regardless of whether or not the relationship  worked out.   That would be a hellish situation.  But it has seemed to me that Ainge has cultivated a level of anxiety amongst the players that has been cruel and disrespectful, as well as self-defeating;  you cannot sincerely ask players to be unselfishly devoted to a team that could put them on Express Train out of down at any moment.  As in all things, the key is balance.  In my opinion, Danny's hard nosed policy of 'I just might trade anyone at any time' is both ethically wrong and self-defeating, and wildly out of balance.

But I'm willing to criticize both sides.  Like a lot of fans, I expended a lot of personal time and energy this past year following the Celtics.  What I care about in life is seeing people trying to create and build something that goes beyond money and purely selfish concerns.  Money is not an aspect of life that can be ignored, of course, and selfishness is  a big part of every person.  But there's so much more to life, and that's what I care about.  I don't care about the Celtics if it's just an entertainment vehicle, geared to vicariously feeding the egos of helplessly addicted fans, while feeding the massive bank accounts of players and administrators.  I could give a crap about all that.  I cared about this team because I thought I saw people coming together that cared about a lot more than money.  Of course, I had to suspend disbelief quite a bit to think there was more to it than money.  After all, twenty million dollars will buy an awful lot of rented passion.  The telling moment comes when there isn't so much money on the table.  Is the passion still there?

The way the offseason has unfolded so far has been pretty depressing.  It has put a big pin into the balloon of my suspension of disbelief.  The players seem to be jockeying for big paydays, and the Celtics management seems to be dispassionate.  Of course it is too early for anything definitive to be said or done,  so perhaps everyone is just in a waiting mode, but the early moves have not been encouraging.   

Oh yes, I expect to hear choruses of 'it's just a business'.   I always find that phrase fascinating.  Nothing in life is 'just a business'.  Everything matters, and everything in life basically asks a human being a simple question:  what are you living for?  What do you believe in?  What matters to you?   That's the key to loyalty.  If money and power are what you want in life, that's what you'll get.  But if you want more than that, you have to make sacrifices.  I don't see that happening with this team.  I see a lot of people on both sides  (players and management) in  unpleasant negotiating postures.  I say to both sides, if you love the Celtics, now is the time to show it.   Come off the posturing and positioning and start coming together for the good of the team.