Today Being The 24 Year Anniversary Of Rick Pitino's Infamous Rant Is A Nice Reminder To Not Take The Current Celtics For Granted

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Whenever the current version of the Celts has a bad stretch or loses a single game and there's this immediate "the sky is falling" narrative among talking heads and some fans, it always makes me laugh. You really get a sense of which people lived through the dark ages of this franchise and which have known nothing but success since the Big 3 era. As I always say, perspective is important.

I can't think of a better time to bring this up considering what took place 24 years ago today. 

For Celts fans my age (or older) I can't help but get triggered every time I see this clip. F'n Pitino man. If you were born in the late 80s and were molded by the Celtics basketball of the 90s, you know real pain. We have lived through the darkest of dark times, when the Celts would be lucky to win over 35 games and never even came close to sniffing the playoffs

To anyone who lived through it, the Pitino era was some of the most traumatizing basketball you could experience. Everything about it set this franchise back. The drafting, the trades, the on the court product etc. To say it was a failure is disrespectful to failures. That Pitino rant sums it up perfectly, the whole experiment was a disaster.

Which is why this is the perfect opportunity to stress how appreciative we should all be when it comes to this current era/team. Are they perfect? God no. Are they going to do things on the court that frustrate you beyond belief and make you want to rip your eyes out? Of course. But just remember to have perspective. This team is 46-12. The 2008 team was 46-12. The '86 Celts, largely considered the greatest Celtics team of all time, was 47-11. While the 2023-24 Celts still need to finish the job like those others were able to do, you should absolutely not take what we are watching for granted. Take it from someone who lived through the darkest of dark times rooting for this team. It could be A LOT worse.

That doesn't mean just ignoring their faults or not criticizing them when they fuck up. It just means to keep perspective. Chances are, things probably aren't as bad as doomer may want to make it seem. We don't have Joe Mazzulla stepping to the podium and ranting about how Larry Bird isn't walking through that door, do we? No. 

We all want the same thing when it comes to this group. We all want to see them finally raise that 18th banner. But as we go through this stretch to end the season and then the most important playoff run of our lives, just remember to not take what we are watching for granted. 

Seriously though, I'll never forgive Rick Pitino for that era. What a disaster.