the nba in green

Cover of the book Memories in Green, by Juan Francisco Escudero,

In the 1980s and 1990s, the NBA built and exported a global narrative.

Two names and two teams stand out from the rest —Michael Jordan, leader of the Chicago Bulls, and Magic Johnson, in charge of the Los Angeles Lakers— and, as in any good proposal, a third option was added for those who did not they had just seen themselves reflected in one of the aforementioned athletes.

That option was Larry Bird's Boston Celtics.

The mythical green color of the Boston team found a place in the hearts of basketball fans during the 85-86 season, in which they added impressive numbers: 67 wins and 15 losses in the regular season,

15 wins and only three games lost in the playoffs that led them to their 16th championship ring until then and to include that squad in the eternal debate about which is the best team in NBA history.

The clover franchise would have to wait until 2008 to add a new title to the showcases.

And there, at 17, they have continued ever since.

They are not few —only the Los Angeles Lakers equal them, and the Chicago Bulls, for example, add 6— but those times of mysticism are increasingly distant and, each time, it becomes more necessary to go to history to explain the greatness Of the entity.

In

(JC), Juan Francisco Escudero does a memory exercise to explain to the neophytes the importance of the green team in the list of winners and the development of the best basketball league in the world.

Starting with an explanation of the antipathy that the club raised among its rivals.

On the one hand, quite earthly reasons, such as the fact that in the Boston Garden, in the visitor's locker room, the hot showers did not work in winter or that the towels or toilet paper mysteriously disappeared;

but also a compelling reason, closely linked to the human soul, which is none other than the fact that the Celtics began to win and add rings.

Only the period that goes from 1957 to 1969 they came out champions eleven times, with center Bill Russell present on all of them.

Many years later,

In that 1990 final against the New York Knicks, the green fans would realize that the virtuous cycle was closing.

That it was very likely that they had already lived the best years in history.

That those times in which the mythical Auerbach celebrated victories with a cigar in his mouth, stirring up his rivals, were gone, never to return.

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