A wise man once said that friends come and go, but banners hang forever.
Although recent actions from Celtics star Jayson Tatum would lead you to believe otherwise, that man did not play for Boston. His name was Kobe Bryant, and while he maintained a close relationship with Tatum, he played for the rival Lakers.
The Celtics and the Lakers are currently tied for the most championships in league history, as each has won seventeen titles. However, if Boston defeats the Warriors and wins the title this year, it would maintain the sole ability to call itself the winningest franchise in basketball.
So it was particularly interesting to see that, ahead of Game 4 of the NBA Finals, fans at Boston’s TD Garden were given this shirt:
Celtics put the blank banner on tonight’s Game 4 shirts ahead of what could be the last game at the Garden this season pic.twitter.com/ecp32qmVAM
— Jared Weiss (@JaredWeissNBA) June 10, 2022
Yeah, that is an empty spot for where the eighteenth banner would go if the Celtics won a title this year. Such a decision exudes unabashed confidence for Boston and, meanwhile, provides good bulletin board material for Golden State.
Of course, it wasn’t as egregious as getting a tattoo proclaiming the Celtics as 2022 NBA Champions.
But I’ve got to say, this shirt is going to look really silly sitting in someone’s closet if the Warriors are able to come back from the 2-1 deficit and win the series.
It is one thing if you wear a shirt around the house that says “NBA Finals” for a year that your favorite team didn’t win. But this shirt would represent the exact hole that winning a title would have filled, and who would ever want a reminder of that?
