BOSTON - It might not be the old Garden, with the rats and the bad air and the leprechauns, but this new Garden has been magical to the Boston Celtics. Now that magic is gone. Whatever role the parquet floor played in the 2008 playoffs - allowing the Celtics to go a perfect 9-0 - was smashed Thursday night by the only team these days that seems unaffected by geography, or anything else for that matter.Beat the House. The Pistons had to do it at some point if they wanted to win these Eastern Conference finals, and they did it in Game 2 the old-fashioned way: They tried harder.
BOSTON - It may not be the old Garden, with the rats and the bad air and the stifling summer heat, but this new Garden has been magical to this year's Boston Celtics. And now that magic is done. Whatever role the parquet floor played in the 2008 playoffs - allowing the Celtics to go a perfect 9-0 - was smashed Thursday night by the only team these days that seems unaffected by geography, or anything else for that matter.Beat the House.The Pistons had to do it at some point if they wanted to win the series, and they did it in Game 2 the old fashioned way: They tried harder.
BOSTON - Twenty years ago, I took a walk with Joe Dumars through the streets of Boson's North End, an Italian neighborhood not far from the highway overpasses, small restaurants, row houses, residents sitting outside on chairs or leaning from their windows. The Pistons still were trying to win their first title, and we did an interview while walking the streets."DUUUMAHS!" some guy yelled out the window, "YAH GONNA LOSE!" and Joe shyly smiled. He was a young shooting guard, I was a young sportswriter. It was a warm day, and everything felt fresh and ahead of us.
Mitch Albom writes about running an orphanage in impoverished Port-au-Prince, Haiti, his kids, their hardships, laughs and challenges, and the life lessons he’s learned there every day.