New York vs. Boston Again

BOSTON SUCKS! BOSTON SUCKS!

I realized during the last Knicks Celtics game, (the one where the Knicks blew a 9 point 4th quarter lead) that this is probably the only city specific chant that transcends all sports. The Celtics fans in attendance tried to counter with a weak "New York sucks" chant, but c'mon now, we all know the real chant is "Yankees suck". "New York sucks" just doesn't roll off the tongue of 20,000 drunk fans like "Boston Sucks", (maybe "Beat L.A." can be adapted to other sports, but that's pretty much a Lakers chant). Thankfully, this chant has such a great ring to it, because we'll be hearing a lot of it at the Garden next week. I was all set to write the "Be careful what you wish for" Knicks Heat preview, before wouldn't you know it but the Heat clobbered the Celts on Sunday and tonight the Wizards beat the Celtics B squad ensuring the Heat will have the 2 seed in the East, and we're all going to see a Knicks Celtics playoffs match up for the first time since 1990 (a series best remembered for the Knicks winning a game 5 at Boston Garden and Ewing hitting a fall away 3 pointer).

These next few days we'll all hear a lot about how these are two of the original NBA teams and all that, but the sad truth is Paul Pierce was right; there is no rivalry here other than the Boston-New York animosity built up from the other sports. The two teams haven't managed to be contenders at the same time since the 60's, and this year they still aren't. Boston is a legitimate championship threat, and the Knicks are just happy to be wearing shorts in late April. Three fairly heated games were played this season, though, so we're likely to at least see some intensity starting this weekend, but this still isn't the beginning of a multi-season rivalry. This Celtics team has at best one more run in them as presently constituted, and this Knicks team has a ways to go before really being a contender, so we're not seeing a preview of things to come here. Everyone's counting out this Knicks team as an easy sweep for Boston, but I'm not too sure of that. Stay tuned for part 2 of Bagel's Knicks-Celtics preview for predictions and match-ups (it won't be a sweep).