By Michael Bivins
When I started out playing ball as an eight year old, I
wanted to be in the NBA. So June 17 made me feel like my career went in a
complete circle.
Not only am I celebrating my 25th year with New
Edition, but I was able to enjoy the Celtics winning their 17th
championship!
I was there standing on the sidelines with two and half
minutes left with Doc Rivers, getting Gatorade on these adidas sneakers and my
layered coat. It gets no better!
We were leaving the arena last night and I was in the
player’s lot, and it took us an hour and a half to get out of there because the
cops and fans were in the middle of the streets. There weren’t a lot of arrests,
just some good fan excitement.
In my part of town Roxbury, Dorchester,
Mattapan, the cops showed up last night and about 2,500 people riding up,
making noises being really crazy in the neighborhood.
That was a good sign,
because it’s been a long time for the neighborhood to be that excited and I
think it’s because when they look at the Celtics they see guys they can relate
to.
I’m not really the color line kind of guy, but the Celtics
were always like a white type of team to the neighborhood I’m from - Roxbury.
For the first time in Celtics’ history, they had an all-Black starting five,
like Texas Western. They only had a few white boys on the team with Scalabrine
and my man Pollard.
I think that’s incredible. You have a Black coach and Black
players being appreciated by people of all colors. So it shows there’s no color
line in Boston.
As for the series, I think it was incredible. The Lakers, as
good as they are, you have to give them credit for what they’ve done this year.
But for Game Six? I don’t know where their breakdown was in the preparation of
the game. It is the world championship! I don’t know where the breakdown was,
but I don’t like the fact that everybody was blaming it on Kobe.
At the end of the day it’s a team game. One man is not going
to win the World Championship, and I feel like wherever he lacks, somebody else
should pick up. Gasol and the rest of those players, I don’t know if they
really did what they needed to do to pick up the slack when Kobe was being faced with double and triple
teams.
I had a lot of fun this year working with TNT. I got a
feeling like they might be coming back to me to bring me back for next year. I
think I’ve shown them through USA Today and various other publications that I do get
the insights and I do get the access. I think I’ve earned my keep, so God
willing, I should be there next season!
Thanks to everyone who checked out this column on
AllHipHop.com and have supported me throughout the years!
Drop Michael Bivins a line at Myspace.com/TheSporty!