Boston Celtics: a letter from the fans to Brad Stevens

Sometimes, Boston Celtics fans, as you know all too well, it can be hard to move on. 

Your friends may not understand. Your family may not understand. In fact, no one may. But the bottomline is you had your heart broken, and you need time…and I get it Boston Celtics fans.

What’s unique about this heartbreak is that until next season starts, it will have to be relived constantly.

Brad Stevens recently spoke with reporters during a visit to Team USA’s training camp, of which four Celtics are taking part (Kemba Walker, Jayson Tatum, Jaylen Brown, and Marcus Smart), and he had the following to say:

“It’s funny because I think, on the outside, because there’s not much to talk about for two months in the summer, that’s kind of been the consistent story [last year’s debacle].”

He continued: “On the inside, we moved on past it a long time ago. It’s been a great vibe in our building. We have a great group of workers.”

Well, you see, Mr. Stevens, we were hurt. Really, really hurt. We were promised marriage, but were left standing at the alter, never to see the championship or the star point guard we were engaged to walking down that aisle.

We were humiliated in front of everyone.

National “pundits” such as Nick Wright seemed to revel in our demise. Steven A. Smith even blamed dear friend, and treasured member of the wedding party, Danny Ainge, when Danny hadn’t done a damned thing wrong. Not a damned thing.

But more important than what others thought of us was what we began to think of ourselves…

Doubt crept in.

Am I good enough? Could I have done anything differently? Maybe if I just hadn’t bothered him with so many questions about free-agency?

Will anyone ever truly love me?

The reason we’re having trouble getting over our heartbreak from last year, Mr. Stevens, has nothing to do with us simply having nothing else to talk about right now.

That’s not it at all. You just don’t understand… (sigh)…coaches never do…

Again, we were hurt. Very deeply hurt. Never before has a Boston Celtics team failed to meet expectations to such an extent. Never before has our star player, a player who we gave every benefit of the doubt to and prostrated ourselves in front of on countless occasions, spurned us in such a cruel, cold-hearted way.

He ghosted us. He freakin’ ghosted us!

So please excuse us if we need a little more time to process things, Mr. Stevens.

Now, it’s true that we have a new superstar point guard in Walker. He is someone stable; a player we could probably count on. But the regular season hasn’t even started yet, and he still has a lot to prove before fully gaining the trust of Boston Celtics fans.

At the end of the day, you just don’t get over a heartbreak of the kind we suffered in only a few short months, not completely.

And if that’s the price we pay for “caring too much,” so be it. So while I’m glad you’ve been able to move on so easily, Mr. Stevens, we still need some time.

Sincerely,

Boston Celtics fans

What do you think, guys and gals? Should we be “over it” already? Or are we right to still be harboring some resentment after everything that went down? Break it down for me in the comments section.

Thanks for reading.