So What's To Like About The Celtics?

As we await the inevitable Kobe-LeBron clash -- as you know, these things are determined by the NBA before the season even begins; heck, I have the memo right in front of me -- let us consider why everyone (I know) still hates the Celtics.

If you're unfortunate enough to be as old as Couch Slouch is -- which means growing up in the 1960s, stumbling through college in the '70s, getting married and divorced in the '80s and getting married and divorced again in the '90s -- then you qualify as a First Generation Celtics Hater.

The recent Celtics renaissance has been bothersome, worsened by other Boston-area championship runs by the Patriots and the Red Sox. And the Larry Bird era before that was equally tough on reasonable, David Stern-fearing souls. But nothing was more horrific and horrifying than the original Red Auerbach dynastic reign.

I am still scarred from a childhood of watching the Celtics get call after call and win title after title; the only benefit was that it prepared me for an adulthood of watching Duke games.

For years, any deciding game of a Celtics playoff series was virtually scripted. They felt like Harlem Globetrotters-Washington Generals games, minus the bucket of confetti.

Auerbach didn't pay off the referees, he simply had them "relocated" if they didn't comply.

Here are three largely factual Celtics facts:

-- They never lost a Game 7 at Boston Garden on a Sunday.

-- There was not a traveling call on a Celtic in the postseason between 1957 and 1986.