Green with envy
It’s odd happenstance when I turn on the TV and see something Green being celebrated. Kermit knew it wasn’t easy, people get green with envy, and even the American greenback has been taking its hits recently. However with the (bought/ David Stern designed) revitalization of the Boston Celtics the portrayal of green has changed in the national media, and more surprisingly, in New York. While the Celtics changing fortunes have of course reenergized the Boston and New England fan base causing them to rally around their club in as similarly an obnoxious fashion as when Red Sox fans celebrate their team, the growing national (re: New York) interest in the club has more sinister overtones. It would be easy now to echo the words of many of the sports pundits who have made a point of pointing out the lunacy of the trades that brought KG and Pau to their respective teams,[1] but that certainly pertinent point does not get at the root issue. Parallel to the reemergence of the Celtics has been an epidemic the likes of which I have never seen.
It is natural for New Yorkers, so keyed into what is fashionable, to reflect the ideas and couture of the moment. But that is no excuse for those people that I have seen traveling around town proudly sporting shamrocks and novelty Paul Pierce stab wounds. Now, I understand if you are actually from Boston. New York is the type of city that people move to so it is likely that there are a fair number of people from New England that happen to live in New York. But it is clear that it is not just New England expats that are so audaciously usurping the green from this fair city.[2] Just the other day, not a week ago, there was a man on the streets, so lost, so confused, so broken hearted by the Dolan era, that he stood there proudly with a Boston Celtics jersey resting on his shoulders and a New York Yankees hat sitting quietly on his head. My first thought was to harness my inner PETA and pour a can of green paint all over his deeply confused attire, but that degree of crudeness is only rational to zealots and crazy people. Instead I walked on, shaking my head, crafting derogatory sentences to post semi-anonymously online.
While I admit that my chagrin may be a little overblown to those outside of my relative view of reality, I see this aforementioned moment as a terrible intrusion into our sports culture. In sports rivalry there is New York vs. Boston… and everything else. You may have your arguments for Texas vs. Oklahoma, Detroit vs. Toyota, and USC vs. Cal and Stanford and whatever other PAC-10 schools you want to cite, but the idea of any of these rivalries usurping the enormity that is New York vs. Boston is as likely as Ted Kennedy endorsing Hillary Clinton. To see a man so confused as to wear a Yankees hat and a Celtics jersey is to see a disturbance in the matrix. To see this is to see a rallying cry. Take back our fair color green. Do not let the faux-Celtics fans, the front runners, and the fashionistas pollute the streets. Shamrocks are for St. Patrick’s Day; in New York the color green is for the Jets. At least preseason will come soon and wash all this scum off the streets.
[1] Though to be honest, I actually like watching Garnett and I have a deep and abiding love for Ray Allen (just the sight of his sweet, sweet shot makes me nostalgic for UCONN Huskies basketball circa 1996)
[2] I suppose it’s also necessary that I divulge the fact that I am included from New England. But the good part, not the Boston part.
