In A Sad Attempt To Stay Relevant, Gilbert Arenas Claims The Boston Celtics Have Been Irrelevant For The Past 30 Years

Ned Dishman. Getty Images.

Ah yes, that's the good stuff. The old "The Celtics didn't even play anyone when they won their titles" routine. Wilt, Oscar Robertson, Jerry West, Elgin Baylor, Bob Pettit, Jerry Lucas, etc, you know, some of the legends of the NBA. I'm pretty sure you don't have Gilbert Arenas going on his podcast talking about how Wilt was a fraud right? 

I also love the arbitrary 30 year cutoff, how convenient! Look, as a Celtics fan, this is not a new tactic to live through. You look at the replies/quotes of that tweet and you will see your typical Heat, Lakers, fan masturbating too it. Look, if it were easy to have 17 NBA titles, a lot more teams would have NBA titles. There have been 13 teams in the last 30 years that have won a title, Boston is one of them. Yet they're the irrelevant ones? OK.

The more I think about it, Gilbert Arenas may not know what the word "irrelevant" means. 

It doesn't seem like Arenas understands that you do not become relevant only by winning a championship (which the Celts have done during this supposed end all be all 30 year run). Being in the mix year after year after year (minutes the Pitino years) is being relevant. You cannot mention the most successful playoff teams over the last 30 years without mentioning a certain team

To Arenas, the team with the 4th most playoff wins in the last 30 years is somehow irrelevant. That makes sense. Even if you want to keep it to this era, this is what that looks like over the last 10 years

According to this logic, had Perk not torn his ACL and the Celts won the 2010 title, they would suddenly be relevant? As a team that has been in the Final Four pretty much every year over the last 6 years is irrelevant because they are yet to be the last team standing? How on earth does that make any sense? 

Whether it's the last 30 years or the current era, you cannot talk about the landscape of NBA or the more successful teams without mentioning the Boston Celtics. By the very definition of the word, that makes them relevant. 

Perhaps the most damning part of that entire rant is the simple fact that Arenas is trying to remain relevant by slandering the one team he is suggesting is irrelevant. Look at the engagement on that tweet. Over 2k RTs and 10K likes. I'm pretty sure that doesn't happen when talking about a team and franchise that is "irrelevant". He knows what he's doing, the same way ESPN knows what they are doing when they do shit like this

It's a tried and true formula. Do you want to be relevant and all over the internet? Mention the Boston Celtics. If you really want to go viral, the more negative and disrespectful the better. 

I also found it interesting that nowhere in that rant did Arenas bother mentioning the whole Len Bias and Reggie Lewis tragically dying part. You know, the ones who were going to take the torch from Bird for that 90s era. Seems pretty important when talking about their history and winning!

But you know why. Because this is a troll. It's what Arenas does best. Say outlandish shit, go viral, have blogs like this written about him, and around and around we go.

And Brandon Jennings chiming in that they "barely" got that 2008 title? The fuck? The 66-16 team that won the Finals in 6 games by demolishing the Lakers (who they all consider relevant) 131-92 is "barely" winning a title? Is he just upset the Celts beat the Bucks again or something the other night because that may have been an even more insane comment than Arenas' entire rant.

At the end of the day, this is all the kind of shit that will make it even sweeter if the Celts can finish the deal this year. The tears from people like Gilbert Arenas will feed families. I've said it before and I'll say it now, this is the most important playoff run since 2008. From the franchise slander to the Tatum slander to the Joe Mazzulla slander, this is it. You can end all of it right now.

16 wins is all it will take. 

Let us pray.