It's been a pretty good decade for Boston sports fans. Every one of their major pro teams has won at least one championship in that span. (Sorry, New England Revolution, but you don't count.)
For a city that loves to mope and whine about its teams even in good times, though, that run of success hasn't been enough to quell the city's nagging pessimism. It's been two whole years since a Boston team won a title, after all.
Still, Boston sports fans may rightly have reason to complain now, given that the past few weeks have been one continuous ball through Buckner's legs, so to speak.
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President of basketball operations Danny Ainge made it no secret this offseason that he was willing to deal future Hall of Famers and team centerpieces Paul Pierce and Kevin Garnett to hasten a rebuilding effort. Late Thursday night, he pulled the trigger, sending both of those players, plus Jason Terry, to the Brooklyn Nets.
The return Ainge secured for those players? Not much.
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Boston will pick up three future first round draft picks and pieces that include the three years and $30 million still owed to Gerald Wallace. On top of that, the Celtics get the expiring contract of the universally loathed Kris Humphries.
Sports are a business, but dumping Pierce was an especially callous move. Pierce has been the face of the franchise for 15 years, since Boston drafted him 10th overall in 1998. He's second on the Celtics' all-time scoring list, and in 2008, he helped the team win its first title in two decades — a victory so emotional he wept openly when presented with his championship ring.
Celtics coach Doc Rivers, who hinted after the season that he might need a change of scenery, got his wish when Boston traded him to the Los Angeles Clippers for a draft pick. Earlier discussions had the Celtics reportedly shopping Rivers and some players in a mega-deal for young talent in the form of DeAndre Jordan, or possibly Eric Bledsoe.
Boston got neither, but still watched a championship-winning coach walk away.
3. The Bruins lost a Stanley Cup heartbreaker
The Bruins made a surprising run into the Stanley Cup finals. They went up two games to one on the Chicago Blackhawks. Then they lost three straight games, the final one coming in heartbreaking fashion.
Leading by one with just over a minute remaining in the game, a game seven within reach, Boston gave up two goals in 17 seconds, and the Blackhawks skated away with the Stanley Cup.
4. Aaron Hernandez was charged with murder
The Aaron Hernandez murder investigation has gone from bad to crazy to nonsensical. In the latest turn, police are looking into whether Hernandez was involved in a 2012 double homicide, citing that as a possible motive for why he allegedly murdered Odin Lloyd.
The Hernandez case is terrible, but not just because the Patriots will miss a star player. To even think about that dynamic given the serious nature of his alleged crime is outrageous.
No, the case is troubling because it's turned on a spigot of blathering from the loudmouth Boston fans who give the normal ones a bad rep.
5. It's Tebow time
If only Boston sports fans had some sort of savior to deliver them from their miserable month, some player one of their teams could sign to give them some reason to be optimistic.
Nevermind.
Full disclosure: The author of this post is a Boston sports fan, but, he hopes, not a jerk about it.
Jon Terbush is an associate editor at TheWeek.com covering politics, sports, and other things he finds interesting. He has previously written for Talking Points Memo, RawStory, and Business Insider.
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