This time, it's the Boston Celtics that are dressing for a funeral
The Boston Celtics seem to be dressing for a Friday night funeral.
The Celtics arrived for Game 6 of their Eastern Conference semifinals series against the Washington Wizards at the Verizon Center decked out in all black, signaling that they are ready to put away the Wizards. Boston holds a 3-2 lead in the series and a win would send them to the Eastern Conference finals.
Celtics arrive in all black tonight. Not a coincidence. Coverage on @CSNNE starts at 6:00 #celticstalk pic.twitter.com/bRT1Zwyvi3
— Nathan Long (@Mr_Nate_Long) May 12, 2017
The #Celtics are really going with the all-black everything look tonight. pic.twitter.com/LEfTylUaPr
— Def Pen Hoops (@DefPenHoops) May 12, 2017
Even the Celtics’ sideline reporter, Abby Chin, dressed in black (although, Chin says that was a coincidence):
Btw even CSN Celtics reporter @tvabby went with the all black look "coincidentally" #DCFamily #WizCeltics pic.twitter.com/6ZfCY7YVZr
— Mitchell Tischler (@Mitch_Tischler) May 12, 2017
The Wizards and Celtics have history … and history dressing for each other’s funerals. Washington wore all black to a mid-season meeting against the Celtics and John Wall told Washington Post reporter Candace Buckner that it was, in fact, for “a funeral” of the Celtics. Washington ended up winning that game 123-108. When that happened, Celtics point guard Isaiah Thomas told local media that he thought that it was “cute” that the Wizards wore all black.
“It’s definitely not a Game 7,” Thomas said. “It’s not the playoffs.”
Well, clearly, it is now the playoffs and the Celtics have a chance to send the Wizards home for the season. The question becomes, will this backfire for the Celtics or can they put this series away?
For his part, legendary former Celtics player and coach/longtime Celtics color commentator Tommy Heinsohn panned the move, calling it “the ultimate stupidity.”
“The object of when you play in the playoffs is, you want to take the crowd out of the game, so that there’s no impetus to help the home team,” Heinsohn said. “These guys — they’ll be screaming at the Celtics for the entire game! They better play well tonight, because otherwise they’re liable to get murdered.”