Most people just dismiss Labor Day as a minor holiday serving as a seasonal mile marker and reminder that you haven't done your back-to-school shopping.
What it’s really about is you, the person who is going to work every day. It’s about the people who are grinding out their livings, and their constant fight for good pay and working conditions.
It’s a very Boston holiday.
Because there's little that Boston has historically valued more than hard work. This has forever been a blue collar type of city, which is why it stood in such perfectly stark contrast to the 80’s Los Angeles “Showtime” Lakers.
Part of that is because Boston is tough. The summers aren’t just hot, they get soupy thick so we constantly have to peel clothes off our bodies. We can try to cool off in the ocean but our beaches are full of rocks and our water is a murky greenish-brown. We get maybe five comfortable days in September and then suddenly it starts getting dark before you leave work. Our samurai wind gusts cut through however many layers we are wearing in the dead of winter before we get five nice spring days and we do it all over again.
There's traffic everywhere and driving is more of a competition than a means of travel. By the time we get wherever we’re going, anyone who started the day smiling now looks like a Salvador Dali painting.
Everything around here takes a little extra effort. We’re certainly not alone in this circumstance, but it is still our circumstance. So when we turn to our favorite sports teams, the last thing we want to see is loafing or showboating. We’re all putting our heads down and grinding, so we expect that of our athletes.
Welcome to Boston, here’s a bunch of money and a hard hat. You’re one of us now.
This Celtics team has struggled with its perception in the past, but that has turned around. This is due in no small part to Ime Udoka, whose grind makes him, perhaps, the perfect kind of coach for a Boston team.
He puts everything into his work, has no time for messing around, and he wants everything done the right way. He comes to work, does his job, prepares for the next day, goes home, and then does it all over again.
He can be described as a little gritty. He’s definitely a person who has used Boston’s unofficial motto “no, f--- YOU!” more than once in his life, and he’s certainly had to throw hands to make his point every once in a while. His name might as well be Ime O’Doka, a dude with an apartment on G Street and East 8th who’ll meet you at the Shamrock Pub after his shift.
This gives him an opportunity to give Celtics fans something beyond a championship.
This Celtics team can be something more than good. It can be homegrown, hard-working good. After everything this team has been through, Udoka’s Celtics have a chance to not only return some glory to the Celtics, but some Boston glory to the Celtics.
Jayson Tatum, Jaylen Brown, Robert Williams, Marcus Smart, and Grant Williams, are all Celtics draftees and, obviously, major contributors. They form most of the core of a Finals team that came together organically, not by some manner of collusion. We have watched them all grow a lot in a short time, and there is so much more room for them to get better.
But it’s not just about improving their skills. There is an evolution of attitude that is happening.
One of Udoka’s messages to Derrick White when he was traded to Boston was to be more physical and not be afraid to take a foul. Reaching that level of physicality takes some refining of one’s mentality, because it requires the proactive act of hitting first. That's not in everyone’s nature or training, but it’s what Udoka has asked for.
All of these guys need to add to their games, but if they can take that hit-first attitude to a new level, they’ll become darlings of the city. Boston finds nothing wrong with the occasional double tech. They love when teammates stand up for each other and have zero issue with anyone letting the other team know that shenanigans will not be tolerated.
If someone gets in the way of their pursuit of a rebound or loose ball, so be it.
In Boston, no one gets in the way of one’s hard work. If the individuals on this team can all come back with at least some bit of noticeable improvement and mix that with a more tenacious on-court attitude, they could give Boston the kind of winner that hasn’t been seen since Kevin Garnett’s Celtics roared to a title.
There's no KG on this team to light the fire. That makes this more of a collective effort, and that starts from the coach on the sidelines. Carrying that attitude onto the court puts this Celtics team in a unique position to not only win, but win in a way that is truly reflective of the city.
Boston is full of tough, hard-working people who refuse to let anyone else take what they’ve worked hard to accomplish. This is exactly what this Celtics team can be.
They can be more than special. They can be Boston.