Are the Celtics too good?

There was an interesting quote by Ray Allen in the Boston Globe today:

Teams want to win. This team had an effect on the rest of the league. After
all the moves that Danny made over the offseason to get all the guys here and
win the championship, teams were like, "Hey, maybe we can get into the feeding
frenzy over the summer with some guys that we know can play and can bring us to
the Promised Land." It's a disappointment. It's the expectation. Most teams can
be in rebuilding mode and you got the same coach and a terrible record, but
you're building your young players. When you bring in high-dollar players and
you're in the bottom of your division, it's a big load on you.

- Ray Allen

Whatever the reason, the NBA is the now the most lopsided of the four major sports. In baseball, teams such as Tampa Bay have shown us anything is possible year to year. The race in the NFL is the most interesting it has been in years. Hockey, of course, is as unpredictable as ever with 16 teams going to the playoffs. Baseball is the only pure championship series with only six teams qualifying after 162 games. No mediocre teams make it to the postseason. The same isn't true in the other three sports.

Nothing is like the lopsided dominance of the Celtics in the NBA. Allen's quote may seem arrogant to some, but his thinking belies the fact that for the best and the worst teams, the season's outcome is determined before it starts.

You may have seen the interesting taped conversation between the great Bill Russell and Kevin Garnett in which the legend tells the new Celtics superstar that he is going to win a few championships in a Celtics' jersey. At the time, I thought it was an incredibly presumptuous prediction, but then after last year's dominant win against a favored team, the Celts look like they are going to be the perennial favorite for at least the next few years.

With a 23-2 record and a .920 winning percentage, it looks like they are on pace for the best record ever, currently held by the 1995-96 Chicago Bulls at 72-10. This is one of the most difficult team records in sports to break. But it comes a year after the Patriots broke the record for most regular season wins.

Who knows how much further it can go beyond that? The Celtics have all the right pieces and can afford to build from the bottom up while this run lasts.