By Callie MacDonald

Going into this season, the Boston Celtics were left with many holes on their team.  Losing players such as Kevin Garnet, Paul Pierce, Jason Terry, and DJ White, the team needed to fill several places on the court.  Even with the loss of talent forgotten, the team still had a major loss of leadership.  Team leaders Paul Pierce,  Kevin Garnet — and Ray Allen as well, who was traded the year before to the Miami Heat– are no longer on the team.  Their veteran leadership and team-building skills were far greater than their impressive athleticism.  In addition to this, their coach since 2004 has gone to the Clippers.  Needless to say that there were many gaps on the roster.

Although it’s disappointing and frightening to say goodbye to so many well-known faces, it is still a little exciting to get to know the new players.  They received Gerard Wallace, Kris Humphries, MarShon Brooks, Kris Josephs, Kris Bogans and Kelly Olynyk.  There are also some talented returning players like Avery Bradley, Jeff Green, Jared Sullinger, Courtney Lee, Brandon Bass and, of course, Rajon Rondo.  With all of the team’s leaders gone, Rondo appears to be the one who has the ability to take their place.   Rondo creates so many assists that he is often compared to Steve Nash.  However, he tore his ACL last January, so he has not seen the court yet.

Even though we are nowhere near our former Big Three glory, there have been some notable highlights of the season, such as beating the Miami Heat early in the season.  Also, other players are stepping up to fill the roles of past and injured players.  For example, Jordan Crawford averaging 5.6 assists each game is helpful while Rondo remains on the DL.  They are second in their division, behind the Raptors.  They have 13 wins and 20 losses.

It is no secret that the Boston Celtics are not one of the more impressive teams in the NBA.  However, I still believe they are worth following.  It is a young team with a lot of hope.  There are a lot of possibilities in the years to come.  Most of all, the thing that I love the most about the Celtics is that they are a team.   Unlike other teams in the NBA, they are not centered around one superstar (or a couple in Miami’s case).  Egotistical giants do not dominate the Celtics.  I believe that the NBA right now is too focused on the showmanship of the all stars and barely concerned about playing basketball as though it were a sport that uses the five men on the court to win games.  Even when we had our “all stars” in the big three, they were exceptional leaders more than anything else.  They worked to make the team better.   Right now, we may not have the best team in the NBA, we may not have a shot at the championship for a few years, but we have a hardworking team with a lot of hopefuls and I think that is something worth watching.