One of the time honored traditions in sports is finding motivation in people doubting you, particularly in the NBA. Michael Jordan was the master at seeking out even the tiniest of slights and turning it into fuel for his competitive fire, and every acolyte of Jordan’s (and, subsequently, Kobe Bryant) has used that template to get through the grind of the NBA season.
Sometimes you have to really manufacture that doubt, but other times it is much more readily available. Despite the fact that they posted the NBA’s best record and rolled through the Eastern Conference in the playoffs, the Boston Celtics didn’t have to search far to find people picking against them in the Finals against the Dallas Mavericks. As it turns out, those wondering if the Celtics hadn’t faced a tough enough road or talking themselves into the Mavs having the two best players in the series were overthinking things a bit, as Boston cruised to its 18th championship in five games.
On Tuesday, the Celtics social team decided to read off some receipts, compiling a video of prominent people — and one prominent corgi — picking the Mavs to beat them in the Finals.
We kept the receipts
pic.twitter.com/84A25giaTP
— Boston Celtics (@celtics) June 18, 2024
Including the corgi that picks NBA playoff series on TikTok by bouncing a ball down the stairs alongside Stephen A. Smith, Skip Bayless, Shaq, and other talking heads is extremely funny, and credit to the Celtics social team for recognizing opportunity and clipping all of these before the series, knowing how fans would eat it up once Boston won the title.