Posted by Teddy Panos, Sun Staff

Twenty-one years. That’s how long it’s been since the Celtics last played in the NBA Finals.

For a dog, it’s only three years. For Abraham Lincoln, one score and one year ago. For those of us waiting to see banner #17 hang in the rafters, it seems like a lifetime.

However you measure, it’s been long enough for a generation of fans to grow up without pro basketball as part of the local sports landscape, and long enough for those who lived through the golden years to lose touch with the modern day NBA.

I can’t tell you how many people have forgotten home court advantage is no longer based on the 2-2-1-1-1 format, where the team with the better record gets to play games 1, 2, 5 & 7 on familiar hardwood. Instead, the Finals are now contested in the 2-3-2 format, which is much friendlier for the squad hosting the middle three games.

Ironically, the league switched to that schedule because of the Celtics-Lakers rivalry of the 1980’s. At the time, purists cringed because the team with the inferior record would get to host the fifth game, which is considered the most crucial in any series. Sure enough in 1985, the first year of the new scheme, the Celtics evened the Finals at two games apiece thanks to a Dennis Johnson buzzer beater, only to stay out west and play Game 5 at the Forum. The home crowd helped lift the Magic, Kareem and company to a win and eventual series victory.

The league’s rationale for the change was that the new format made cross-country travel much easier, since you only had to make the trek twice instead of four times in a potential seven game set. Of course, the brain surgeons in charge then went ahead and started scheduling shorter turnarounds following the cross-country flights. Check out the schedule this year:

Boston and L.A. play Game 2 at the Garden Sunday, three days after Thursday’s Game 1. They then hop on a plane to La-La Land for Game 3 Tuesday, with just one day’s rest. To compound the mistake, Games 4 & 5 are played Thursday and Sunday, before the series returns to Boston for Game 6 Tuesday, again with only one day off after the long flight.

Cue the Bud Lite “Real Men of Genius” commercial and kiss home court advantage goodbye.

The other difference NBA fans returning from their Celtics induced slumber will notice is how bad the officiating has become. We always complained about the refs, but nowadays, they really are horrible. At least Tim Donaghy had reason to make stupid calls. He had gambling money at stake. What possesses Bennett Salvatore to make some of his mind-boggling decisions is beyond comprehension. Yet there he was, wearing a striped shirt last Saturday. Except unlike Donaghy’s prison garb, Salvatore wore his uniform to work the deciding game of a conference championship. Who’s the real criminal?

Other changes you’ll notice since the original Big Three roamed the original Garden: the pre-game introductions last longer than most Hollywood marriages…the words “traveling” and “palming” only exist for rookies… and pro basketball defenders get away with more contact than an NFL secondary.

Otherwise, the next two weeks are a throwback to the 60’s and 80’s. The NBA Finals have finally come back to Boston, and from the looks of things, not much has changed.
League supremacy is at stake. The green and white of the Celtics vs. the Lakers’ purple and gold. Rabid fans on both coasts. The rest of the country will tune in. And Jack Nicholson still looks like a bum.

Twenty-one years. Celtics fans have hit blackjack once again.