CELTICS WIN!! New England still better than SoCal.

Last night, the Kelts of Boston posted a 39 point victory in game 6 to take the NBA Finals 4 games to 2 over the Lakers of Los Angeles. Paul Pierce won Finals MVP, Ray Allen quieted his critics and Kevin Garnett is free after years of hearing that he didn’t do as much as a superstar should.

I watched the game with two friends, one of whom is from L.A., the other who hasn’t watched a pro basketball game in 15 years. One engaged in light pouting. The other read a book.

Boston’s scorecard for this season:

• Celtics win the NBA title
• Red Sox win the World Series
• Patriots go undefeated in regular season and lose thriller in Superbowl
• Bruins back in the playoffs

Is this the greatest sports year in one city’s history?

It’s certainly one of the top couple. Regardless, it is undeniable that Boston is the top U.S. sports city for the first decade of the new Millennium. The Patriots have 3 titles, the Red Sox 2, Celtics 1. SIX titles for Boston in the major sports plus one extra Superbowl appearance.

In fact, Boston has dominated this decade the way no other city has in the modern era of sports (I’d peg that in the 1970s, once everything was on TV and the leagues started expanding). NYC had a nice run in the 1990s with the Yankees (3 titles), the Rangers (1 title), the Giants (1 title), and the Knicks (2 finals appearances). But only the Yankees came close to the dominance displayed by the Pats in the 00’s, and that was at the end of the decade. The Pats have been consistently outstanding since Y2K.

Boston’s resurgence was a long time coming. A resurgence is more thrilling than a rise to prominence, because by definition it means you used to be great and the memory of greatness lingers. Tasting it again is even sweeter. And when it comes, the anticipation alone is worth the years of agony. The Sox’ decades of futility are legendary. A generation of Celtics fans witnessed the deaths of two stars, the loss of two key lotteries and years of mediocre players (much love, Ukraine Train). The Patriots were so bad for so long and teased a few times before breaking through against the Rams.

And what has made the decade complete for Boston fans is that arch-enemies and curses were vanquished along the way. The victories felt right, they felt healing. Boston teams didn’t just win, they were vindicated. Inigo Montoya killed the Six-Fingered Man. The Celtics crushed the Lakers. Harry Potter slew Voldemort. The Red Sox humiliated the Yankees.

(Added bonus: from now on, whenever a baseball team is down 3-0 in a series, they mention the Sox beating the Yankees. And whenever a team is down by more than 20 points in the second half of a championship game, they’ll mention the Celtics coming back to beat the Lakers)

In short, it’s a great time to be a New England sports fan again. It’s exciting and satisfying at the same time. It’s a feeling every sports fans should feel once in their life. Except maybe in L.A.