The Boston Celtics captured its first NBA Finals berth since before my birth.

Boston’s legendary tradition and history of 16 championships ended back in my father’s college era – a time well before high definition and TiVo.

None of today’s on demand mentality during the 80s, just a keg of beer and a small television of classic Celtics-Lakers.

Tomorrow night marks my generation’s first experience of such great tradition. We’ve grown up as a unique breed as underprivileged and brutally suffering Celtics fans.

For some, the Red Sox and Patriots combined five championships spoiled the New England fan base enough. Sure, I had seen a few parades by the time I finished high school, but deep down, the NBA Finals always lurked and intrigued my native Boston fan hood. (Personally, if the Sox and Pats never won again, but the Celtics continued a dynasty, I would be perfectly content – a drastically different mindset than most Sox bandwagoners.)

And now, it’s finally here. Something I’ve been waiting years to witness firsthand. Rather than spending countless hours on YouTube watching Bird, McHale and Russell, Tuesday night at 9 p.m. will forever lose my basketball relevance virginity.

But no. The front-runner soccer moms must voice their obnoxiously irrelevant take on anything that could ever affect their children.

“Oh my god 9 o’clock that’s way too late!”

Shut the hell up.

I don’t care about your Parent of the Year award-winning bed time enforcement, mothers. For two weeks, throw all those overprotective rules out the window. (God dammit, it’s June! K-8 school kids have just a few weeks left anyways.) It’s June in Boston, and there’s Lakers-Celtics at the Garden.

I don’t care about your 7 a.m. commute and full workday, fair-weather working class fans. For two weeks, suck it up and get six hours of sleep once every two days. It’s just in Boston, and there’s Lakers-Celtics at the Garden.

For our generation, this is a first-in-a-lifetime match-up that took decades for its historic level to evolve into.

And yet still, the east coast is crying about a 9 o’clock start. To hell with that. If you don’t appreciate the most epic match up in sports history enough to stay up a few hours into the night, then just go to sleep.

Does the NBA want to maximize its profits? Obviously. So do the front-runners (expletive) about the 9 p.m. start time.

Would it be a different story if the schedule had games 1-7 every night at 9 p.m. from Monday-Sunday. Of course. But no, the NBA stretches the Finals out over a three-week span. Five weeknights out of fifteen.

And don’t even dare spitting (expletive) about how, “Oh the West coast can TiVo the game.” That’s a crock of (expletive) that doesn’t even need to be explained.

Nine o’clock compromises both coasts. (Believe it or not East coast, the country does extend beyond the Mississippi. Trust me, it’s a lot better out there.)

To those bandwagon complainers: don’t watch it. Because rest assured, those proud Celtics fans will witness history regardless of the time.

Photo Courtesy BostonDirtDogs.com