DNHQ Rooting Guide: (1) Boston vs. (8) Miami; plus open thread

Boston revenge time, with no Jimmy Butler in their way?

See the master index at Dub Nation HQ Rooting Guide For Other Teams.

Boston Celtics

Ex-Warriors

• None.

Friends

• Jrue Holiday. Hard working, great defender, two-way talent. Fierce rival, but also a big public fan of Stephen Curry.

• Steph Curry and Jayson Tatum seem to have some mutual respect.

Warriors Villains

• None.

Petty Rivalries

• Jaylen Brown went to Cal if you care about that.

  • Abaddon writes: in the great Steph/Kyrie duel in 2018(?) Steph was seen visibly flapping his right hand at Brown after hitting a three over and around his defense. He also was jawing at Brown. It was a while ago and I’m not sure if there’s been anything since, but it is so rare to see Steph directly taunting someone that it sticks out in my memory.

  • Jaylen seems to drifting into Kyrie-lite territory. He also seems to be sowing all kinds of internal turmoil in BOS, which you may regard as uncool or helpful for GSW.

Team Grudges

• The 2022 Finals were bitterly fought and the BOS fans really brought the bile in antagonizing Draymond Green. But that’s sports for you. It worked to throw Dray off his game and also made Steph elevate his game in the legendary Game 4.

• Long history of racism from Celtics fans.

• Isaiah Thomas played through his sister’s death and various injuries at the cost of his career and was immediately dumped by BOS for Kyrie Irving. Pretty shocking move even if the league’s motto is “It’s Just A Business”.

• Celtics fans talk a lot about their many championships, omitting the fact that they’ve won 1 championship since 1986, and most of the previous ones came from Red Auerbach ripping off other hobbyist owners when the league was eight teams that could barely get a highlight on TV.

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Miami HEAT

Ex-Warriors

• None.

Friends

• Jimmy Butler. Famously couldn’t get along with the Minnesota Timberwolves management, couldn’t get the most out of Andrew Wiggins through tough love, and caused so much chaos that it forced trades and moves that put MIN in such a dreadful position that MIN had to make a desperation move to keep Karl-Anthony Towns from leaving: the glorious trade of Andrew Wiggins and the 2021 Top 3 protected 1st round pick (#7 Kuminga) for KAT’s pal D’Angelo Russell. Thanks, Jimmy.

• Kevin Love. Childhood pal of Klay Thompson. Legendary near-trade target for Klay Thompson, (then recent all-star) David Lee and Harrison Barnes. The #2 free agent whom LeBron grabbed for his Superfriends 2.0 (v 1.0 in CLE), who became a scapegoat for all CLE’s problems.

Unrequited Love

• Jaime Jaquez, Jr. Drafted ONE pick before GSW’s pick. Runaway winner of our 2023 DNHQ Draft Tourney Bonus Group B. We’ll never know if JJ was higher than Brandin Podziemski on GSW’s big board, but it was all but certain that GSW would take one of them.

Warriors Villains

• None yet.

Petty Rivalries

• Udonis Haslem. Raised a whole fuss about Draymond picking the Celtics to advance.

Team Grudges

• None really. They did have the annoying LeBron / Wade / Bosh Super Friends team, but that one underperformed so much that it provided some entertainment. Dwyane Wade has been pretty cool in retirement, and they also got dumped by LeBron after he strip-mined the town, so it’s hard to hold a grudge. They also gave the Lakers a scare in the 2020 Disney Cup despite a rash of Heat injures, and also got within one shot of upsetting the Celtics in 2022, and finished the job with the huge upset over BOS in 2023.

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