欢呼雀跃的球迷举行流动派对向凯尔特人队再次胜利致敬
【中美创新时报2024 年 6 月 22 日编译讯】（记者温友平编译）热浪过后，一场鸭子船流动集会吸引了大批人群来到市中心，庆祝波士顿凯尔特人队赢得第 18 次NBA总冠军奖杯。《波士顿环球报》记者Spencer Buell、Christopher Huffaker、Ava Berger、Maddie Khaw、Helena Getahun-Hawkins 和 Jacqueline Munis对此作了下述精彩报道。
“绿色海洋”并不能完全捕捉到它。
翻腾的潮水。飓风。周五，一股绿色的东北风——球衣、T恤、旗帜、运动鞋、头发（和胡须）——抵达波士顿，凯尔特人球迷蜂拥而至，涌入闷热但幸运的是较凉爽的波士顿市中心，庆祝球队的第 18 面NBA总冠军旗帜。
到了典型的工作日高峰时段，人群已经涌入北站区或在游行路线上占据一席之地，以便近距离观看凯尔特人队。周一，凯尔特人队以 4 比 1 击败达拉斯小牛队，结束了总冠军系列赛，为这个传奇赛季画上了句号，为忠实球迷带来了自 2008 年以来的第一个冠军。
人群挤满了整个房间，几十人站在穿过波士顿市中心的路线上，这场长达一英里的派对非常密集，就好像马拉松被挤在了从 TD Garden 到后湾区的短短一段路里。
拼花英雄们没有让人失望。当鸭子船的队伍绕过博伊尔斯顿街时，凯尔特人队老板维克·格罗斯贝克（Wyc Grousbeck）将冠军旗帜悬挂在船上，球星杰森·塔图姆（Jayson Tatum ）得意洋洋地举起拉里·奥布莱恩奖杯，欢呼声和尖叫声此起彼伏，现场爆发出欢呼声。
有人看到教练乔·马祖拉（Joe Mazzulla ）跳上鸭子船的船顶，然后走上街头拍打球迷的手——这位本周刚刚透露自己已经患有半月板撕裂数月的男人，表现得相当不错。
杰伦·布朗（Jaylen Brown）向人群举起一瓶绿色香槟，人群高呼“MVP”，他仰起头，一饮而尽。当他的船驶过时，后卫佩顿·普里查德（Payton Pritchard）也从三叶草色的瓶子里大口喝了一口，身后飘扬着俄勒冈大学的旗帜。
人群中包括 86 岁的阿尔弗雷达·哈里斯（Alfreda Harris），她拄着拐杖，T 恤上印着“波士顿你赢了”的字样。
“我来观看比赛的时候，二楼包厢的座位票价是 2 美元，”哈里斯回忆道。
哈里斯在前往花园酒店享用 VIP 早餐的路上，看到波士顿自那时起就出现了不少横幅。这种感觉永远不会过时。
“这种感觉总是很棒，”她说。“我们是世界上最好的。”
最小的凯尔特人球迷就没有这么幸运了。直到现在。
对于来自布鲁斯特的 13 岁的阿瑟·梅德罗斯（Arthur Medeiros ）来说，这是他一生中第一次获得凯尔特人队冠军。他翘掉七年级的最后一天课，和妈妈一起来参加游行。他怎么能不去呢？
“很高兴我们终于再次领先于湖人队”，谈到 NBA 总冠军，他说，这体现了早在他出生前就开始的长达数十年的竞争。“我们终于赢得了冠军。”
庆祝活动之前，一股残酷的热浪席卷了整个地区，打破了历史记录。到周五，气温终于降到了华氏 70 度。
波士顿公立学校周五突然（也许是恰当的）停课，举行庆祝活动，让学年突然而快乐地结束。除了波士顿，还有哪里能把鸭子船的游行视为节日呢？
有些人从很远的地方赶来。其他人则走了很长一段路。
这项纪录可能属于澳大利亚悉尼的 46 岁的詹姆斯·杨。
杨在波士顿长大，是凯尔特人队的铁杆粉丝，但在 2000 年搬到了澳大利亚，因此错过了 2008 年的最后一次胜利游行。他说他不会再犯同样的错误了。因此，在他的妻子给他“开绿灯”让他踏上 10,000 英里的旅程后，他启程前往，周四抵达这里。
“我时差反应很严重，但感觉非常棒，”杨在政府中心说道。 “我告诉旁边的球迷……如果[凯尔特人队]再次获胜，我们明年将在同一个地方相遇。”
对于新婚夫妇贾斯汀·巴纳德（剑桥）和凯琳·马森·巴纳德（萨默维尔）来说，这是一个特别欢乐的日子。他们原定于周五在波士顿市政厅举行婚礼。他们说，夺冠后，市政府打电话提出更改婚礼日期。但这对自称是“波士顿铁杆粉丝”的夫妇拒绝了。
“我们希望婚礼在游行期间举行，”巴纳德说。
他们说，女方身着婚纱，男方身着西装，这对夫妇整个上午都沉浸在粉丝们的祝贺之中。还有另一个好处？由于街道禁止车辆通行，婚礼照片无与伦比。在老州议会大厦和空荡荡的法院街的映衬下，贾斯汀·巴纳德将新娘向后靠，亲吻了新娘，摄影师捕捉到了这一刻。
与粉丝们混在一起的还有那些因绿色而获得小名人地位的人。
今年，谁会错过乔希·格里菲斯呢？这位来自康涅狄格州的 26 岁小伙子与凯尔特人队的得分后卫和 NBA 总决赛 MVP 有着惊人的相似之处，而且喜欢在波士顿穿着凯尔特人队服显眼地闲逛，因此他获得了“假杰伦·布朗”的绰号。
格里菲斯是一名铁杆球迷，他说，自从他开始打扮成布朗并观看比赛以来，他一年中可能被拦下 1,000 次。
“人们简直要发疯了，”格里菲斯说。
旁边站着拉塞尔·梅德罗斯，这位超级粉丝以霓虹黄绿色的长发和山羊胡而臭名昭著，人们简称他为“绿发人”，他是第一批站在花园附近路障旁的人之一。
“怎么了，传奇人物？”一位球迷走过他身边时握着他的手说道。
这场胜利对波士顿的多米尼加社区有着特殊的意义，他们目睹了艾尔·霍福德成为该国首位赢得 NBA 总冠军的球员。
“我希望他看到我们在这里代表和支持他，”27 岁的乔纳森·瓦莱里奥说，他把一面多米尼加国旗披在肩上。
到了下午，空气中可以感受到一丝凉风，这是波士顿人几天来第一次看到宜人的天气。人群从街道上涌出，涌进市中心的酒吧。
28 岁的波士顿出生的布兰登·莫伊——他从佛罗里达州奥兰多飞来参加这次活动——蹲在博伊尔斯顿街上收集散落的白色和绿色五彩纸屑。他计划把它们“放在相框里或别的地方”。
“一切都结束了，”一位球迷说，最后一艘鸭子船绕过阿灵顿街的拐角。
另一位球迷收起了他用来获得良好视野的梯子。“回去工作吧，”他说。
观看：NBA 冠军凯尔特人队乘坐鸭子船巡游小镇
题图：凯尔特人队前锋 Jayson Tatum 在周五的游行中在众多球迷的拥护下高举拉里·奥布莱恩奖杯。BARRY CHIN/GLOBE STAFF
附原英文报道：
Jubilant fans salute Celtics, triumphant again, with a party on wheels
A post-heat wave duck boat rolling rally brought massive crowds downtown to ring in an 18th banner for Boston
By Spencer Buell, Christopher Huffaker, Ava Berger, Maddie Khaw, Helena Getahun-Hawkins and Jacqueline Munis Globe Staff and Globe Correspondent,Updated June 21, 2024
This story was reported by Christopher Huffaker, Ava Berger, Maddie Khaw, Helena Getahun-Hawkins, and Jacqueline Munis. It was written by Spencer Buell.
“Sea of green” doesn’t quite capture it.
A churning tide. A hurricane. A nor’easter of green — jerseys, T-shirts, flags, sneakers, hair (and beard) — arrived here Friday, as a stampede of Celtics fans poured into a muggy but mercifully cooler downtown Boston to celebrate the team’s 18th banner.
By what on a typical weekday would be rush hour, the throngs had already descended on the North Station area or secured spots along the parade route to get a close look at the Celtics squad that, on Monday, trounced the Dallas Mavericks to close out the championship series 4 games to 1, capping a storybook season that delivered loyalists their first title since 2008.
A squirming-room-only crowd stood dozens deep on the route slicing through downtown Boston, a mile-long party so dense it was as if the Marathon had been squished into the short stretch from TD Garden through Back Bay.
The parquet heroes did not disappoint. When the cavalcade of duck boats rounded Boylston Street, roars erupted as Celtics owner Wyc Grousbeck dangled the championship banner off his boat and star Jayson Tatum triumphantly raised the Larry O’Brien Trophy to a cacophony of cheers and screams.
Coach Joe Mazzulla was seen leaping onto the roof of a duck boat and later marching up the street slapping fans hands — quite the showing from a man who just revealed this week that he’s been suffering from a torn meniscus for months.
Jaylen Brown hoisted a green bottle of champagne to the crowd, who chanted “MVP” as he tipped his head back and chugged. As his boat passed, guard Payton Pritchard also took long drags from a clover-hued bottle, a University of Oregon flag flying behind him.
Among the crowd was Alfreda Harris, 86, who held a cane and had “You Got Boston” displayed on her T-shirt.
“I came to the games when it was $2 for second balcony seats,” said Harris, reminiscing.
Harris, on her way to a VIP breakfast at the Garden, has seen quite a few banners raised in Boston since then. It never gets old.
“It’s always a great feeling,” she said. “We’re the best in the world.”
The youngest Celtics fans had not been so lucky. Until now.
For Arthur Medeiros, 13, of Brewster, it was the first Celtics championship of his lifetime. He skipped his last day of seventh grade to come to the parade with his mom. How could he not?
“It’s good to feel that we’re finally ahead of the Lakers again” when it comes to NBA titles, he said, channeling the decades-long rivalry that began long before he was born. “We finally got the championship.”
The festivities came just after a brutal heat wave swept through the region, smashing records. By Friday, temperatures had dropped, finally, into the 70s.
Boston Public Schools abruptly, and perhaps appropriately, called off classes Friday for the festivities, bringing the school year to a sudden but joyous end. Where else but Boston would the rolling rally of duck boats constitute a holiday?
Some had come a long way. Others, a very long way.
The record may belong to James Yang, 46, of Sydney, Australia.
Yang grew up in Boston as a huge Celtics fan, but moved Down Under in 2000, so missed the last victory parade in 2008. He wouldn’t make that mistake again, he said. So after his wife gave him “the green light” to make the 10,000-mile journey, he took off, arriving here Thursday.
“I’m massively jet lagged, but it was pretty awesome,” Yang said at Government Center. “I told the fans next to me … If [the Celtics] do it again, we’re going to meet at the same place next year.”
It was an especially jubilant day for newlyweds Justin Barnard, of Cambridge, and Cailyn Masson Barnard, of Somerville, who had been scheduled to marry at Boston City Hall on Friday. After the championship win, the city called and offered to move the date, they said. But the couple, who described themselves as “big Boston fans,” declined.
“We wanted it to be during the parade,” Barnard said.
She in wedding gown and he in a suit, the couple had basked in congratulations from fellow fans all morning, they said. Another perk? With the streets closed to car traffic, the wedding photos were unparalleled. With the Old State House and an empty Court Street unfurling behind them, Justin Barnard leaned his bride back and planted a kiss, as a photographer captured the moment.
Mingling with the fans were those for whom bleeding green has granted them micro-celebrity status.
Who, this year, could have missed Josh Griffith, the Connecticut 26-year-old whose uncanny resemblance to the Celtics’ shooting guard and NBA finals MVP — and penchant for hanging around Boston conspicuously in Celtics garb — earned him the moniker “Fake Jaylen Brown.”
A die-hard fan, Griffith said he has been stopped probably 1,000 times in the year since he started dressing up as Brown and attending games.
“People just go ballistic,” Griffith said.
Nearby stood Russell Medeiros, the superfan so notorious for neon-lime-dyed long hair and goatee that he’s known simply as “Guy With Green Hair,” among the first to stand along the barricades near the Garden.
“What’s up, legend?” one fan said as he passed, shaking his hand.
The victory had special significance to Boston’s Dominican community, who watched as Al Horford become the first player from that country to win an NBA title.
“I hope he sees us out here representing and supporting him,” said Jonathan Valerio, 27, who draped a Dominican flag over his shoulders.
By the afternoon, wisps of a cool breeze could be felt in the air, the first pleasant conditions Bostonians had seen in days. The throngs filtered out from the streets and into downtown bars.
Boston-born Brandon Moy, 28 — who flew in from Orlando, Fla., for the occasion — crouched down to collect white and green confetti from a Boylston Street strewn with the strips of paper. He planned to put it “in a frame or something.”
“It’s over,” one fan said as the last duck boat rounded the corner at Arlington Street.
Another folded up the ladder he had used to secure a good view. “Back to work,” he said.
Watch: NBA champion Celtics cruise through town on duck boats
