Poll: Are the Celtics the most unfairly judged team in sports?

No matter how good the Boston Celtics are, it never seems to be good enough. Then when they happen to lose, that thing they do quite rarely about once every week or two, they get shredded for it.

Because every other great team goes out there and cleans the floor with their opponent, never allowing them to win a single game in any of the postseason series. No? Is that not the case? Oh, that's right. It's quite literally never been done before.

So why the hell do people act like that's the standard for the Celtics, and anything less is some sort of failure?

It's because they're soooo damn good. They've been so good all season long. You could see they would be this good from miles away before the year began, and then they were. People are tired of how good they are. It's been seven months of it now.

At the same time, this is the same squad that has yet to get over the hump. This crew -  Tatum, Brown & Co. - have been here numerous times before. They've been to the last two Conference Finals and five of the last seven. They went to The Finals two summers ago, yet only one banner has been hung in the home arena since 1986.

So, I get it. People are tired of always hearing about the Celtics, and how good they are, without ever seeing them win. I get both sides of it. But it's not an excuse to devalue everything the '23-'24 team has done thus far. Nor is it a reason to doubt this team based on past years.

This team is different. We've taken it for granted for 90 games, watching them win 70 of those games by an average margin of 11.4 points, with 48 of the wins coming by 10+ points and 23 by 20-or-more.

Yet on the national stage, the Celtics are judged to a standard that few other teams in sports seem to be held to.