Letters

Winning Smiles

What a great photo on your Celtics championship cover: Bill Russell, the greatest basketball player ever (sorry, Michael) and Kevin Garnett, the epitome of unselfish team play, standing side by side. The expressions on their faces say it all: Winning a championship is the best feeling in the world, and it never grows old.
Larry Casey, Huntsville, Ala.

Danny Ainge (Seems Like Old Times, June 30) said his 1980s Celtics did not have a player "as cool and poised and who could shoot the ball like" Ray Allen. Did he forget Larry Bird?
Lawrence Wang, San Diego

I've lived in Philadelphia all of my 23 years, and your two-page opening photo of the celebration in Boston is the kind of scene that keeps me praying. I need a championship. I need it now. Philly's gotta be next, right?
Tommy Loughner, Philadelphia

Full of Beans

Mark Bechtel has a lot of nerve asking Boston sports fans to pipe down (PLAYERS, June 30). After enduring chants such as "1918," "maybe next year" and "26 rings" for more years than I care to admit, I'm proud of my teams and I'll shout it out at the top of my lungs to anyone who cares to listen—and to those who don't. Deal with it.
Anna Benson, East Hartford, Conn.

Being a Boston sports fan is not as easy as one might think: Just consider all the money we have to spend on championship hats and T-shirts!
Mathew Hatfield, Sudbury, Mass.

Watching the Lakers lose in the Finals was hard enough, but having to do it with all those Boston fans in L.A. bragging about their teams was even more torturous. Still, I have to wonder: If Boston is so great, why are they living in Los Angeles?
Kevin Konczal, Marina del Rey, Calif.

Gangs of Oakland

It is poignant and ironic that Bill Russell graced the cover of the issue that contains George Dohrmann's story about young African-American athletes no longer seeing sports as a way out in Oakland (How Dreams Die, June 30) because of gang violence there. Russell's alma mater, Oakland's legendary McClymonds High School, is mentioned in Dohrmann's story—but only in connection with a football player who was shot and killed in 2000.
James A. Thomas III, Santa Clara, Calif.