Boston Garden Serenades Lebron James; Bill Simmons Takes Deserved Credit Via Twitter

by Dave Levy | 9:35 am, May 14th, 2010

» 5 comments

The sports story here is that the Cleveland Cavaliers, the regular season Eastern Conference champions, are out of the NBA playoffs, falling 94-85 to the Boston Celtics on the road in game six. The still-sports-related subtext is that LeBron James, the #1 draft pick of the 2003 draft, reigning, two-time MVP, and the supposed savior of basketball in Ohio, will be eligible for free agency come the season’s conclusion.

And not a lot of people think – especially after his uninspired performance for the Cavs in his last two games of these 2010 playoffs – that he’ll be putting on a Cleveland uniform when the 2010-11 season starts next fall. The free agency class of 2010 has many other notable folks The prediction that has been discussed for awhile given that the “Summer of 2010″ has many notable free agents, and most think that LeBron will be heading for the Big Apple. Big market team, lots of history, and they need a winner and savior. Not a bad offer for the guy many consider to be the greatest player in the game.

You can add about 18,000 to those who don’t expect LBJ back in Cleveland: the entire Boston Garden crowd. They took advantage of a great opportunity and started a wonderfully loud chant of “New York Knicks-New York Knicks” as James was at the free throw line in the final minutes of the game six loss. See here:

Anytime an entire arena gets into a chant, it’s always kind of entertaining to watch. The interesting part about it, though, is that it may not have originated from inside the building. The idea and catalyst have at least a connection to a certain Sports Guy’s couch in Los Angeles – some 3,000 miles away. We discussed it here on Mediaite earlier this week: Bill Simmons – ESPN’s sports, pop culture and now apparently technology columnist – had a fascinating idea to try and use Twitter to corral fans and coordinate cheers on the fly through a dedicated account called CelticsChants.

That “New York Knicks” chant and idea? There’s a good chance this tweet from CelticsChants at about 9 p.m. last night on the east coast (while the game was still in the third quarter) had something to do with it:

How much credit can he take? That’s probably a little flexible – but there exists a very good possibility that he had something to do with the success of the chant (once the announcers acknowledged it, you knew it had made its mark).

Bill was even ready to throw in the towel not too soon before that tweet went out, but he may have just come across something that college and professional teams are probably already moving to figure out how to do. Who will be the first franchise to jump on board, embrace the idea and try and go on the spot? Most squads across every league have many beat writers covering the game and tweeting updates – who’s going to pay someone to cover and rally the fans?

For now? He gets to celebrate. And sports teams everywhere better figure out something fast.

Dave is cheering for the Cs and following CelticsChants on Twitter. You can follow Dave here.

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Bill Simmons, Boston Celtics, Celtics Chants, Cleveland Cavaliers, LeBron James, NBA, Sports Guy, SportsGrid, twitter

bobofthemtns

That was 100% Simmons. He had been planning that for a few days and connected with the fans via Twitter, both on his usual account, “sportsguy33″, and “celticschants”, which he created just for Game 6. He (with help from his followers) came up with several chants, including a “Kooooobbbeeee, Koooooobbbeeee,” chant for Shaq, but the New York Knicks chant was the only one that came in loud and clear. Simmons is amazing. I’ve been reading him since he started in ’97 and the kid (he’s 40 now) is right on most of the time. His contract w/ESPN expires at the end of this year. He’s holding every card in the deck for his next contract.
@DrewUnga

LeBron made both free throws. #fail
tjl

Great win for the Celtics.

In defense of LBJ, aside from the 9 TOs, he did what he could to keep his team in this one. He looked uninspired at times, but watching the game I was feeling his pain (and I’m not a Cavs fan) watching Jamison disappear completely (2-of-10), Mo Williams fall asleep in the second half, Varejao miss layups late in the game (though he was fouled on at least one of those…) and Big Z and Shaq looking in the second half like they should be filming ‘Just For Men’ commercials instead of playing ball. The better team won, for sure, and I had to say that a part of me (though I was rooting for the Cavs ONLY because I love nothing more than seeing two teams battle it out in an all-or-nothing Game 7) is happy that we can begin the speculation.

I am looking forward to the Vince Carter chants. You know Simmons has some good ones locked and loaded!
SWWT

Um, first sentence of the article, the Orlando Magic are the defending eastern conference champions. They lost to the Lakers last year in the finals. Unless you meant regular season.
http://www.facebook.com/people/Dave-Levy/1600246 Dave Levy

@SWWT Great catch, you’re right, should be regular season champs. Updating it ASAP.