It was nice to see Syracuse, Ohio State, Wisconsin and Cincinati battle it out on the Garden’s parquet hardwood this past weekend. But insisting that the 23 championship banners (more than any other sports arena) and retired numbers (including Cam Neely’s #8, see below) be removed from the vaunted rafters was beyond ridonculous.
Score another one for the incendiary insidiousy of the NCAA.
“Their absence is the product of a monumentally idiotic NCAA policy – at least a 15 on a Hypocrisy Scale of 1 to 10 – banning any hint of, ahem, “professionalism” in the building,” Bob Ryan wrote in the Boston Globe. “We are supposed to ignore the fact that the NCAA TV contract is worth billions, meaning somebody is getting rich.”
Amen to that.
The banners were temporarily housed at Dorcester’s Kroc Center gymnazium. And while it was nice that they were made more accessible to the public, and the non-ticket-buying fan, the banners could be taken down any time. Regularly ever summer even, following the conclusions of the Celtics and Bruins seasons. We don’t need the excuse of hosting the NCAA Men’s Bastketball Tournament to bring them into the community.
In the clip above, Cam Neely sounds understanding. So good for him. But I’ll bet he really wants to go all Sea Bass on the NCAA, hocking up a righteous loogie just for them, and their unscrupulous ways.
