The signs and T-shirts of champions
(Matthew J. Lee/ Globe Staff)
By Andrew Ryan, Globe Staff
Some signs and T-shirts were machine printed and simple: "Sweet 17" and "Have a cigar." Others updated a famous cheer ("We beat L.A."), repurposed a cliché ("Green with envy"), lashed out ("I hate L.A.), or boasted ("Got rings?")
Then there were the fans who flocked to today's rolling Celtics rally and took the message writing into their own hands. Robert Hall, 28, used a flattened Cheerios box from a store near his home in East Boston. With a black marker, he wrote: "On Top of the World! KG"
People grinned as he walked through the crowd on Tremont Street, and he noted the approving nods as passersby read his sign.
"There's a reaction, right there -- a thumbs up!" Hall said.
Early drinkers held a handwritten sign out the window of the Harp bar on Causeway Street: "Hey Jack Nicholson, who can handle the truthnow?"
On Boston Common, a teenage girl had used a green marker to write the number 17 on a white poster board.
Near City Hall, a handwritten sign read: "We like Mike Crotty." It paid homage to a 25-year-old Celtics employee in player development whose family did not want his hard work to go unnoticed.
What looked like a white bed sheet hung from the roof of a four-story glass building on Tremont Street. The number of every Celtic player had been sprayed painted on the sheet, which flapped in the gentle breeze.
On the next block, a cook wearing a white apron and a white chef's hat clutched a green pennant as he watched the parade from a second-floor window above an awning for the Ritz-Carlton Dining Room.
For one fan, a green University of New Hampshire T-shirt would do. A teenager did not bother with a shirt and painted a tribute to the Celtics on his bare chest.
Near the Public Garden, one fan in a green Kevin Garnett jersey seemed to be getting more attention than most, and he wagged his strawberry-blond tail in approval. The 9-month-old golden retriever's name was Reggie, named for former Celtic Reggie Lewis.
"It's my wife jersey," admitted Marc Glazenbrook, 30, who held Reggie's leash. "And it was her idea."
