When Jayson Tatum went down, writhing and grabbing at his ankle on May 12 during Game 4 of last year’s NBA Eastern Conference Semifinals, it felt like a gut-punch. Die-hard Celtics fans knew it not only meant the end of the season and the loss of our star player for the better part of a year, but also the dismantling of a beloved championship team.

The salary rules in the NBA make it difficult to keep too many top-tier players together by levying hefty luxury taxes on teams whose payroll exceeds designated thresholds. Even before Tatum’s injury, the Celtics were running out of time to keep their talented but aging core squad together. Once Tatum was out, there was no way the Celtics’ new owners were going to continue paying hefty fines to keep the roster intact.

Sure enough, in the months that followed, we watched as much of the heart of the team was scrapped for parts. All-Stars Jrue Holiday and Kristaps Porzingis were traded away, while Luke Kornet and, most heartbreakingly, Al Horford used their free-agent status to sign elsewhere.

In any other year, I would have been bummed by the Celtics’ sudden reversal of fortune. But it hit in a whole different way in May of 2025 — four months into Trump’s second term.

I don’t know about you, but I’ve been spinning since the 2024 election. This administration’s casual cruelty directly affects both my work and my family. I march and protest and show up in my community, and I continue doing my work advocating for Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) through the arts, but I’m depressed and exhausted.

We all need some joy to keep us going — and my joy is basketball. I sorely wanted to be distracted this year by a group of big fellas, to whom I feel irrationally connected, moving a ball around a court with some grace and beauty. Tatum’s injury and the team’s sudden reconfiguration made that seem impossible. It hurt.

And then something unexpected happened: After three straight hapless-looking losses in late October to begin the season, the Cs started really hooping.

The Celtics could have chosen to wallow in their misfortune this year. I, myself, was fully prepared to do just that

The Celtics’ current roster is undersized and under-experienced. We have one perennial all-star, Jaylen Brown; an outstanding defensive guard and all around glue guy, Derrick White; and last year’s Sixth Man of the Year, Payton Pritchard. But — on paper — the rest of the team is lacking. We have some recent G League guys (the G League is the NBA’s developmental league), a 19-year-old rookie, and a few capable but one-dimensional mid-career journeymen. And yet, almost halfway through the season, the Cs are sitting at second place in the Eastern Conference.

We’ve got a team which, even when it loses, competes hard every night. For that, I give a ton of credit to Celtics Head Coach Joe Mazzulla. When he unexpectedly took the reins of this team in 2022 at only 34-years-old — the youngest head coach in the league at the time and younger even than some of his players — Mazzulla inherited a championship-level squad that fans expected to win every single night. The fact that they reached Game 7 of the Eastern Conference Finals in 2023, and then won a championship in 2024, did little to diminish the harsh criticism Mazzulla took in the press and online. His focus on analytics and no-nonsense approach at press conferences won him few supporters, and many were convinced the team won in spite of him, not because of him.

But this year, with a cobbled-together group of non-stars who are vastly exceeding expectations, no one can deny that Mazzulla is coaching his butt off.

Perhaps the best on-court example of that came on December 23 when he benched all five starters less than three minutes into the third quarter of a game against the Indiana Pacers because they weren’t hustling enough on the glass. Mazzulla has put enormous emphasis on defensive rebounding this year and demands that every player crash the boards as if their lives depend on it. He’s told them he’ll sit anyone who doesn’t give their full effort on each possession. That night, he proved it.

The Celtics staged their biggest comeback of the season in that game. But what was most impressive about the win was how the starters took their medicine, cheered on their teammates from the bench and worked that much harder when they came back in. It was evidence of a roster fully committed to a culture that puts process and teamwork over individual pride.

Look, this team is very unlikely to win a championship this year — even if Tatum comes back (on restricted minutes) late in the season. But, man, they’ve been fun to watch.

The Cs are no longer a team that can depend on talent alone to best opponents — they’ve become the NBA’s hardest working underdogs. This season has seen the emergence of former bench warmers Neemias Queta and Jordan Walsh, and the blossoming of Spanish rookie Hugo González, on both offense and defense. And it’s confirmed the status of Jaylen Brown — who scored 50 the other night, after tying Larry Bird’s team record of 9 consecutive 30+ point games — as a genuine superstar and possibly the single best two-way player in the league.

The Celtics could have chosen to wallow in their misfortune this year. I, myself, was fully prepared to do just that. Instead, they’ve shown up, focused and fighting hard with what they’ve got. Those of us still reeling from the last election might take heed.

Last year was not the year I wanted and, if the first full week of 2026 is any indication, things are likely to get worse before they get better. But all of us who care about the future of this country, and the welfare of the most vulnerable with whom we share it, have a job to do: We need to stay engaged, show up for each other, and keep fighting for basic human dignity.

Personally, I’m taking inspiration from a hometown team that’s punching above its weight. If you haven’t been following along, this is a great week to start: The C’s just moved ahead of the New York Knicks for second place in the East and their next three games are all against teams with top-10 records.

If the Celtics can keep showing up and winning against the odds, maybe the rest of us can too.