Boston Celtics championship 2007-08

 

Part 1 of Boston Celtics Championship 2008 from Youtube

 
  I felt terrible because I ruined my test that I've really worked hard on. So what I did was to release my stress by watching a documentary called "Boston Celtics Championship 2008". Basically, it's about basketball team called Boston Celtics winning its championship. Not only that, but Boston Celtics became a team that completed the largest turnaround in the league history. (24-58 record turned into 66-16 record in the following year) I watched this video because I thought this documentary will make myself feel better.

  Boston Celtics used to be one of the most successful franchise in sports history. They won 16 championships until 1986, and until then, people called 1960s, 1970s, 1980s the Boston Dynasty of NBA. However, after big 3 Robert Parish, Kevin Mchale, and Larry Bird left the Celtics as they retired or was traded, Boston Celtics became one of the worst teams in the league.

Although they had a superstar Paul Pierce, they couldn't advance to second round of the playoff. In 2006-07 season, Boston Celtics had the worst regular season record in their franchise history, which was 24 wins and 58 loss. Leader Paul Pierce and general manager Danny Ainge (former Boston Celtics) became frustrated about their results.

 GM Danny Ainge had three on one trade to get Ray Allen (currently leading in three point shot made) and rookie Glen Davis from Seattle Supersonics, and five on one trade for former MVP Kevin Garnett of Minnesota Timberwolves. So basically Boston Celtics had eight players leaving their team and three players coming in. Everyone thought that this trade was never going to happen. However, it was possible because both Kevin Garnett and Ray Allen were eagering to win a championship. I thought that General Manager Danny Ainge's action was decisive. He was not afraid that he would fail, but he was courage enough to make this unbelievable trade happen.
 

 There were not much impact on regular season except that all the players and fans seemed happy compared to the previous season. However, the playoff was dramatic.
Nobody doubted that Boston Celtics will cruise to the NBA Finals.

In the first round, Boston Celtics won two games in their home, but people were surprised as they lost two games in away. Boston won game 5 in their home, but lost game 6 in Atlanta. Boston won game 7 by using home court advantage.

In the second round, Boston and Cleveland went back and forth, eventually Boston barely beating Cleveland in game 7.

In Conference finals against Detroit, they went back and forth again, but this time, they won in the away court first time in the playoff.

NBA Finals was special. Boston and Los Angeles was playing, and it was their 10th time to meet in the NBA Finals. (Last met in 1987) A lot of people were excited to see the traditional rivalry in 20 years.  The series was quite tight. They Boston and Los Angeles were tied until the game 4, but Boston Celtics won the NBA championship as they won two games in a row including 131-92 victory.

I was touched during I was watching the video. Boston Celtics seemed like they would never stand up again. However, wide vision of general manager allowed the Celtics to stand up again. During the playoffs, the Celtics faced difficult and unexpected challenges. They played 26 games in the playoff, which is NBA record. Although they struggled to get up to the finals, they eventually won the championship. It was quite thrilling to watch Kevin Garnett, Ray Allen, and Paul Pierce who was enjoying the moment they have dreamed for entire career.
I'd like to end up with the quote that I liked the most from the video.

"The dream started when frustration turned into hope"

I thought that this is the quote that I should always remember.
When I get frustrated, I should not end up being frustrated. I believe that my moments in KMLA is part of learning how to change frustration into hope, so that I could achieve my dream or goal.

"Minjok, Minjok, Minjok....."

  "Minjok, Minjok, Minjok....." 

  Minjok is a term that we can hear a lot in Korea. We say minjok is important, and nobody doubt it. However, when we are told to define 'Minjok', lots of people have difficulties telling it. Then what is minjok? Why is it important to us? Defining the term 'Minjok' is one of the most vague questions to answer, but lot of people take minjok positively as they believe that it's a word that make Koreans into one.


  In definition, minjok is usually translated into ethnic group. Definition of ethnic group is group of people whose members are identified through a common trait. This can, but does not have to, include an idea of common heritage, a common culture, a shared language or dialect. These two words seem almost the same except that one is Korean and the other one is English. However, term minjok, which is also called korean ethnic nationalism, is based on the belief that Koreans form a nation, a race, or an ethnic group that shares a unified bloodline and a distinct culture. 

Dangun, who's known as a founder
of Gojoseon

  Not much people in the world know how long the Korean history is. Korean students were taught that Korean history have lasted for 5,000 years, starting from Gojoseon. Gojoseon have lasted over 2,000 years as united country. Although there were Three Kingdoms of Korea for 700 years, every Korean kingdom remained as an united country until 1910. So we could say that Korea stayed as an united country for nearly 4,000 years. Therefore, Koreans thought united country as a natural thing, and so is their purity. Koreans were able to keep their ethnic purity because Korean kingdoms didn't expanded their land for nearly a thousand of years. Therefore, when the term minjok was first used, minjok could be used as another word of Korean.




  Minjok is a term that was first used in the early 1900s. Before the colonial period in Korea,  Japanese tried to persuade Koreans that both nations were of the same racial stock. To resist from Japanese persuasion, Korean intellectuals like used the term minjok to tell Koreans that they are different from Japanese. Minjok is a term that was formed by  few people recently. Somehow lots of people started using it, but definition of minjok was not clear when people began using it. In other words, there's no exact meaning of minjok. 

Minjok was used for various purposes. In 2002 for example, during 2002 FIFA World Cup held in Korea, South Korean soccer team became one of the best underdog upset in soccer history. People say that it was possible for South Korean to advance to semi-finals because there were millions of South Korean supporters who cheered for South Korea. How was this possible? Why did all these people supported South Korea as a united group? Reasons may vary. People could have come out to the street and cheered because it's rare to have their country host World Cup again and advance to the semi-finals in their first tournament appearance. However, it's still hard to understand why a million (literally million) of crowds came out to street to cheer. I believe that the answer is in minjok. At that time, there were lot of public commercials or sayings that encouraged people to cheer South Korea as they are a same minjok. Thus, a lot of people say that they felt unity when they went out to the street and cheered for their team, South Korea.

nearly 10 million people volunteered
 to clean the oil in Taean.

Another example that shows the positive function of minjok is Taean oil spill in 2007, which is recognized as one of the worst oil spill in Korean history. Oil spill was so serious that experts expected that it will take at least four to five years to clean the oil spill completely. However, it only took about an year to clean the oil spill thanks to ten million people who volunteered to clean the oil. It was possible because lots of people claimed that as Koreans(not minjok, but used as same meaning), they should help the other Koreans. There were no specific reasons for people to help Taean clean up the oil. It's about the unity as Korean(in terms of ethnic group). Because lot of people began to volunteered to clean the oil, other Koreans felt that they  should go help Taean, too. 

Immigrants in Korea is increasing

  By viewing the two examples that shows when term minjok is used, people mentioned minjok when they needed to be united to overcome difficulties or to make an advancement. In last 100 years, people and government also used the term minjok when they needed to unite and overcome difficulties. Considering how the term minjok was used, I believe that minjok is more than just an ethnic group. Lots of people tend to think that minjok is equal to Koreans (as an ethnic group), which may also mean that half-blooded people are not part of the Korean minjok. However, people immigrating to Korea is rapidly increasing. South Korea is not composed of 100% pure Koreans any more. Proportion of pure Koreans will decrease as the time pass. Thus, minjok, which is also defined as pure Koreans by many people will constantly decrease. If there's lots of Korean who tends to exclude immigrants or other ethnic group in Korea in defining minjok, it will be difficult for Korea to survive in globalized world. Because word minjok is a word that is not formed naturally by lot of people, but was made for a certain purpose by few people, it's likely to find an errors in the word itself. Thus, concept may change as the time pass.

                                              Lot of foreigners live in Itaewon