I do not believe I have ever witnessed an athlete who wanted a championship more than Ray Bourque wanted to win the Stanley Cup. That is not said lightly.

When the Avalanche lost in the playoffs to Dallas last year, Bourque went to a side room in the Dallas arena to be with his family. He came out with red eyes. The chances to win the Cup just don’t come that often.

This year the entire drive of the Avs was to win for Ray. Team members rarely even let themselves refer to that. It sounded too corny and the team did matter, but it was for Ray, this 2000-2001 season. After the Cup had been skated last Saturday, they all willingly said the same.

The Bourque story was not media created. Many found that hard to believe in this day of constant spin and little substance. Bourque would not talk about it until Game 7 ended, except to say he was in Colorado to win.

When the Cup was his, he admitted that from game seven’s National Anthem, he was ready to emotionally explode. He did when Avs captain Joe Sakic, with class and dignity, handed him the Cup. There is a silver engraver in a small shop in Montreal, which will etch the names of the Avs into the Cup. RAY BOURQUE. For all he has done, he honors us as sports fans by believing that etching is everything.

The whole Boston-New England-Bourque story is unique. Twenty years with the Bruins and he leaves to give himself a chance to win the Cup – a chance he believed would never happen in Boston. When he wins it elsewhere, he can’t wait to get the Cup “home” to Beantown and the fans in Boston can’t wait to celebrate with him.

After the game on Saturday, Bourque was surrounded at every turn by the press. Yet, foremost on his mind were his teammates, his neighbors who had decorated his home street in Denver for the entire playoffs, and Boston. At 2:30 a.m. last Sunday, he rang the doorbell of his sleeping Denver neighbor. When they answered the bell, there stood Bourque and his wife with Lord Stanley’s Cup.

Yesterday, Bourque rang Boston’s bell and 15,000-plus answered in City Hall Plaza. Bourque was there too, with the Cup.

Think about this amazing situation. For Game 7, the best TV ratings were for Denver. Boston was second. A team 2,000 miles from the Bruins won the Cup and Boston was celebrating “Ray Day.” A Boston Globe online survey said 75 percent responding thought it was the right thing to do.

There is a lot of New England in this story. This was a celebration of the person. This was a celebration of a dream honestly held by “one of us” who just happened to have completed the dream down the road apiece. This was a celebration of his joy that he wished to share with people he genuinely respected and cared about, and they felt the same toward him.

This scene will be repeated in small Canadian towns, cities and towns in Europe, and in rural communities in the U.S. The Cup will travel with members of the Avs to their homes. The joy will be shared.

In Bourque’s case, that home happened to be Boston, a city that happens to have an NHL team of its own. The concept was the same. Hometown boy does good.

Old Town native Gary Thorne is an ESPN and NBC sportscaster.