While the Boston Celtics go about the business of trying to defeat a tougher-than-advertised Atlanta Hawks team in NBA first-round playoff action, I couldn’t help thinking about Celtics teams of the past and the uncanny resemblance between this year’s Celtics center extraordinaire, Kevin Garnett, and another great one from a different era, Bill Russell.

Russ, as he as often called, and KG, who seems to fit that quick moniker to a T, are so much alike in so many aspects that some games I have to do a double-take to make certain I’m watching the one giant who I think I’m watching.

Leadership qualities are pretty nebulous variables to compare, but both these guys wear the quality well.

Surround the two of them with a cast of talented veterans and young players, and you have the makings of, well, a championship team.

It has been a while since folks in Boston have even entertained the idea of another title – number 17, to be exact – but with KG manning the middle as Russ once did, things are looking more like title town once again.

I have many fond memories of the old Celtics guard. They kept me up more than one late night, tuned into my little transistor radio, listening intently to the late Johnny Most, calling all the action from “high above courtside.”

What a thrill it was to hear Most describe all the action in his gravelly voice, weaned on too many cigarettes and ruined by too much screaming.

I thought of Most the other night when Bob Cousy joined the C’s television broadcast team on the Comcast SportsNet-New England network with Mike Gorman and Tommy Heinsohn.

Now that, dear readers, was the personification of a one-sided broadcast team. No referee was safe, or correct, for that matter. Ah, just like the old days, I’m thinking.

If this current group of Celtics are to win anything, they must make their way through the likes of Cleveland and Detroit – if they survive Atlanta – to have a shot at some of the bigwigs in the West.

TV moguls are drooling at the notion of a Lakers-Boston final, but that historical rematch will depend in large part on the Lakers’ capacity to conquer teams such as Dallas, Phoenix, or upstart Utah.

I do believe in my heart that if KG and his talented crew can win title 17, then a lot of what Celtics fans have been waiting for may transpire: a string of championships that Boston fans have long awaited.

Without that type of perennial success, this year might be remembered as one brief, flash in the pan.

30-Second Time Out

Old friend Bill MacManus, the current athletic director at Lawrence High of Fairfield, checks in to reminisce about his old broadcasting partner at the Maine Public Broadcasting Network, Joe Gould.

Bill did color commentary and floor work for director Ed Fowler’s crew for a number of years.

Bill was also a successful IAABO high school basketball official and a successful high school boys basketball coach, garnering a state title at John Bapst in Bangor.

One of the joys of putting together this column is the number of people such as Bill, who pause to remember days gone by.

The good folks at Lawrence are fortunate to have a man of Bill’s caliber running their athletic offerings.

The heyday of MPBN boys basketball tournament coverage was the time when Joe Gould did play-by-play, the late Bob Lahey of Old Town High School coaching fame did color commentary and Bill MacManus covered the floor at halftime.

bdnsports@bangordailynews.net