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Boston's Morning Newsletter
When's the Celtics parade? Duck boat celebration set for Friday
Editor's Note: This is an excerpt from WBUR's daily morning newsletter, WBUR Today. If you like what you read and want it in your inbox, sign up here.
Update: After this post published, the City of Boston officially announced that the Celtics championship parade will take place Friday at 11 a.m. The parade will start in front of TD Garden on Causeway Street, pass by City Hall Plaza and the Boston Common on Tremont Street, and continue through Back Bay on Boylston Street to the Hynes Convention Center.
Make room in those crowded TD Garden rafters. After a decade-and-a-half title drought, the Celtics are putting up an 18th banner.
Boston clinched the NBA championship last night with a 106-88 Game 5 win over the Dallas Mavericks, controlling the game from start to finish. Jaylen Brown was named Finals MVP, an honor he said he’s sharing with his “brothers and my partner in crime Jayson Tatum.”
You can watch the moment they officially became champions here, along with Tatum’s moving embrace of his son Deuce as the confetti rained down. (You can also watch — and rewatch — Payton Pritchard’s halftime buzzer beater, the longest NBA Finals shot this century.)
When’s the parade? The duck boats have been cued, but we’re still waiting for official word on when the championship celebration parade through Boston will be held. Mayor Michelle Wu’s office is planning to make a formal announcement about the event following a meeting about preparations later today. The city usually likes to throw the parade ASAP so players can get on with their offseason, but this week’s extreme heat makes planning a little more complicated than usual.
- Psst: The word on the street is Friday. Celtics owner Wyc Grousbeck told 7News that’s the parade’s tentative date. The Boston Globe also reported players were heard in the locker room talking about a parade being on Friday. According to the National Weather Service, the heat will be a little less extreme that day, with a high of 90, compared to 94 to 97 midweek.
- Now what? The Celtics players are — as another NBA great once said — taking their talents to South Beach. The Globe’s Gary Washburn reports the team is flying to Miami for a few days to party (and, ironically, enjoy some milder weather).
Early release: Worcester public school students are getting an early start to summer, thanks to this week’s expected heat wave. The state’s second-largest school district announced yesterday it is canceling what was supposed to be its last day of school on Thursday, which means Woo-town’s new final day of classes is [checks notes] today! (They already had tomorrow off for Juneteenth.)
- Superintendent Rachel Monárrez said that “many” of the district’s aging school buildings do not have air conditioning. “We regret that we are ending the school year in an abrupt manner, but we want to ensure our students and staff are safe in what are predicted to be unusually hot temperatures,” she said.
- How unusually hot? The National Weather Service forecasts the temps in Worcester will reach 99 on Thursday (and between 94 and 96 today) with “feels like” heat indexes in the triple-digits. Click here for Danielle Noyes’ full forecast on the region’s sticky heat wave.
Dammed if you don’t: Ipswich has officially decided to remove the town’s historic downtown river dam. After 57% of residents voted in favor of the plan in a non-binding referendum last month, the town’s Select Board voted last night to formally move ahead with the project.
- Go deeper: WBUR’s Katie Cole has the full story behind the controversial dam removal plan and its environmental benefits.
So, you’re saying there’s a chance? Wu told reporters yesterday she’s open to conversations about renaming Logan Airport after Celtics great Bill Russell, after the idea was floated in an article in The Atlantic last week. Wu said she considers the 11-time NBA champion “the greatest athlete of any sport of all time.”
- Like many things in Boston, such a change would need to come via the State House, as Politico noted. Gov. Maura Healey told reporters she appreciated Russell’s legacy on and off the court, but declined to say if she supports renaming Logan Airport after him. “We’ll leave that for another time,” Healey said.
P.S.— Healey will be live on Radio Boston today to celebrate the Celtics and take your questions, such as, “Can we at least name the Worcester airport after Jrue Holiday?” Tune in at 11 a.m.
