I had the pleasure of meeting this week’s featured fan when he came to Boston last year as part of his Celtics “pilgrimage”. Kaine “Lil Kaino” Underwood hails from Adelaide, Australia. The young Celtics fan and some of his mates saved up their money and flew to the US for one purpose-to watch the Celtics. They saw Boston take on the Clippers in L.A., destroy the Knicks at MSG and also caught a few games at TD Garden. I was with Kaine for his first ever game at TD, and seeing the look of wonder & delight in his eyes when he first looked up at all the banners was priceless. Kaine recalls that night as his best “Celtics memory”:
Favourite Celtics moment was meeting you outside the proshop at my first Celtics in Boston, not just the meeting you but the experience you afforded me of going in to try get a glimpse of players walking to the rooms, watching warm ups and of course my idol Rajon Rondo walking past me not even 3 meters away. Watching these guys play every game on TV is great but to see them live is the greatest experience of my life!! (Plus I got to see Gino time live haha). While I was in the states I managed to catch 5 Celtics games, first game was in LA and well let’s just forget about that one, wasn’t the best first NBA game to go to haha. But my second game was on the 4th of jan (when I met you) vs the pacers, then went to NY to watch the Celtics beat the Knicks and laugh at the thousands of disappointed Knicks fans poured out of MSG. Then went back to Boston to go to the game vs the suns on the 9th where we got another win (on my birthday, best present ever haha) then went to the game vs Houston where we again got the win!
Kaine has been a Boston Celtics fan since around 2006. The first player who’s NBA jersey he bought was none other than Paul Pierce. Truth has always been a Celtic that Kaine admires, but his clear favorite is Rajon Rondo.
I started following (the Celtics) because in 2006 I joined a social basketball team. I needed a jersey so a friend and I went to footlocker and I just asked my friend who the good players are, he listed a couple names off, one of which was Paul Pierce. He said Paul isn’t the flashiest of players, but he’s a good scorer and has a good outside shot (something I can relate to haha). So the obsession began that day and I’ve never looked back!! Favourite player of all time, well I gotta give that to my boy rondo!! I wish I’d been around and following them since the 80’s to see guys like Bird, Mchale and Parish, but unfortunately I wasn’t.
Kaine is just one of many Boston Celtics fans that reside in Australia. It’s always amazing for me to see the passion & dedication that overseas fans bring. Despite the fact that they cannot regularly go to games & have to get up at ungodly hours of the night & morning to watch them, they still support the team 100%. True sacrifice. Here’s what Kaino had to say about just what it is that makes him love the Celtics so much:
Celtics are so important to me cause of not just the team, the history, the brotherhood or the passion, but the fans are just so intense it’s amazing to hear them cheer so passionately. They are also a great bunch of people who I’ve had the pleasure of meeting a couple when I flew over last year. Celtics fans are just one big family, they make me proud to call myself a diehard Boston Celtics fan!!
I want to extend a big thanks to Kaine for participating. Be sure to follow him on Twitter, and click here to see the feature we did on him for “Celtkicks“. Thank you all for reading, and GO CELTICS! -KWAPT
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