“People totally turned their backs on the NBA,” said Ordway, a former Celtics radio man alongside raspy Johnny Most during the Bird Era. “TV ratings were dismal. I’m still an NBA geek, I’d have the Direct TV package and I couldn’t talk Celtics on my own show. People were critical of the style of play in the NBA, always saying, ‘It’s not like it was in the 80s with the long shorts, sloppy play and no fundamentals.’ They found a way to criticize the overall aesthetics of the NBA to explain why they didn’t watch. I always thought, ‘You don’t watch because your team sucks.’

“When your team’s good, people embrace the league and think it’s special,” noted Ordway. “In the early 90s, you didn’t have the spirit and interest in New England for football. There were 25,000 people in Foxboro. Once you have a winning team, you embrace that team and the sport. The Celtics had that in the 80s then they went from there to bad and irrelevant. Around here people ignored not only the team but the sport and said, ‘Ahhh, it’s not fun anymore. Suddenly now, when the team’s great again, the same people say, ‘Hey, the NBA’s great again.’ They just want to be part of a winner.”

Yet even with all the Celtics success, the Red Sox and Patriots remain the most discussed teams in New England. It’s as if, despite the 66 wins, the Celtics have remained a curiosity to some extent.

“It’s tough to get your just due when you’re coming off a 24-win season,” said Ordway. “People are still numb to this. They have the best record in the league and are having the biggest turnaround possibly in NBA history. Reality hasn’t set in yet. The postseason may bring it. I have noticed, though, that in the last few days from callers and media people, expectations have been raised.”

In other words, they show up after having not been around expecting success similar to the multi-title Patriots and Red Sox.

How realistic is that expectation? Arguing for Boston is the presence of three brilliant players — Garnett, Ray Allen and longtime Celtic Paul Pierce. Those three, along with precocious point guard Rajon Rondo, big man Kendrick Perkins, tested veterans James Posey and Sam Cassell, gunner Eddie House and young bangers Glen (Big Baby) Davis and Leon Powe, are a formidable group.

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They will likely have to get past LeBron James and the Cavaliers to get to the Eastern Conference finals and there they’ll meet the old warhorse Pistons of Detroit. That’s where the argument against begins. It’s the order of things in sports that teams have to get close to the mountaintop and be knocked back down once or twice before they can summit. The old-time Celtics had that with the 76ers and the Bad Boy Pistons of the late 80s experienced the same thing with Boston before they emerged.

If they do survive the Eastern Conference, they’ll then deal with the survivor from the more powerful Western Conference. The Lakers and Kobe Bryant are the top seed out there. Lakers-Celtics. Just like old times. It’d be just like those wayward Celtics fans never missed a beat since 1987.

“I think people around here will actually be disappointed if they don’t win an NBA Championship,” said Ordway. “But if they do it will literally be the biggest upset from one year to the next in NBA history. And maybe all of sports.”

And somewhere in Iowa, someone’s saying, “Please. Anybody but Boston.”

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