I'm sure by now you've heard what Bibby had to say following the Hawks' ugly 23 point Game 1 loss. In case you didn't hear the rantings of the buck-toothed PG, here's an abbreviated recap:

Fair weather fans if you ask me... a lot of these fans might be bandwagon jumpers. They try to get on this now. Because I played here last year, too. I didn't see three-fourths of them so it might be that. I remember them having bags on their heads... It's just a different look, but I guess that happens when you win.

Not one to let his hometown supporters get thrown under the bus by an opposing player, Kendrick Perkins rushed to the defense of the Celtics faithful with this gem:

He said that? I mean, coming off a 2-for-10 night shooting, he would say something like that... We've got the best fans in the world, so we don't expect other players from other teams to like our fans.

Thanks, Perk. So instead of trying to be the bigger man (which is quite tough in the NBA when you're only listed at 6-2), Bibby reacted like any little brat who feels he was disrespected would - run to the closest media member and continue raving about a highly-publicized feud which he started:

I don’t know where he all of a sudden got this tough streak from, but, uh, his stat line was worse than mine. And uh, well I mean, kind of, you know I look at it, I mean I might have had a game like that, but I mean, I haven't really seen him do much in his career. So, I mean, until he does something, shows me something, you know, I really don't think HE should say anything.

Eloquent. I wonder if anyone decided to inform Bibby prior to his unleashing of this mindless blather that Perk's only 23 and has just 174 career starts... maybe that's why he hasn't seen much from Perk in his career yet. Now, I'm willing to admit that perhaps there is a shred of truth hidden amongst the inane babble of Bibby's original comments. Many Celtics fans following the team this season - living and dying with every swoosh of the net or clang of the rim, paying upwards of a thousand bones for courtsides to a possible Game 5, and ultimately rooting night-in and night-out for Team Green and their quest for Banner 17 - could have cared less about the team last season. It's the simple truth. But how is that any different than the fans of any other franchise in the NBA (or any other sport, for that matter) whose team has undergone such a significant metamorphosis from one season to the next? 24-58 NBA teams are not fun to follow and 66-16 teams are, it's that cut and dry whether you've been following the team since the Cousy days or you just watched your first NBA game this evening. And you know what? There's absolutely nothing wrong with that. Isn't there an age-old adage that says "Show me a fan who wants to drop $175 on a lower-level loge seat to watch a team that has a 71% chance of losing every night and I'll show you an idiot" or something like that? No? Well it's common sense. I would bet that at least one fifth of the people in attendance for tonight's game couldn't tell you who 4+ of the 19 retired player jersey numbers hanging from the Garden rafters belong to, but who cares? We all know which players wear numbers 5, 20 and 34, and when it comes to the 2007-08 Boston Celtics, that's all that really matters.

Oh, and by the way - Perkins very likely will have done something with his career by the end of this postseason - i.e. winning an NBA Championship - that Bibby has yet to accomplish in his 10 year career.