Congratulations to the Celtics, who in mostly manhandling the overachieving Los Angeles Lakers have eliminated the stigma of The David Tyree Curse to finally bring a major sports title to Boston after 244 painful days of suffering.

A few factoids can help put this drought into some perspective: At the time of the last Boston title - the Red Sox' World Series win in 2007 - gasoline was just under $3.50 a gallon; topping the music charts and headlines with tales of drug abuse was Amy Winehouse; and the American president was George W. Bush. Crazy, huh?

The curse causing so much angst to those in Boston and the greater New England area goes way back to February 2008, when New York Giants quarterback Eli Manning, with an assist via divine intervention, managed to teleport himself through the bodies of at least three New England Patriot defenders in completing a fourth-quarter pass to Tyree, an unheralded receiver. Tyree speared the ball with a Vishnu-like third arm sprouting from his skull to keep the drive alive.

After the Super Bowl, which ended with the heavily favored Patriots going down in defeat by a score of 17-14. The post-game saw Tyree issue his famous utterance, "Boston will never win another title until they let that dude with the billy goat into the stadium, the Patriots trade for Bobby Layne, or summertime, whichever comes first."

Today, however, Boston sports fans can rest easy as a championship banner is made ready to hang in the Garden. Surely thousands one-year-olds are breathing sighs of relief, having believed all their lives that they'd see toilet training before another Boston championship.