Yes, Virginia, there was a time when the Boston Celtics were appointment television.

The Celtics of the 1980s weren’t just great, they were unique. They had the greatest frontcourt in the history of the game, a couple of crafty guards, and, for too brief a time, the greatest passing center ever coming off the bench. The current edition of the New England Patriots may be the very definition of the word “team”, but when it comes to teamwork, they’ve got nothing on those Celtic teams.

If you were a basketball fan, even if the Celtics weren’t your team, you made it a point to be stationed in front of your television whenever they were playing, because you were afraid if you didn’t, you would miss something you’d never seen before and would never see again.

It didn’t happen very often, but as a socially ambitious teen, I can remember a few nights coming home from a night out, turning on Sportscenter to catch the highlights and kicking myself because I’d missed Larry Bird and Bill Walton putting on a passing clinic against the Knicks or Kevin McHale schooling Rick Mahorn in the low post or Robert Parrish assaulting Bill Laimbeer under the basket.

The problem is, I and most of my fellow Celtic fans over the age of 30 have been pining for those days ever since, and it’s been to the detriment of our ability or willingness to embrace subsequent Celtic teams.

Don’t get me wrong. There hasn’t been much to like about the Celtics since the Big Three retired. By no means should we have felt obligated to nail posters of Brett Szabo, Alton Lister and Todd Day to our bedroom wall when they were perennial lottery contestants.

Even when they were good, the Celtics weren’t lovable. In fact, the team that went to the Eastern Conference finals a few years back, the one that would rather huck up a 3 than pass to a wide-open cutter down the lane, may have been my least favorite of all time, save for the M.L. Carr-led outfit that tanked the 1997 season.

But as that noted philosopher and ADD case Rick Pitino once said, “Larry Bird is not walking through that door.” And it’s time we overlook the author of that quote and recognize the wisdom of what he said.

Which brings us to the current boys in green-and-white. They’ve been on a roll ever since Antoine Walker returned and are finally more than just a blip on the New England sports fans radar screen.

A month ago, the Celts were basically a curiosity, a team with two egregiously overpaid big men, a future Hall-of-Famer in rapid decline, an All-Star whose bitterness or complacency was turning off the fan base that once adored him, and three very intriguing rookies. The mixture was barely enough to carry us to the reporting date for pitchers and catchers and would only have warranted a cursory glance during what was destined to be a one-and-done playoff cameo.

Now, with Employee No. 8 back in the fold, they’re actually developing a team identity. The mental toughness they showed in Friday night’s win over Detroit bodes well for the grind of the playoffs, but don’t think for a minute that they would have won that game without Walker. Yeah, he played his worst game since his return, but he gives this team the backbone it has sorely lacked since he left.

Really, would Paul Pierce have scored 38 points and taken the game into his own hands in the overtime if Antoine were still toiling in Atlanta? Who can explain the Rasputin-like spell Walker has over Pierce? It’s like Antoine kidnapped the real Pierce when he was traded to Dallas and brought him back with him last month.

Amid all the good vibes coming out of Causeway Street, we’re still going to hear from the proverbial poops in the punch bowl who can’t wait to point out that this team can’t compete with Detroit or Miami or anyone from the West in a seven-game series, or that Antoine and Gary Payton’s return means less court time for youngsters like Al Jefferson and Delonte West.

To the latter, I would argue that I’d much rather have the rookies playing 15-20 minutes in more meaningful games deeper in the playoffs this year than 25-30 minutes a night while getting dismissed from the playoffs in four games.

As for the former point, there are no great teams in the NBA this year. They’re all beatable. The Celtics will be underdogs in every series they play, and with good reason. But, as the Pistons showed last year, you don’t have to out-talent everyone come playoff time, you’ve got to outplay them – play great defense, have everyone fill their role and play like you want it more than the other guy, and you’ll go a long way in today’s NBA.

No doubt, banner No. 17 is a long shot. This may be sacrilege to some of the spoiled Celtic faithful of my generation, but I don’t really care if they win it all. They’re making it worth turning on the tube and pulling up a chair again. Whether they win 15 games in the playoffs or none, I’m not settling for the highlights on Sportscenter.