It’s never a bad day when the Boston Celtics are eliminated from the playoffs. Actually, it’s always a good day. Always.

I can hardly describe my surprise and delight when the Orlando Magic scored the first 11 points of the fourth quarter to break open a 66-61 game Sunday night and cruise to a 101-82 victory over the Celtics in Game 7 of their Eastern Conference playoffs. IN Boston. At the end of a series in which the Magic was the better team for six of the seven games, yet managed to lose two of those six games.

As someone who grew up a Lakers fan … one Celtics championship in the last 20 years is quite enough, and should hold them until … oh, the middle of this century.

There is a fairly good chance the Celts’ title run last season could turn out to be a one-off sort of thing. I’d like to think so, anyway.

Let’s see, Ray Allen will be 34 next season. Kevin Garnett will be 33. Paul Pierce will be 32. Does the phrase “back sides of their careers” sound about right?

That’s the Boston Big Three right there, and the season ended with two of them exhausted and often ineffectual and with the third, Garnett, sitting on the sidelines with a knee injury of mysterious origins. An injury that might be about something as simple (but career-changing) as “too many miles.”

I’m sick of the Celtics, after only a year and a half of competence. I am reminded why I loathe them and their smug self-important fans, and I’m glad they’re gone. Yes, the Celtics and Cavaliers would have made for a more interesting conference finals, in theory, but I am fairly convinced LeBron James & Co. would have dispatched the Cs in about five games. That would have been fun, too, but it wouldn’t have been competitive.

Orlando will give Cleveland a sterner test, because the Magic isn’t old and broken down. And the Celtics going out against an Orlando team that didn’t particularly impress me … well, that’s fun, too.

Anyway, yeah, good riddance, Boston. Let us know how that “elite team” thing works out. I’m thinking you’re more likely to be back in the draft lottery before you’re back in the Finals.