This was supposed to be a column burying the recent work of Mr. Tommy Heinsohn. 

Why? Well, Tommy was at his Tommy worst in Game 1 on Sunday night. The Celtics came out flat in the first quarter of their first playoff game, Paul Pierce submitted a true stinker, Kevin Garnett was an absolute zero for the first 30 minutes and Rajon Rondo pulled one of the all-time selfish and stupid stunts in franchise history, and all we got from Tommy was his tired homer act. It was bitching about the refs here, laughing sarcastically at a (perceived) miss call there, with the occasional long periods of frustrated silence thrown in for the hell of it.

Tommy wants the Celtics to win. We get it, and we get why. He's one of the great figures in a franchise overstuffed with them, an eight-time champion and six-time All-Star as a player and two-time champ as a coach. If you thought Pierce was brilliant in Game 2 on Tuesday (and he was), it falls short when measured against Tommy's 37 points and 23 rebounds in a Game 7 win over the St. Louis Hawks in the 1957 finals. He's been around this organization for over half a century, so it's unfair to expect objectivity. 

But Tommy crossed that line in Game 1. We know the Tommy line, the one that separates Cranky But Ultimately Lovable Old Relic from Paranoid And Hugely Distracting Parody. I'm the first to admit, Tommy's routine can be an amusing companion during a January game vs. the Raptors. Sometimes it's OK when Tommy puts on the hat and dances a little. And since we all believe that the state of officiating in today's NBA falls somewhere between corrupt and pathetic, I think it's even occasionally necessary for Tommy to do what he does. 

Sunday, however, was not that spot. Tommy got sucked in by a couple of close early calls by the referees -- who were not terrible, we've seen a lot worse -- and that was that. His script for the night was written and nothing -- not the truth, anyway -- was getting in front of it. I don't think any rational person watching Game 1 thought the referees were the reason the Celtics lost, but Tommy was sure selling it. 

And when the Rondo chest-bump occurred, did Tommy suddenly flip his anger over to the point guard? Did he rip him for putting his team in an awful position? Did he question his maturity? Did he comment on the Bass foul (correct call, by the way) that led to Rondo's reaction? Did he even blast Marc Davis?

Nope. He said nothing. It was all Mike Gorman, no Tommy. Why? My best guess -- and I've been listing to Tommy almost my entire life -- is that he was so pissed off that this was happening that he didn't want to talk. He was pouting because the Celtics -- his Celtics -- were going to lose and the referees -- who apparently get together before every game and decide how they will screw the Celtics -- screwed 'em again, this time by kicking Rondo out of the game. He makes his anger the story, makes it bigger than anything happening on the court.

Unforgivable stuff from an analyst, really (and give Donny Marshall credit -- he broke the entire play down in the postgame and didn't give you the homer juice, either, he thought Davis made the right call and that Rondo deserved to be suspended). And, as a viewer, I was disgusted. Sure, Tommy is 78 and will never change, but he has to know better. 

So I readied myself for more of the same on Tuesday night, when something miraculous occurred.

Tommy Heinsohn put the teleprompter away and was as close to a level-headed analyst as he's been since his days at CBS. 

Never forget this: When Tommy talks basketball, just basketball, I'll still put him up next to anyone in the game today. I'm serious about that, his bluster and all that garbage sometimes masks a combination of passion for basketball mixed with an institutional history that cannot be matched. And Tommy isn't one of these guys who is convinced that everything was better in his day -- he enjoys the current NBA, knows the players and what they can and cannot do.

Sure, he smacked the refs a little, but just some light jabbing. His focus was on the actual game, pointing out very early that Mickael Pietrus (zero points in 19 minutes) still looked a little off, suggesting that Keyon Dooling needed to play more. We all figured Joe Johnson was going to have a better game, but Tommy told us why in the first quarter, pointing out Johnson's willingness to drive to the basket instead of settling for jumpers. And he was strong at the end, urging the Celtics to be aggressive with the ball in the final possessions, not content with the late lead.

Even when it seemed Tommy was being Tommy he was actually showing a strength. The block by Avery Bradley that led to the Michael Jordan comparison was exactly the kind of blocked shot Jordan would make early in his career. Mirror image stuff. Gorman stepped in and made sure Tommy wasn't comparing the two as players -- putting out a Twitter fire before it really started -- but no other analyst alive would think of that comparison.

(Give Gorman credit, as usual, the greatest play-by-play man in Boston sports history kept Tommy out of the weeds all night, anytime it seemed to be getting close to the usual stuff Gorman pulled him back to reality.)

And with a couple of minutes left in the game -- a game with an outcome still very much in doubt -- Tommy, with some light prodding from Gorman, said that "win, lose or draw" the referees had done "a heck of a job." No irony, no tongue placed firmly in cheek, no torture needed (unless you count the PA guy for the Hawks) to secure the admission, just an analyst giving something resembling objectivity a test spin.

And he's right, the referees did do a heck of a job in Game 2. 

And call me a homer if you must, but so did Tommy.