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• In Auerbach-style, Celtics fans celebrate the day with cigars  

In the middle was the object they had come to honor: The life-size, bronze statue of legendary Celtics coach Red Auerbach seated on a bench - and, naturally, holding a cigar. The cigar was Auerbach's trademark; when it looked like the Celtics had won the game (even if the clock hadn't run out), he'd light one.

Once he was as close to the statue as he could get, 18-year-old Jiaan Hyland pulled the cigars he had bought minutes earlier from his pocket. He handed one to his friend, Sam Macasay, 17, and then lighted his own.

Hyland had a couple of things to celebrate yesterday - his birthday, for one - but the cigar, he said, was "actually for the Celtics, to honor the tradition."

Cigars, it seemed, were the accessory of choice along the parade route and throughout Boston yesterday.

Signs shouted "Have a cigar," and fans were happy to oblige. Outside TD Banknorth Garden, people puffed on cigars, so did a couple players as they rode by. Once the crowds dispersed, along with green and white confetti, cigar butts littered the roads.

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