boston-celtics
By Ryan McGowan
“Only a Sith deals in absolutes.” –Obi-Wan Kenobi, Revenge of the Sith.
I hate when one of my teams makes a big trade. If only because I’m pretty much guaranteed to want to poke my ears out after a few days of listening to the reactions on sports radio, especially when said trade happens in the dog days of February when the only other option for discussion is whether the Red Sox will start Felix Doubront or Stolmy Pimental in the exhibition opener against the BC Eagles.
By Ryan McGowan
The last three years were more than I ever would have hoped for on May 22, 2007, when I sat down at my old Brighton house on Newton Street to watch the NBA draft lottery.
At the time, we Celtics fans were hoping for the mathematical near-certainty of landing at least one of the top two picks, widely expected to be Ohio State center Greg Oden or Texas phenom Kevin Durant. When the ping-pong balls fell in the other direction, landing the Celtics at #5 and the Portland Trail Blazers and Seattle SuperSonics at 1 and 2, the collective chests of Celtic Nation breathed a huge sigh of disappointment.
Another crappy year gone. Another hopeless offseason coming up. And certainly another year without a banner, 22 and counting since perhaps the greatest Celtic team ever ramrodded the Association for Banner #16 in 1986.
By Ryan McGowan
Dave Cowens, #18 himself, said it best on Friday night.
“Go out there on behalf of the NBA and Red Auerbach and all Celtics present and past,” he said, as he presented the Eastern Conference championship trophy to Celtics owner Wyc Grousbeck, “and bring home No. 18.’’
by Trevor Freeman
The time between the end of the NCAA Tournament and the beginning of the NBA playoffs has felt longer than usual, but maybe that is because I cannot remember an NBA postseason that had more riveting subplots. KG out. LeBron versus Kobe shaping up as a Finals possibility. Genuine sleepers led by superstars like Dwyane Wade and Chris Paul sitting on the lower half of the seeding table. There are tasty first-round matchups up and down the bracket. With the playoffs gearing up, we decided to wade into the fray and breakdown the postseason. Without further ado, here is our rankings beginning at sixteen and rolling through to our championship favorite.
Rebuilding a franchise is the most difficult and stressful aspect of being a general manager. If a GM does it wrong, it could take a decade to recover from previous screw ups. In order to rebuild a team back to being competitive, management must draft well and make the appropriate financial moves. Sometimes that means trading away old players and stocking your team with some ‘young guns’. In today’s world some franchises purposely tank to receive a high draft pick in order to select that “franchise player” who then is expected to build your team to greatness.
However for the Boston Celtics it only took one trade for them to become the doormat in the NBA to one of the best in the NBA. On a late July day, Celtics General Manager Danny Ainge shocked the basketball world when he pulled off possibly the biggest trade in NBA history. The Celtics traded for future hall of famer Kevin Garnett and one of the most accurate 3-point shooters in the game, Ray Allen.
The Boston Celtics have a new big three in the form of Kevin Garnett, Ray Allen, and Paul Pierce. Now they have to try and fill out the roster with guys who can win, so they to turn to Reggie Miller? That makes sense, right? He’s only 42 and hasn’t played for two years. I wonder who Reggie has talked to about this that know him well, maybe the TNT crew? That would be an interesting conversation, it might go something like this.
Raise the 17th banner. Map out the parade rout. Carve a shamrock-shaped diamond for the championship rings.
“Ladies and gentlemen, your 2008 NBA champions, the Boston Celtics!”
The way the off-season has gone, it’s nothing short of a miracle that the Boston Celtics have somehow turned themselves from laughingstock to championship contenders overnight – and they didn’t even have to rely on ping-pong balls to do it.
When the C’s acquired Kevin Garnett and Ray Allen to join forces with resident Celtics superstar Paul Pierce, Boston – for all intents and purposes – now boasts of a formidable trio the likes of which haven’t been seen since the days of the Bird-McHale-Parish troika.
Beantown must be rejoicing.
They have one of the best shooters in the league in Ray Allen, one of the most underrated superstars in the league in Paul Pierce and one of the top 50 basketball players EVER in Kevin Garnett.
These three have what it takes to go all the way! Who cares about the rest of the roster, right?
Wrong.
Boston needs to down a chill pill
by: Kyle Benson
Its the 2nd year in a row the Celtics have missed the playoffs. What has happened to this storied franchise? 16 NBA championships all time, but they can’t make it into the playoffs two years in a row. Even though they are one of the worst teams in the league, ending the season with a horrid record of 25-57, star players Paul Pierce and Al Jefferson have guaranteed the playoffs for the 2007-2008 season. So what I’m asking myself is, what Celtics will we see next year, the dynasty from the 80’s, or the car crash of the 2000’s?
by: Kyle Benson
Just when the Boston Celtics were starting to get hot, Paul Pierce got injured, for 3 weeks. The question in the minds of Boston fans is: What Now? Well the Celtics can not trade for Allen Iverson, who recently got traded to the Denver Nuggets, and there are no more than one or two star calibur players, including Pierce, on the Celtics. So what is going to happen over the next 3 long weeks? I’ve got the answers.