boston-celtics
By Rob LaBrie
Five games ago, they were the worst team in the worst division in sports, a broken franchise with no hope of being fixed. Their young players were absolutely terrible, their coach had absolutely no idea, their GM was an absolute failure, and their only star was playing with absolutely no help.
By C. Eric Lincoln
My first impression of Red Auerbach will be my lasting impression of Red Auerbach. Red Auerbach was a New York guy who grew up on tough New York streets, a guy who might well have been a character created by Damon Runyon. Red would have been a Runyon race track guy with a racing form rolled up in his pocket and a dead cigar in hand, always looking for angles — always looking for a winning edge. And for the better part of his 89 years Red Auerbach always found a winning edge.
By Rob LaBrie
It’s the greatest night of his life. The young man anticipates his name being called, but never truly believes it until the announcement comes from David Stern. The Boston Celtics are the team he’ll be playing for. Sounds like a pretty good deal; not too far away from home and he’ll be playing for a team that can win. In fact, with him on the team, they’ll be dominating for sure.
The next day, he heads up to Boston for a while with his father to go scout the place out and meet some important figures on the team. He flies home the next night and arrives at College Park, where his dorm is located, around 11 p.m., still slightly draft drunk as so much has been packed into a couple days. He relaxes for a little while with friends until around 2 a.m. The young man is sick of his friends constantly drilling him on his new team and new found fame, sounding like all the reporters he’s had to face. He heads out in his new Nissan 300ZX. He comes back around 3 a.m. He stays up for a few hours, high on cocaine, talking to his teammate, Terry Long. At 6 a.m., he collapses on his couch for the deepest of sleeps. Len Bias is dead at age 22.
By: Rob LaBrie
The Boston Celtics… not exactly the epitome of a successful franchise now-a-days. Those of you old-schoolers will think of Bird, Russell, and McHale when you hear
“Celtics”. Unfortunately, it doesn’t look like Boston will be taking home championships anytime soon. There is really only one phrase that can sum up the C’s in the Danny Ainge era… train wreck. However, there is one star that has stood out in Boston and the star has been shining even brighter lately. In Boston, we call that star “The Truth”.
I hail from the media crazed town of Boston and am perplexed as to the reason Paul Pierce gets such a bad rap. If any true fan of the NBA, the few that remain out there, could answer my inquisition, I would appreciate it.
“Ah, the wonders of youth.” That ought to be the mantra of the Boston Celtics for the coming season. If they decide to go in a different direction and endorse sayings such as “The future is now,” they and their fans may be sorely disappointed.
The newest version of the Celtics are very high on potential and quite low on actual NBA experience. Coming into training camp, the Green has eight players with four years of combined experience and 10 players aged 23 or younger. The inexperience on this squad has gotten so out of hand that Ricky Davis, he of the ripe age of 26, has been talked about as a possible veteran leader of this bunch. Sweet mother of mercy!
LAS VEGAS- When the Celtics’ summer league squad wiped the floor with their counterparts from Phoenix on Monday by a score of 82 to 53, it was difficult to tell whether or not it had anything to do with the superiority of the Celtic team or the vengeance of the refs. A mind-boggling 41 personal fouls were called…in the first half. For the game, there were 79 called and people all the way back at the MGM Grand could have permanent hearing damage from the constant scream of the whistles.
Celtics coach Doc Rivers, on his best behavior, said of the young, aspiring officials, “they’re still working on their game and I think it’s great. One guy, Matt [Boland], he worked last year in our league and now he’s reffing this and I think that’s great. He’s like Perk and Al.”
LAS VEGAS- Gerald Green had an auspicious professional debut and the Reebok Vegas Summer League, but after getting rid of some early jitters, he found time to wow the crowd time and again.
Green first entered the game with 3:34 left in the first quarter and quickly gobbled up a defensive rebound. Without noticing Erwin Dudley of the Clippers lurking nearby, he put the ball on the floor where it was snatched away by Dudley. He then fouled Dudley immediately to stop him from getting an easy 2.. It was certainly not the start Green wanted, but with the help of some pretty aerial moves and a couple of ferocious dunks, his slow start would soon be erased from people’s minds.
From what I’ve been reading lately, I’d think that Antoine Walker was the one who pretended to find a human finger in the chili from Wendy’s or who faked his own abduction to avoid his upcoming wedding. Assuming there was a gender change in both stories, at least.
Game 7 sure lived up to all the hype, huh?
Another Celtics’ season is officially in the books and an uncertain offseason has now begun, after the Green mailed in a 97-70 loss to the Indiana Pacers in the deciding game of their opening round playoff series. Danny Ainge may have assembled a talented mix of youngsters and veterans, but after watching that debacle, he and anyone rooting for this team (and quite frankly, anyone covering this team, as well) should be embarrassed.