Ernie D Ends Comeback Bid

1981-82 Boston Celtics

Yes, well, there won't be any behind-the-back passes from Ernie D this season, at least not in Boston. He has already left the Celtics ' training camp.

It happened on Sunday night. At the tail end of a scrimmage, Ernie DiGregorio sustained a blow to the head in some sort of collision with Tiny Archibald. He exited in the general direction of the locker room. Soon afterward Bill Fitch called his name, ready to send him back in.

"He left," Fitch was told. And that was that.

Ernie D had walked off into the night without saying a word to anybody. By 4:30 yesterday afternoon he still hadn't said a word to anyone connected with the Celtics, and last night he could not be reached for comment.

"He's done," Fitch said yesterday, "but I don't honestly think he went away mad. Whatever questions he wanted answered to himself, maybe he got answered."

DiGregorio's chances of making the team were slim, anyway. He'll be 30 in January, and he hasn't had any serious competition in 2 1/2 years. (His last NBA game was also John Havlicek's last game, April 8, 1978).

Doc's at it Again

Doc Rivers is The Great Motivator. He began the 2007-08 season pointing a spotlight at the empty space next to where the Celtics first 16 championship banners hung at the team's practice facility. The season ended with Doc announcing before game 6 of the NBA Finals that he didn't just want to win game 6, he wanted to win by 30 (they won by 39).

In between Doc kept the pedal to the metal, preaching Ubuntu, rebounding, and ball movement. Oh yeah, and that one other thing:

He preached D-E-F-E-N-S-E.

Tom Thibodeau deserves lots of credit for devising the Celtics defensive scheme that made them one of the best defenses of all time, and the toughest defense both Dwayne Wade and Tracy McGrady say they have either faced.

But Doc Rivers steered the ship, and without him relentlessly repeating the mantra that defense wins championships, the 2008 Boston Celtics may very well have fallen short of their ultimate goal.

Which brings me to the soup de jour:

Doc Rivers is back, and he's picking up where he left off.

Almost as quickly as Doc learned whom the Celtics had selected with the 30th pick in the first round, he was telling the media that JR Giddens had a chance to earn some meaningful minutes from the git-go.

Why?

D-E-F-E-N-S-E.

Giddens can score the rock from all over the floor, and jump almost as high as David Thompson once did. No matter. All Doc cares about is D.

Danny echoed these sentiments:

"JR has some physical skills that may allow him to be special at defense. He just has to learn our schemes. He's kept himself in good shape."

Same for Patrick O'Bryant.

Doc and Danny both have observed that O'Bryant has "some length" and can do some things "no one else on the team can do."

Those things, of course, relate to his ability to defend. No specifics were given. But my guess is that their hoping he can bring some versatility to the pivot, guarding both mobile and less mobile centers ( we all know how much KG likes to guard centers).

I'm sticking with my 52-54 win projection. But I like our chances of moving into the neighborhood of 58 -60 wins if this team can actually play better D this year than last.

It's possible.

Just look at Detroit's numbers in 2004.

D-E-F-E-N-S-E

Stu Scott:

Doc, you had the worst record in the East last year, and the second worst record in the NBA. You lost a team record 18 straight games. Now you're standing here before me as a world champion.

What's the first thing you told your team when they met last fall?

Doc:

Defense. I told them that offense gets you the ooohs and aaaws. But defense wins championships.

--NBA Finals, Game 6, Post-Game Trophy Presentation

Celtics Open Orientation Camp

1981-82 Boston Celtics

The basketballs begin bouncing tonight at Hellenic College when Bill Fitch and his staff greet six survivors of the August Rookie Camp, plus Terry Duerod and Wayne Kreklow, for what the mentor fondly refers to as an "Orientation Camp" prior to the arrival of the veterans on Friday. Presuming that the average fan has a conception of Messrs. Duerod and Kreklow, here are capsule looks at the other six:

1. Charles Bradley. "We're just going to have to talk basketball to him," says Fitch of his first-round draft pick. "Put him in a room with films. He doesn't know how to play the game, but he has great physical tools." For the uninitiated, Bradley is a 6-foot-5 guard blessed with an awesome body and no shooting touch. He is Don Chaney, 12 years later. Now let's see if he improves the way The Duck did.

2. Tracy Jackson. Good God, if you could only combine Jackson's skills with Bradley's. This is a shooting man who will experience the usual difficulties making a forward-to-guard transition, especially at this level of competition. Things in his favor include the fact that he's not a bad passer, he's very intelligent and he hails from Auerbach Country, i.e. Silver Springs, Md.

3. Glenn Hagan. The idea here is that the 6-1 Hagan, who is built like a swizzle stick, could be a Tiny Archibald substitute. If so, he'll have to show more than he did at Rookie Camp, where his only obvious asset was flat-out speed.

4. Jim Brandon. Fitch claims this 6-5 St. Peter's (Jersey City) guard would have made the team last year had he not headed for Europe. His intelligence and experience made him the single best performer at the Rookie Camp, and he cannot be counted out of the picture. He's one of those people who is always around the ball.

5. John Johnson. The third draft choice is a 6-4 guard from Michigan who can shoot the ball and who now will be able to tell his grandchildren he once actually went to camp with the Boston Celtics.

6. George Morrow. Creighton has dispatched a runaway freight train of a power forward to Brookline, where he will make certain that none of the incumbent big people will fall asleep. He's a very muscular 6-8 forward who will undoubtedly make some Continental League coach happy this season.

And there is Danny Ainge, who will be a Celtic, sooner or later. Let's cross that intriguing bridge when we come to it.

More Love for the Legend

Bob Ryan
You can argue centers. You can argue guards. You can argue sixth men. But when it comes to naming the forwards on the all-time team, Bird's name is put down, and then the argument begins.

Was he the greatest Celtic? Well, Red Auerbach himself bit the bullet on that one at a dinner in Bird's honor in 1988. Red said yes. (Somehow you can't quite picture Red repeating that to Bill Russell.)

What Larry Bird was - and this is beyond dispute - was the greatest total Celtic of them all. Russell, Havlicek, Cousy, Heinsohn, and the rest of that bunch all won more NBA titles. Bird had to settle for three. But none of them combined unquestioned ability and obvious achievement with the personal charisma of Larry Bird, who comes in at No. 4 on the Globe's list of the top 100 New England sports figures of the century.

He was the true People's Choice, the one Celtic who really bonded with the fans. Of all the great Celtics, none stirred the soul as much as Larry Bird.

Surely, none so overtly worked the crowd the way Bird did. Can you imagine Russell coming down off his throne to speak to the fans through the media? Not hardly likely. But Bird did it all the time.

Sample: "Just put it in the paper that one player wondered whether the fans, who have been a zero for us in the playoffs, will come through. All you've gotta say is that everybody's got a sixth man but us. We've got an eighth man winning the Sixth Man award in (Bill) Walton, but we haven't got a sixth man in the crowd." That was in 1986.

Or this: "Tell the fans that the players are a bit concerned the fans may not appreciate how important a game this is for us. They should look at it this way. If we win the game, that's more games they'll get to see us play at the Garden this year." That was before a 1988 playoff game against Atlanta.

Bird spoke that way because he loved the crowd and he knew the crowd loved him. Only he could chide them that way and not come off as a jerk because he knew that they knew he would respond the way they'd like him to. He even gave them a set of instructions, as follows: "All I ask of the fans is to be vocal, to keep it loud, to pick it up if they see we're getting a little fatigued and to get us over the hump."

What a package. Tall, rawboned, and slow of foot, he looked to the naked eye as just another BWS (Big White Stiff), such as populate the NBA in perplexing numbers. But a funny thing happened when the game started. He used his 6 feet 9 inches to their fullest advantage. He used angles and a reasonably quick first step to get where he needed to go. He proved to be far stronger than he looked. He had such advanced brainpower for the game that Bill Fitch almost immediately nicknamed him "Kodak" for his ability to take an instant look at the floor and know where all nine men were. Oh, and he was awesomely competitive.

Did anyone mention that he was a milky-complexioned star in an otherwise ebony-hued league? That fact did come up once in a while.

With the passage of time, the memories of the unique Bird moments are sharper and the sorrow is deeper that he was forced to retire before the time on his meter should have expired. For what Bird brought to the game of basketball in general, let alone to the Celtics in particular, was a special flair that is unlikely to be duplicated for decades to come. No forward who shoots anyway remotely the way Bird did rebounds the way he did. No forward who rebounds even remotely the way Bird did shoots the way he did. And as for passing? Please. Bird had 140 double-figure assist games. He is the greatest passing forward of all-time, and everyone else is tied for second place.

You could throw more numbers around (e.g. 67 career triple-doubles and 58 more games in which he missed a T-D by one in a category), but Bird was never about the numbers. Great ones seldom are. He often said they were meaningless - a media contrivance and nothing more: "I could get a triple-double every night if I wanted to, but it doesn't always help the team win."

He once tossed away a chance for a quadruple-double. There was a night in Salt Lake City when he reached the three-quarter mark with 30 points, 12 rebounds, 10 assists, and 9 steals. Coach K.C. Jones offered him a chance to reenter the game, in which the Celtics were far ahead. Bird said uh-uh. "I already did enough damage," he reasoned.

For the record, Bird once hit Washington with a triple-double in the first half.

What the triple-doubles and the near triple-doubles do reflect is a rare all-around ability to play the game of basketball. Bird was a truly great player because he had many ways to beat you. Like a pitcher who knows early on that he doesn't have a key pitch in his repertoire, Bird could adjust his game accordingly. On nights when his shot wouldn't drop, he concentrated on passing. And he really hit the boards hard when he felt he wasn't able to make his normal offensive contribution.

While not noted for his defense, he was, in fact, one of the great team defenders ever. By the end of his second season he was determined to be so menacing as an off-the-ball lane-lurker that the entire illegal defense rule was rewritten with him in mind. Take it from one who was there.

The pro career began in 1979, and what's funny is that while his performance was impressive enough to make him a first-team All-Star and Rookie of the Year, he was barely half the all-around player he would become. For one thing, he was extremely deferential toward the veterans, almost refusing to take any end-of-the-game shot as long as Dave Cowens and Tiny Archibald were around. But all that would change, of course. He finished his career with 11 game-winning shots (i.e. in the last five seconds) and nine game-tying shots. On two occasions he had both an overtime-forcing shot and a winning shot.

What is incalculable without complete perusal of every available video tape is the number of games in which his fourth-quarter heroics made certain there would be no last-second worries.

Bird put his personal stamp on the 3-point shot despite the fact that he opposed it on philosophical grounds, believing that a team leading by 2 should be protected from defeat by one shot and that referees routinely called twos threes and threes two. But as long as it was available to him, he was willing to exploit it. Hence the greatest display of 3-point shooting ever seen: a 25-for-34 stretch (from the old, longer distance) in 1986. Bird made his first 3-point impact during his very first All-Star Game and he was a 3-point menace until the end.

Bird died a slow athletic death. Back. Elbow. Double heel surgery. Finally, the back again. He spent the final four or five years of his career always worrying that he might not be able to practice or play, and if you knew Bird you were aware that the former was an equally aggravating experience. As much as any superstar in basketball history, Bird loved to practice. To him, that was an integral part of being a basketball player.

Bird was a soap opera all by himself. He had the ritual of the shoe wipe. He stared up at the Garden ceiling during the national anthem for years before revealing that he was looking at Bobby Orr's No. 4 in order to draw inspiration. There was the trash talking. There was the entire family pathology. There was the fact that in some eyes he was the quintessential Hoosier, on loan to the city slickers. There was the intense rivalry, and legitimate friendship, with Magic Johnson, his on-court alter ego, who wrote in the foreword to Bird's autobiography, "Larry is the only one I really fear."

If you'd like to see what it was all about, find a tape of Game 6 against Houston on June 8, 1986. The numbers weren't gaudy by Bird standards (29 points, 11 rebounds, 12 assists), but what you will see is a man playing an astonishingly full game of basketball. He is in the middle of everything, at both ends of the floor, and he is playing a sport the others are simply not acquainted with. "I saw him take on five guys by himself," marveled Houston's Jim Peterson.

Bird says it's his favorite game. "That was the only game I thought I was totally prepared for," he explains. "As far as focus was concerned, none better. I should have quit right there."

Larry Bird is 43. If he makes it to 93, he will know that no one will come along to match that performance. There is no need for Larry Bird to be envious of Michael Jordan, Magic Johnson, Bill Russell, or anyone else. He brought his own special something to basketball. Don't ever expect to see it again.

Assessing Larry Circa 1985

He's a certified local treasure, like Sam Adams, James Michael Curley and Arthur Fiedler. It's conceivable that you might someday find yourself walking across the Larry Bird Footbridge to the Esplanade, or that you'll hear Officer Bill report that traffic is backed-up all the way to Larry Bird Boulevard.

In six years since moving from Terre Haute, Ind., to Brookline, Bird has delivered two NBA championships and become the first forward in the history of the league to win back-to-back MVP awards.

The Massachusetts State Bird did the impossible this year - he played better than he did in his 1983-84 MVP campaign. His scoring average went from 24.2 to 28.7, his shooting percentage from 49 to 52 and his rebounding average from 10.1 to 10.5. He led the NBA in minutes played and registered personal bests in blocked shots and three-point percentage.

Bird was also great theater. He had a thirst for the dramatic and rarely disappointed the Celtic fandom. On a team loaded with people who feel absolutely nothing at crunch time (Dennis Johnson, Cedric Maxwell, etc.), Bird had the iciest water in his veins.

He had consecutive buzzer-beater, game-winning shots against Portland and Detroit in January. One month later, he eschewed a chance for the second quadruple double in NBA history (30 points, 12 rebounds, 10 assists, 9 steals) when he sat out the fourth quarter of a blowout in Utah. Nine days after helping Kevin McHale to a franchise-record 56 points, Bird smashed the record with 60 against the Hawks in New Orleans. "I told Kevin he should have gone for 60," Bird said with a laugh.

A new public cockiness accompanied the dramatics. Insulted when folks said Robert Reid and Paul Pressey were "Birdbusters," Bird torched Reid for 48 and Pressey for 47 in the final month of the regular season. When Cleveland Cavalier fans chanted, "We Want Bird," at the end of a play-off victory over the Celtics in the Richfield Coliseum - a game Bird had to miss because of recurring pain in his right elbow - Bird promised, "They want me, they got me. Both barrels." He scored 34 points and had 14 rebounds and 7 assists as the Celtics eliminated the Cavs one night later.

As the playoffs progressed, it was obvious that bone chips in that elbow were giving Bird more trouble. He wouldn't acknowledge the pain and resorted to other weapons. He shot with his left hand, passed, rebounded and took the shots he had to take to keep the defense honest.

Twenty-eight years old, independently wealthy and internationally famous, Bird still has the personality and work ethic of a small-town factory hand. He reduces concepts to their simplest terms and hesitates to show you how much he has.

On the court, Bird remains the consummate teammate. He has never lost his direction. Every move is the right move, every decision is the right decision. There is only one goal. Winning.

"I really don't need anybody to build my ego," he says. "I've already proven that a white boy who can't run and jump can play this game."

His contract calls for five more seasons, and Bird indicates that he'll retire when it's up. That would make the 1984-85 season the exact middle (sixth of 11 years) of Bird's career. If 1984-85 stands as his peak, no one will feel cheated. Then again, maybe there's something better ahead. We all thought Bird's 1983-84 season would never be topped . . . but it was.

Red Says He'll "Pay the Bums Off"

"All of a sudden, he was a great baseball player in the eyes of Toronto," remembers Auerbach, who ended up losing the rights battle to the Blue Jays in federal court. "Alan Dershowitz said, `Appeal it, I'll represent you for nothing.' I said, `Naw, we'll pay the bums off and we'll get him anyway.' So we paid them off."

"So we went to court and I'll tell you that was some experience," said Auerbach. "I don't know what it was but every time we objected, the judge said 'overruled.' Every time they objected, he said 'sustained.'"

"Then Danny's wife was due to have a baby any day so they wouldn't allow a deposition even though she was right there when they told him orally that any time he wanted to go to basketball he could do it," he said. "So after we lost the case, Allen Dershowitz, the lawyer, he was a big fan of ours, said 'Appeal it. I'll represent you for nothing.' That's how mad he was. I said 'Na, we'll pay the bums off and we'll get Danny anyway.'

No word yet on when the bums will be paid off.

Judge: Ainge Can Talk to Celtics

There is no need to measure him for a Celtics uniform just yet, but Danny Ainge took one step more toward becoming a member of the world championship basketball team yesterday when federal Judge Lee Gagliardi modified a temporary restraining order that had prevented the Celtics from negotiating with the Toronto Blue Jays third baseman.

The Celtics still may not sign Ainge to a basketball contract, but they will be allowed to conduct talks with him between now and Monday, Sept. 28.

The highlight of yesterday's court proceedings came when Blue Jays' vice president Pat Gillick admitted in a deposition filed before the court that without the negotiating leverage afforded Ainge by virtue of his basketball ability, he would not have been offered more than a one-year contract for $50,000. Instead, Ainge signed a three-year contract last Sept. 15 calling for $500,000 in salaries and bonuses. Moreover, it is one of only two guaranteed contracts given to a Toronto ballplayer.

Ainge was called upon to explain why he asked for a check for $120,000, the remainder of his $300,000 bonus money, on Aug. 8, two full months after asking to be released from his Toronto contract. He explained that it was the opinion of his attorney and his uncle, an investment counselor, that the Internal Revenue Service could very well tax him as if he had received the full $300,000, whether or not he actually received the full amount, and that it made sense to secure the money.

This was the first time all the principals had gotten together in the courtroom. Present for Toronto were both Gillick and team president Peter Bavasi. Red Auerbach attended the hearing on behalf of the Celtics, while Ainge, who had a game last night against the California Angels back in Toronto, was accompanied by his wife, Michelle, and his agent, Eugene (Ore.) attorney Bob Quinney. An air of conviviality prevailed throughout.

The Blue Jays had entered court seeking a preliminary injunction against the Celtics to prevent them from dealing with Ainge, and toward that end were required to demonstrate that removing Ainge from the squad would constitute "irreparable harm." Gillick testified that Ainge was the best third baseman the team has ("At present he is the only person we have who can play third base on a regular basis") and that, were he to give full concentration to his baseball career, he could "bat .260 to .270 with 15 to 20 homers over a full season." He cited Graig Nettles, Mike Schmidt and Doug DeCinces as third basemen who had slow starts at the plate in their careers, and said that Ainge, who is presently batting below .190, could improve with experience.

"I'm satisfied with the proceedings," declared Cooley. We've got the lines of communications open. As long as people are talking to each other, there is hope for progress."

Jury Slam Dunks Ainge

Final Score: Blue Jays 1, Celtics 0.

But if there had been any doubt concerning what this trial was all about, why a baseball team from Toronto had tied up a federal court in New York City in order to combat a basketball team from Boston, the answer came minutes following the verdict announced by jury foreperson Winifred Grant.

The answer was provided by Blue Jays' president Peter Bavasi. First, he unwrapped a cigar. "What," he inquired, "does Red usually do just before . . . ?" He lit a cigar. "This is like the last minute to go, 20 points ahead. What a pleasure!"

There you have it. Peter Bavasi was savoring what he perceived to be a triumph over Red Auerbach. The Celtics, whom he had likened on the witness stand to a "blonde floozy" trying to steal away the affections of Danny Ainge from the "faithful wife," (i.e., the Blue Jays), had been driven off.

The verdict had been unanimous, and swift. Less than two hours after the start of deliberations, the six-member jury ruled in favor of the Blue Jays, upholding the claim of the baseball team that there was an enforceable contract with Ainge to play baseball and that the Celtics had induced him to break that contract.

Now what? Ainge, who swears he has played his last game of baseball for Toronto or any other team, is home in Provo, Utah, where, among other things, he is getting acquainted with a new son, Austin Daniel Ainge, born early Tuesday morning. The Blue Jays return to Toronto without the man they claim was to be their third baseman for years to come. The Celtics, who can hardly be termed "losers" since they had taken Ainge as a gravy pick after securing Charles Bradley and Tracy Jackson in the draft, can concentrate on defending the NBA championship.

"I've still got a chance in arbitration," said Ainge, who filed a grievance with the Major League Baseball Players Assn. on the issue of the restrictive covenant in his baseball contract. He did not have representation at the time that contract was signed - Sept. 15, 1980 - and the clause prohibiting him from playing basketball, "professionally or recreationally," was inserted as an addendum between his final negotiating session with Blue Jay vice president Pat Gillick and the time he came back to sign the contract.

As for an appeal, Celtics' attorney Earle Cooley had this to say: "I'll talk it over with (Celtics' owner) Harry Mangurian. Whether we appeal or not will be a function of the practicality of the situation. Since I'm convinced Danny Ainge is not going to play baseball, and since I know that no force on earth can make him play baseball, we'll just have to wait and see if the Blue Jays are going to sit by for the next two years with a non-baseball player and do nothing about it. Then he retires and keeps his $300,000."

Bavasi continues to insist that when the flowers bloom and the robins begin chirping Ainge will heed the siren call of baseball. "As far as I'm concerned," Bavasi said, "Danny Ainge is still a member of the Toronto Blue Jays. I feel as close to him as I did before all this happened. It will take some time for him to understand what the outcome of this trial really means."

The outcome of the case came as no surprise. Judge Lee Gagliardi had narrowed the issues down to the point where all that was left was the matter of an alleged oral recision of the Ainge contract by both Bavasi and Gillick on June 10 and 11 of this year. The jury had to decide whether or not the contract was void at the time Bavasi told Ainge on June 10, when the athlete came to his office and announced he wished to play for the Celtics, "Don't worry about the commitment you have . . . you have to do what you have to do in order to be happy," and whether it was similarly voided the following day when Gillick said, "There is no contract that can keep you from doing what you have to do."

Juror Linda Banks explained that she interpreted the Bavasi and Gillick comments as merely sympathetic statements. "Danny Ainge wanted to get out of the contract, and so he made the statements into something they weren't," she reasoned.

In order to prove oral recision, or cancellation - something not done often in any court - it must be proved that the parties had reached a "meeting of the minds," as Gagliardi put it, "as to every significant term and condition of this agreement." The Celtics had the burden of proof in this case, and there was little chance the jury could conclude that Bavasi, Gillick and Ainge had ever come to a "meeting of the minds."

A settlement would appear to be the only prudent course of action in this case, but it may be a while before Bavasi stops savoring his triumph and comes back to earth. "I'm not going to talk to Red Auerbach on this, or any other subject," he thundered. Asked how long he would make Ainge sit out, he replied, "We won't hold him captive, but there are other NBA teams." In other words, he might sit on Ainge until the Celtics' NBA rights expire on June 9, 1982.

"I'm disappointed," Ainge said. "My only chance now is to go to arbitration and try to prove that the addendum to the contract was invalid."

It sure doesn't sound like a would-be third baseman talking, does it?

Blue Jays Owner Weeps over Ainge

Buzzie Bavasi sent his son, Peter, to St. Mary's College in Moraga, Calif. It's obvious now he should have sent him to the Yale Drama School.

Inside the courtroom in New York, the president of the Toronto Blue Jays was on stage. He mugged outrageously on the witness stand, saying how he wept the night Danny Ainge told him he wanted to become a Celtic and how the Celtics are despicable interlopers who are trying to steal his impressionable third baseman away. After catching his act, I have decided that if he can carry a tune he should join the road company of "The Pirates of Penzance."

Bavasi's acting job was superfluous. Judge Lee Gagliardi had narrowed the scope of the trial down to the point where the jurors had little choice but to rule in favor of Toronto and keep Danny Ainge in the clutches of a baseball team for which he no longer wishes to perform, in a profession that no longer interests him. With or without the theatrics, Peter Bavasi was a lock to get what he wanted.

And what, you may rightfully ask, was that?

What Peter Bavasi wanted was a victory over Red Auerbach. He wanted to return to the province of Ontario and tell how he had kept the Bullies of Boston from stealing away their precious .188-hitting third baseman. If Toronto can't win anything on the field, maybe it can win something off the field, by gum.

Bavasi surely couldn't be interested in the welfare of Danny Ainge. He insists that Ainge will play baseball - eat his spinach, as it were - and like it. But Ainge doesn't want to play baseball. "I think I could be a basketball success in a year or two," Ainge says. "It would take me five or six years in baseball. I know that now."

As much as Bavasi weeps and wails about Ainge's so-called "betrayal," the Blue Jays president knew very well that a set of circumstances existed in June that not only made it possible, but likely, that Ainge would wish to play basketball. Ainge had enjoyed a spectacular senior year at Brigham Young in basketball, and was now hitting under .180 in baseball. When he found out he had been drafted by Boston, the case was closed. Bavasi is not dumb. He knew that he was in danger of losing Ainge. But he carried on in front of the jury as if he had just learned that his only daughter had just run off to re-form the Manson Family.

Peter Bavasi admits he told Danny Ainge in May that he should "come and see me" if "you're ever unhappy in your contract." What possible inference could Ainge draw from that statement, other than that Bavasi would be receptive to any Ainge request to change careers, providing financial restitution could be made? Yet when Ainge did declare his intention to play basketball as well as return $300,000 in advance - not "bonus" - money, Bavasi reacted by threatening every legal action known to man.

Bavasi blathers on about the "sanctity of the contract," while villifying Harry Mangurian ("We wouldn't allow anyone like that in our league") and Red Auerbach ("He has no integrity"). This conceivably makes for great reading in Toronto, although I should point out that Ainge is such a big item up there that no newspaper covered the trial.

I'm wondering how long the Blue Jays' Board of Directors will permit Bavasi to savor his triumph before asking him what he plans to do about the situation, other than sit around and smirk. As it stands now, the Blue Jays are out a) one third baseman and b) $300,000 in advance payment on a three- year, $525,000 contract. And one way or the other, they're still in last place.

Peter Bavasi has it within his power to deny Ainge's desire, which is to play for Boston. He can do that by refusing to negotiate a settlement prior to June 9, 1982, when Boston's NBA rights expire. In that event, Red Auerbach will survive, as always. Danny Ainge will survive, too, but he will know for certain what a vindictive person Peter Bavasi really is.

Peter Bavasi is supposed to be acting in the best interests of the Toronto Blue Jays. If paying Danny Ainge $300,000 to sit in Provo, Utah, until June 10, 1982, is an example of his acumen, then I am not at all surprised that the Blue Jays are finishing last for the fifth consecutive season.

Ainge Tells Court He Prefers Basketball

Danny Ainge of the Toronto Blue Jays said during a hearing this morning in US District Court in Manhattan that he would rather play professional basketball than baseball.

Ainge, for the first time publicly, made his personal choice of sports known during his 20-minute appearance before federal Judge Lee Gagliardi who was presiding over the proceeding.

The Celtics contend that the Brigham Young All-America basketball player sought and received permission in June from the Blue Jays to extricate himself from his baseball contract, and should be allowed to negotiate a basketball contract with Boston.

Earle Cooley, an attorney representing the Celtics, put the following question to Ainge:

"Do you want to be a baseball player or basketball player, Mr. Ainge?"

"Basketball," replied Ainge.

Pat Gillick, vice president of baseball operations for the Toronto club, was asked during his appearance if the the Blue Jays would be dealt irreparable if Ainge was lost.

"Danny Ainge at this point is the only person we have who can play third base on a regular basis," Gillick said.

++

I wonder if Gillick said that with a straight face. The Blue Jays were one of the worst teams in baseball. Couldn't anyone have played third base for them?

Ainge Trial Begins

The Danny Ainge case, billed as "the Toronto Blue Jays vs. the Boston Celtics ," opened yesterday in US District Court.

The highlights:

- A six-member, one-alternate jury was selected.

- The Blue Jays indicated they would be willing to negotiate a settlement of Ainge's baseball contract if they are successful in this lawsuit.

- Ainge, the Blue Jays' infielder, reiterated that under no circumstances does he wish to play baseball after next Sunday.

- Celtics' counsel Earl Cooley heatedly charged that Judge Lee Gagliardi was biased against him.

The Blue Jays claim that the Celtics' basketball club interfered with the execution of a contract signed by Ainge on Sept. 15, 1980. The Celtics respond that Ainge had been given a verbal release from that contract by Toronto president Peter Bavasi on June 11 of this year and was therefore free to deal with them. In addition, the Celtics are contending that the baseball contract, because it contains a restrictive covenant that precludes him from playing both professional and recreational basketball is an antitrust violation since it reaches far beyond the province of baseball.

As the judge therefore summarized to the jury, there are two main issues to be decided in this case: 1. Was there a recision or cancellation of contract? 2. Was there an enforceable contract?

The jury represented the survivors of a group of 22 interviewed during the selection process, and consists of the following: Donald Stitt, a computer specialist for Chase Manhattan Bank; Serge Hoehnevart, an industrial engineer who stressed that he knew absolutely nothing about professional baseball or basketball; Eileen Smith, a Manhattan housewife; Winifred Grant, an educator; Frank Bernabo, a computer programming analyst for an insurance company; Phillip Daniels, a retired engineer for the New York City Board of Education; and alternate Linda Banks, a social worker.

Three members of the original jury were excused when they indicated they wouldn't be able to work on Tuesday or Wednesday due to the High Holy Days. Court will in fact, be in recess today, but due to tight court schedules on the part of both the respective counsels and the judge Wednesday must be a work day, and so three new jurors had to be selected.

In his opening statement, Toronto lawyer Douglas Parker stressed that while the Blue Jays wish to have the Ainge contract upheld, they would be willing to negotiate a buy-out at a future date, presumably next spring, after Ainge has had a chance to attend 1982 spring training. This attitude persists despite Ainge's persistent declaration that his baseball career will conclude next Sunday, following Toronto's last game.

"I'm unhappy playing baseball for Toronto," said Ainge, who had flown all night from the West Coast and who spent the better part of the morning catnapping in the back row of the courtroom. "And I don't want to play for them anymore. Toronto thinks that if they can keep Boston off my back I'll change my mind by spring training."

It was revealed that late last week Ainge applied for voluntary retired status as a baseball player.

The final fireworks of the day were provided by Cooley, who, after finding himself interrupted four times from the bench during his lengthy opening statement, waited until the jury had departed and then charged prejudicial treatment on the part of Gagliardi. It was Cooley's contention that the jury could not help but be unduly influenced by the judge's constant admonitions, and that Cooley felt were particularly unwarranted in view of what he felt were the occasional digressions of Parker during his own opening statement.

Gagliardi assured the Boston attorney that he had no such bias.

Bird Drops 20 Pounds During '84 Playoffs

August 1984

When we last saw him, he was standing in triumph on a balcony at City Hall, exciting the masses before him with nonbiblical reference to someone named Moses and saying there was only one other place he would rather be. French Lick.

With that, Larry Bird adjourned to Indiana and did what you hoped he would do, have one helluva summer for himself, digging into that garage filled with six-packs and getting it on with some of the good old boys back home.

"I was worn out. Beat. I was playing those games at the end of the season on emotion. Everything was drained when it was over," says Bird, who started the playoffs tipping the scales at 235, but finished the Celtics' championship season at 215. He has since beefed up to 222, relaxing and leading the good life with his friends. His ideal playing weight is about 230.

"I had a great summer. It was nice going home like that and seeing how much my friends enjoyed it. That made it even better for me. It was the first time since my sophomore year in college that I could just relax and enjoy myself.

"Getting that championship meant a lot to me. I won't say that it was like carrying a burden around, but I think that, now we've got it, I think I can just go out and have more fun playing the game. I feel so good that I'm ready to start the season right know. But I'm glad that we won't be getting started for awhile. Squirrel season is starting and I want to get back home for that."

Bird cooled himself out with a little hunting, fishing, and some basketball in a summer league, consisting mostly of college players and guys he has played with most of his life. "I just played a couple of games a week for kicks. I didn't shoot. It was just a way to have some fun."

Bird is back in town working at the Celtics' rookie camp this week and preparing for his own basketball school at Camp Milbrook in Marshfield next week. He is not concerned about his weight or the loss of his shooting touch, which has earned him the worst shooting percentage of the group in scrimmages at the camp this week.

"My weight will get back to what it should be once I start working regular in training camp. Last year, inthe early part of the season I picked up some kind of virus or flu, and it stuck with me for awhile. I lost about 20 pounds and got down to about 208. My shooting is off because I just haven't worked at it. When I go home I'll start shooting more and work at it before we get to camp.

"I feel we are going to have another great season. We have the talent to play with anyone. You hear talk about people gunning for us because we're the world champions. My opinion is that they were gunning for us before that because we are the Celtics. Like, when we go on the road the big crowds are always there. This year I think we'll beat the teams we should beat on talent, and then go out and play the top teams as hard as we can."

My Inspiration...or is it Aspiration?

This blog is on of my favorite sports blogs. The dude has a huge following, has won awards, and doesn't advertise.

He shares his love of the Sox with everyone who comes to visit, and absolutely revels in the second greatest rivalry in professional sports.

No forums either, I might add.

Check out this post.

612 comments...and it's a freakin' game summary!!!

Gnashing_of_Teeth.com

Things were pretty quiet on the first anniversary of the Bob Ryan “Sky is Falling” column from last August. If you are disinclined to read the column, let me summarize. The 2007-2008 Boston Celtics boiled down to a three-man show, and even that three man show was comprised of aging and injured players.

The rest of the team?

Well, it consisted of young, unproven, overrated, and mediocre talent that wouldn’t strike fear in a high school team, much less the Detroit Pistons or San Antonio Spurs. Ryan then went on the talk-show circuit to drive home the point, the point being that once you get past the top three players, the Celtics roster represented the biggest drop-off in talent in NBA history.

With the summer of 2008 now winding down, some things have changed for the Boston Celtics and some things have stayed about the same. What’s changed is that the Boston Celtics are now the World Champs. Kendrick Perkins is one of the most feared defenders in the pivot, while Rajon Rondo is a terror on the court when he’s got it going.

What’s the same is that the Celtics, again, don’t have James Posey on the roster (at the time Ryan wrote his column, Posey was still a free agent). What’s also the same is that their Celtics roster is riddled with question marks. Celtics message boards were surprisingly quiet after we initially lost Nails. Maybe people were still intoxicated from celebrating Banner 17 to get too upset.

I don’t know.

The addition of Patrick O’Bryant to replace P.J. Brown also didn’t send temperatures off the charts. Resigning Tony Allen and Eddie House were largely viewed as positive moves.

Just to show how naïve I am, the balmy temperatures across Celtic Nation actually convinced me that we had matured as a people. The grueling 2007-08 campaign that started in August and ended in June had somehow taught us all to chill. You know, the season is long, and has it’s ups and downs. So no need to go apoplectic in August or September.

Alas, the Darius Miles signing disabused me of that notion.

It’s not so much that I disagree with the concerns raised by my siblings in Celtics Nation (though I do wonder why they get all worked up over a guy who isn’t guaranteed any money). In fact, I agree with some of the concerns. I did my usual scouring of newspapers from the last five years, and couldn’t find more than one or two favorable clippings about Mr. Darius. Everything else was a downer.

My real concern is over the manner in which those concerns are raised. It’s one thing to point out that the Celtics bench doesn’t appear to be as strong as it was last season, but totally another to declare that we’ve taken a step or two backward and Danny Ainge has failed. Even after we signed Posey, I remember fans questioning whether Posey was really 6’8” or more like 6’6”, and then casting doubt on those who claimed he had shut down Dirk in the Finals. It was another guy on the Heat roster, they said.

The same fans would then latch on to what Bob Ryan wrote, only in more hysterical terms. Eddie House couldn’t dribble the ball. Powe and Big Baby were severely undersized and wouldn't be able to get their shots off. Tony Allen, Paul Pierce, and Ray Allen were all overcoming major injuries, and might not be able to play effectively until December, if then. Kevin Garnett had played more minutes and more games in his career than players 3, 4, and 5 years older than him, and the extra wear and tear was about to catch up with him. Doc sucked in general, and couldn’t win big games or make in-game adjustments in particular. The list was long and the despair was dark.

Turns out it was all a bunch of hot hair and wasted breath. Concern over nothing.

Which leads me to the question of the day:

Why waste your breath over falling acorns until we’ve seen the finished product on the court and the Green has lost a game or two?

Why not sit back, favorite beverage in hand, and chill?

Maybe pop in one of those DVDs from the June coronation and relive the celebration known as the 2008 NBA Finals.

Grinding your teeth just isn’t healthy.

Just look at Bob Ryan. Everything turned out OK for him.

Heck, he now thinks the 2007-08 Boston Celtics are the second best Celtics team of all time.

"The Sky is Falling"

Bob Ryan
August 2007

And?

That's it? Someone actually thinks this Celtics team will win the East and contend for the championship? Really?

I am reminded of the classic line given by Ronald Reagan in "Kings Row." He awakens in a hospital bed and becomes aware he has no legs.

"Where's the rest of me?" he wails.

Tell me something. Did I miss the memo in which David Stern proclaimed that in the 2007-08 season the NBA will be a three-on-three competition? And did I also miss the other memo, the one in which Stern revoked the charters of some NBA Eastern Conference teams, most notably Detroit, Miami, Chicago, Washington, and defending conference champion Cleveland?

Apparently I did. There can be no other explanation for the mass giddiness that has engulfed this region from the minute it was confirmed that Danny Ainge had acquired Kevin Garnett. Yes, I will certainly admit that Garnett, Paul Pierce, and Ray Allen are a fine 1-2-3 combination, arguably the league's best (Phoenix, San Antonio, and Detroit would certainly object). But, to borrow a phrase, "Where's the rest of me?"

Unless it really is going to be a three-on-three NBA, the Celtics will be forced to place two additional players on the floor, and not just occasionally, but for every one of the 48 minutes.

That concerns me. That concerns me because what I am about to say is nonnegotiable: What's left on the Celtics' roster is by far the worst collection of proven talent in the NBA. Not one of the remaining 29 teams in Stern's world would even consider trading its fourth through 12th players for Boston's. There is no way Danny, Doc, Wyc, Steve, or Red's Ghost could look anyone in the eye and say otherwise.

Oooh, I forgot. Danny's not done. Isn't that what I heard? He's going to import a veteran point guard. Brevin Knight, for example. Brevin Knight? Look, he's a proper Stanford guy and a fine individual. He would provide incremental improvement (3 percent? 11 percent?) in the point guard department. All things considered, I'll stick with Rajon Rondo, thank you very much.

And speaking of Rondo, what I am about to say is equally nonnegotiable, as well as being quite scary: Rondo is the fourth-best player on the Celtics' roster. No team in the league has such a colossal drop-off in talent and NBA desirability.


What is the matter with everyone? Are people in these here parts so starved for some legitimate NBA excitement they have immediately abandoned all reason in their quest to anoint the reconstituted roster as a potential champion?

The folks in Las Vegas are likewise caught up in this euphoric nonsense. Depending on which tout you favor, the Celtics trail only the Suns, Mavericks, and Spurs as championship favorites, and are favorites to win the East. In normal times I fully respect what the wise men in Las Vegas have to say about sporting events.

In this case I fear they've all been lobotomized. None of this makes any sense. Then again, I may have missed that three-on-three memo.

Please, somebody, calm down, take off the green-and-white underwear and take a good look at the rest of the roster. It consists of Kendrick Perkins, Tony Allen, Brian Scalabrine, Rondo, Leon Powe, Eddie House, Jackie Manuel, and rookies Glen "Big Baby" Davis, Gabe Pruitt, and Brandon Wallace. Over on the side there is free agent Michael Olowokandi.

I can just hear the "No mas!" from the Pistons, Heat, Bulls, Wizards, and Cavaliers right now.

Perkins is a hard-working banger who might as well have a sign tattooed on his forehead saying, "Career Backup." Powe is pretty much the same thing. That doesn't mean I don't like either one, but to appropriate another popular local phrase, they are what they are. Scalabrine might - might - have some value if he can consistently hit the 3-pointer. Note the words "might" and 'if."

I like Rondo. He'll be around the NBA for a long time with his speed and defensive tenacity. But he needs experience, and there is the stupendous, "Yeah, but," concerning his shot. Backing up a major point guard, he could be a very nice asset. Rondo is simply not ready to be a leading man in this league.

House can shoot, and that's something this team desperately needs. I'm sure that, under the circumstances, he'll be overbilled, however. Manuel was a great defensive player at North Carolina, but there is a reason he has yet to play his first NBA game. We'll be told it won't matter that he has no NBA offensive skill. I'm just telling you what to expect.

The rookies? Who knows? Yes, I like Big Baby, and he could bring a lot to the table. That's "could." Wallace was a Summer League sensation who played his way into a surprise contract. Congratulations, son. Pruitt? Maybe, possibly, someday, perhaps. Who knows?

That leaves Tony Allen. He is recovering from the dreaded torn ACL injury. He may very well make a full recovery. He'd damn well better, not just because he injured himself with a phenomenally stupid indiscretion for which he was never properly chastised (dunking well after the whistle), but also because his game is built on superior athleticism. If he comes back at 90 percent of his preaccident self, he is finished as a viable NBA commodity. He's 6 feet 4 inches, not 6-9. He has no future without his full athleticism.

So tell me what's so enticing about this roster. If Danny had kept Ryan Gomes, I'd be far more optimistic. And why did Danny have to relinquish two No. 1 draft picks? Am I the only one who thinks this stuff matters? There is nothing to suggest the Celtics won't once again be a horrible defensive team. There is no guarantee Rondo can run a team and keep order among the star trio. There is no guarantee, for that matter, that Ray Allen will play 70 games, or even 60.

Once again we'll be back to the two-teams thing. You'll have the Old Guys and the Kids. You'll have the Veteran All-Stars who arrive at practice with chauffeurs and the guys who hitchhike to work. Once again Doc Rivers will earn every cent of his salary, this time trying to make a bizarre mismatched conglomeration of real and supposed talent into a proper team.

I am amused at what Danny has done. He has basically blow-torched his entire body of work here in Boston. Forget the youth/athleticism/grow-together thing. Forget 2009, 2010, and 2011. Load up now.

OK, if that's the case, I'll live with that. But the job is only half done. This core group of marquee players needs to be supported by the right cast, and it's not here yet. The Celtics are fascinating. They are intriguing. They are a borderline freak show. They'll definitely be more fun to watch.

They might even make the playoffs.

Larry's 10 Best Games

10. Salt Lake City. Feb. 18, 1985

`I already did enough damage'

Early in the fourth period, K.C. Jones came to Larry with some news. He had just been informed that Larry had 30 points, 12 rebounds, 10 assists, and 9 steals in three quarters. Would he like to go back in to get that 10th steal and thus be able to tell the grandchildren about his quadruple-double? "Nope," he said. "I already did enough damage. Why go for it when we're up by 30?" Larry abused the Jazz for 12 points, 9 rebounds, 5 assists, and 4 steals in the first period alone as the Celtics jumped to a 34-10 lead.

Larry: "I remember saying it was no big deal about the quadruple-double. I said I could get one any time if I wanted to."

Even the 10 steals?

"That was before they changed the rules. Lots of times I had five or six."

9. Portland. Feb. 14, 1986

Mr. Ambidexterity

As if 47 points, 14 rebounds, 11 assists, and the game-winning basket with three seconds left in overtime weren't enough, Larry spiced this one by making seven lefthanded shots. Memorial Coliseum was always one of his favorite arenas, but this was his Northwest Picasso. So what was the deal with all the southpaw baskets? "I'm savin' my right hand for the Lakers," he said, alluding to the Celtics' next opponent.

Larry: "I told 'em I was workin' on that lefthand shot all summer to go at Michael Cooper, and I was just tryin' it out."

8. Milwaukee. May 17-18, 1986

Gone fishin'

Yup, a doubleheader. Games 3 and 4 of this playoff series with Milwaukee showcased the entire Bird package in one 24-hour spurt. On Saturday, he had seven assists in the first quarter en route to a 19-16-13 triple-double that included a phenomenal dive into a pile and sitting-on-the-floor feed to Kevin McHale for a dunk. "He gave me at least five baskets where I didn't have to do a thing," marveled McHale. "All I had to do was stand there." On Sunday, he blew the Bucks away with four straight fourth-quarter 3-pointers to seal the series sweep. "I hope," said Milwaukee coach Don Nelson, "the other Celtics realize what a privilege it is to play with Larry Bird."

Larry: "K.C. said if we swept we'd have three days off, and that's all I needed to hear. When the game was over, I drove straight to French Lick and I was fishing all day Monday."

7. Los Angeles. Feb. 11, 1981

He also cleaned the john and parked some cars

36 points. 21 rebounds. 5 assists. 5 steals. 5 blocks. One stretch of 15-for-17 shooting. Was there anything else? As a matter of fact, yes. Larry also stopped a couple of 3-on-1 fast breaks. With Magic Johnson (injured knee) watching from the LA bench, Larry put on a majestic basketball clinic at the Forum in what was supposed to be a hopeless game since the Celtics had lost an OT affair in Seattle the night before and hadn't arrived in LA until five hours before game time.

"He told me he was going to do it," said Magic. "He said, `Sorry, you're hurt. I want you to sit back and watch. I'm going to put on a show for you.' "

Larry: "No question that was a great game for me. I remember having rebounding rhythm and being just generally very active. Didn't I have five steals? I was all over the place that night."

6. Boston Garden. May 13, 1984

`His performance was without description'

It was Game 7 of a heated, emotional series with the Hubie Brown/Bernard King Knicks, and Larry was ready. Wrote Dan Shaughnessy, "Call it a quadruple-double: 43 points, 12 rebounds, 10 assists, and a dozen standing ovations." Larry hit a 16-foot baseline fallaway some 14 seconds into the game, and that was the signal he was in complete control. Seven minutes later he got successive conventional 3-point plays on (a) a lefty banker high off the glass, and (b) a 21-foot swisher. "I knew I had it then," he said. "I just wanted to keep going." Hubie wished he had kept going out to North Station. "His performance was without description," rhapsodized the Knicks' mentor.

Larry: "I remember making that lefthanded shot right in front of their bench. Absolutely. That game was one of my highlights."

5. New Orleans. March 12, 1985

They fell off the Atlanta bench

Background: On March 3, McHale set a Celtics scoring record with 56 points. "He should have gone for 60," Larry said. Five games and nine days later, Larry torched the Atlanta Hawks for 60, not including a 3-pointer that was waved off. How hot was he? Larry had one blitzkrieg of 32 points in 14 minutes. How outrageous were some of the shots? On one, a couple of astonished subs fell off the Atlanta bench. He had continually fed McHale en route to his 56, and Kevin twice reciprocated, first by fouling Doc Rivers to stop the clock with 27 seconds left and Larry stuck on 56, and then by grabbing an offensive rebound and firing it back to Bird for a buzzer-beating foul-line jumper. "When I'm shooting like that," Larry shrugged, "no one can stop me."

Larry: "That was a Tuesday. I was sore all over because on Sunday I ran a road race. What I remember most was how much pain I was in. As for Kevin, yeah, I told him at the time he made a big mistake by not going for 60."

4. Boston Garden. May 22, 1988

Shootout at the OK Corral

It was as good a mano a mano duel as the NBA playoffs have ever seen. Fourth quarter, Game 7, Eastern Conference quarterfinals, Larry Bird vs. Dominique Wilkins. For three quarters, it was an even, high-level battle. In the fourth, "They each put their teams on their backs and said, `Let's go,' " said Atlanta coach Mike Fratello. Dominique had 15 of his 47 in the fourth, but Larry trumped him by shooting 9 for 10 and scoring 20 of his 34 in the 12 minutes as the Celtics won, 118-116. In one phenomenal stretch, they matched hoops on six consecutive possessions, three for Larry and three for 'Nique. Larry had the left hand going for three of the baskets (a banked scoop, a jumper, and a lefty drive) and he also found a streaking Danny Ainge for a 50-foot lefty touchdown pass. The Bird summation: "Hell, this is my building."

Larry: "To me, that was a one-quarter game. I really hadn't played well until that point. I remember stealing the ball a couple of times and getting some open jumpers to get my rhythm going."

3. Boston Garden. June 8, 1984

In the heat of the night

There was never, ever a night like it, not in this town, anyway. Game-time temperature: 97 degrees. Atmosphere: part revival meeting, part Mardi Gras. In ridiculous, almost inhuman physical conditions, Larry shot 15 for 20 en route to 34 points and 17 rebounds as the Celtics take a 3-2 series lead over the hated Lakers. "It was a 48-minute steam bath," snorted Pat Riley. Also a quintessential Bird performance in which mind triumphed over matter. Bird set the tone with 8 points and 9 rebounds in period one. Bird invigorated the crowd with three 3-pointers. Bird had the Lakers reaching for the superlatives. "He did let down once," joshed LA assistant coach Dave Wohl. "He didn't run to the bench during a timeout."

Larry: "Everybody complained about the heat, but I felt great out there. I remember running by the Laker bench and seeing them sittin' there sucking in oxygen and I felt like I could run forever. The crowd was really into it that night."

2. Boston Garden. June 8, 1986

Here, there, and everywhere

The Celtics had been pushed around by the Rockets in Game 5, and they asked Larry what to expect in Game 6. "I think everything's gonna be just fine," he declared. Game 6 started and Larry Bird plugged himself into every aspect of the game. He shot. He rebounded. He passed. Most of all, he harassed. He was never more of a total defensive pest than on this particular afternoon. The final totals of 29 points, 11 rebounds, and 12 assists do not begin to reflect the scope of his utter ubiquitousness in this game. (He even won a jump ball from Hakeem Olajuwon.) "I saw him take on five guys by himself," gushed Houston's Jim Petersen. It was the ultimate all-around basketball "How-To." Reflected Larry, "That was the only game I thought I was totally prepared for."

Larry: "I may have come out too pumped up. You know, the Game 5 fight, Bill Fitch, and all that. I was so pumped I even missed two early free throws. Defensively, that definitely was one of my better games. By that time we knew their stuff, and they were going to Hakeem a lot. I was able to anticipate."

1. Boston Garden. May 5, 1991

`I can't leave those guys out there all by themselves'

Injury-wracked, he was already deep into the autumn of his career. He had hit Indiana with a triple-double in Game 1 before checking into New England Baptist Hospital to go into traction for his aching back. And now, with 4:23 remaining in the second quarter of a deciding Game 5, he had stumbled going after a loose ball and had smacked his head against the hallowed parquet. "He's coming back in the second half, and they'll go crazy," Indiana coach Bob Hill warned his team. Right he was. Bird jogged through the runway, they indeed went crazy, and Bird took over the game, throwing in jumpers and post-ups while starting three fast breaks with rebounds and outlets. He finished with 30 points while shooting 12 for 14 on twos, and for sheer drama it was, and is, untoppable. "All I know is that they'll be talking about him for a hundred years," sighed Hill.

Larry: "When I hit the floor, I thought I broke my jaw, because I couldn't move my mouth. I was in a lot of pain, but I could hear the crowd out there and I thought, `I can't leave those guys out there all by themselves.' "

You talkin' to me?

And what about Larry? Which game's memory brings a smile to his face?

Richfield, Ohio. April 25, 1985

A bad elbow kept him in the Holiday Inn while his teammates lost Game 3 to the Cleveland Cavaliers. That was bad enough. But when the Cleveland fans and moronic electronic media had the audacity to cry, "We want Bird!" Larry needed no more motivation to suit up for Game 4. "They don't know what they're saying," he snarled. "They don't want me. They don't want no part of me. I'm gonna throw both barrels at 'em." It was vintage WWF. It was vintage Larry Bird. He made sure he came out early for warmups. He waved to the crowd. He took a lap around the floor. And then he buried the Cavs with 34 points, 14 rebounds, and 7 assists. Talk about John Wayne clearing the room . . . "I loved it," he said. "I loved every minute of it."

Larry: "I remember one of the referees came up to me before the game and said that if the crowd came out of the stands they would protect me. Oh, I had the fans riled up, but I knew we'd play well because I knew the other players would back me up. I was ready to play that night."

Judge Transfers Ainge Case to NY

Judge Rya Zobel ruled today in US District Court that the Toronto Blue Jays' motion to try the Danny Ainge case in New York City be granted.

The next action in the case will take place tomorrow at 9:30 a.m. in the Manhattan courtroom of US District Court Judge Lee Gagliardi.

Attorney Harry Manion of the Boston law firm Hale and Dorr, representing the Celtics in the case, said Judge Zobel's decision "is in no way a setback for the Celtics."

Celtic vice president Jan Volk, a lawyer, was, by the way, in Toronto yesterday.

Bird had Heart Problems Late in Career

Former Celtics star Larry Bird said he had an irregular heartbeat during offseason workouts late in his playing career, but decided not to tell team doctors.

According to Bird, he didn't inform Celtic team physician Dr. Arnold Scheller until his heart problems intensified following his retirement and move into the club'sfront office.

However, Bird details periods of sudden exhaustion and how his heart "jumped around" during offseason workouts in this week's Sports Illustrated, which has published excerpts from the former susperstar's upcoming book, "Bird Watching: On Playing and Coaching the Game I Love."

"I always knew there was something wrong with my heart," Bird wrote.

"I'm not going to be stupid about this heart condition, but I'm not going to live my whole life in fear of this thing, either," Bird wrote.

"If it goes, it goes."

After retiring in 1992 and joining the Celtics' front office, Bird said he experienced the "episodes" more often. He finally told Scheller and was diagnosed with atrial fibrillation.

Bird was put on medication and told to exercise, eat healthily and drink alcohol only in moderation. But his condition worsened in the spring of 1997, right before he became the Indiana Pacers' coach.

"I got a little scared because it didn't seem like it was going away," Bird wrote.

The disease is not life-threatening and not as serious as ventricular fibrillation, which doctors believed caused the death of former Celtics teammate Reggie Lewis. But on March 17, 1998, while coaching Indiana in a tight game against the Chicago Bulls, Bird almost passed out.

"I was standing on the sideline and hoping for a television timeout because I felt like I was gonna pass out," Bird wrote. "Finally, the ref whistled time. Whenever we have a timeout, they always put a chair on the court for me so I can sit down and talk to the guys. This time I fell into that chair because I was going out."

At one point earlier, Pacers cardiologist King Yee used defibrillator paddles to jolt Bird's heart back to a normal rhythm. Yee told Bird to be more serious about his condition and medication.

"I guess Dr. Yee was trying to scare me," Bird wrote.

Ed Lacerte, Celtics trainer for the last 12 seasons, said he was unaware of any atrial fibrillation problems with Bird before the end of his career in 1992.

"I can't comment on anything after that," Lacerte said when reached at home last night. "But I was never told of any problems while he was playing."

It Takes a Village

Replacing Posey

The world champion Boston Celtics took a big hit on the free agency front this summery, losing James Posey to the New Orleans Hornets. What did they lose in James Posey?

The experience of a veteran who has now won two championship rings. A gritty and versatile defender whose hands are extremely active in the passing lanes. Nails knows how to draw a charge and grab a rebound when it counts. Most importantly, Nails was, well, nails when they needed him most, hitting innumerable free throws and three-pointers down the stretch when games hung in the balance.

What didn’t we lose with Posey?

Youth

Posey will turn 32 in January. Last year Posey was already moving up and down the court a little bit like Antoine Walker, which is to say like an old man. Thirty-two is late, late prime for a basketball player, and that is being charitable. Pose will be missed, but remember what all of Celticdom said after the Atlanta series: We must get younger and more athletic.

Athleticism

Speaking of athleticism, Posey was no Eric Fernstein or John Bagley when it comes to athletic ability. On the other hand, I’m pretty sure JR Giddens and Bill Walker represent an upgrade over Pose athletically speaking, as does Tony Allen. It's a pretty safe bet that Giddens, Walker, and Allen will be more explosive than Posey as well, explosiveness being a byproduct of athletic ability.

Replacing Pose by Committee

The common response to this point on GnashingofTeeth.com, er, I mean on Celtics messages boards, is that Boston would have had Giddens, Walker, and Allen even if they would have kept Posey. Yes this is true for Walker and Giddens, and maybe even true for Allen (but probably not). Regardless, the thing to keep in mind here is PT. How much PT would Giddens, Walker and Allen have received had Posey been here? Now that Posey is gone, his minutes will be replaced by younger, more athletic wings. So regardless of who would have been on the roster, the meaningful barometer is who is playing the minutes.

Mid-Range Game

The third thing we didn’t lose when Posey bolted to the Big Easy is a viable mid-range game. Posey had no mid-range game whatsoever, and rarely drove to the hoop. Messrs. Walker, Giddens, and Allen are the anti-Posey in this regard, particularly on the driving to the hoop front. Getting your own shot and driving to the hoop helps get the opponent into foul trouble, and it keeps the defense honest when the defense is focused on guarding the perimeter.

Lockdown defender

The final thing we didn’t lose was a lockdown defender. As good as James Posey was, he was not a lock-down defender. Watch the playoff tapes again. The guy Posey was guarding blew past him on any number of occasions. Posey won his share of defensive battles, and was certainly not afraid to mix it up in the trenches. But giving Posey a defensive assignment did not guarantee that 1) his man would not get the ball; 2) his man would not get his shot off; 3) his man would not drive past him.

Versatility and Length

So the loss of Posey may hurt us on some fronts, but may help us on others. The proof will be in the pudding, as they say. The thing I liked most about Posey was his versatility on defense. He could defend a point guard like Chauncey or a seven-footer like Dirk, and guard them both effectively. This gave Doc great flexibility.

It’s unclear whether the committee of wings will be able to replace Posey’s skills in this area. Darius Miles has some length that Doc could put to use against the Dirks and Gasols of the world, and the hope is the other three can guard smaller players.

It’s certainly an open question. In the end, I like the fact that we have multiple guys who will be asked to step up, thereby increasing the chances that any one of them might do just that. It also doesn't hurt to have defensive guru Tom Thibodeau returning as Assistant Head Coach and KG returning to quarterback the defense.

Does Danny Ainge have a Right to Play Pro Basketball?

Painful admission that it may be, I must caution you not to believe everything you read on the subject of Danny Ainge, particularly if it comes in the form of an hysterical diatribe authored by a baseball-writing colleague of mine who apparently believes the Boston Celtics are too beloved a local concern to receive proper journalistic scrutiny.

To hear Peter Gammons tell it, the Celtics are amoral to the nth degree, Ainge is the sneering embodiment of what Mr. Gammons refers to as the "Me and Renegotiation Generations" and the Toronto Blue Jays are the virtuous guardians of public morality. Anyone reading Gammons' fulmination this newspaper chose to print on Aug. 29 would be moved to dispatch a suitcase full of handkerchiefs northward, the better to absorb the crocodile tears shed by the Blue Jays, who - again according to Mr. Gammons - are merely fighting to preserve the sanctity of the contract and are, we must inevitably conclude, not remotely interested in any sort of financial remuneration. (I quote the diamond scribe as follows ". . . Blue Jays are right and I, for one, am damn glad they're willing to pursue this thing for the principle.")

Well, principle can't hit the deuce, or, for that matter, throw in an open 18-footer, and the Blue Jays aren't fighting for principle. Would you like to know the either-or from Toronto's standpoint? It's very simple. Either the Blue Jays believe that Danny Ainge is worth fighting for as a baseball player, or they wish to extract every cent possible from the Celtics in order to release him from what is apparently a valid contract. Principle, schminciple. Does anyone honestly believe Toronto would care to keep employing an unhappy third baseman whose mind was 500 miles and one sport away merely to preserve the principle of the contract?

Here is the situation as I see it. Up to, and including, his last college basketball game, Danny Ainge had every intention of playing baseball, or, as Mr. Gammons would put it, maintaining his commitment to the Blue Jays. But by June 9, the situation had changed significantly. Ainge was no longer a low first-round draft pick in basketball. His spectacular senior season at Brigham Young (24 points a game, plus an heroic postseason) had made him a top five selection. Being college educated, Ainge was capable of reading in the public prints about the astronomical salary figures being awarded such mediocrities as James Edwards. Being drafted by Boston meant not only that he could join a championship basketball team, but one which soon will have a need for a guard. Last, and certainly by no means least, Ainge was struggling at the plate, a struggle that still exists. At this writing, Ainge was hitting .188 with no home runs and 14 runs batted in this season, and .218 with two homers and 37 RBIs lifetime (660 at-bats covering parts of three seasons).

Officially, his batting problems do not enter into the discussion. His agent, Eugene, Ore., attorney Bob Quinney, says he asked Ainge if he would feel the way he does now about investigating a basketball career were he hitting .310, and Ainge answered in the affirmative. The Blue Jays, meanwhile, publicly maintain that Ainge can hit major-league pitching. "We think he can be an outstanding player," insists Toronto vice president Pat Gillick. "He has good bat speed; he just needs more experience. There is no reason why he can't hit in the majors."

Moreover, Ainge has never admitted that he can't hit. "Danny still hasn't been to spring training," Quinney points out, "and he doesn't like to admit that he might not be a hitter."

Make of all this what you will, but I cannot believe Ainge would be as interested in basketball as he now is were he not wallowing in the .100s at the plate. And remember that the highest Ainge has hit anywhere in his career was .248 in Syracuse back in 1979.

The point is that since Ainge signed his latest baseball contract, things have changed. What seemed so clear last winter, or even last March, is very unclear now. All Ainge is asking to do at the moment is see what his basketball situation is. For their part, the Celtics had the foresight to draft Ainge and they are doing what is best for their franchise by pursuing a potentially valuable player. Ainge, according to Quinney, has volunteered to refund the $300,000 in bonus money he has already collected from Toronto if need be. The Celtics never have implied they would fail to satisfy the Blue Jays financially. So what's the big deal? Does removing a .188 hitter from a last-place ball club constitute a criminal act? It rather sounds to me as if the citizens of Toronto should be applauding Boston's action as the best thing to happen to their city since construction of the CN Tower.

This is not a matter of ethics, and the issue is not the alleged sacrosanct nature of the Celtics' relationship with the local media. If Ainge is to be believed, it was Toronto that acted in a dubious ethical manner by inserting, at the 11th hour, a very restrictive clause in his contract, taking full advantage of Ainge's lack of proper legal counsel at the time. Ethics? What is ethical about preventing Ainge from changing careers if the Blue Jays are properly compensated financially, especially when no one can seriously argue that the franchise has been dealt a serious setback? This isn't a matter of Good Guys and Bad Guys. It's a matter of business and common sense.

To Mr. Gammons, I propose the following scenario: There exists on an NBA roster as a 12th man a mediocre 6-foot-6 power forward, a very marginal player, who also happens to be the next Rich Gossage. Were the Red Sox lax in pursuing such a prospect, I need only guess who would be the first person castigating them for their front-office ineptitude.

Officially, Ainge hasn't committed himself to basketball over baseball; he has said only that now he isn't sure what he wants to do. Who knows? He may not even be worth the fuss. Instead of being the next Jerry West, he could turn out to be the next Rex Morgan. But if he and the Celtics are willing to accommodate Toronto financially, why shouldn't the young man have the opportunity to play basketball? The decision should rightfully be his alone. However, if it would please Toronto to invoke the Ainge contract to the extent of having him sit home in Eugene rather than play either sport, then I would submit that the Blue Jays have a curious set of, er, principles.

L.Bird as Roy Hobbs

Larry Bird is on the cover of Time magazine this week, and there is mounting evidence that he may be basketball's Roy Hobbs - the best there ever was.

It has been a season of epic achievement for Larry Joe Bird . He's won back-to-back games with "gimme the ball" buzzer-beaters, eschewed statistical immortality (a quadruple double ) for the good of the team, and helped a teammate break his own scoring record.

Last night, Bird carved a new chapter in Celtics history and sports folklore. Nine days after graciously helping Kevin McHale break Bird's Celtics scoring record, Bird went four up on McHale with a 60-point outing in a 126-115 victory over the Atlanta Hawks.

Like Babe Ruth, Bird had called his shot on this one. When McHale torched the Pistons for 56 on March 3 (breaking Bird's 53-point regular-season and John Havlicek's 54-point playoff franchise record), Bird was asked if he thought McHale's record would stand forever.

"It might stand until the next game," retorted Bird, who had spoon-fed McHale's final nine points, then chastised him for not going for 60.

Bird missed his prediction by one week, shattering the record just four games after McHale's performance.

The Boston Celtics have been playing basketball since 1946. Scoring records established in the first 3308 regular-season and playoff games have been broken twice in the last five games.

"I thought 56 was pretty good," said McHale, who assisted Bird by fouling to stop the clock last night. "But when you can't hold a record like that for 10 days, this must be a pretty tough team to play on."

"It's Kevin's own fault," joked Bird. "He should have gone for 60, and I told him that."

Bird chose an unilkely site for his record, but again, it adds to the fable. Every hoop fan worth his sweatbands knows that Wilt Chamberlain chose the remote outpost of Hershey Pennsylvania for the site of his fabled 100- point game. Now we have Bird breaking the Celtics record on the Lakefront Arena floor of New Orleans University.

It had the feel of an exhibition game at the start, but then, one could argue that the entire NBA 82-game slate amounts to little more than a six- month preseason.

Abusing a trio of Hawks defenders, Bird had 12 at the quarter and 23 at the half. The Celtics led by seven at intermission, but Atlanta's Dominique Wilkins (36) and Eddie Johnson (26) brought the Hawks back to a 69-69 tie early in the third.

Then Bird exploded, hitting fallaways, stepbacks, onehanded lofts, layups and leaners. He scored 19 in the quarter, and 11 in the final 3:10 as the Celtics built a 100-89 lead at the end of three. Bird was so destructive that defender Rickey Brown almost got into a fight with Atlanta coach Mike Fratello when the period was over.

Scott Wedman preserved the lead with a couple of jumpers early in the fourth, before Bird came back with 8:41 left. He would score 18 points in the final 5:11 - which is exactly how many the Celtics scored in that stretch.

It should be mentioned that Shreveport's own Robert Parish snatched 19 rebounds, and Dennis Johnson and Danny Ainge combined for 30 assists, but Bird was the one who had the crowd chanting "Lar-eee, Lar-eee" as they filed out for a night on Bourbon Street.

The record run started with a Bird layup with 5:11 left that pushed the Celts to a 110-103 lead. It was only the beginning.

After a free throw and a couple of bombs, he was up to 49 and the Celtics led, 115-105, with 1:57 left. Victory was assured and the Celtics started thinking about the record.

Fratello gave Bird his 50th, courtesy of a technical foul.

With 1:26 left, Bird canned a 22-footer. With 43 seconds left, he hit another 22-footer. He was up to 54, then went to the line with 27 seconds left after being fouled by Kevin Willis. He made both for 55 and 56.

McHale immediately fouled Glenn Rivers.

"Hell, I helped him out a little, too, so it works both ways," said Bird.

Then Bird made a preposterous three-pointer after a whistle. It didn't count, but his first free throw put him ahead of McHale. They high-fived, then Bird went back to the stripe for 58.

Rivers buried a three-pointer, and the Celtics got the ball right back to Bird, who canned a 17-footer at the buzzer to hit the 60 barrier.

"When I'm shooting the ball like that, nobody's going to stop me," said Bird.

I Want Fresh Blood

The Boston Celtics played 116 games last year, and were locked and loaded from August of 2007 until June of 2008. That’s a long, long time to maintain such a high level of intensity. They started the season 29-3 and finished the regular season almost as hot. The playoffs were grueling. By the time the Finals ended, it was unclear how many healthy bodies the Celtics could even put on the floor.

Having accomplished their goal last year and facing the grind of another long season next year, it wouldn’t surprise anyone if the Celtics started the season a little more slowly this year. In fact, let’s be honest. There ain’t no way, no how that the 2008-09 Boston Celtics will come out of the gate 29-3 again. Just ain’t gonna happen. And there ain’t no way that there gonna go 66-16 again. They’ll be hard pressed to win even 60. Last year they swept the Lakers, Mavericks, Rockets, and Spurs. Chances of that happening again are slim to none.

This isn’t the end of the world, however. Bill Russell’s Celtics won 11 championships, and only won 60 or more games three times, twice in years they also won titles. The key to winning a championship is building a cohesive unit that plays with a fire to win (and talent, of course).

This is where replacing James Posey and PJ Brown with Bill Walker, JR Giddens, Tony Allen, Darius Miles, and Patrick O'Bryant may payoff.

It's not that James Posey and PJ Brown weren't competitive or didn't want to win. They did. But if you bring back the exact same team, players tend to get comfortable with each other and comfortable with the coaches. They start to tune out, figuring they've heard it all before and don't need to listen as closely. It's really only the games that count. Check that, it's only the big games that count. No, it's really only the playoffs that count. And so on.

That's not how the Boston Celtics play basketball. So the infusion of a little bit of youth and energy may just be what the Doc(tor) ordered.

And it's not just youth. What we need are PHDs (apologies for using a Pitinoism), players who are poor, hungry, and driven. Last year every member of the Celtics roster was focused on one goal--banner 17. PJ Brown got his. James Posey got his.


Would they be as driven this year? We all know Posey comes up big in important games. But what about the other 75 games that aren't so important? Would he bring it to those games? Remember, Pat Riley suspended him for being out of shape (exceeding body fat limits) the year after Posey won a championship with the Heat. Posey also had a chip on his shoulder after not getting the contract he wanted last summer.

You bring Posey and Brown back and maybe they pace themselves, maybe they don't have the same chip on their shoulders. Meanwhile, both Giddens and Walker have talked about the disappointment of once being projected as Lottery picks and now having something to prove after they fell so far in the draft. O'Bryant has been lambasted for his poor work ethic. Miles for being a knucklehead. All four of them have something to prove. Will they be motivated to do so? It's a risk. But bringing back Posey and Brown would have carried risks, too, just different risks.

Tony Allen, while not new, is still young. At 26, Allen's career has been up and down, to say the least. He shows promise one minute, and disappoints or gets injured the next. He only signed a two year contract, and he'll be heading into the prime years of his professional career (barring injury) when this contract expires. Depending on the length of the next contract, it might be his only chance at a good pay day. You don't think he'll be motivated to play well in Boston over the next two seasons?

The point here is that every year is different, and even winning teams with identical rosters must work hard to maintain chemistry and success across different seasons. Just ask the 2004-05 Minnesota Timberwolves. Complacency and attitude problems killed that team, sending them to the Lottery a year after they had made the WCFs.

In the end, being a successful GM is more like being a chef than being a scientist. Building winning basketball teams is about finding the right ingredients on the floor and not about making things look exactly right on paper.

Bird and McHale

The relationship between Larry Bird and Kevin McHale was always interesting, to say the least. And as the Celtics in recent years have struggled at times with differing personalities, it is instructional to note how two talented players with their share of differences were able to rise together above any issues. Professionalism it is called.

"Kevin and Larry were never the best of friends," teammate Danny Ainge said before McHale's induction into the Hall of Fame last night. "But as they look back now, I think they both appreciate each other's talent and how it complemented their own games. I think they know they were blessed to play with each other.

"The funny thing is that as time went on, Kevin grew more like Larry, and Larry grew more like Kevin. Larry always had a loose side, and as things went on he showed it more. Kevin was always accused of having too loose a side, but he became more like Larry and more serious. Kevin always worked hard, but I think he worked even harder when he got late in his career and he had to overcome his injuries. He was more like Larry at that point.

"The bottom line is that it's easy to pick out flaws in people, but people watching them knew that from the day they arrived in Boston they were both destined for the Hall of Fame. The fact they played together enhanced both their careers. As great as Larry was, he wouldn't have been the same if he didn't have Kevin there to guard all the great small forwards all those years. And Larry was obviously great for Kevin, too."

McHale isn't into the heavy psychoanalysis thing, but he's pretty sure that diversity helped the whole. He believes he knows why the Celtics had a good mixture.

"It was because we were all different personalities," McHale said. "If everybody had been like me or been like Larry or been like Robert (Parish), it never would have worked. You know what I mean? We all drove each other crazy, and that was good. We had a good group of guys. We always had a lot of guys on our team that had a lot of character and were fun to be around. I think that was a big part of it. I don't know if success breeds chemistry or chemistry breeds success, but whatever happened, we had a lot of it.

"Larry Bird improved everybody. He was the best player on our team. He drove everybody. He could do so many things, it was fun playing with him.

"One of the best things was that we all pushed each other. I remember when I got 56 points, Larry said he was going to get 60. I started laughing, but I don't think Larry even thought about getting 60 until I got 56. But Robert Parish improved my game, too. And do did Tiny Archibald.

"Tiny ruined me early," McHale added with a laugh. "He ran down the court one time and passed me the ball. I thought I was a passer, and I threw it to some guy cutting to the basket. I missed him completely and threw it out of bounds. Tiny said, 'Look, when I throw it to you, shoot it.' I said, 'Thank you.' So from that point on, when he threw it to me, I shot it."

It's in the bag

McHale was happy to receive his own place in the Hall, but he probably got more use out of the gift he got from Ainge. His friend sent a customized sent of new Ping golf clubs. The sticks and bag are scripted with McHale's name and his Hall of Fame designation.

"I feel bad," Ainge said. "I kind of introduced Kevin to golf, but he can't compete at my level. I'm just trying to bring him up to me."

Speaking of levels, don't ask McHale for definitive comparisons of teams.

"For me to say our team was better than Bill Russell's, I couldn't say that if Bill was here," McHale said. "He'd beat the hell out of me, I imagine.

"You can't get into that. Those teams did things that will ever do. I will say one thing, if we took the '86 team and were able to put everybody back together, I like our chances against anybody. Let's go play. But you can't do that. Every era is different."