12:01 a.m.
June 18, 2008.
Your name is Wyc Grousbeck.
Or maybe its Danny Ainge.
Either way, you are sitting on top of the world.
You just beat your hated nemesis in the NBA Finals, and in convincing fashion.
That team, the Los Angeles Lakers, had spent the previous 25 plus years playing catch-up, transforming a 13-5 deficit into a 16-14 deficit. Wow. That is impressive work. But a few hours earlier, the Celtics widened the lead to 17-14. The Green crushed the Purple 131-92, a win proving that when the Celtics came to play, nobody else on the planet could compete.
So instead of presiding over the fall of the Boston Celtics, Wyc and Danny were now responsible for raising us from the ashes.
Fast forward two years and we see a different picture.
This Celtics team is old, injured, and well, just coming off a heart-wrenching defeat to that same Laker team, a team that now trails the green by only one NBA championship.
Nobody really thinks the Celtics' lead will last very long.
But you can't blame Wyc and Danny for not busting up this team now and deciding to rebuild. The Wilderness is not a fun place to be. And let's be honest, the Wilderness is a big place. You win 28 games, you win 44 games. Is there much of a difference? Regardless of where you fall on the win spectrum, you're out of the playoffs and fast. Unless your 28 to 44 win team has a few young bucks worth watching, the team becomes irrelevant.
We know Danny and Wyc a lot better than we used to, and one thing we've learned is that irrelevant is not part of their vocabulary.
So they hang on, clinging to the belief that this team can be tweaked. A Shaq here and a Rudy Fernandez there, and, wa la, the Boston Celtics are back in contention for Banner 18!
I'm not buying.
Still, it's easy to see why Wyc and Danny prefer this route over the Wilderness.
Good thing I've got other ways to occupy my time that I didn't have between the years 1988 and 1992.
16 comments:
Michael Wallace, who covers the Heat for the Miami Herald, says (or, rather, Tweets) O’Neal to Boston is “a done deal.”
Better than kwame brown
true, but i was still kinda hoping for young talent, but i suppose if we are just making a run next season, then i agree, much better than kwame!
J.O deal seems done... not sure what to think of it myself.
Matty now pulling for utes while lex rooting for vets.
Funny
Danny is putting together a decent team.
Still, Miami may be our only shot at dethroning the purple
i dont agere with your pessism Lex. This looks like a very good veteran team with a good shot at the finals.
the real problem is that it looks like all the powerhouses will be in the east: like this year the fakers will just warm up to the finals while the east playoffs will be a mortal kombat tournament that will wear off whoever will came out from east...
Miami will depend on all of the pieces to the puzzle, and the fact that they will need Pat Riley back coaching.
Otherwise the season my not just fall into place for them, without complications.
I think ute wise i'm just thinking a few years down the line, but i suppose as long as we get Scal back this year, we have the trophy in the bag ;)
Also have you seen the summer league highlights, Luke Harangody has such a horribly ugly shot, he is like the less ginger version of Matt Bonner, but i suppose its working for him. He looks a good pick up for that late in the draft.
Ignoring the ute idea, can we have Eddie back, just because i miss him, and his three jacking.
Anon,
The problem with east v. west goes way back to the 80s. The Lakers sleepwalk through the west, while the celtics start getting beat up in the first round.
This impacts our ability to win it all and makes it much easier for the purple.
EH may come back, or maybe nate.
LOTS of open roster spots!
hi Lex, the "anon" was me, 1111, just cant sign with my account... :)
You can add ex-Celtic Eddie House to the list of players the #Celtics have had some discussions about signing this summer.
So tweets A. Sherrod Blakely
When Bird was told by WEEI.com on Thursday that O’Neal had reached an agreement with the Celtics he expressed some surprise, but quickly added that the 31-year-old is “younger than you think. He can rebound block shots and get down the floor. He can help a team win.”
But Bird told WEEI.com that he hadn’t seen O’Neal play in “a couple of years.”
O’Brien, who coached the Celtics from 2000-04, was even more to the point. He told WEEI.com that he “has nothing to say about that or him” when asked about O’Neal.
Bird and O’Neal had a messy divorce in 2008, with the Celtics legend telling the Indianapolis Star in September of that year, “Just because you make the most money doesn’t mean you’re the leader,” Bird said two months after dealing O’Neal to the Raptors. “A lot of guys didn’t want to step on toes. Not only here, but other places I’ve been at. They’d say, the guy makes the most money, that means he’s the leader. That’s not the case. The leader comes from the guy doing the right thing, the guy that’s going to be there every day at practice, the guy that plays through pain without complaining. They do the necessary things to prepare themselves.
“I think the situation you have here, you had one guy making a lot of money and everybody just took it as he’s going to be leading us, and in some instances that was true. But I think more now that since it has opened you’ll see a number of guys stepping up.”
O’Neal told ESPN.com in 2007, “Larry Bird is a hard man to deal with. He tries to make unfair trades.”
sharpshooter Mike Miller reportedly is high on Miami’s list, and a report from the South Florida Sun-Sentinel Friday morning indicate Miller is poised to sign a five-year, $30 million deal with the Heat.
The Clippers signed two free agents: forward Ryan Gomes and guard Randy Foye.
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