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Posts from the ‘NBA 2008’ Category

Feb 15

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NBA Midseason Report

The NBA needed this. If the league was ever going to recover from the crippling blow it took as a result of the Tim Donaghy betting scandal last summer, it needed nothing short of an intriguing, unpredictable, and continually entertaining regular season in 2008. It has gotten that, and more. Right now its only nagging problem is the lack of depth in the East. Only five teams are over .500 (although the two best teams in the East are also the top two teams in the NBA). The West, by comparison, has ten teams over .500, with a staggering nine of those squads currently on pace to win 50 games. That means it’s entirely possible that a 50-win team could be left out of the playoffs in the West while a few 38 and 40-win teams could be playing postseason ball in the East. Yikes. But don’t think about tuning out the playoffs just yet. The seemingly polarized NBA is in reality completely the opposite. There is parity among title-contenders, which is to say not only are there more than a few teams that could win it all (nine, by my count), but for once there is no clear cut favorite. The combination of the Spurs again snoozing through a title-defense and a fistful of really good teams around them is the explanation. Overall, four things have stuck out to me that have contributed to the resuscitation of a league that was teetering on the edge of implosion a few months ago. Let’s examine them.

1) A Cinderella Story: the New Orleans Hornets What more can be said of the city of New Orleans and its sports teams? The Saints, historically a perennial football joke throughout the state of Louisiana, reentered the Superdome two years ago and rattled off the best season in franchise history, finishing a few plays short of the Super Bowl. And now the Hornets, after two years spent shuttling between Oklahoma City and venues in Louisiana, have returned home exclusively in 2008. They too are in the process of rewriting N’Awlins sports history. In addition to hosting All-Star festivities this weekend, the Hornets have the best mark in the West (36-15), are on pace to break the franchise record of 54 wins, and have a legitimate MVP candidate running the show. Just how good is Chris Paul? He has dished out 15+ assists in a game eight times this year. He has also dropped 40+ points on three occasions. He’s already the best point guard of the next generation. And though it may be too much to expect the Hornets to maintain the top spot in the West, this is a team that has shown it can win on the road (a conference-best 19-7). Plus, if the fans of New Orleans have anything to say about it, their Hornets will be hard to knock off at home come playoff time (if the fans decide to show up, that is). Cinderella is usually reserved for the college ranks, but the story of this team fits the script.

2) A Resurgence: the Boston Celtics The biggest knock on the Celtics going into this season had nothing to do with Paul Pierce, Ray Allen and Kevin Garnett. It was all about the guys around them. Where were those necessary 35-40 nightly points going to come from in order for the Celtics to win ballgames? How would the team respond when Ray inevitably went down for a period of time? Could the young guys handle the requisite mystique that went hand in hand with a basketball resurgence in Boston? All of those questions were slowly being answered all year through consistent play and gritty defense from role players like Rajon Rondo, Leon Powe, James Posey, Tony Allen and Eddie House. Then the imminent injury happened, except it wasn’t Ray that went down. It was KG. The cynics eagerly awaited the impending swoon, but it never came. The team only got stronger. First they beat Dallas on national television. Then on a Sunday afternoon game against the defending champion-Spurs, it all came together. They played with swagger, with purpose. Against a team full of bling, a team that Paul had never beaten in his own house, the Celtics played like they were the champs. They did it on Red Auerbach’s court without their best player. It took a guy like Glen Davis ferociously manning up Tim Duncan on a national stage to finally open some eyes. Suffice to say they’re opened now. The Celtics went 7-2 without the league’s MVP and proved to everyone who was skeptical that they are more than the “Boston Three Party”. A good deal more.

3) Big Trades: The Lakers and Suns Shaq is back in the West and Kobe has a front court. Enough said. Okay, I’ll say more. Shaq is a man who likes to undertake missions. He handled business in Miami, and his presence brought the city sustained joy and a ring. Now he’s in Phoenix, trying to be the final piece on a team that has already been on the brink of a championship the last three years. As a keen auxiliary to Steve Nash and Amare Stoudemire, Shaq should be able to provide the Suns with what they need: a big man with championship experience who can guard the paint on defense, haul in rebounds and outlet the ball to Nash and the runnin’ Suns. In his ripening age Shaq has recognized he’s best suited as a facilitator for the stars around him, but that doesn’t mean he’s lost an ounce of his incomparable competitive edge.

As for Kobe, well he should at last be sufficiently sold on the intent of the Lakers to win now. By adding Pau Gasol to a front court that already featured an established veteran in Lamar Odom and a rising big man in Andrew Bynum (who has been under the tutelage of one Kareem Abdul Jabbar for some time), Kobe has what he’s wanted since he ran Shaq out of town four years ago. That’s three guys at or around seven feet, each possessing distinct low post capabilities. However, the Lakers have serious health issues to cope with. Kobe has torn ligaments in his pinkie finger, which mean either surgery (and 6-8 weeks on the sideline) or playing through pain. If Kobe can fight through it and Bynum comes back healthy, the Lakers will be a bona fide contender. I still see them a year removed that status. Regardless, Suns-Lakers in round two this year would definitely be must-see television.

4) Contenders! As I wrote above, there are nine legitimate contenders this year, or about seven and half more than usual. In the East, the Celtics have the pieces and chemistry to win it all. The Pistons have a nucleus that has done it before. In the West, the Spurs remain the team to beat. The Lakers have been a thorn in the side of San Antonio, preventing them from reaching true-dynasty status. The Suns are the hungriest team in the West, and with a little diesel power they could be motoring towards a championship. The cohabitation (which is an understatement) of Allen Iverson and Carmelo Anthony has the Nuggets straight chillin’ and waiting for their shot. The Mavericks might have wasted their opportunity two years ago, but after last year’s debacle, I wouldn’t count Dirk out just yet. The Hornets are onto something down in the Big Easy. And the Jazz, led by Deron Williams and Carlos Boozer, showed they were on their way to the next level by making a run to the Western Finals last year.

So there it is. The NBA is back. The NBA is fun again. The NBA cares.

(And David Stern didn’t even have to break out the mind control device.)

Dec 28

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Celtic Pride: Can Ya Feel It?

Let’s get something straight: these are not your father’s Celtics.They are not led by the “Big Three”. They don’t play in the musty heat box colloquially known as “The Gaahden”. And until they hang banner #17 over the famed parquet floor and collect the requisite hardware, they will only be another on a lengthy list of exceptional Celtic teams to fall short of greatness. Call me a hater, call me a cynic (I am neither), but like it or not that’s the basketball standard in Beantown; the standard set by the Russells and Havliceks and Birds and McHales. It’s a standard that, in light of tragedy and incompetence, was almost wiped clean from our memories.

Now it’s back and as relevant as ever. Celtic Pride, it would seem, is the ultimate double-edged sword, though I sense few complaints these days. The TD Banknorth Garden is being mentioned in the same breath as “The Garden”. Pierce, Allen and Garnett are drawing comparisons to Bird, McHale and Parish. The Celtics as a whole are being compared to the Patriots. The crazy thing? All are legitimate utterances, albeit totally premature. However, I didn’t decide to write this column now for no reason.

Two days after Christmas, the Green beat the Sonics in Seattle for their twenty-fourth win. They won 24 games last year too. With 55 more losses. Symmetry, and its eye-opening implications, that’s the first reason for the timing of this piece. Second is the fact that with 27 games now in the books and the C’s standing at 24-3, they have played exactly one-third of the season and are squarely on pace to tie the ’96 Bulls single-season NBA-record of 72 wins. Last, and most jaw-dropping, is this: no team in Celtics history, not a single one of 16 world champions, has ever begun a season better than 23-3.

Two obvious questions have emerged: 1) Can the Celtics win 72 games? and 2) Can the Celtics win the NBA title? After the Celtics-Sonics game, which aired on TNT, Charles Barkley and his sidekick Kenny Smith debated basically that. Actually, Smith started it by saying that Boston is officially “flirting with the Bulls.” That innuendo set off Barkley, who vehemently objected to such a proclamation, retorting that, “If they win 72 games I’ll walk from here to Phoenix…in a speedo.” Let the record show that TNT headquarters are in Atlanta (and who’s to say Barkley doesn’t walk from his hotel to the studio in a speedo everyday?). But I digress.

The fact is that this discussion has reached the highest echelons of the NBA media–for the uninitiated, Sir Charles sits alone on his throne at the top while Smith is his most esteemed dignitary–which is a good thing not only for the Celtics, but for basketball. Back to the original questions. Yes, the Celtics could win 72 games. Yes, the Celtics could win the NBA title. No, there’s not a shot in hell they could do both.

First, let’s show why they are capable of attaining greatness in some form. For the sake of argument, we’ll agree that 72 wins and a loss to the Spurs in the Finals is still a type of greatness, even if it’s an obvious notch below 60 wins and a championship (I believe this idea has been exhausted by the whole what-if-the-Patriots-are-18-0-and-lose-the-Super Bowl brouhaha).

You often hear coaches and analysts saying, it’s not just that they’re winning games, it’s the way in which they’re winning them. This couldn’t be more applicable. The Celtics are tops in the NBA in arguably the most important category, opponents field goal percentage. Teams are converting only 41 percent of their shots against Boston, while the C’s overall field goal percentage is 47 percent (3rd in the NBA). They are also shooting the ball exceptionally well from beyond the three-point arc, a vital aspect of championship teams since the shot was invented about 25 years ago. At 39 percent, the Celtics’ long range shooting is bested by only Toronto. They are also sharing the ball with the fluidity and unselfishness of a throwback team. As a squad they are averaging almost six assists more than their opponents, good for second in the league.

That all adds up to 24 victories in 27 tries by an average of 13.9 points per game, far and away the best in the league (Detroit is second at 9.4). Let’s also not forget that their three losses came 1) at Orlando, a game in which they were down 20 and came back only to have Paul Pierce miss a potential game-winning shot, 2) at Cleveland, when they succumbed in overtime after Lebron dropped 11 in the extra session, and 3) in Boston against Detroit by two points earned at the charity stripe by Chauncey Billups, an NBA Finals MVP. In other words, this team is either going to beat you into submission or make you work 48 grueling minutes (or more) for a single win. That’s the mark of a dominant team, a history-making team. And that’s the reason the 2007-08 Celtics could win 72 games.

But…….

Unlike football, where the Patriots will have the benefit of a bye-week in the postseason to justify playing their starters in a ‘meaningless’ regular season finale, the Celtics will be granted no such luxury come April. The NBA playoffs are long. Very, very long. Fittingly for the Green, it will take 16 wins to pave the way to and make official that elusive championship number-17. The “16 to 17” mantra will assuredly be collectively tougher to harness than the “three games to glory” blueprint the Patriots have established and replicated this decade. Don’t get me wrong; winning even a single game in the NFL Playoffs, let alone three, is supremely difficult (but the Patriots are the Patriots).

In the case of the Celtics, beating four different teams four times is harder. Age is absolutely the deciding factor. If Paul, KG and Ray were 27, 28 and 29, and surrounded by a couple of crafty veterans, I’d say the Bulls’ 72 and 16 was matchable. But Pierce is 30, Garnett is 31 and Allen is 32. That makes a huge difference when talking about a minimum-100 game season. So the easy answer will be to get the three stars some time to collect their breath before the real games commence.

Then there’s the point guard factor. Rajon Rondo has already made strides through the first third of this season, but don’t be fooled; he still must make half of a quantum leap if he wants to entertain any notions of piloting a championship team, head to head against Billups, Steve Nash and Tony Parker (two of whom he’ll inevitably have to clash with).

I’ve said from the beginning that the Celtics would be back in the NBA Finals this year, and obviously have no reason to waver from that assertion. But 72 preceding 17? Well that’s still a whole other thing. Those pertinent questions won’t even hint at being answered until March, and ultimately, June.

Kenny Smith, even if he was justifiably shot down by Sir Charles, probably summed it up best: the Celtics are flirting with the Bulls. As the final hours tick down on 2007, that much is undeniable. While flirtation is usually fleeting, let’s be real: these days, even cynics would find it difficult to contend that the Celtics’ run is destined to be short-lived.

Nov 16

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NBA Preview 2008: A Glimpse into the Future

With all the NBA Previews floating around, here’s an uncompromising vision of the 2008 NBA Playoffs…

Mid-April 2008: the NBA Playoffs are set

East

1. Celtics (58-24) versus 8. Knicks (41-41)

2. Pistons (52-30) versus 7. Cavs (43-39)

3. Magic (47-35) versus 6. Heat (45-37)

4. Bulls (47-35) versus 5. Nets (46-36)

West

1. Suns (61-21) versus 8. Kings (43-39)

2. Spurs (59-23) versus 7. Hornets (46-36)

3. Nuggets (54-28) versus 6. Rockets (51-31)

4. Mavs (54-28) versus 5. Jazz (52-30)

Late-April 2008

The first round of the 2008 NBA Playoffs featured a few laughers, some unforgettable subplots and one epic series. In the East, the Celtics beat the Knicks in four. In Game 1 Isiah Thomas (who just before the postseason signed himself to a 10-day $40 million contract to prevent Stephon Marbury from running point) took the opening tip and drove to the basket. The ensuing swat by Kevin Garnett was so severe that player-coach-GM Isiah opted to forfeit the series and all three of his job titles, and move to a country where it wasn’t frowned upon for a male boss to make sexually insinuating remarks to a female subordinate. The next day Marbury led the Knicks in a parade down Broadway.

The Nets/Bulls series was a first round joke, as Vince Carter dropped 45 in Jersey’s Game 1 victory. His agents then informed him on a conference call that the 2008-09 season wasn’t a contract year, and the Nets lost the next four straight. In the 3-6 matchup Dwight Howard and the Magic knew something was awry when Shaq rolled up to Amway Arena in a 22-wheeler emitting pungent diesel fumes. In the Heat’s 4-1 series win, Shaq went for at least 18 and 12 each night.

The best series was a rematch from last year’s Eastern Conference Finals, between the Pistons and Cavs, won by King James. The Pistons made the necessary adjustments and were in position to eliminate the Cavs in Game 6 before Lebron iced Rasheed Wallace at the free throw line, if you can call it that. As he did to Gilbert Arenas two years ago, Lebron walked up to Sheed and whispered something in his ear. Sheed then removed his head band, threw it around the neck of Lebron, pulled him close and whispered something back through a loony smirk. For that he received his fourth technical of the series, allowing the Cavs to force a Game 7, which the Pistons won in double overtime.

Out west the Kings battled the top-seeded Suns to a split in Phoenix. In Game 3 back in Sacramento, the Maloof brothers, evidently too close to the action, inadvertently tripped Ron Artest as he was running back up the court after a dunk. An incensed-Artest chased the petrified owners into the stands, making him the first player to leave the court both on the road and at home. There were no injuries, but the remainder of the series didn’t go too well for the Kings, and their owners, the Queens.

In other first round action, the second-seeded Spurs dismantled the Hornets, sweeping four straight. The series was so one-sided Tim Duncan only protested every other call against him. Meanwhile, in the 3-6 set, the Nuggets (who owned the best record in the league over the last six weeks) maintained their high level of play against Tracy McGrady’s Rockets. Allen Iverson and Carmelo Anthony hit many, many jays and Marcus Camby’s lanky, shot-blocking frame consistently frustrated Yao in the Nuggets’ 4-2 series win.

That left the Mavericks and Jazz, a series which Mark Cuban assured everyone who was willing to listen that his Mavs would not lose. Too bad they didn’t have an answer for Deron Williams, who methodically picked apart the Dallas defense with a dizzying array of fast break dishes, no-look bounce passes and smooth jumpers. Dirk Nowitzki didn’t replicate his dud performance of a year ago against Golden State, but in the end the Mavs fell in an anti-climatic Game 7, very similar to their Game 6 elimination at the hands of the Warriors. After his team’s second consecutive first round exit, Cuban was so enraged he vowed never to speak to the team or media again. In their pieces the next day the Dallas beat writers declared the season a success.

May 2008

After the Celtics smoked the Heat in Game 1 of the Eastern Conference Semifinals, Dwyane Wade held a players-only meeting in the locker room. He told his teammates that the Celtics were very beatable, given how “freaking old” they all were. By the end of his tirade he realized that the cold stares of Shaq, Alonzo Mourning and Penny Hardaway were burning holes through his jersey. The Celtics coasted in five. In the other second round matchup, the Pistons and Bulls squared off for the second year in a row. Chauncey Billups (aka Mr. Big Shot) was neutralized by Ben Gordon’s protruding chest. Due to this, Pistons coach Flip Saunders was rendered completely useless since he had only one play on his clipboard (“Chauncey create offense”). Da Bulls advanced in six.

In the second round of the west, Phoenix started looking like a team ready to handle business. The Jazz, who had looked so workmanlike in the first round, simply couldn’t run with Steve Nash and the Suns. After Utah lost the first three games of the series by a combined 42 points, Carlos Boozer tracked down Phoenix GM Steve Kerr and told him he had a hidden “screw over my team” clause worked into his contract and he’d be willing to exercise it for an immediate trade. Sans Boozer, Utah was swept the next night. Meanwhile, the Nuggets and Spurs clashed for the third time in the past four postseasons. In a startling reversal of roles, it was the Spurs who captured Game 1 before losing four of the next five to a Nuggets team clicking on all cylinders. For the third time in five years, the Spurs again could not defend their title. When Tim Duncan was asked if he felt his team didn’t have the necessary fire and drive to repeat as champions, he responded by saying that Dirk Nowitzki’s game-tying three point play in Game 7 of the 2006 Playoffs was “bulls–t”.

That left four teams standing in the ’08 Playoffs: the Celtics, Bulls, Nuggets and Suns. The Eastern Conference Finals was a backyard brawl. The teams split the first six games, all hotly contested affairs. Ray Allen, Paul Pierce, and Ben Gordon each hit a game-winner. What was an up and down, guard-oriented affair throughout the first eighty percent of the series turned into the KG show in Game 7 at the Garden. Garnett went for 37 with 24 rebounds in the decisive contest, and entered select company when he shattered the backboard glass on a tremendous two-handed throw-down. He then ate the remnants of the defunct apparatus. The Western Finals was equally entertaining. While the Suns took care of the Nuggets in six, Denver won the first game against a suddenly lackadaisical-Suns team. The series became an instant classic when Iverson arrived unannounced at Mike D’Antoni’s press conference after Game 1, during which the coach was questioning if his Suns had practiced hard enough to adequately prepare for the tough-minded Nuggets. A.I. looked up at the snarling coach, and asked him if he was really talking about “practice?!?”.

June 2008

The Celtics and Suns, after waiting a combined 34 years (the Celtics since 1986 and the Suns since 1993) to return to the Finals, waged hardwood war in the championship round. The hype going into the series revolved around an ongoing debate of which franchise and its players was hungrier. Was it the Suns? who had only appeared in two Finals in their history, the ’93 loss to Michael Jordan’s Bulls and a 1976 loss to their father’s Celtics. Or was it the Green? who had suffered through two decades of total futility after three decades of systemic dominance.

Each side claimed it was hungrier than the other. In the first shocker of the series, Steve Nash beat KG in a hot dog eating contest prior to Game 1. For the first time all season the omnipotent and omnivorous Garnett was upstaged, which set the tone for the series. Nash was simply too much for the slower-Celtics and their epically overwhelmed point guard, Rajon Rondo. The Suns notched the first two games in Phoenix plus the second game in Boston, pushing Boston to the cusp of elimination going into Game 5. In that affair the Green looked done with just under a minute remaining, trailing by eight points. It was then that Danny Ainge pulled the string on an incredible transaction, securing Reggie Miller’s services for 38 seconds. The baller who had redefined “clutch” entered the game and ripped off three treys in a row, sending the Garden into oblivion and implausibly jettisoning the Celtics back to Phoenix for Game 6. Returning to the arena formerly known as America West, Nash ended any hopes of a Boston-comeback. The Suns won a track meet, 123-119, and Phoenix clinched its first basketball title behind Nash’s 24 points and 16 dimes.

And just like that 2008 was in the books.

Jul 5

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Paul Pierce/Celtics Points

Back in the day the Boston Globe had a contest to determine the eventual nickname of Paul Pierce, “The Truth”. My submission was “Pauly Prime Time”, because he was easily the most clutch player I’d ever seen don the legendary green and white. Sure, I watched Larry Bird at the end of his career but I (along with my entire generation) was too young to really appreciate the great Bird/McHale/Parish teams. For us Celtic pride was a concept passed down through anecdotes and mementos. We were told stories of triumph about the Celtics of the 80s, but after the ’86 title (the Green’s last to date) those stories turned tragic. The sudden deaths of Len Bias in ’86 (cocaine overdose) and Reggie Lewis in ’93 (heart failure) assured the Celtics of their first prolonged fling with futility in the history of the franchise. For the older generations this was a hard pill to swallow. 16 championships in 30 years gave way to multiple seasons in the mid 90s that saw the Celtics trot out the likes of Dino Radja and Dana Barros as “franchise players”.

From total greatness to total insignificance went the Celtics in less than a decade. I grew up during this period of insignificance; watched the Celtics during the week on local television and waited for the NBA on NBC to show me some real basketball on Sundays. I then watched a crazy-eyed college coach take over the team, infuse it with players from his former school, and drive it even further into the ground. When he finally exited his legacy was left in a sound bite. Thing was, we already knew that Bird, Parish and McHale weren’t going to be making miracle comebacks in the late 90s; we just happened to have a coach who was pompous enough to employ that mode of justification for his team’s failure. Maybe if in his inaugural press conference Rick Pitino had opted to tell us who was going to be “walking through that door” (namely Antoine Walker, Ron Mercer and the rest of the freakin Kentucky Wildcats) we would’ve been better prepared for what was to come.

Either way it wasn’t until we drafted a sleek shooter out of Kansas in ’98 that I even started to comprehend what it meant to have a guy who could fill up a box score, put a team on his back and inspire the masses. In Paul we found that guy. All he had was Antoine, but the two meshed well together, enjoyed the city they played in and brought some relevance back to an ever-fading tradition. Then some pieces of s–t tried to take that away from us in 2001, tried to murder our first star in more than ten years. Not only did they fail, not only did Paul survive 11 stab wounds but he returned to lead the Celtics to 49 wins and their first birth in the playoffs since Larry Legend. They won nine games that postseason, all thanks to Paul. His surreal decisive-Game 5 (46 points) in the first round against Allen Iverson and the 76ers was one-upped only by his pantheon performance in the Fleet Center’s first Eastern Conference Finals game against New Jersey. In that contest the Celtics entered the fourth quarter trailing by 21 points. Paul responded by playing the most jaw-dropping 12 minutes of basketball I’ve ever seen, slashing into that deficit with 19 points of his own to win the game and snag a slice of history. That one playoff run, with those two games intertwined, was good enough to place Paul at the top of lists in Celtics-record books co-populated by some of the greatest and most prolific champions in the history of the game.

2002 was the year I became a true Celtics fan; the year when history and lore met reality head on. We had a guy who if complemented by the right player, could and most definitely would lead us to that elusive 17th championship. Of course being a realist and having a decent grasp on the state of the game I knew there was obviously no chance Shaq would bolt LA for Beantown, same for Duncan and Garnett from their respective cities. But I knew something would happen, someone would be brought in so at the very least we’d be given the chance to continue to be exhilarated by this young superstar. It took him only a handful of games in the ’02 playoffs to make a decisive case for his meriting a co-star, a fixture with which to coexist for years to come. Five years and five great “Pauly Prime” seasons later, I found myself still waiting. I found myself defiling sports “fandom” by rooting for my team to lose, if only to have a better chance at winning some bogus lottery. Then when all went wrong I found myself feeling..not distraught, not demoralized or crappy, just feeling. I was feeling for Paul. It all came in a wave, the realization of how unfair it all was. This guy, who had given and endured so much to stay true to the city and tradition that took him in, was now inexplicably himself feeling the dusk of his career start to settle in just over the horizon.

It was then that I decided this: to hell with “the future”; screw “down the road”. Even if philosophically it contradicts everything Danny Ainge has done since arriving in Boston I still don’t care. It’s already a shame that Paul has played nine seasons in Boston and has had a total of one contending team around him. It would go down as an utter travesty if that number stayed the same throughout seasons 10 through 13 of Paul’s career. So that’s why I endorsed wholesaling our youth for Kevin Garnett, because each year of KG/Paul would represent 50 wins and who knows what else. And that’s why I’m on the Ray Allen for Delonte West, Wally Szczerbiak and the 5th-bandwagon. From what I’ve heard and read the city of Boston is pretty much split down the middle on this one, but the bulk of the negativity is driven by the sports radio juggernauts who hold way too much sway over popular opinion in the town. Many of them are very high on the player the Celtics drafted and gave to Seattle, Jeff Green (from Georgetown).

Allow me to assert that I had been lobbying for Jeff Green since we got hosed by the lottery while the likes of Corey Brewer and the Chinese guy were dominating the discussion. I’ve been a huge Big East fan and I’ve watched this kid for three years be constricted by the conservative brand of ball John Thompson III has brought back to the Hoyas’ system. Make no mistake; Jeff Green will be a dynamic and explosive player in this league but he never really had a chance to come out of his shell at Georgetown, and will need more maturation time than a guy like Brewer. So we deal him and two decent players for a soon-to-be 32 year old shooting guard with two reconstructed ankles. There’s your reason in a nutshell for the skepticism that exists.

Here’s the flip side to that coin: seven-time All Star; career 21.5 scoring average; career three point percentage of .397 (that last stat is best interpreted when juxtaposed with Antoine’s career .325). He’s a product of the Northeast as he spent three years at UConn and has maintained his roots (he’s already declared himself a Red Sox fan). Ray, like Paul, is coming off a stretch in his career where he wasn’t given a whole lot to work with in the jungle that is the West. Like Paul he never complained, always played with a smile on his face and continued being the long range assassin that he’s been since he took to the hardwood. And like Paul, he plays with a distinct passion and rises to the occasion when the occasion warrants it (translation: when the game’s on the line he wants that rock). All and all he’s the guy Paul deserves to have as his wingman and yes, while it would’ve been nice if this had happened five years ago, I have news for you: it didn’t. Nothing has happened in the past five years and no one knows that better than Paul. Furthermore, unlike colleagues of similar stature he’s never used his spotlight to shake down front offices and toss around ultimatums, and when he’s called for change he’s done so respectfully. Granted, at times he’s been angry, but he’s only human, not to mention a fierce competitor who tasted a morsel of postseason glory as an up and comer.

In this post-Jordan era where eight out of nine champions have had Shaq or Duncan, the idea of “building a championship team” is farcical. And in this day and age where one big acquisition can jettison a team from the bottom to the top of the sorry-East, and you just happen to be a reeling franchise with a superstar who’s been begging for a wingman, is it really a question? With a nucleus of Paul, Ray and one of the few emerging big men in the conference, Al Jefferson, the Atlantic division and a top-four seed is ripe for the taking. Does that mean number 17 is imminent? I would say not. But there’s got to be some middle ground between “rebuilding” and “championship caliber”, right? If not then someone should send the memo to ummmm EVERY TEAM IN THE EAST!!!

As I said before, to my generation the Celtics as they were previously known were nothing more than a myth with historical documentation. Paul pulled the franchise out of the sediment upon his arrival in ’98 and restored some relevance in ’02. He only had one opportunity to chase a championship and came up six games short. However the finest work of his basketball life has been done in the NBA Playoffs, on the legendary-parquet floor of the Boston Celtics, with 16 world championship banners hanging over his head. It may be a while before the Celtics capture that seventeenth but Paul’s time here is finite. And you know something? There’s a lot I would give to see Paul have the chance to win another nine playoff games. Wally and Jeff Green? Done and done.

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