Pierce's Legacy

  Today is one of the biggest days for one of the most cherished Celtics in the storied franchise history. I could bet you enough to buy a new house that when Paul Pierce was a youth growing up in the sinful city of Inglewood he would dream of playing in the same league as greats like Larry Bird and Kevin McHale. Tonight that dream is going way beyond being paid as basketball player, or living in a big house in a nice neighborhood. Tonight Paul Pierce cements himself as a piece of history . After tonight he isn’t just a player in a league who comes and goes with time. He is better than Larry Bird, he is better than a legend. The most interesting part of the culmination of Pierce’s career filled with scoring is the way he did it. He isn’t a pure scorer, he doesn’t bounce out of the gym, and he hasn’t always been surrounded by super stars .The thing that separates Paul Pierce is that he is one of the smartest players ever, and he is a winner. Being a winner doesn’t have to be measured in championships, even though Pierce got his in 2008, and we all too often use this as the only measure to evaluate a player’s rank in history. He went through a long and hard stretch with the Celtics where it was him, and then a team filled with no names that just faded like pen tattoo. He was stabbed several times in a bar, an injury that could’ve ended not only his career, but also his life. Adversity plagued his career, but he continued to ball hard and finally a good team was put together for Pierce to make a playoff run with.

                That’s just some background. If you aren’t a Celtics fan and you don’t think that what Paul Pierce has accomplished is impressive, you just cannot be impressed or you’re simple. He is a mark of elite consistency, a future hall of famer, and a statue worthy figure to be put next to the likes of any Celtic that you consider the best of all time. This means that you can’t question Pierce. It used to be that he didn’t have a ring. After his ring it was where does he rank as an all-time Celtic (most didn’t consider him better than a top 4 player in franchise history). But folks, numbers don’t lie. Numbers don’t lie. It’s so important I had to say it twice. People can deliberate on ESPN for a month and a half about what they think, but at the end of the day Paul Pierce is still going to be a better scorer than Larry Bird. Larry Bird and Celtics are interchangeable words. After tonight Paul Pierce and Celtics will be cemented like a foundation. Even after the house burns down the foundation still stays there. Nothing is more essential than a foundation. Everything starts from the foundation. Pierce has been the foundation of everything the Celtics have down since his arrival into the NBA. It may be true that the torch is being passed to Rondo, but believe that once Pierce decides to retire the Celtics will not be the same Celtics anymore. When Pierce retires a chapter in history closes, and it will be up to the organization to write another.

                The people should bow to Pierce. The people of Boston should raise their hands up to the sky and let out tears of joy when Pierce scores his tenth point tonight. People get too used to Pierce being the Celtics small forward in a business where players are constantly moving around. He’s been a Celtic starter ever since I started watching the NBA. I’m used to Pierce just being there. That is an attribute to who he is as a player, and what he has done to the city. He represents Boston. Triumph after struggle. Always being a winner but waiting for the opportunity to prove it. I hope when Pierce scores his tenth point against the Bobcats old ladies pass out, people storm the court, and the birds fly back north early. I hope the sun is eclipsed by Jupiter, and the stars fall into Pierce’s lap. I want a red carpet. I want virgins to start singing beautiful melodies by the river. But most of all, I want to see Paul Pierce look around with tears of joy in his eyes and breathe a sigh of relief. Because if anyone deserves respect it is Pierce. Congratulations,  if you were on the bench of all time C’s, Larry Bird just lost his starting job. 

-Wootie

Celts Thus Far

OK…Let me start off by saying my first blog was filled with a lot of half-truths (that’s a shot at Paul Pierce’s performance thus far) I wasn’t wrong in my preview, but I wasn’t right. With that said, no Celtics fan can even begin to argue that they knew that production would come from the players that have made an impact so far. To start off with, let’s give a pat on the back to Brandon Bass, who so far has played like Big Baby fresh off an adrenaline shot. The guy is flat out undersized for a power forward, but he brings so much more on both sides of the ball than Baby did. First off he can dunk (lol). I don’t find myself closing my eyes every time he chooses to shoot the 18 footer, because unlike the Big Baby he actually knocks it down with consistency! He rebounds well, and overall he is just an impact player off the bench, and if he keeps playing like this he WILL earn a spot in the starting lineup. I’m sure Kevin Garnett doesn’t want to hear that but let’s face it, the most energy KG shows during a game is at the beginning he bangs his head off the pad under the rim. He looks old. He’s playing slow, and when it comes down to it he just isn’t dominating like the KG of old. No one expects KG to average 30 and 20, but regardless of what his stats are his in game contribution is much quieter than years past. With the emergence of Greg Stiemsma (who?)  the aging C’s big men look  a little better. Let’s be honest, no one saw this coming. If you say you did you’re lying to yourself. But who’s complaining! He blocks the shot something nice, and he’s good for the rebound. As Celtics fans you have to be satisfied with THIS GUY.  One last point… let’s just get rid of Avery Bradley. I want to root for this guy, but sometimes I just wonder why. He wears 0, he’s a guard like Rondo, he’s getting increased time, but he just doesn’t do anything. Let’s face it he’s a liability on the court. He can’t score, he doesn’t run the floor, and his defense is nothing special. He’s basically just running around on the court when Rajon or Ray needs a breather. We have Keyon Dooling to do that, and as much as I HATED acquiring an old, seemingly washed up guard the guy plays defense and knocks down the triple. With all this said GO PATRIOTS.

-wOOtie

Its Gonna Be A Long Year

This year in particular is going to be a long one. These last two games that the Celtics have played have made me exhausted (and the last two games were the first two of the season). This team that has predicated itself on defense and playing a half court game of posessions and not fast breaks have played into their opponents game plans. These past coupke of games the Celtics have allowed both teams to score in the 60's by half time and have allowed more rebounds to the other team than they should. I recognize that size is the issue but its not the whole problem. I recognize that age is the issue but its not the whole problem. I recognize that Pierce has been out but its not the whole problem. The problem is that they aloow teams to storm on them very early in the game which ends up turning into a game where they are down by a lot and have to push back. The problem is turnovers early, they allow their opponents to be physical and aggressive and create turnovers early which in Miamis case turns into a ton of fast break points.

This Celtics team has looked completely and utterly complacent and undisciplined with the ball in their hands and have been sloppy early on in games. This is nothing to worry about, its ok in a condensed season to lose the first two to opponents like New York and Miami, but what its gonna come down to is can they win those games that they have to win this season. Can they beat the Nets and Hornets of the world? Will they be able to beat the same Pacers team that gave the Bulls a run for their money in the playoffs last year? Will they be able to put together enough wins to be an 8 seed? Yea thats right you heard it and 8 seed.

The Celtics need to be focused on making the playoffs not wining the Conference this year. Can they rely on their bench so they can rest their starters considerably enough to make some noise in the postseason? That is key for me, what can they do to put themselves in a postion to win and still have enough energy to do something in the playoffs?

This team is a long way off from where they were in 08 and to be honest with you should have won one more to make it "worth it." They were close two years later, but since have not put themselves in position to bring another one home to Boston. I like this team better than last years team, but that unfortunately is not saying a whole lot. The addition of the likes of Bass and Dooling and Pietrus are good moves for the Celtics. Bass is clearly an upgrade from Big Baby and Dooling's game is very similar to that of Eddie House and we all know how well that worked out here. Pietrus if he can stay healthy can be just as athletic as Green but better defensively. Not a ton of point, but can be that guy off of the bench to give Pierce relief and score 10 points over the course of the game.

This team has proven that their not terrible, they dug themsleves out of huge holes to two teams that have clearly gotten a lot better and are a lot more athletic than we are. This team has fight and grit and refuse to give up. I like that about this years team, because that was not the case last year. My hope is that they are done dealing pieces because they need more size underneath the net unless their gonna start playing that huge foreign white guy...whats his name again?

-Pickalicous

Plenty of that where that came from...?