Meanwhile, after Glen Davis has been mum ever since his media day bitching. Sure, he makes a brief cameo in this video... but it also makes me think Donkey has found himself a new Shrek.
Poor Glen. Doesn't even know his role with his buddies anymore.
By the way... I LOVE Paul Pierce's cackling in the back. Awesome. Glad to see the boys are having fun. By the way, here's Truth's angle of Nate running in Shaq's shoes. Hysterical.
While the guys are getting into game shape in Newport, Chuck and I are getting into show shape up here. We've been yelling at each other for 3, 4 hours at a time at Red's Army HQ.
And I think we're ready for our first show of the official pre-season. Joining us tonight will be CSNNE's A. Sherrod Blakely who has been with the team in Newport.
Now that the C's have Delonte West and Nate Robinson, Daniels won't be counted on to be as much of a facilitator as he was last season.
"That'll help out a lot," acknowledged Daniels. "Just run the floor and Delonte and Nate pushing the ball up . . . even sometimes I can bring it up. It just opens it up for everyone."
That's pretty much what we expected. We'll talk to him about Marquis... and we'll also get more on his tweets about Nate Robinson.
Doc says nate understands ”there's a time to be focused and serious, and there's a time to be nate.”
More Doc on Nate. "The playoff run was probably more important for him as a player ... than any single player I've seen in a long time."
Of course we'll get into KG looking explosive, Shaq and Jermaine O'Neal... and all the other camp stuff. The show starts right at 9. Visit our show page to listen.
In both my days at Celtics camp this week, the last player still in gym getting up his shots: Delonte West.
Delonte is getting after it, folks. He's serious about this. Paging Von Wafer... where have you been? Any other guys on the cusp? Where are you? If i was on this team, I wouldn't leave till Delonte left. I'd pack lunches. Wanna sleep here?? Fine... I'll see you right here in the morning, son.
"I heard what Chris Bosh said, and that's strong words coming from the RuPaul of big men," O'Neal said. "I'm going to do the same thing (in their next meeting) I did before - make him quit. Make 'em quit and complain. It's what I do."
Well, they haven't exactly kissed and made up. We all know Bosh is in Miami now as part of the whatever you want to nickname them. Everyone's made a big deal about the 3 stars The Heat have on their roster. But Shaq doesn't quite see it that way.
“They got a great 1-2,” says Shaq, who disdains Chris Bosh so much he refuses to make it three. And then he started listing the Celtics, the long list of young stars and old champions fighting the fade into twilight. “Everyone is young this, young that. I’ve been in [the NBA Finals] six times in the last [16 years] years, and I haven’t seen a young team make it all the way and win it. They may look better, but they don’t do what we do.”
That sound you heard is the gauntlet being dropped. Again.
These Boston Celtics are pissed off, folks. They all saw what went on with that premature celebration in Miami. They all watch Sports Center and their big Miami training camp segments. They all know that The Heat are getting all the attention and have been crowned champs already... leaving the season as simply an inevitable Sherman's March to a title.
So this won't be the last shot the Celtics take at Miami. Oh no... this is just beginning.
In an appearance on Wednesday night's edition of "Primetime" on CNN, LeBron James replied that he thought race was a factor in the backlash to his decision to leave the Cleveland Cavaliers in free agency for the Miami Heat.
"I think so, at times," he told CNN correspondent Soledad O'Brien. "It's always, you know, a race factor."
A recent release of Q Scores, a polling system that measures popularity, appeared to support the notion.
Among non-blacks, James' negative Q rating went from 24 percent to 44 after his free-agency announcement. However, among blacks, his negative Q Score slipped just from 14 percent to 15 percent.
This, kids, is a lesson in life. When you don't venture outside of you inner circle... when you surround yourself with yes-men and lackeys who do nothing but tell you you're the best... you say stupid things like this.
Because if LeBron had someone, anyone, in his camp that could look at him and just tell him the truth... and IF LeBron could, pardon the line, handle the truth... then he'd realize WHY he's being criticized.
A true friend... or at least an objective advisor... could tell LeBron that his leaving Cleveland isn't the bulk of the criticism of him. As Doc Rivers put it yesterday, the guy spent 7 years in a city and it just didn't work out. It happens in sports and in life. How many people get divorced in that amount of time? And while we would all like to see the fairytale of the hometown kid staying with his local team forever and helping them win a title... he's not obligated to do that. And that's fine. He earned the right to be a free agent, and he exercised it.
But what LeBron, and the NBA's version of Farnsworth Bentley, Maverick Carter, STILL fail to recognize is the public spectacle equated to not only ripping that sports fairytale to shreds, but it spit in the faces of all those fans who publicly begged him to stay. They set up a scenario where people begged for something, and he publicly embarrassed them for it.
And somehow LeBron and his team don't quite get why people are pissed? It's the exact same formula Vince McMahon used to create one of the greatest wrestling villains of all time.
Oh... what's that? You desperately want something? Here, let me drag you up on stage... get your hopes up real high in front of all these people... and then not give it to you. Now, get out of my sight.
So here's the message to LeBron and Maverick Carter: People aren't pissed off at you because of your race. People are pissed off at you because you're the NBA's version of Ted DiBiase now. And when you go on TV and even intimate in passing that race might have played a role in what happened... you look even worse... because you're blaming the people who are pissed for being that way.
Suck it up you idiots and admit that you blew the whole thing. Don't tell us you raised $3 million for the Boys and Girls clubs because you can probably raise more than that in your sleep by doing a couple of offseason charity events. Tell the world that you got swept up in the hysteria of it all, you went way overboard and that it was the wrong thing to do, and now all you care about is playing basketball.
Every time you guys open your mouths, you look worse. Stop blaming everyone but yourselves. Pay attention to what's happening out there.
Of course, LeBron will never do that. He's too insecure to do it. He needs to be surrounded by people who will tell him how great he is and how he's never wrong. It's a shame.
Every morning, we compile the links of the day and dump them here... highlighting the big storyline. Because there's nothing quite as satisfying as a good morning dump.
"It's night and day [from last season]. I still wish he would take a break in practice more, but that's a whole other issue that we'll have to solve. He's explosive again, especially defensively, and that's great. He outran guys in our scrimmage earlier, at least three times. Once, he got the rebound, threw it out, and still out ran all the bigs down the floor. He couldn't do that last year, and even if he could, he didn't think he could. To me, that's the biggest change."
"I’m just happy to be given this opportunity to do what I love," he said. "I’m lucky to be here. I’m happy to be here. I’m a soldier in Doc’s army. Whatever he needs me to do. I’ll go to war and die for this team. Playing every game, every minute this year like my life depended on it, cause it [does.] Nothing’s promised."
"I’ve been given this opportunity to prove to the NBA and the world that I’m a good person," West said. "I have a lot to prove and I don’t want to let anyone down. For them to say they want this guy back and Danny Ainge to say that, Wyc [Grousbeck] and the ownership and some of the players… that’s a high compliment. That’s something that you’re going to take to the grave with you. When you’re done playing you’ll tell your kids, 'Doc Rivers wanted me to play for him.' Maybe I’m not this quote unquote bad guy after all."
Sounds motivated to me. If his head is on straight, Delonte can help this team tremendously. He's such a fearless player.
We all knew this would happen. The writing was on the walls at the practice facility in Waltham written with Shamrock green paint. The 2010-2011 Boston Celtics are full of colorful, strong, diverse and at times, jovial personalities. While the LA Lakers are (GULP) defending champions, and the Miami Heat have the increasingly aggravating Superfriends, make no mistake: this Celtics team is the one to be following.
If there was an NBA version of HBO's "Hard Knocks" the Celtics would be without question the best choice (sorry NBATV, I like "Real Training Camp" and all, but until I see Doc Rivers screaming at the C's, telling them to eat a "snack" then Rick Kamla's exuberance just can't compete). Besides, what would you rather watch: Nate Robinson taking photos of sleeping Celtics, or LeBron flexing his muscles in the mirror? Tweets about 75 reporters waiting inside a men's room on an army base waiting to get a glimpse of Dwyane Wade (shockingly) dunk the ball, or Rondo being interrupted by a screaming KG in the other room?
Speaking of KG, perhaps the best news of the day came via Chris Forsberg on ESPNBoston.com:
Doc says KG looked "phenomenal and explosive" in today's first practice.
Just a bit different from about a year ago, wouldn't you say? This kind of thing can get everyone fired up, hopefully as fired up as KG himself was here is this clip from Game 7 of the Finals (I apologize to bring up Game 7, but you will enjoy it):
Every morning, we compile the links of the day and dump them here... highlighting the big storyline. Because there's nothing quite as satisfying as a good morning dump.
"I do not want to repeat what we went through last year,'' Rivers said after the opening day of training camp at Salve Regina University. "What you can say to them is that if we had won more games and taken care of business at home, then Game 7 would have been in Boston and that would have made a huge difference.
"But that is on us. What we did last season was out of necessity. It wasn't planned. But when we had all the injuries, we had to make a tough call. Guys were in rehab. We were resting guys in the middle of the season. We were dropping games to teams you know you can beat. That is difficult for a coach to sit there and take. I am really, really hoping we don't have to do any of that this year. Because it's no fun. It's no fun at all."
One reason why we can't go through that again... the East keeps getting better:
"You go through a lull this year like we did last year and you'll end up being a seventh seed,'' Rivers said. "There simply are too many good teams. Everyone has to play."
Miami, Orlando, Atlanta, Chicago and Milwaukee are five teams right off the top of my head that could make the C's play for goofing around during the regular season. So Doc's not that far off when he says you'd end up as the seventh seed if you slack.
BUT... I'm sure the Celtics will hit a stretch where they have no choice. Yes, we got giddy over Doc calling KG explosive... but there has been exactly one practice so far. Guys will get banged up. Key guys will miss games. And there will be some level of repetition of last year's plan.
The difference between this year's team and last year's is that this year's team is much deeper. There are guys that can step up on this squad that didn't exist last year. So the bench will win some games that were lost last season.
I can appreciate these guys talking up the regular season, though. And I'm sure Wyc Grousbeck and the rest of the ownership team appreciate it too... because they've got a lot of money riding on people buying tickets and merchandise. You can't walk into the season saying "Yeah... we'll coast if we have to. Your best bet is to just tune in around March or April." That costs the team money.
