Boston Sports Media Watch

In one of the quickest transitions from the football field to TV, ESPN has announced that former Patriots linebacker Tedy Bruschi will join ESPN as an analyst. He’ll be on the regular network and he’ll also have a role on the new ESPN Boston site that launches next Monday. Look at the press release:

Tedy Bruschi Joins ESPN as NFL Analyst
Super Bowl Champion Patriots Linebacker to Provide Analysis on ESPNBoston.com and Appear on NFL Live, SportsCenter and ESPN Radio

Three-time New England Patriots Super Bowl champion Tedy Bruschi is joining ESPN. The veteran linebacker, who just announced his retirement from pro football last week after 13 seasons, will provide NFL analysis on ESPNBoston.com – ESPN’s new local sports site, launching September 14 – and appear on NFL Live, SportsCenter, ESPN Radio and other ESPN platforms.

Bruschi, who played in five of the Patriots franchise’s six Super Bowl appearances, will offer his NFL insights and analysis in multiple contributions per week on ESPNBoston.com, ESPN’s new home for New England sports news and information, online video, and original and customized content. He will also offer analysis on ESPN, beginning this week when he debuts on NFL Live Thursday (4 p.m. and 12 a.m. ET) and Friday (4 p.m.) with host Trey Wingo and Darren Woodson.

As part of studio coverage leading into ESPN’s season-opening Monday Night Football doubleheader on Monday, Bruschi will be on-site at Gillette Stadium in Foxborough, Mass., for SportsCenter and Monday Night Countdown before the Buffalo Bills-Patriots game. Also, Bruschi will attend ESPN’s MNF Chalk Talk Series event at the Hall at Patriot Place that morning (11:30 a.m.), and during halftime he will be recognized on the field as an honorary captain of the Patriots’ 50th Anniversary Team.

Bruschi played in 189 career regular season games (and 22 playoff games) during his 13-year career (1986-2008), all with the Patriots, who selected him in the third round of the 1996 NFL Draft. Captain of the New England defense for seven seasons, Bruschi helped lead the Pats to nine playoffs, eight division championships, five conference titles and three Super Bowl crowns (XXXVI, XXXVIII and XXXIX). He also helped guide the Patriots to the first undefeated 16-0 regular season record in NFL history in 2007. A 2004 Pro Bowl selection, Bruschi finished his career with 1,134 tackles, 30.5 sacks and 12 interceptions. He is the only player in NFL history to return four consecutive interceptions for touchdowns.

“Tedy Bruschi has embodied the Patriots and their unrivaled success the past decade, and we are thrilled that this three-time Super Bowl champion is joining our roster of NFL experts as well as ESPNBoston.com, which will give New England sports fans a stable of authentic and familiar Boston voices when it launches Monday,” said Norby Williamson, ESPN executive vice president, production.

Bruschi added: “I’m very excited to be joining the ESPN team. I hope to bring my passion and knowledge for the game as an analyst just as I did as a player. I look forward to the national exposure of covering the entire league while also having the opportunity to stay close to my roots here with ESPNBoston.com.”

In addition to his relentless worth ethic and intensity on the field, Bruschi is equally as well known for his determination and professionalism off the field. After suffering a stroke in February 2005, Bruschi endured months of rehabilitation before he was medically cleared to play football and returned to the Patriots lineup in October. Bruschi was named the 2005 NFL Comeback Player of the Year, and the recipient of both the Ed Block Courage Award and the Maxwell Football Club’s Spirit Award.

Bruschi was named to NFL.com’s All-Interview Team for accessibility to the media, and he has been one of the Patriots most active players in the greater Boston community. When his retirement announcement was made, Patriots coach Bill Belichick called him “the perfect player,” and team owner Robert Kraft, citing “executive privilege,” promptly named him honorary defensive captain of the franchise’s 50th Anniversary Team.

Certainly Tedy impressed people when he made his retirement announcement last week at Gillette and supposedly, he was approached by ESPN right after he got off the podium. Judging from his TV ads, Tedy has the potential to be a very good analyst.

Popularity: 7% [?]

In a trade that certainly shocked everyone in the NFL, the Patriots announced they traded defensive lineman Richard Seymour to the Oakland Raiders for a 1st round draft pick in 2011.

Mike Reiss in one of his last duties for the Boston Globe writes that Seymour’s salary now comes off the Pats’ cap.

Ian R. Rapoport of the Boston Herald also has a report.

Mike Florio of Pro Football Talk has Bill Belichick’s comments on the trade.

BSMW Fearless Leader Bruce Allen has his thoughts over at Patriots Daily.

Christopher Price posts the entire Patriots press release on the trade at WEEI.com.

Chris also has a report on the trade.

Shalise Manza Young of the Providence Journal says the trade was a Sunday stunner.

If any other news breaks, it’ll be posted here.

From the Self Serving Department, here are my Sunday links. Enjoy.

Popularity: 6% [?]

I saw something similar to this posted by Dallas sports media writer Barry Horn, and thought it would be an interesting topic for Boston, as well.

Let’s say you’ve just bought up a radio station in the Boston area. You’ve got a great reach with your signal and money for talent isn’t an issue. You can sign anyone, even someone already working somewhere else.

What’s your schedule? Who do you sign to fill the following slots:

• 6:00 am to 10:00 am
• 10:00 am to 2:00 pm
• 2:00 pm to 6:00 pm
• 6:00pm to 9:00 pm
• 9:00 pm to midnight
• Overnight?

Everything is up to you. You can have solo hosts, or teams of hosts. You can hire people who are already working at various outlets. (Let’s try to keep it to Boston media figures, though)

What other features would you incorporate into the programming? What wouldn’t you do?

Discuss.

Popularity: 9% [?]

Gary Tanguay of Comcast SportsNet reports that Wallace’s agent has told him that his client has committed to joining the Celtics.

In his short post at the CSN website, Tanguay says Wallace’s agent will be a guest tonight on Sports Sunday.

Mark Murphy of the Boston Herald has more extensive story on this.

I also have the Sunday links over at the Fang’s Bites page.

Popularity: 4% [?]

Disclaimer: The point of this post is by no means to discredit what the Philadelphia Eagles did on draft weekend. They clearly made some nice moves. The motivation is to shine the light on Peter King for being something of a hypocrite for his gushing praise at the Eagles for doing the very same thing that he mocked the Patriots for doing just the week before.

If you hadn’t heard, Peter King recently moved to Boston. If you read King at all, I’m not sure how you could’ve missed this point, as he’s told us several times, and has already told Boston Magazine all about the great coffee and food he is getting here in the city.

Since he lives in Boston, I guess he’s now on my beat.

In his column following the draft, King wasn’t impressed with all the moving around that the Patriots did. I’ve put in bold the statements that stuck out to me:

• New England. I was told last night the Patriots loved Eric Wood, the Louisville center who projected to center or guard in the NFL, but if that’s the case, they could have had him at 26 instead of trading out of the round for yet more picks. So I remain mystified about the continued trading rather than picking… Brandon Tate’s a poor man’s Percy Harvin, with the same off-field question marks, picked almost exactly two rounds later than Harvin … I go into the Patriots in more depth later, but I thought it was a strange draft, almost drunk with the power of moving back. The one reason you can never kill this team about drafting is it’s taken a lot of no-name guys high over the years and many have become cornerstones.

“Drunk with the power of moving back.” What does that even mean? Then, in yesterday’s column, King lauds the Eagles for putting on a “draft clinic.” It’s way too long to quote in its entirety here, but I’ll offer a few snippets:

What would you think if I told you the Philadelphia Eagles got third-, fifth-, sixth- and seventh-round draft choices, plus half a starting cornerback for nothing in this year’s draft?

That’s right. For free. There is no smoke, mirrors or cheating involved. Only thought and effort.

For moving down six spots in the third round — eventually taking a player they were considering for that 85th pick anyway — the Eagles got filthy rich. I am shocked more teams don’t run their draft the way the Eagles do. It’s almost irresponsible that teams don’t do it the Philadelphia way.

The Patriots do, (some feel they originated the concept) but they’re “drunk with the power of moving back,” and cause King to be “mystified” with all their trades for additional picks.

Then the Eagles GM is quoted, which might give you a clue as to why their moves are being so strongly praised:

“Actually, I’m happy more teams don’t,” said Tom Heckert, the Eagles general manager. “If more teams did, we wouldn’t be able to do what we do.”

This may come out the wrong way, so bear with me. But if I were a football fan looking for a team to root for, I’d pick the Eagles, and what they did on draft weekend is a big reason. The Eagles think. They don’t do things the way they’ve always been done because that’s the way they’ve always been done.

In contrast, in last weeks column, King later called the Patriots draft was “uninspired” and “odd” and “greeted with shoulder shrugs around the league.” 

King then goes into details about all the moves that the Eagles made. In the end, the Eagles netted “third-, fifth-, sixth- and seventh-round draft choices, plus half a starting cornerback.”

King will tell us that the Eagles netting Peters, Maclin, McCoy plus the six-pick trade-down is what makes Philly’s draft preeminent. That’s not the point. We’re strictly focusing on the practice of trading up and down and turning picks into multiple picks. As I said at the start of this post, I’m not discrediting the Eagles. The point is that the Eagles and Patriots did the same type of thing, and the unfriendly Patriots get hammered while the Eagles and their quotable GM get praised. King doesn’t get it.

But, let’s look at the trades that the Patriots made during draft weekend:

• Started with the 23rd pick, traded it to Baltimore for #26 and a fifth round pick #162
• Traded the #26 pick and the #162 pick to Green Bay for a second round pick (#41 Darius Butler) and two third round picks (#73 & #83 Brandon Tate)
• Traded a second round pick (#47), a fourth round pick (#124) and a sixth round pick (#199) to Oakland to move up in the second round to #40 (Ron Brace)
• Traded a third round pick (#73) to Jacksonville for a 2010 2nd round pick and a 2009 seventh round pick (#232 Julian Edelman)
• Traded a third round pick (#89) to Tennessee for a 2010 second round pick.
• Traded Ellis Hobbs to the Eagles for two fifth round picks (#137 and # 141)
• Traded those two fifth round picks for a fourth round pick (#123 Rich Ohrnberger) and a sixth round pick (#198 Jake Ingram)

If you follow that list, and track that first pick that the Patriots started out with at #23, you’ll find that they ultimately turned that one pick into the following, without trading a single other asset that they started the day with already in hand:

• Pick #41 Darius Butler (who King’s colleague Don Banks had the Patriots taking at #23)
• Pick #83 Brandon Tate (King himself praised his skills)
• 2010 Second Round Pick (From Jacksonville)
• Pick #232 Julian Edelman (who Mike Reiss seems high on)

That’s not really ”uninspired” to me. They took a late first round pick, and turned it into two seconds, a third and a seventh. Not a bad haul. In his own mock draft prior to the draft, King said of the #23 pick “One smart guy swears they’re taking UConn CB Darius Butler.” Well, they did, but they got an extra second, third and seventh round pick to do it. For free!

Coming into the draft, the Patriots had two second round picks. They ended up with four in this draft, plus an extra two next year. They got those two next year for a pair of third round selections this year. They clearly moved around with a purpose, they weren’t just “drunk with the power of moving back.”

Back to the whole point of the post. Why did King dismiss the Patriots moves while praising the Eagles? I tried to clarify with him, and we’ve been having the following Twitter exchange:

@SI_PeterKing – Why are you praising the Eagles for doing the same thing you knocked the “drunk with power” Patriots for doing last week?

SI_PeterKing Hi Bruce: Hope you don’t mind, but I am going to answer your question in my Tuesday column. Thanks for writing in.

@SI_PeterKing : I look forward to it, because 4 draft choices between the 3rd & 7th rounds = wow!, Two second round picks = mystifying?

SI_PeterKing: Hi bruce. Peter here. Peters, Maclin, McCoy PLUS the six-pick trade-down makes Philly’s draft preeminent.

@SI_PeterKing Thanks for the reply. My point isn’t really who did better, its that you knocked the Patriots for doing what the Eagles did.

I give the guy credit for responding and I do think King is one of the good guys in the media. Too often though, he allows himself to be used as a mouthpiece by his subjects. In this case, I think he’s just missing the point. It’s not that the Eagles did better or the Patriots did better, it’s that they did the same things, and the Patriots get hammered or mockingly dismissed, while the Eagles ”put on a draft clinic” and are innovative and thinking outside the box, and not doing things the way they’ve always been done. He just doesn’t get it.

Why the contrast? Is it really simply because the Philly GM explained what they were doing, whereas the Patriots just went out and did it?

Update:

Here’s King’s answer in his column today.

• TWITTER QUESTION OF THE WEEK: From Bruce Allen of Boston Sports Media Watch: “Why are you praising the Eagles for doing the same thing you knocked the ‘drunk with power’ Patriots for doing last week?”

Though in principle you might be right, Bruce, it wasn’t the same thing. The Patriots didn’t have the same result in trading down as the Eagles did, though they did acquire two second-round picks in 2010 in their wheeling-and-dealing. Philadelphia traded down six spots late in the third round and got one of the top guys they would have taken at 85 (Cornelius Ingram), half the value of a starting corner (Ellis Hobbs), a seventh-round pick this year and third-, fifth- and sixth-round picks next year … and still exited the draft with three potential impact players in 2009 — Jason Peters, Jeremy Maclin and LeSean McCoy.

It remains to be seen if the Patriots got the same sort of impact out of their 2009 draft and beyond, but it didn’t look like it to me. It surprised me they twice traded down out of the first round for three additional picks instead of taking a tackle of the future like Michael Oher or some higher-rated player at 23 or 26. It could be that Darius Butler, for instance, could have had a mid-first-round grade and by getting him in the low 40s it constituted great value on their board.

As I wrote last week about New England, “The one reason you can never kill this team about drafting is the Patriots have taken a lot of no-name guys high over the years and many have become cornerstones.” So let’s see how it plays out.

I guess that’s all we can do right now.

Popularity: 12% [?]

How did that headline grab you?

An email passed into my inbox last night letting me know about a proposed movement called a “blog rally” aimed at throwing support at the Boston Globe and attempting to “save the Globe from the barbarians down in New York.”

What is a “blog rally” you say?

A blog rally is the simultaneous presentation of identical or similar material on numerous blogs, for the purpose of engaging large numbers of readers and/or persuading them to adopt a certain position or take a certain action. The simultaneous nature of a blog rally creates the ironic result of joining the efforts of otherwise independent bloggers for an agreed-upon purpose.

The position being shared among several local bloggers is this:

We have all read recently about the threat of possible closure faced by the Boston Globe. A number of Boston-based bloggers who care about the continued existence of the Globe have banded together in conducting a blog rally. We are simultaneously posting this paragraph to solicit your ideas of steps the Globe could take to improve its financial picture.

We view the Globe as an important community resource, and we think that lots of people in the region agree and might have creative ideas that might help in this situation. So, here’s your chance. Please don’t write with nasty comments and sarcasm: Use this forum for thoughtful and interesting steps you would recommend to the management that would improve readership, enhance the Globe’s community presence, and make money. Who knows, someone here might come up with an idea that will work, or at least help. Thank you.

The irony of this is not lost on me. The idea of a group of bloggers expressing their support for the Boston Globe is a notion some might find hard to grasp. After all, the Globe has mocked bloggers and tried to discredit them at almost every turn in the past. Many bloggers believe that the time has come for old school media institutions like the Globe to shut their doors. Yet, here we have a community of bloggers rushing to support the Globe in its biggest time of need.

As noted above, some view the Globe  as a community resource, while others recognize the hardship that the closing of the Globe would put on thousands of families who rely on it for their means of living. The closing of the Globe would not be a victory for anyone.

If you regularly visit several Boston-based blogs, you’re likely to see a similar post to the above at some of them today.

So, as mentioned above, without getting nasty or sarcastic, what do you think the Globe can do to remain in business?

Also check out this article in the Boston Business Journal exploring possible buyers and solutions for the Globe.

Popularity: 7% [?]

Ken from Fang’s Bites with some late afternoon news for you.

The NFL announced this afternoon its opening season primetime games as well as its Thanksgiving Day games.

On the docket includes your New England Patriots which will open the season on Monday night, September 14 as part of an “AFL 50th” doubleheader. Here’s the press release from ESPN:

ESPN’s Monday Night Football Season-Opening Doubleheader – Bills-Patriots and Chargers-Raiders on Sept. 14

Tom Brady’s Return, Terrell Owens’ Bills Debut to Highlight Kickoff of MNF’s 40th Season

Monday Night Football will kick off its 40th season with two-time Super Bowl MVP Tom Brady expected to make his highly-anticipated return to the field when the New England Patriots host wide receiver Terrell Owens and the Buffalo Bills in the first game of a nationally televised ESPN doubleheader on Monday, September 14. Kickoff is set for 7 p.m. ET, followed by the San Diego Chargers at Oakland Raiders in a matchup of AFC West rivals at 10:15 p.m.

The Patriots finished with an 11-5 record in 2008 despite losing Brady to a season-ending knee injury in their opening game. In 2007, Brady was named the NFL MVP after leading the Patriots to a perfect 16-0 regular season record and a Super Bowl appearance. The AFC East rival Bills will make their season debut with a revamped offense featuring Owens, the dynamic All Pro wide receiver who signed as a free agent earlier this month. ESPN’s MNF commentator team of Mike Tirico (play-by-play) and analysts Ron Jaworski and Tony Kornheiser will call the game.

Quarterback Phillip Rivers and running back LaDainian Tomlinson will lead the Chargers against the Raiders in Oakland in the second game. San Diego won the AFC West a year ago and advanced to the divisional round of the NFL Playoffs. The Chargers and Raiders also played in ESPN’s inaugural season-opening MNF doubleheader in 2006. The ESPN commentators who will call the game will be announced later this offseason.

The MNF doubleheader will be part of the NFL’s celebration of the 50th anniversary season of the AFL. All four teams in the opening weekend ESPN games originally began playing in the inaugural 1960 American Football League season.

The rest of the season schedule will be announced in April.

Popularity: 10% [?]

OK. I’ll admit it.

I didn’t watch or listen to a second of the A-Rod press conference today. Further, I didn’t watch the A-Rod sit-down with Peter Gammons last week, either.

“Wait,” you say, “you run a sports media website, shouldn’t you be all over these events?”

Probably. But truth be told, I lost interest in the whole steroid thing a long time ago. It reached “Spygate” proportions for me before Spygate even existed.

Sure, I read “Game of Shadows” and I also read Howard Bryant’s underrated book “Juicing the game.” I understand that steroids are a problem in professional sports. They can provide an unfair advantage, not to mention they can come with great health risks later in life. Just ask the 1970’s Pittsburgh Steelers. Well, those of them still alive, that is.

There’s no way that baseball or any other sport is going to be able to handle this scandal in any way that is going to satisfy all. You can’t place asterisks on some records, or say that Hank Aaron is still the official All Time Home Run King even though he has less home runs than Barry Bonds.

We’re just going to have to accept that there was a steroid era in baseball.

Aside from the actual steroid useage, the biggest beef I have with this whole episode is the fact that so many in the media buried their heads in the sand on this story for years and years. In fact, many of them insisted that there was no steroid problem in baseball. Now, these same ones are leading the charge of exposing the problem, or conducting sit-down interviews with the players who have admitted to steroid use, and who have lied to them personally thoughout the years. Others surely knew that there was a problem, but never upset the apple cart.

The bottom line is that I’m so disgusted by all the principals involved in this matter that I’ve lost any interest in reading, listening or watching anything about it. What more can really be said about it? I fear that more names from the 104 positive steroid results will be released and we’ll have more and more A-Rod-like moments of tearful confessions, followed by heartfelt sitdowns with trusted media types.

I just know I won’t be watching.

Popularity: 9% [?]

Got this information in an email from a BSMW reader at Google:

Last week we released our 2008 Google Zeitgeist, a microsite detailing the
most popular searches and topics from the past year in the U.S. and
worldwide: http://www.google.com/intl/en/press/zeitgeist/index.html

But what does that mean for Boston sports?

As I and a bunch of other Googlers with Massachusetts origins were looking at the zeitgeist, we began talking about Boston sports trends over the course of ‘08.  Thought you might like to see what we found.

All the information can be derived using the free Google Insights for Search tool — which was released earlier this year for advertisers, marketers, and all internet users. 

But on to the nitty-gritty…

What team is at the searching heart of Boston?

Well, nationwide:
- [Sox] win overall with a healthy amount of searches year-round
- [Pats] spike in Jan/Feb
- [Celtics] skyrocketed in June
- is the future looking up for the Bruins?

Within Massachusetts, [Red Sox] still have a steady lead, but the
[Patriots] and [Celtics] are neck-in-neck.

If you play with the “regional interest” tab, you’ll see:
[Patriots] are tops in Foxboro, but Brookline leads proportionally for
[Red Sox] and [Celtics] and Beverly and Waltham dig the [Bruins]

[Beat LA] was the chant to search for — with [Yankees Suck] staying
steady but low in ‘08

Compare that to the ‘04 to ‘08

In the [Red Sox] v. [Yankees] searches of ‘08, [Red Sox] just eeked them out — with a huge spike in October, as you watch the Yankees die out.

But in terms of U.S.-wide [Red Sox] searches, the top states are:
1. Massachusetts
2. New Hampshire
3. Maine
4. Rhode Island
5. Vermont
6. Connecticut

and, how’s this:

7. North Dakota
8. New York
9. New Jersey
10. D.C.

Compare, though, to the Red Sox / Yankees rivalry over the last four years.

[Scott Boras] made a nice jump in February the same week Gary Sheffield called him a “bad person” and Manny signed him as his agent. He was most popular in terms of searches in Massachusetts than anywhere else.

But look at the dive Manny took after his trade (at least amongst Boston searchers).

Who was [Matt Cassel] until September?

[Tom Brady] still is up on Cassel– in Massachusetts

…and nationwide.

On the subject of Brady, notice the spike in in searches for “anterior
cruciate ligament”

With the Celtics — Boston loves [Pierce], but [KG] commands the nationwide search lead:
Kevin Garnett v. Paul Pierce v. Ray Allen
- in the U.S.:
- in Massachusetts

[Celtics] v. [Lakers]

In the great comparison of Boston coaches: Terry Francona v. Bill
Belichick v. Doc Rivers v. Claude Julien

Pedroia, Pedroia, Pedroia

Look at August and September: – moves out of cleanup & MVP chants roar through Fenway

- correlate with this timeline:
August 28: Pedroia grand-slam at Yankee Stadium
August 31: Pedroia moved to cleanup spot
September 3: Pedroia gets 5 RBIs.  Hear the chants: “MVP, MVP, MVP”

Who cares most to find [TBS] — New England during the baseball playoffs

a Tampa Bay Rays bandwagon? — look at the search jump in the playoffs?  How about before?

Finally, the first things last — top sports searches and fastest-rising sports searches in Massachusetts

TOP 10 sports searches for ‘08 in Massachusetts:
1. red sox
2. football
3. sports
4. golf
5. soccer
6. baseball
7. nfl
8. basketball
9. patriots
10. celtics

Fastest-rising sports searches of ‘08 in Masachusetts
1. nbc olympics, growth greater than 5000% from ‘07 to ‘08
2. beijing 2008 — same; more than 5000% increase
3. 2008 olympics — 1250% increase from ‘07 to ‘08
4. olympics — 600% increase
5. euro 2008 — 550% increase
6. lakers — 250% increase
7. celtics — 110% increase
8. giants — 60% increase
9. boston celtics — 60% increase
10. mma — 50% increase
also

Popularity: 17% [?]

How sweet is THAT?

A few random, rambling thoughts:

The Kevin Garnett/Bill Russell exchange following the game had me tearing up even while chills were running down my spine. Quite a weird sensation, but it’s one I wouldn’t mind having a few more times in my lifetime.

Garnett’s hanging in the air, one handed line drive shot while getting knocked to the ground is a play that will live on in highlights for years to come. In my mind, it was like the play in the 1991 Finals were Michael Jordan switched hands on a drive down the throat of the Lakers defense. “A Spectacular Move” is how Marv Albert described Jordan, Garnett’s might’ve been even more impressive.

I can’t think of a Boston athlete I could be happier for than Paul Pierce. This guy has seen rock bottom in Celtics history and now has his own legacy of greatness. The legends of the Celtics have always accepted Pierce, but now he is truly a member of their club.

It would’ve been great to see Larry Bird in the house. I know he’s happy for the fans of Boston this morning…

Brian Scalabrine (Video in the right sidebar) talking trash to the media after the game was amusing to watch. I was surprised he wasn’t joined by Scot Pollard up there…

Ray Allen. Wow. Revealing after the game that his son was diagnosed with diabetes over the weekend, he really hasn’t slept at all the last five days or so, and he was just lights out…especially in the second half. The guy was amazing, and hopefully the talk that he is done is done.

Kendrick Perkins - stat line doesn’t jump out at you, but the guy couldn’t even lift one of his hands over his head, yet the put a body on Pau Gasol and that was all he had to do. It’s hard to believe that he’s been around since the last year of the Jim O’Brien era, but he’s put in the work and is a invaluable piece to the Celtics defense.

Has Rajon Rondo stopped running yet? He was a blur, yet in contrast to some nights, he was a controlled blur. Everytime you turned around it seemed he was disrupting something. His two handed strip on Lamar Odom reminded me of Tedy Bruschi stripping Dominic Rhodes in the 2005 playoffs.

Can we get James Posey a new three year contract right now? Please?

I’m tempted to bring back P.J. Brown for another run as well. He doesn’t need to play much - 10 to 15 minutes tops - but he certainly was the piece that the Celtics needed to add late in the season. He added the veteran guile that was needed in the Celtics front court.

Yeah, I know he’s been here for four seasons now, but I’m still having a hard time believing that the same Doc Rivers who drove me crazy as Dominique Wilkins’ sidekick in the 80’s is the guy who was on the Celtics sideline when they clinched banner 17.

He did a tremendous job this season, and even more so in the postseason, and the finals, where he was a step ahead of the “Zen master” at every turn.

In the “Wired” segments that ABC showed at the start of the games and halftime, it seemed Doc was always saying the right thing. In contrast, Phil Jackson was so laid back most of the time, you could almost translate that out to the performance of his players in long stretched of time.

My faith in humanity was restored last night following the game when Stuart Scott and David Stern were heartily booed on the championship stand. Stern, you recall seemed to do everything he could to keep the Celtics down, even giving the team no cap relief after Reggie Lewis died. A few years later when Alonzo Mourning was thought to be lost for the season for the Heat, he granted the Heat space enough to sign an impact player, and then Mourning returned before the end of the season. I’ve never forgotten that. It seems that the fans haven’t either.

Sorry Bob. I couldn’t resist.

I’ll fully acknowledge that Ryan’s column was written before James Posey and PJ Brown were added to the mix and without those guys, I’m not sure we’ve got Banner 17 today.  But this paragraph from Ryan sure stands out now:

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.

It’s also worth noting that the Celtics hadn’t yet hired Tom Thibodeau either, but it sure is fun to look back and see the pining for Ryan Gomes in August.

After hearing for two weeks that Kobe Bryant was the best player on the planet, I just don’t see it. LeBron was a much stiffer challenge to the Celtics, even as he struggled with his shooting. It seems we can also put to rest the “Kobe is better than Jordan” talk. Kobe has now lost two NBA Finals, something Jordan never did, and a Jordan team would never have gone out like the Lakers did last night.

I was thrilled for Mike Gorman and Tommy Heinsohn last night as well. Watching CSN after the game, I was almost as emotional for them as for the players. These guys have truly seen all the bad times this franchise has been through over the last 22 years. To have their loyalty final rewarded with another title is most satisfying indeed.

Enjoy this one, folks. Boston in the 21st century continues to be the place to be for sports fans…

Popularity: 16% [?]