Sunday News

Here's a twofer for Sunday. The first is a video interview of Doc by Bob Ryan. Doc says that Lee will start the season and, when Bradley comes back, "we'll see". He also commented on KG feeling great and how effective moving him to 5 was and that “He feels fantastic now. He says this is the best he has felt in years going into a season,”. KG hates playing 5, but I don't know how he can argue with the results.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=oHDJstgYTjs


http://espn.go.com/blog/boston/celtics/post/_/id/4697363/joseph-on-melo-hes-making-strides

I find it odd that rookie and potential D-leaguer Kris Joseph has become a media magnet and basketball sage. I've been clear (I think) how much I'm looking forward to seeing Joseph play against legit NBA ballers (as opposed to summer league NBA wannabes), but couldn't Forsberg find a veteran to express an opinion? What does that say? Am I getting paranoid? Perhaps. That's what Basketball Deprivation Syndrome does to you. The good news is that there are only 13 days left until camp and at least one of those days will be consumed in travel to Europe. Maybe I should go on a day trip on 9/28, so that I can feel like I'm traveling with the team. Maybe I should just get a life.

Joseph says that Melo is getting dunked on but isn't getting the same credit for when he dunks on people. Yeah, that's because he's 7' and you're not. He's supposed to dunk on your ass and not vice versa. Well, we'll see what happens to him after KG rides him like a bull and makes him cry a few times. He'll either curl up into a fetal ball and suck his thumb or he'll become a lot more resentful when people dunk on him and make sure they don't do it without paying a price.

13 days, including the day or two flying from Boston to Turkey, only 13 more of this over-regurgitated crap. Camp can't come quickly enough, I'm jumping at long shadows at this point. I'm Jonesen and I need the Real McCoy to cure this twitch.


bob


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Bob,

It's certainly unusual when a guy picked far below another guy becomes the nurturer of the higher pick. I suspect a lot of it is a habit Kris picked up at Syracuse in trying to shield Melo—who's relatively new to basketball, the U.S., and the English language—from the press. But there seems to be more to it than that.

Joseph seems to have a natural penchant for leadership. He appears to be a thoughtful speaker, not prone to making wild comments that he later regrets. He obviously doesn't shrink from trying to motivate Melo. As, as you pointed out, he has a real facility for dealing with the press.

If I had to pick a Celtic that Kris most reminds me of, it would be Frank Ramsey. They're very different in stature and skill sets, but I'm talking about the more cerebral aspects of being a pro. Rams had a way about him that invited his peers and much better players to view him as a de facto leader. He was popular in the locker room but was never afraid to speak his mind because what he said was always well thought-out. His famous comment, "Boys, you're playing with my money," is symptomatic of what he was capable of in the leadership department. In my estimation, it was the most natural thing in the world that Rams would become a well-respected bank president after basketball.

I won't be at all surprised if, within a couple of years, Joseph becomes a similar kind of de facto leader of the team. And I also won't be surprised if he reprises Rams' role, which called for a lot of unsung heroism—doing little things that repeatedly inspired teammates and helped pull the team up by the bootstraps.

You're probably too young to remember George Frazier, a giant of a writer who wrote a column for the Boston Herald and later the Boston Globe, covering all sorts of topics (somewhat akin to my idol, Herb Caen). I believe it was George who popularized the term "duende" (previously associated with Garcia Lorca), for which I've heard a variety of definitions including, "wit, grace and class," "that something that makes someone or something irresistably attractive," magnetism, charm and charisma, and simply "class under pressure."

In the absence of a truly universally accepted definition of "duende," George tended to pepper his columns with examples of who had duende and who didn't. He said Ted Williams had more duende striking out than Stan Musial had hitting a home run. Sinatra and Billy Holiday had it but Joey Bishop and Barbra Streisand did not. Bob Cousy had duende. Steve Nash never would have gotten in the same county with the term.

Whether Frank Ramsey was driving a rent-a-car down Maine sidewalks because his carful of Celtics was late for an exhibition game or exhorting Celtics teammates in the locker room or providing an magical spark as the model for sixth men of the future to emulate, he definitely had duende. And I would nominate Kris Joseph as a worthwhile, though early, candidate to follow in Rams' footsteps.

Sam

Apparently the interview between Doc and Ryan is a 3 part video. Here's another part, I'll search for the 3rd. I'm sure it's on youtube somewhere.

In this one, Doc thinks about Miami, Miami and Miami. He says he doesn't care about the Lakers, he wants his team to hate Miami.

That shouldn't be hard...


https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=oHDJstgYTjs


bob


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bobheckler wrote:That shouldn't be hard...


bob


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First nomination for understatemtent of the week!!

beat

Ok, so here are all 3 parts, in order. I don't know which order the above are, so I'm just going to post all three here and, if you've seen one already, just skip it and move on.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=oHDJstgYTjs


https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=DjQ1ODaNeqY



https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=2K_aTFEccro

Here are some thoughts on the above videos. These are not my thoughts, I'm just reposting them (with my comments in bold).


1) Kevin Garnett feels better going into a season than he has in years.

Wouldn’t it be amazing if KG played all three years of his new contract without a major injury? If so, we’d be able to look back on his Boston years as marred by a knee injury that didn’t signal the end of his career, but just a major bump in the road. Either way, it’s good to hear Garnett is in better shape for 2012-13 than he was last season. Amen.

2) Courtney Lee will start, at least until Avery Bradley returns, at which point, things could change.

What we all expected. Let’s hope Lee plays well enough to make it tough for Doc to choose a starting SG when Bradley returns to the lineup. Amen again.

3) Doc referred to Jason Terry as “JT” rather than “Jet”.

Not what we expected. I don’t know how I feel about this. It may need more time to sink in. Who gives a shit? What a stupid, gratuitous thought.

4) Doc: The Celtics have to score more this season. They have to play at a faster pace. They have to create more shots. They have to get to the foul line more regularly so they can set their defense more easily. They have to defend the three better.

The only thing he didn’t touch on in there was rebounding. But the rest of it is a deadeye wishlist for this season. We’ll be tracking all this stuff all year, particularly the potential for a faster, more efficient offense. This is right on. A wishlist for the season, just leaving out rebounding. Secure possession and then run, baby, run.

5) Doc is completely focused on Miami. He’s already already bringing up the Heat everyday to his early arriving players. He wants his guys to hate the Heat.

Somehow, it doesn’t seem like that last part’s going to be a problem, especially now that Ray Allen (or “that guy” as Rajon Rondo now calls him) is in Miami.

6) Doc concedes the Celtics cannot beat Miami in a track meet but can beat them in a thinking meet.

Thinking Meet is the new Barfight. Try telling that to KG. He's a thinking player driven by a ferocity I don't think I've seen since Dave Cowens. He LOVES barfights. He sees getting into barfights, with his fire and mental toughness, as his edge.

bob


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