No Betting Allowed

The best championship money can buy!

When the Boston Celtics traded for Ray Allen and Kevin Garnett last summer, most everyone expected them to win the NBA Championship. Had they fell short of this goal, I do believe that Doc Rivers would be looking for a commentary job sometime later this afternoon. Danny Ainge pulled the trigger on these two trades, basically jeopardizing the future of the C’s after next season. Questions will linger about whether Ray Allen’s ankles can survive another season, or Paul Piece’s knees; and who knows if Doc Rivers can repeat the same steps taken this year. His past certainly tells a different story.

I may sound bitter, being a Detroit fan, but I hate seeing teams go out and BUY wins. To me, it takes away the integrity of the game. I understand it is all part of the game, but I just feel it is a bit much. Trading away draft picks and lame players to get some big pieces for an “all-or-nothing” push, seems to go outside of the lines to me. If someone tried performing this trade in any fantasy league, the league would have vetoed it 10-2, with the 2 trying to persuade all the others the upside to both teams and the “Celtics” explaining that he didn’t even need Garnett. I’ve seen it a thousand times.

Now that it’s over, the comparisons will begin. “Where does this team rank?” I keep hearing how great of defense that was being played and to me I just didn’t see it. They allowed one 81 point game, but even in the blow out, the Lakers still scored 91. Kobe again had no help. I thought Phil Jackson had released Pau Gasol at one point, and even Lamar Odom was characteristically out played. Many of the talking heads are saying BEST DEFENSE EVER! SERIOUSLY? Again, home-town-homer right now, but the Detroit Pistons had better defensive teams, especially the Bad Boys; the Bulls learned the way of the Bad Boys and beat the Pistons with their own medicine in the early 90’s; even the Celtics in the 80’s played tougher defense, in my opinion. Look at the players they went against: Magic, Jordan, Bird, Isaiah, Malone/Stockton, Ewing, (H)Akeem, and David Robinson versus Chauncey Billups, Kobe Bryant, Lamar Odom, Chris Bosh, Mike Bibby and Dwight Howard. To me, it doesn’t quite add up.

If this team was so good, why did they take each series to at least 6 games? The Atlanta Hawks and Cleveland Cavs took them to game 7’s. The Hawks and Cavs? Did I read that correctly? The Celtics did not win a road game until game 3 in Detroit, meaning that they were 0-6 on the road at that point. Home court wasn’t even that sacred; the Pistons ripped game 2 from them. A good defensive team does not let teams like the Hawks and the depleted Cavs hang around for game 7. They don’t let a Detroit team pretend they are worth something on their home court. Again, all the talking heads are blabbing about repeating. The parade hasn’t even started yet, and they want next season’s winning prediction already? Look at espn.com, all the experts but one, picked the Lakers to win. And now they are jumping on the C’s bandwagon and picking them to win next year. Easy Jon Barry! The Celtics just played 108 games, and the 30-something big 3 just averaged 36 minutes in 101 games. That is a lot of time to be playing and not much time resting. Those old legs will certainly need some time to rest.

The NBA is a game of copy cats; Hack-a-Shaq/Ben, tough-nosed defense, run-and-gun offense. So before you go and give the C’s the 2009 ring, wait and see who tries to buy their way to a ring next year.