Boston Sports Report

The Celtics are on a strong run.  After playing well the second half of the season, they beat the Hawks and are now 1-0 against the Sixers.  They're doing it with The Old Three, formerly known as The Big Three, Kevin Garnett, Ray Allen and Paul Pierce and with Rajon Rondo, current NBA king of the triple-doubles.

At the start of the season, things looked grim for Boston.  The team mostly stood pat in the off season, The Old Three had gotten a year older and they looked terrible at the start of the season.  Slow and outclassed by much of the league but they've pulled themselves together for a last run - actually, we thought last season was The Last Run but what did we know.

On the Grantland blog (if you're a sports fan, it's required reading), Bill Simmons (The Book of Basketball guy) just wrote a paean to Paul Pierce, the 14 year Celtic vet.  Here's a taste of the guy Simmons calls a very good player with great moments:

"That exact scenario happened in Game 2, when Pierce knew Boston wasn't winning in Atlanta without Rajon Rondo and Ray Allen unless he had a great game. Not a very good game … a great game. And then he had one, which was what made it so great. At some point that night, every true Celtics fan knew Pierce's dagger 3/slow job/nodding/stare combo was coming — I would have bet my life on it — and with about three minutes to go, it finally happened, right on cue."

Pierce, unlike Larry Bird who made an immediate impact on Celtics fans (I was in the Garden for his first game), is a player who grows on you over time.  I now appreciate the range of his skills, his versatility and his competitiveness and think Simmons is right when he calls him the 4th best Celtic after Russell, Bird and Havlicek, which is pretty good company.

That provides me with a good excuse to throw in some Bird highlights which bring me back to the days we lived in Boston and remembering how lucky we were to have Bird, Chief, McHale, Dennis Johnson, Bill Walton (for one memorable season) and the rest of the cast.

Well, I've avoided it as long as I can - how 'bout them Sox? 

Who are those guys in the outfield?  What's happened to Clay Buckholz?  Who's that guy wearing Adrian Gonzalez's uniform?  And why is Josh Beckett fixated on emulating his role-model, Roger Clemens, in wearing out his welcome in Boston with a bad attitude and bad performance?