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7 hours ago

5 Questions With Josh McRoberts

I talked to Los Angeles back up big man Josh McRoberts prior to the Celtics-Lakers game Thursday night at the Garden.  Here is what the former Duke Blue Devil, who is averaging 2.9 points and 3.8 rebounds in his first year in LA, had to say. 1. How have you guys been able to deal [...]

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8 hours ago

5-on-5: Predicting All-Star Reserves

I was a panelist on the 5-on-5 today at ESPN, choosing reserves for the Eastern and Western Conference all-star teams. I took two Celtics, as noted below. Hit the link to read the rest. 1. Which East and West point guards should be chosen as All-Star reserves? Ryan DeGama, CelticsHub: East: Deron Williams, Rajon Rondo [...]

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2 days ago

Greg Stiemsma’s Contract To Become Fully Guaranteed

The C’s gave their 26-year-old rookie a vote of confidence before Tuesday’s game. By not waiving the seven-footer, Stiemsma’s contract will become fully guaranteed on Friday, allowing the shot blocker to breath a little bit and perhaps unpack some boxes for good in Beantown. Here’s Chris Forsberg of ESPN Boston with some reaction from Stiemsma and [...]

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2 days ago

5 Questions With Kemba Walker

I had a chance to talk with Bobcats rookie Kemba Walker prior to the Celtics game against Charlotte on Tuesday night.  Here is what the UConn star, who is averaging 12.3 points, 4 rebounds, and 3.6 assists per game had to say. 1. How much communication have you had with Michael Jordan this year? Walker: [...]

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3 days ago

I Am Awesome!

Yes. This is a “pat myself on the back” post because a) I’m a jackass and b) I predicted something correctly. Back on January 8th, I predicted that the next ten games will tell us everything we need to know about this Celtics’ team. If they struggled, it was time to blow it up. If [...]

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3 days ago

Pierce Wins Eastern Conference Player Of Week

One day before he’s scheduled to pass Larry Bird for second on the Celtics’ all-time scoring list, Paul Pierce won the Eastern Conference Player of the Week award. Pierce averaged 22 points, 6.3 assists and 5.8 rebounds in four Boston wins, playing point forward in Rajon Rondo’s absence. Pierce is only 9 points behind Bird [...]

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Nobody* Does Hyperbolic Self-Pity Like Boston Fans

Remember “Black Sunday”?

That was Oct. 11, 2009—only a wee month ago. The Angels completed a three-game sweep of the Sox when the bullpen blew a late-inning lead. Then the Patriots coughed up a lead (or something) against the Broncos, and all was lost. Dreams were shattered. Bill Simmons deemed it “Black Sunday,” and the rest of the world mocked Boston’s self-pitying sports fans (which, I contend, are a small but vocal minority of Boston’s mostly well-reasoned sports fans. I think.).

Flash forward 38 days and we get this headline from NESN:

Boston Fans Endure Worst Weekend in Memory

Some excerpts from the piece:

The Celtics kicked off the weekend from hell with an uninspired effort against the Hawks

And:

Just like that, the Celtics — who were picked by many to flirt with the Bulls’ 72-10 record for the best in NBA history — had dropped two in a row to non-elite teams.

Impossible.

And:

It was as bad a weekend as there could have been in Boston sports. Though the stakes weren’t high in the sense that the seasons of the Bruins, Celtics and Patriots still have a long way to go, the effect was devastating. There was undoubtedly a lot of coffee sold on Monday morning and there were a lot of anytime minutes spent waiting on hold on talk radio stations.

After such a horrific weekend, it’s hard to blame fans for feeling that way.

Look, I don’t want to come off as Mr. Self-Hating Boston Sports Fan Guy, but this is getting sort of ridiculous. I understand that NESN is different from Bill Simmons, and that it’s not as if the same media outlet has declared two Dark Days in Boston Sports in the span of barely a month. I get that columnists in other cities probably play this sort of angle up now and then. I also get that a columnist’s job is to get people riled up, and my hunch is that there is some wink-wink-I’m-in-on-the-joke stuff going on with this NESN piece.

Because if there isn’t, well, I just don’t know what to do. The city’s three sports teams lost some regular season games. Yes, one of them was a gut-punch in which the infallible (and cranky and arrogant and jerky) coach made a controversial call that back-fired horribly. But “horrific”? A “weekend from hell”? The “worst weekend in memory”?

Come on. This is the sort of crap that gives all Boston fans a bad name. Next time I get into a debate about which city has the worst fans (answer: all of them), someone is going to bring up this groundless self-pity and I’m going to have to respond with something lame like, “Well, yeah, but Yankee fans threw food at me once!”

Maybe the column is meant to be tongue-in-cheek. Even if that’s true, a good chunk of the audience won’t take it that way. And even if it’s a semi-joke, aren’t there more valuable ways to use precious column real estate?

*Hyperbole intentional

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