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The Ticker
6 days ago

Painful Reminders (Part I): The Celtics Drafted JaJuan Johnson Instead of Jimmy Butler

On June 23rd, 2011, Brian Robb and I stood around a high top bar table in Tommy Doyle’s in Kendall Square.  Before us lay one of the biggest mounds of buffalo chicken wings I had ever endeavor to make disappear.  These 25 cent flappers- one of the few indulgences afforded to the participants of our [...]

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6 days ago

Chris Wilcox: 2012-13 Final Grade

There are a number of contextually-appropriate ways to craft this post. One would be to forgo words entirely, and represent Chris Wilcox’s entire season with a series of videos. That would involve one part of this: For every eight parts of this: Note the headline on that second clip. Someone was so amused/enraged by Wilcox’s [...]

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7 days ago

Rajon Rondo’s 2012-13 Final Grade

Here’s a sweeping general statement involving super specific statistics that may or may not mean anything: In the 1423 minutes Rajon Rondo played this season, the Boston Celtics were outscored by 1.3 points per 100 possessions. When he sat (including all contests after he tore his ACL), Boston was better than their opponents by 1.8 [...]

92
8 days ago

Avery Bradley Elected to NBA All-Defense Second Team

Avery Bradley has been a standout defender for the past couple seasons…in the regular season anyway. Now he has a trophy to prove it. The NBA announced this afternoon that the third-year guard has been elected by coaches around the league to the second-team all-NBA defensive team for the first time in his career. Bradley [...]

13
11 days ago

Paul Pierce’s Contract: Dispelling The Myths and Stating The Facts

The first domino to fall this offseason is Paul Pierce’s contract. Until Danny Ainge figures out what he’s doing there, little else matters. As we wait for this decision, we also must face the rest of the offseason, which means it is also rumor season. With that time of year, comes plenty of information floating [...]

42
11 days ago

Final Grade: Avery Bradley (C+)

In his third year in the league, in which promising players often make brash leaps from benchwarmer to starter, from starter to star, Avery Bradley took a big step back. But his regression might be deceptive. When he returned to the Celtics’ lineup on January the 2nd after two in-season months recovering from offseason shoulder [...]

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Nate Robinson: Boorish Clown or Righteously Angry?

You decide (via the NY Daily News, who put the story of my beloved Sandra Bullock’s cheating husband on the front page this morning. I told you, Sandra! If it weren’t for the restraining order, you’d realize that what we both has been right in front of us all along!):

Nate Robinson rose from his seat on the Celtics bench, looked at Mike D’Antoni and began clapping.

Lil’ Him wasn’t honoring his former coach Wednesday night as much as he was taunting him. With Boston building a 27-point third-quarter lead over the Knicks, Robinson twice made it a point to show that he was enjoying D’Antoni’s misery.

First of all, I hate the nickname Lil’ Him or L’il Him or, really, Lil’ anything. Second, I’m not totally anti-Nate here. In general, it drives me crazy when fringe NBA players carry on about meaningless accomplishments, and scoring 8 points in a blowout win against a horrible team fits the definition of “meaningless.”

But Mike D’Antoni, a fantastic coach and a nice guy, has for two years now yanked players in and out of his rotation on what sometimes seems to be his personal whim. He banished Stephon Marbury only to ask him to play—and perhaps even start—when injuries decimated New York’s back court in November 2008. Marbury said no. He benched Nate Robinson for 14 games, then gave him playing time again, then talked about starting him and then benched him again. Now he’s on the Celtics. Chris Duhon went from starting and playing 30 minutes a game to being out of the rotation to being back in the rotation whenever D’Antoni tires of watching Sergio Rodriguez play “defense.”

This is not all on D’Antoni. Marbury’s a loon and had become a $20 million no-defense distraction. Robinson acted the buffoon, drew attention to himself at the expense of the team and played recklessly at times. Duhon, I’m sorry to say, stinks.

Still: It’s not hard to understand why Robinson would hold a grudge against D’Antoni.

Was this really the appropriate circumstance in which to express that grudge?

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