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9 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 [...]

19
9 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 [...]

12
10 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 [...]

94
11 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
14 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
14 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 [...]

9
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Appreciating Rajon: The 2nd-Best QB in New England?

Over the past 10 days, Rajon Rondo has made two absolutely insane passes. They weren’t behind-the-back passes or no-look dishes, and they didn’t lead to spectacular dunks, so they are the type of plays that recede out of public consciousness amid an 82-game season.

Not here. Enjoy.

First, from 3/26 against the Kings:

But then Rondo topped himself against the Rockets on Friday:

(Essential slow-mo at :29):

I remember watching Game 4 of the 1997 Finals between the Bulls and Jazz with my Dad. This was the game in which Utah rallied late behind an incredible series of plays by John Stockton, including a sequence with about 50 seconds left in which Stock, with Utah trailing 73-72, rebounded an MJ miss and threw a one-handed pass almost the entire length of the court and over two Chicago defenders pursuing the target receiver (Karl Malone). The pass hit Malone in stride, and The Mailman laid the ball in for the lead. (You can see the pass at about the 50 second mark of this video).

My Dad just marveled at that pass. He said a casual sports fan would just have no idea how difficult a pass that was. And to risk it with the Utah season on the line! He couldn’t get over it, and he was right.

These Rondo passes? Sure, nothing significant was at stake. But they’re just as good as that Stockton pass.

Now if Rajon could ever learn to shoot like Stock…

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